Wednesday, 8/29/18

Biggest, most ridiculous dinner ever (on top of a day that already featured a giant Frappucino, a penuche sundae and chiles rellenos): fried mozzarella, a loaf of Jason bread with two kinds of fancy cheese AND fancy butter, a plate of fresh tomatoes, eggplant parmesan and vanilla ice cream with salted caramel sauce. Plus Corrina brought a bottle of prosecco. This was all very decadent and very HOT. All that frying had me sweating like crazy and had Jason hot and cranky. We could easily cut out one or more elements of the meal, but it was fun and delicious. Certainly had the Carter seal of approval!

Speaking of Carter, happy first day of high
school!

Tuesday, 8/28/18

Scrambled eggs, tossed salad, homefries. We put some leftover gravy and cheese curds on the potatoes, for a poutine-like vibe. Tried and failed to use up salsa verde and gravy.

Monday, 8/27/18

Our farm share had chinese eggplant this week, so I decided to try and recreate tofu and eggplant, one of my favorite dishes from Chinese restaurants. Unfortunately, this meant a lot of frying over a hot wok. The end result was good, but not awesome, plus I had to take a shower after all that frying.

Sunday, 8/26/18

Dinner at Jen and John's. Carter whipped up the Blue Apron meal (burgers with gouda and quick pickled radishes, plus sweet potato fries; delicious), Jason made a loaf of bread and some chocolate chip cookies, and Jen made a tomato-mozzarella salad.

Saturday, 8/25/18

We had a late and large lunch at Priya and then checked into the new hotel nearby that I have been curious about. Jason and I didn't need dinner, but Carter got hungry again so he and I went to the nearby McDonald's for a burger and fries. I just ate some leftover cake in bed.

Friday, 8/24/18

Dinner with Jennie and David; Jason made a truly beautiful loaf of olive bread. Over the summer he has been making his bread all in one day (instead of overnight) since it is so hot. This one was perfectly  domed and pretty. My picture doesn't really show it:

I made a spice cake from Food52 that I made a few years ago. As I was eating it, I realized that the "caramel" icing is the same as the penuche icing from my favorite banana cake. The cake itself is a little dense, but I sort of love it.

Thursday, 8/23/18

Leftovers, mostly spaghetti and meatballs. How quickly I managed to fill up the fridge again!

Wednesday, 8/22/18

Dinner in Whately, and what a dinner: ribs, chicken, salad, macaroni and cheese, and a loaf of Jason bread. We brought pizzelles (the recipe from the maker, to which I added some spices), plus creme caramel (from Classic Home Desserts). Only OK, I thought. Maybe I am just won over to flan now.

Tuesday, 8/21/18

Jason was inspired by Montreal bagels, both eating them and watching them being made. So he made a batch today, very successfully! I made some gazpacho to go with it. It was fine, but I have never really loved cold soup. I was there for the bagels, especially just plain. The recipe traditionally does not call for salt, but I am glad Jason added some.

Their odd shapes are part of their charm

Monday, 8/20/18

Spaghetti with meatballs and tomato sauce, a favorite for Carter and me. I decided while I was at work that I would also make "zucchini-parmesan" crisps to go with it (from SK). This ended up being more of a production than I had planned on. So much dredging! I kind of rushed through it, so all the zucchini slices weren't as coated as I would have liked. Also, I think it would have helped to grind up the panko bread crumbs a little. They were a success, though: a little bit like tiny eggplant parms that you didn't have to fry (the oven baking worked surprisingly well).

Sunday, 8/19/18

I was planning to make chicken korma, but a giant batch of salsa verde that I made (and didn't love) was glaring at me from the fridge. So I marinated the chicken in that, and grilled it along with skewered onion, cherry tomatoes and red pepper. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great marinade, because I thought the chicken was a little dry. We also had corn-off-the-cob and Jason made us some pita bread. Pretty good summer meal. I love grilled cherry tomatoes for their concentrated juiciness.

Saturday, 8/18/18

Jason made us a delicious loaf of cheddar/black pepper bread. You can't imagine how good it smells right out of the oven. To go with it we had a tomato-mozzarella salad, AKA one of my most favorite foods. The only thing lacking was corn.

Friday, 8/17/18

We tried our hand at making poutine, since we had brought back some cheese curds from Canada.  The good news: the fries and gravy were excellent. The not so good:  after riding around the Northeast with us for about a week, the curds were not so fresh and squeaky, just sort of meh. Jason doesn't believe me, but when it comes to curds, freshness is all. Oh well, still pretty good. Plus another beautiful Farm Share salad.

Thursday, 8/16/18

Home! Stopped for lunch (and 50 lb bag of bread flour) at King Arthur:

Carter samples a sugar cookie

Jason made us buy a frozen pizza before we left, so we had that. I was only there for the salad, though:

We were starting to worry about getting scurvy

It was a lot of fun, and we ate a lot of cool things, but of course it is good to be home, where we don't have to pack up all our worldly goods every day or two. Carter and I loved our lobster roll (Jason couldn't get past the price tag), we all love poutine, and Jason enjoyed the variety (especially at the Adonis Market).

How we all felt

Wednesday, 8/15/18

Made it to our last stop, Jason's aunt and uncle's house in Thetford, VT. They kindly put us up for the night, AND provided a nice, home cooked meal of pesto and gazpacho. It felt so wholesome after a week of donuts, poutine and chips.

Tuesday, 8/14/18

Giant breakfast at the hotel, and then we took a ferry across Lake Champlain to Burlington. Our Airbnb host kindly let us check in early, so we situated Carter with a snack and the internet and Jason I explored town a bit. We had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant nearby (Pho Hong). I had pho, Carter had a fried rice dish, and Jason had some amazing dish with rice noodles, pork, and chopped up fried spring rolls. All delicious.

I don't know what this was called, and it's a terrible picture, but was so good.

Monday, 8/13/18

Headed out of Canada, but not wothout a stop at Tim Horton's. I was dubious, but their donuts really are very good. Made good time to our next destination  (beautiful Plattsburgh, NY), only to discover that the frisbee golf outing I had planned had to be scrapped because of excessive poison ivy. So we strolled around town a bit, and Carter and I shared a slice of pizza. Managed to get an early check in at the hotel. For a Comfort Inn, it is quite sprawling: the pool is more like a tiny theme park, with splashy areas and two surprisingly fast/fun waterslides. Then Jason and I ditched Carter in the room and went to the brewery on the premises (we had a coupon for a free drink) and sat at the bar and had a couple of beers. How grown up! Turns out I like Scotch ale:

Then we scooped up Carter and played a round of glow-in-the-dark minigolf (also in the hotel, along with bumper cars, a huge arcade, the aforementioned brewpub and a giant, full service gym). Dinner was bread and cheese, chips and salsa, and some cookies.  Trying to empty the giant cooler we have been lugging everywhere.

Sunday, 8/12/18

Walked ALL over Montreal, at least as much as you can see in 5 hours or so. Picked up bagels at a place called St. Viateur, an old school place known for their Montreal style bagels. The we stopped in at a place called Poutineville for (what else?) more poutine. Predictably tasty. Montreal is a much bigger city than I expected (of course, I didn't really do any research, so everything was a surprise to me). For dinner we had the bagels, plus leftover cheese and whatnot from the cool market around the corner. The only disappointment was their baklava, which was only meh. Carter does not love Montreal, or the apartment (well situated, bright and airy as promised, but a little run down) so it is just as well that it is a short stay. As in QC, there is lots of cool public art, though:

Hello, Leonard!

Saturday, 8/11/18

Headed out of QC to go see a waterfall Jason had read about. Carter was peeved that we didn't let him zipline across, but we had fun hiking and exploring.

Montmorency Falls

Then we stopped into a nearby Tim Horton's for donuts and coffee. I thought it would be just like Dunkin Donuts but they were far superior. My favorite was the Ancienne (old fashioned glazed).

Then off to Montreal. We stopped at a mall to look for a shirt for Carter and instead ended up having a snack. Yes, more poutine

Carter is now a true convert.

Finally made it to the new place, ensconced Carter with the internet, and Jason and I set out to explore to neighborhood and find dinner. Turns out it is a very cool location, with tons of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Indian restaurants. We were totally overwhelmed until we wandered into store called Adonis. We had spotted a couple of these, but had no idea what they were. Turns out is a grocery store chain that specializes in Middle Eastern foods, both pre-made and tons of amazing ingredients. I was in heaven. Picked up some schwarma for Jason, an eggplant salad, pita, string cheese, sushi for Carter, and I really want to go back for some desserts. So much feta!

Friday, 8/10/18

We made Carter walk all over Quebec City today. Covered a lot of neighborhoods. We stopped and poutine for lunch again at the local spot (Top O Frites). I had an amazing caramel sundae from a place called  Chocolato. I tried and failed to take a picture, but it has all kinds of delicious caramel toppings on vanilla soft serve.
For dinner we picked up some very subpar falafel (but the tabbouleh was good). And then Jason impulsively (I know!) ran out for more poutine. This one had hamburger gravy, onions, hot peppers and little sausages. It was excellent.

St. Lawrence River from the Old Town

Thursday, 8/9/18

More of the same for dinner (surprise, surprise). Crackers instead of bread, grapes instead of pineapple.
Bur we did have poutine for lunch, which was awesome. I don't think Carter enjoyed it quite as much as he thought he would, but Jason and I thought it was delicious.

Top O Frites

Wednesday, 8/8/18

For our first night in Quebec City, we did try to eat out, but failed. So we stopped at a little market and picked up bread, cheese, pineapple, beer (and a root beer for Carter) sausage, and an exotic Canadian candy bar (basically a maple Snickers). Dinner in the apartment, which the boys prefer anyway. Carter particularly loved one of the cheeses, called La Madelaine. It was very creamy, akin to a mild brie.
The apartment is spacious and pretty, with an easy walk to shops and whatnot, but very warm.

Tuesday, 8/7/18

Busy day in Bar Harbor! Hiking and sightseeing in Acadia Park, mini golf (!) and for lunch, Carter's first lobster roll!

He LOVED it

We were tired after all that and just had a reprise of last night's dinner.

Monday, 8/6/18

Thanks to me, we took the long way from Portland to Bar Harbor. I wanted to see some seaside rock formations called the Giant Steps...didn't realize just how out of the way they were. Oh well. So we just made sandwiches, chips and pickles in the room. 

Luckily, motel #2 was a winner.

Sunday, 8/5/2108

Well, I screwed up our lunch order at Wayback Burgers so that we basically had almost twice as much hamburger as we meant to have. As a result, no one was really hungry for the rest of the day. So that meant that we didn't go out for the pizza I had planned on, or stop at Red's Dairy Barn for soft serve. Carter and I just ate some chips in the hotel. Lame.
But we did see this and it was the highlight of the day:

Saturday, 8/3/18

I made a zucchini gratin, trying to use up the zucchini, and then realized that it would create its own leftovers.....Oh well. It was still good (from Ina Garten. And no wonder it was good---I was out of milk and used cream + half and half instead. I also grate the zucchini instead of slicing it). Plus odd bits of cheese, bread and another salad.

Friday, 8/2/18

Jason made us another loaf of that delicious raisin/walnut bread, and we also had scrambled eggs and a salad. Oh, and some corn that I just cut off the cob and microwaved. It was so sweet that it was almost cloying. Still a lot of vegetables to use up before vacation.

Thursday, 8/1/18

Leftovers again.

Wednesday, 8/1/18

The first night of what will be several days of leftovers, preparing to clean out the fridge before our vacation. Instead, here is Carter inspecting some art:

Tuesday, 7/31/18

Lentils and rice, plus Jason made us some very delicious paratha (from Serious Eats). The lentils just had carrots, lots of ginger, garlic, tomatoes, and, as an afterthought, some heavy cream to smooth it all out. Oh, and then a spoonful of sambal oelek to liven it up. Good, but late (post SULA) dinner.