We did two road trips this summer. The first was to Cleveland, Chicago, Ann Arbor and Jordan, Ontario. Since I LOVE TO DRIVE, road tripping is a great way to see the USA without the added expense of airfare. It’s also amazing that we rarely run out of things to say to each other (yes, even after 39 years). Granted, we do occasionally have long stretches of silence, blasting the radio when warranted, but mostly we talk about stuff we’ve just seen, are going to see, and most importantly what we are going to eat!

Since we have adopted the motto that you are never ever too old to have fun, one of the first things we did on our first stop is play pinball at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

And yes, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones are the greatest rock band that ever existed.

We also went to see a Frank Gehry building at Case Western University in Cleveland, and when we were snapping a few photographs, a professor-type walked by us and said hello. Perhaps he was just being friendly or maybe he was actually impressed that we knew this building was architecturally significant.

When we got to Chicago, we took the Architectural Foundation’s River Cruise and even though the weather was really crappy and all my pictures came out really dark, we saw lots of interesting buildings and I don’t know, you just feel a little bit smarter afterwards with a tour guide who bombards you with a whole bunch of history and fun facts.

I also paid a visit to my Uncle John who lives outside the city and he gave me two very special gifts. The first was a rolling pin that belonged to his grandmother, so my great-grandmother. We decided to hang it in the kitchen right above the sink as an objet d’art. I think it looks quite pretty there.The second gift he gave me was a painting I had always coveted. It was a simple oil painting of a lemon tree he did when he was a teenager. I remember it hanging in my grandmother’s house and when I asked him if I could have it, he simply said, “it belongs to you.” I was very touched.

While we were in Chicago, we did a quick detour up to Racine, Wisconsin. Why Racine you might ask? Well, see, if you are a HUGE Frank Lloyd Wright buff like Lynn is, and you had studied his work, notably the SC Johnson Wax building in Racine, and you were given the opportunity to visit it, well that’s what you do. Unfortunately, we were only allowed to take pictures outside the building since the structure is still used today (housing the accounting department if I remember correctly). I don’t have a degree in architecture but all I can say when I walked inside the space was WOW, WOW, WOW.

While traveling this summer, we also had the opportunity to see what chefs outside of New York City and State are doing. I know for “real” New Yorker’s this is mind-boggling that there are even restaurants worthy outside of NYC but the fact is there are amazing chefs doing lots of interesting things all across the country.

Frozen and shaved foie gras? Yes, please.

An endive and green leaf salad with a poached egg on top of a crispy “potato basket?” Yummy.

What about a thick cut of house-cured salmon with purple potato pancakes, Greek yogurt with salmon roe AND caviar? Yes, pretty please!

Hungry yet?

Did I mention the haddock we had one night, the octopus, and the cheese plate with balsamic marinated strawberries?

Okay, in fairness we split almost all of these dishes and usually only order one entree. Plus even if the restaurant is a half hour from where we are staying, we never take a cab, preferring to walk to and from the establishment.

Our second (albeit shorter) road trip started in Vermont and took us to Quebec City and Ottawa.  There, too, we ate and walked and walked and ate some more. It was all really good.

We saw some cool art installations, the famous Chateau Frontenac, and lots of buildings and courtyards that reminded me of being in Europe. Perhaps that’s why I love Canada so much!

Dare I mention the donuts that are made to order at a restaurant in Ottawa?

Or the pastries you can get at the Byward Market, also in Ottawa?

Remember we are STILL WALKING and even though I took a picture of the pastries, I DID NOT PURCHASE A SINGLE ONE.

Obviously we love to travel and eat! But let’s get back to the Red House.

The first order of business this summer was to make the house seem like a home. We ordered some new furniture and tried to incorporate the old furniture and miscellaneous items we had at our house on Long Island. This included a knock-off Achille Castiglioni Arco lamp that took us nearly 5 hours (I kid not) to figure out how to put back together. It had been lying on the floor in the den for over two years and Lynn simply couldn’t remember how to put the shade on. When we finally figured it out and plugged it in, it sparked and blew out the power. (Our daughter Rachel told me she used to call this lamp the “Alien Hairdryer” so perhaps it was apropos for the fixture to blow the fuses.)

We tried a new bulb. Same problem. We took out the electrical thingy part and took the suspect looking piece to the Big Box Store where we were lucky enough to find a retired electrician who worked there. When we handed him the part, he looked at it for quite some time and then said, “Well, gee, these two metal pieces are never, ever supposed  to touch.” He bent the metal pieces back away from each other, we went home, put the electrical thingy back in the light, and it worked for about 2 seconds (no sparks either) but then fizzled.

In the meantime, it is just an outstanding copy cat light fixture that looks good until Lynn figures out how to replace the entire electrical thingy piece inside. (I say to him, Good Luck! And please don’t electrocute yourself!)

Besides the light, we also had two shag rugs that cost us an arm and a leg and half a torso, too, that we bought nearly two decades ago but didn’t want to get rid of. Problem was they were really dirty. So, we got out the metal sawhorses that Lynn uses to paint things on from the garage, flung the rugs over the sawhorses, and beat them with a tennis racket. That kind of worked. (Not.)

Then we went down to the Big Box Store and rented one of those rug cleaner machines for 24 hours. We laid the rugs on some leftover rubber tiles we have and Lynn slowly but methodically went over each rug a couple of times. I want to say it was easy peasy, but watching him struggle to push this machine over the thick wool was akin to using the bitch-heavy snow blower (as in it wasn’t any fun).

Believe it or not, the rugs came out pretty clean but we ended up only using one of them and wrapping the other one back up.

While we initially thought about redoing the garden fence this summer, it didn’t make it on our top 5 must-do projects this summer. Lynn did put some extra “rabbit proof fencing” around the existing fence which means all summer long I’ve had an abundance of good things growing. And when the gardener said, “Let there be peas and beans and tomatoes and asparagus,” there were and then some.

Our own produce coupled with what we brought back from the Byward Market in Ottawa means vegetable-wise we are pretty well stocked.  Aren’t these baby zucchini and green onions amazing looking? I think so.

And while I did see one bunny in the garden who quickly bolted when I spotted him, the bigger issue has been the deer eating all the roses and the hydrangeas on the side of the house. Therefore, we had to put the roses “in prison” so to speak by shaping more of that rabbit proof fencing into cylinders. While it doesn’t look particularly attractive, it has at least given the roses a chance to not only grow (the deer were literally biting off the rose stems, thorns at all) but bloom.

Besides the flowers on the side of the house, drum roll please, we finally got not only two whole steps (!) to the front door but landscaping as well. While it was kind of expensive, it’s done, and I’m pleased with the way it turned out. (So far the deer have tried to nibble on these new plants, too, but we’ve put in some of those dried blood infused spikes that supposedly keep deer away and used a spray-on dried blood product as well.)

Here are the before and after shots just to give you an idea.

We’ve had to set up a soaker-type hose to keep the plants watered and even though it’s been very hot in Upstate New York, my roses in the boxes on the deck seem to love the hot humid weather.

Doesn’t Mr. Gnome look happy too?

One strange thing I found in the back of the field though late yesterday afternoon (before cocktails I might add) was the way the trees and vines kind of fell on top of each other and created (at least to me from a distance) what looked like a “secret cave.” When I put on a pair of sneakers and walked to the back of the property, the “secret cave” looked less “secret” and more overgrown, but I photographed it anyway.

The final project Lynn has been working on (since I’ve been writing which is such a luxury for me these days) has been to lay down a laminate wood floor in the hallway between the laundry room and the basement. Yes, everything still needs to be rocked and painted and a pantry-type closet needs to be built but I give him credit for tackling this project on a very hot day. Plus he had to drag his table saw in and out of the house whenever a sudden rain shower would annoyingly pop up. (I know the farmers desperately need rain, so I’m only complaining on his behalf.)

The floor looked like this (with a couple of pieces of sample flooring thrown down to give us a general idea of how this would turn out.).

And so far looks like this.

I love how everything just looks so much cleaner whenever we finally tackle a project that’s been begging to be finished for the last 8 years!

On a final note, I would like to say a few things about some personal goals I accomplished this summer. I promised myself I would meet as many people (writers and artists and bakers and chefs and restaurant managers and most importantly farmers) as I could. I am happy to report that when I contacted someone I had been “following” on Instagram or FB, and asked if we could meet, they were invariably receptive to the idea and thankfully didn’t think I was a crazy person (well, maybe they did but they didn’t tell me.) I invited a few of them to see the Red House and was happy that I have finally found people that I can talk to who share similar interests (that would be art, food, farming, cooking and travel, too.) I have found new neighbors to talk to and appreciate the kind words everyone has shared with Lynn and I about the progress of the Red House and how incredibly beautiful the house looks. We have even noticed people who drive by the house who actually slow down to look. How cool is that?

I was also interviewed this summer by two Hamilton College students who are working on a research project involving farming and CSA’s in our county among others. I have to say it was insightful and fun to talk at length with these two smart women about food and farmers and what that entails.  I was so tickled when they wanted to take a photograph of me in my garden!

We also met a lot of very kind people when we were traveling this summer – not just front desk hotel staff and servers who are paid to be nice, but people on the street who bothered to stop when we asked for quick directions, or fellow drivers who let me cut ahead of them when I was in the wrong turning lane in a city we had never been to.

I will leave you with this thought and a final picture. I was in the supermarket a few weeks back and saw a farmer I know out of the corner of my eye.  He seemed not to see me so I jokingly called out to him that once again he was ignoring me. He looked at me and laughed, briefly stopped to say “hi,” but then kept on running because after all he said, he has to bring the goats inside in 40 minutes!

That is definitely not a conversation I would have had on Long Island.

Enjoy the rest of the summer. I know we will since we still have a few long weekends left up at the house.

P.S. In case you haven’t noticed, I love it here.

The lettuce grew so high it looked like I threw some really bad non-organic fertilizer (think: toxic) to make it grow. I didn’t. My mother says the leaves are bitter when they are that big but I don’t mind the taste at all.

Unfortunately the carrots and beets were mangled by a bunny rabbit or two or three or four. No worries, since we are surrounded by lots of farmer’s markets and quite a few Amish farm stands too which resulted in some very picturesque carrots! Perhaps it was the way the Amish farm wife wrapped the carrot tops in pretty red yarn.

Because when I unwrapped the carrots to prepare them for dinner, one of them decided to have some fun with me and “pose” for their fall carrot-themed jean line.

Since our first summer at the Red House Lynn has tried a couple of times to do pizza on the grill. The first time we simply threw the dough on the grill rack (big mistake), then scraped off the burnt but still raw (never could quite figure out how that could be) dough and threw it away.

I think we tried at least one other time, too but ended up using dough that wasn’t 100% and the pizza itself wasn’t worth writing home about let alone photographing.

When we moved out of the house on Long Island and into an apartment, I chucked a lot of stuff that I didn’t think we would ever use – a French coffee press and not one but THREE Italian espresso pots, ramekins of every shape and size and chipped dishes, cake pans, and pie plates, etc., etc.  Apparently I also threw out our stone pizza board, a wooden pizza paddle and an extra large spatula — all of course which I needed now even if we wanted to make pizza on the grill again.

I went to Walmart (I know, I know) but they had pizza “pans” for a mere 99 cents and I figured I would rather waste a buck than 10 bucks if the “pans” melted on top of the grill.

Lynn loves to roll out dough. My reaction to this is: BE MY GUEST. He also loves to hand grate cheese. My reaction to this is: GRATE AWAY. (Although for this pizza he just sliced up the mozzarella). I managed to open a container of pizza “sauce” that we picked up at the “fancy” supermarket in Syracuse even though I could have made my own for about $3.00 less. As you may have deduced by now I’m really big on making things myself rather than buying them. But suddenly I’ve changed. (Don’t believe those who say people can’t change, they can and do.)

He rolled out the dough on the new pans and this time  decided to “cook” the dough a bit on the grill first.

About 10 minutes later, he put on the sauce, the cheese and some fresh basil from the garden.

They did take a bit longer to cook on the grill than I expected but they turned out pretty darn good – thin crust that I like with blobs of fresh mozzarella and basil from the garden.

Back to the garden, I found a zucchini hiding underneath the leaves that was a monster!

Even when I cut him in half and filled the “boats” with tomatoes from the garden, I still had to figure out what to do with the rest. (Half went into a pasta dish and the other half was grated and made into zucchini pancakes!)

Unfortunately by the end of August when we came back up to the Red House, nearly all our tomatoes were gone, the weeds took up most of our garden and something is growing in one corner that may be squash or pumpkins or both.

In the meantime, I have to fight my way through the weeds and dig up the garlic. Yes, it’s that time again.

So when we arrived late on July 3rd, everything appeared to be okay (granted it was dark). We had power so I was able to warm up a roast chicken with some potatoes I brought with me and then made a simple salad with cubes of  feta cheese. After dinner however I realized there was no hot water to wash the dishes. We went down to the basement and there was a puddle of water where it always is. The furnace appeared to be on but when I tried to turn up the thermostat to make sure the heat was working the radiators did not heat up.  Which meant we had no heat or hot water and if I wanted to wash some dishes I would have to boil water.  Taking a frigid shower wasn’t my idea of the perfect way to start off a holiday week but I managed.

In the morning I got on the phone with National Grid who didn’t want to tell me that they themselves might have cut the gas until the flooding in the area subsided. They weren’t going to turn it back on they informed me unless we hired a plumber who certified the inspection in writing that our equipment (furnace and hot water heater) was A-OK.

Problem was it was the 4th of July and we knew no plumber was coming to the Red House to do us that kind of favor.  So we got in the car and just went to the lake instead.  First however, we drove through the county and looked at the havoc this storm left.

The debris lying on the street, from 1st floors and flooded basements I presumed, reminded me of the last storm we endured, Sandy.  Except while Sandy left sand, this storm left mud.

Our community field was pretty much ruined also, although the pool seemed to be okay.

We were also not prepared for the turbulence of the Erie Canal.  Here are a couple of shots of what is normally a very calm body of water.

That said, all this water wrecked havoc on my garden.  There were weeds everywhere and the ground was saturated.  What made matters even worse was the fact that we had the sprinkler on a timer the last two weeks we hadn’t been at the house so besides the abundant rain fall, the garden was getting soaked by the sprinkler, too!  So while the lettuce seemed to thrive under these conditions, the tomatoes definitely did not.

The peas that had been so prolific last year appeared to be chewed off exactly where the pod should have been.  Since I saw at least two if not three rabbits hopping away from the fence (guess the fence didn’t work), I can only assume they had themselves quite a feast.

I did, however, learn my lesson from last year and cut off the scapes from the garlic.  I think I might have been about 2 weeks too late, but I cut them anyway and plan to make a garlic scape pesto from them.

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about how much of my day up at the Red House goes into preparing food.  Now with no hot water to bathe or wash the dishes, I’ve resorted to boiling the water in pots, actually, a pot (singular) is more accurate since I still only have the one electric burner and a small pot to make pasta in.  I found myself the day after the fourth of July spending an enormous amount of time prepping (I wanted  to make cole slaw), and cooking (followed by pulled pork sandwiches).

This summer I decided I couldn’t live without a food processor. Now, during the late 1850’s,  I realized the women living in the house before me had neither running water (hot or cold) and if they wanted something resembling cole slaw, they were chopping all the ingredients by hand.  Truthfully, if I had to choose between a hot shower and a food processor, my food processor would win hands down.

But of course even the set-up wasn’t that simple. I had to put the food processor on a coffee table in the living room in order to plug it in, then walk through three other rooms to get to the kitchen sink to wash it out with cold water from the tap with a bit of hot water I had boiled in a pan.  I will admit I was already exhausted from the amount of time and steps it took to make and clean up this simple side dish! The only thing that didn’t make me totally lose my mind was that since it was roughly 87 degrees both inside and outside the house at least I wasn’t in a long skirt and a petticoat!

Meanwhile, back upstairs, Lynn was relying on the help of a 20th century tool, (a drywall lift) to help him get the sheetrock in place for one of the bedroom ceilings.

Luckily, he managed to do this project without my help which gave me time to keep boiling pots of water to do all the pans and dishes. (I did at one point consider paper plates but I just hate the way food tastes on paper….)

We have been eating much of the lettuce that’s been growing in the garden — one salad comprised of Greek feta, cucumbers and grape tomatoes, the other simple lettuce leaves with big chunks of Roquefort cheese.

Since we still have NO SUPERMARKET IN TOWN, I’m happy to bring up the cheese and even happier that I have lettuce growing in my garden.  Looking at how little they’ve accomplished on the site of where the supermarket should be, it’s difficult to even guess when a supermarket will be built and open for business.

So right now I’m waiting for the plumber who hopefully will tell us the hot water heater and furnace is OK and then I can place a phone call to National Grid to get them to turn the gas back on.

The reality is that every time it rains up at the Red House, we have water seeping into the basement. Luckily we do have a sump pump but it doesn’t seem to handle the amount of water pouring in.  There could be a leak in the foundation or there could be water seeping in from someplace we can’t see or get to.

Lynn and I never minded the rain in our many years together and often would find ourselves forging ahead (especially when we were traveling) to see everything we wanted to see — bad weather or not.  Let’s hope our storm-related problems at the Red House end on a happy note, too.

P.S. The rainbow after yesterday’s storm is faint but visible in the upper right hand corner of the shot.  A fitting tribute since the plumber just left. He simply lit the pilot lights in both the furnace and the hot water heater. He figured there had been about 4 inches or more of water in the basement but both very expensive pieces of equipment were just fine.  No call to National Grid would be required….

First, while I mentioned things that motivated “me,” I need to say “us,” because the truth is my husband Lynn has been doing nearly all of the back breaking renovation work (with the help of a really cool contractor, too) and I’ve just simply been working all hours of the day (and night) trying to earn $$ to make it happen.

This winter has been a real pain. First we had Sandy, then a Nor’easter, then a snow storm (10+ inches) and this past weekend temperatures hovered in the teens but felt like negative numbers because of the wind chill factor. Consequently, cooking as an art form and as a heart-warming endeavor has been put to the way side.

Thus, on those Friday nights when we make the journey up to the Red House from Long Island/Manhattan, I’m still hauling up food to heat up on my handy little one burner guy.  Yep that’s him.

Which leads me to this. We are now approaching our third season without a kitchen and Lynn and I both came to the same astonishing conclusion — eating out is just a hell of a lot easier than eating in! A part of this decision was based on that fact that since December the town lost its only supermarket! Now, we do have a gas station that’s open 24 hours and is well stocked with basics such as bread, eggs, cheese, cigarettes, condoms, beer and of course a milk shake in any flavor, but unless you’re 18…these items don’t really have that much appeal if you’re trying to make dinner.

Now, it’s not that the supermarket we had was particularly great, it wasn’t, but at least I could manage to put together a meal if I had to during the cold weather months when there was nary a farmer’s market in sight. And, since it was small and old school, it had some items that you don’t find in big box stores like maple syrup that was made by a guy just outside of town. And they also had ham at the deli counter that I really liked because it tasted well, like real ham!

The word on the street is that a bigger, better supermarket will be taking over the space. But, two months, later this is what we’re still looking at.

A Slow Supermarket Renovation

Yes, no sign of a supermarket, no sign of activity, no people shopping, no food, no nothing. Just a big ugly tractor sitting there looking like it was going to make way for the new…but actually was just kind of killing time.

Obviously, living on Long Island we have lots and lots of supermarkets so shopping and making dinner is never a problem. One of the reasons I also cook nearly ever night is that we actually rarely eat out on Long Island. Since we find most of the restaurants around us mediocre and overpriced, we try to save our “dining out dollars” for high end restaurants in the city (as in NYC) a couple times a year.  I hate to confess this but eating out near the Red House has enabled us to eat out more frequently for a fraction of the cost.

We visited The Tailor & the Cook last spring a few months after it opened and my review at the time waxed eloquently about the fish I had that night.  We’ve had many dishes since then, taking a cue from one of my online editing jobs that people still had something called “date night,” a word combo I was not familiar with until now! Geez, people actually go out and enjoy each others company and a meal too on a Saturday night?

Therefore this past Saturday night found us once again enjoying the creative cooking geniuses of Chef Tim Hardiman and his sous chef Steve Arbogast at The Tailor & the Cook in Utica, New York.

Three years ago when we first bought the Red House, I met Suzie Jones at a farmer’s market where she was selling beautifully crafted little goat cheeses.  As I got to know Suzie, her husband Peter, and the farm, she also was able to sell me some chicken but most importantly little packages of chicken livers at a fraction of what I would normally have paid for a container at the supermarket.  These livers, since they are from the farm’s organically raised chickens, have nearly no fat on them or any of that slimy green stuff you frequently encounter when trying to clean them.  So imagine my surprise when Chef’s Tim and Steve had concocted a special chicken liver risotto appetizer that evening made from Jones Family Farm liver!

Set before us was a plate of creamy arborio rice, still-pink-in-the-middle chicken livers simply seasoned (so I was told) with ground pepper, fresh ginger, and a little cheese, then served up piping hot. I love liver and I love risotto, so this was a real winner for me.

The house salad that I wasn’t crazy about in my initial review, remains, but since they know my tastes, now when I get the salad, it comes with extra dressing on the side that is not only heavy on the vinegar (which I love) but just makes the salad that much better!

Seeing really fresh fish on a menu in Central New York is difficult. Finding a chef who really knows how to cook it in any part of the country, is even more of a challenge.  Chef Tim who I had complimented the last time about his fish cooking skills, did not disappoint this time either. On the menu that night was a lovely piece of arctic char coupled with a quinoa salad and a green pea shoot pesto. My only complaint? The skin which is great when it’s cooking in the pan and technically holds the fish together, I think with a quick flip of a spatula could be tossed (as in the garbage)  and not plated, too.

I did have another thought (sorry chefs, humor me here) of what to do with the fish skin. Lynn and I had dinner at Jean Luc Figueras in Barcelona many years ago where an amuse bouche of fried fish crisps (fried cod skin actually) was brought out to the table. At first glance the shape alone (a long thin cylinder) reminded me of those French cookies (pirouettes) that accompany many a bowl of glace or gelato in Europe. It was salty and sweet and crunchy at the same time. Thinking back on my arctic char, could the dish have been elevated ever so slightly with something whimsical (i.e., fried skin) on top?

While the shrimp and grits had been on the menu for a while, we had never tried it. And I have to admit, although it was technically Lynn’s entree that night, I ate at least half of it! Calling a shrimp a shrimp, isn’t fair if you’re cooking up fresh prawns (heads and all) that have been beautifully grilled and seasoned and serve them with fried okra and an adorable dollhouse-size frying pan filled with the aforementioned grits.

Ripping off the heads of these delicious crustaceans and sucking out the bodies, well, had a yacht cruised by the front of the restaurant rather than the hourly snowplow, I could have sworn we were having dinner on the Cours Saleya in Nice. Which I think is the whole point of good cooking, if a chef or two can rustle up a dish that is absolutely delicious and reminds you of eating a similar dish someplace else, wow, that’s real talent.

Which brings me to this part of the story. We think the kitchen will be done this summer. In order to at least believe it will happen, we’ve started picking out floor tiles. We laid the color tiles we’ve chosen so far on the (dirty) rubber mats that are currently lining the floor and all weekend we debated the merits of each and every one.

Kitchen Tile Project

I know ultimately there will be more colors added to this arrangement so hopefully when the time comes we will choose wisely. Because after this long of a wait, the Red House kitchen is only being done once in our lifetime.

And if you think I remembered the name of the restaurant in Barcelona where we ate the crispy fish skin that easily, I didn’t.  What I do have are old school composition books where I usually record nearly every single thing we eat when traveling!

Travel Composition Notebooks

I thought maybe one day I’d manage to weave into a Red House article the time Lynn waited for me at the Milan (as in Italy) train station for 16 hours so we could have a meal together. This story, I think, can be told now.

Why would anyone wait 16 hours to have a meal with a girlfriend one might ask? Well, first of all this was back in the Dark Ages when we didn’t have cell phones, computers, or Facebook, etc., etc., and thus, no way of communicating with each other. So, you either waited for the person or you didn’t. When I finally arrived, parched and starving, everything was closed. We ended up spending the night (on the floor no less) of the Milan train station and got the first train to Florence in the morning. And what may you ask was the meal we had when we arrived? Pasta carbonara of course! Which is the very first “real” dish I hope to make in the Red House kitchen this year. Unless, of course, I can convince one of the T&C chefs to make it for me!

I said goodbye to 2012 realizing that there are quite a few dishes I never used to eat but do now (herring and sardines for example), things I shouldn’t be eating, but crave (chocolate, cheese, bread and pasta), and certain dishes I’d like to simply forget (dry chicken and grilled pizza).

Here though is my year end wrap up of what I think I liked the most.  Remember though, since I have no working kitchen, the following pictures show what I had to work with, namely my “stove,” my “dishwasher” and my “oven.”

2012 saw us eating: Fondue, Fried Green Tomatoes, Farmer’s Market Orange Beets with Jones Family Farm Goat Cheese, Peach Tart, Carbonara(!), Soft Shell Crab, Lobster Claws, Homemade Rosemary Bread, Crepes (both savory and sweet), Shrimp in Green Sauce, French Toast, Burrata, and lots and lots of tomatoes.

Reviewing this list, I realized we did eat chicken and duck and hamburgers and an occasional steak or two but they simply didn’t photograph well. The chicken often looked burnt and the hamburgers misshapen and greasy. This, I think, will please my vegetarian and vegan readers.

If you’re not hungry after looking at these photographs, you should be! Happy New Year!

Somewhere along the way however, I fell out of favor with meat fondue and preferred to go with the cheese version instead.  I’d cut up some day-old French or Italian bread into nice-sized cubes and other than having to grate the cheese, the meal basically made itself.  (Ok, I will admit that on a few occasions I substituted small white potatoes in place of the bread and once even added a plate of thinly sliced ham that we could dunk into the cheese mixture.)

But I need to segue a bit. I think my kids are the only kids I know who have been to the town of Gruyere to eat real Swiss fondue in (duh!) Switzerland. I’m not mentioning this to be elitist in any way shape or form, it’s simply a fact.  Growing up in Munich, I remember  visiting the town of Gruyere as a child, and one summer when we were traveling with our kids through Europe, I was determined they would see Gruyere, too.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise given my love of all things fondue-like that I’m the proud owner of  TWO fondue pots. One of these pots was actually one of the first things I put into a box after I bought the Red House.  After all, we had no kitchen (and no stove), and I figured making a pot of fondue every now and again would be an easy (and yummy) meal.

My Fondue Pot

Why it took me nearly two years to make that first cheese fondue at the Red House, I don’t know.  But finally we had it.   Be sure to use some good cheese and good wine, and by all means great bread.

Crusty Italian Bread

Since I’m not a purist, I actually like to use a combination of cheeses (not just Swiss), but feel free to substitute any hard cheeses you like.

Swiss and Colby Combo

And even though I don’t normally “do” recipes, I’m including this one anyway.  Enjoy!

Red House Fondue

1 cup grated Swiss cheese (preferably Emmentaler)

1 cup grated Monterey Jack or Colby cheese

2 cups white wine

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup of flour

1 loaf of Italian or French bread cut into cubes

Freshly ground pepper

1.  While most recipes call for you to wipe the inside of the fondue pot with a clove of garlic and then toss it (the garlic, not the pot), I actually like to leave the garlic in the pot. Let it cook so it’s nice and mushy, and whoever gets that piece of garlic, in my opinion, wins a bonus prize! Also, most recipes also call for a dash or two of Kirsch to the mixture but I’m not a big Kirsch fan so my fondue is without this additional ingredient.

2.  Grate the cheeses and sprinkle some flour over the mixture.  This will add a little thickness to the sauce.

3. On the stove, warm up the wine in the fondue pot (remember the garlic clove should be at the bottom, too), then gradually add the grated cheese.

4.  Keep stirring until the cheese has melted, then transfer (use pot holders!) to your fondue rack.

5. Dip away!

Absolutely Delicious Fondue

Oh yeah, try not to eat the entire pot of cheese because if you leave just a smidgen at the bottom, the cheese will “fry” up.  Using a knife or even your fondue fork, gently lift up the remaining cheese disk, cut it up into pieces, and be nice and share it with the rest of the table. Or not.

Suddenly, however, trying to find a college that 1) interests her and 2) that we can manage with the help of lots of student loans has become nearly a full-time job for me.

While this article may not seem relative to post on the Red House site at all, in fact there are some instances when it actually is the perfect place to rant, I mean, talk about a college road trip. Why?  Because,

#1 Doing a college road trip involved being able to stay at the Red House (thus saving $ on a hotel room).

#2 One of the colleges (note the use of the word one, as in single, as in uno, as in the only one) was a mere 1.5 hours from the Red House.

Which is how at 6:30 a.m. on the Sunday morning before the Thanksgiving holiday, we found ourselves in the car and heading towards Rhode Island.  But first, we needed to stop at the local bagel store.  Unlike, one of my fellow bloggers (that would be you, Dad), who does not like to eat while driving, I’m quite happy with noshing as I drive.

It turns out that this would be quite a day for noshing, since after we finished our bagels, Rachel curled up in the back surrounded by enough pillows and blankets to keep her warm in sub-zero weather, and fell asleep. But when she woke up, she reached for a box of Ritz crackers and pretty much ate the whole thing herself!

Lots of snacks on this road trip!

Since we had left so friggin early in the morning, we got to college #1 (in Rhode Island) in under 3 hours.  We walked around campus and it was eerily quiet which led me to think the kids were already on Thanksgiving break.  This however was not the case since when we ventured into the student union, a friendly staff member told us that the kids simply like to “sleep in” on Sunday mornings.  Oh yeah, I had almost forgotten what that was like (at least to “sleep in” past nine anyway).

We continued on.  It was still early and we decided before we drove to see college #2 in Providence we would make a detour to Newport.  I love Newport! When the kids were little, Lynn and I would often visit the town when we needed a quick getaway.  Rachel had been to Newport before (we had taken her to see The Breakers) but alas, she didn’t remember it.

So although she was impressed with all the mansions she was seeing in Newport (Mom, why can’t we live in one of those?), she wasn’t too keen on getting out of the car.  I persuaded her it was a gorgeous day, let’s do the cliff walk.

The Cliff Walk in Newport

I even saw her sneak a picture or two of the ocean, so I knew even though she had complained, she thought it was pretty.

We kept driving. And got lost once we hit Providence.  Now, Lynn and I have been to Providence a couple of times, hitting a particularly good restaurant one afternoon, but this day it seemed we kept driving in circles and the town seemed kind of dead.  All three of us  wanted a cup of “chowda” and maybe a lobster roll if we were really lucky.  We were! We stumbled upon a bistro-type of place that made a decent New England clam chowder and did a Lobster Club sandwich with fries that was pretty darn good.

After lunch we visited college #2, were not terribly impressed, and got back in the car.  We had planned that night to stay at the Red House and once again, overestimated our driving time.  But I have to segue here just a bit. I know I’m probably the only mom ever to take a cooler filled with food on the college road trip circuit. (And I’m not talking about lunch!)  That’s because I had visions of us reaching the Red House after 10 p.m. (when nothing would be open). We, in fact, arrived shortly after 6 p.m.  That meant we had ample time to finish the few remaining Ritz crackers Rachel had not consumed in the car and a nice piece of Brie.

A Really Nice Brie

From the cooler I took out a couple of steaks I thought we could put on the grill, a tupperware container filled with roasted rosemary-flavored potatoes I had made the night before, and some lettuce for a salad.  The potatoes I was able to warm up in the wok, and the steaks we put on the grill.  What we didn’t realize is since we had been grilling all summer, our propane was seriously low  — so low in fact that we decided to only light one side of the grill, thinking we could conserve a little fuel that way.  It was too dark outside to see what we were doing anyway, so we just left the steaks on the grill until we were really hungry.  Let’s just say, they were done enough.

We ate, we drank and then it was not even 8:30 and there was nothing much to do.  Remember, at the Red House, we have no TV, no DVD player, and believe it or not, I had not brought my computer up with me. (A real vacation!) It was too early to go to sleep, and since Rachel had slept most of the time when we were driving anyway,  I figured she was good for another 6 or 7 hours! That’s when I was introduced to “Words With Friends” which is kind of like playing scrabble except you play it on your i-phone!  This lasted about an hour and as you can see from our scores, Rachel was very determined to beat me. Oh yeah, note the words “poor” which is what we will be after this college experience but hopefully not “poor” enough so we can still “eat”!

Our Only "Game"

Road Trip Day #2

For some reason, breakfast just tastes better at the Red House.  I made a huge ham and cheese omelet for the three of us to share, warmed up some mini bagels in the toaster oven, made a big pot of coffee, and it was a late enough breakfast to last us through a visit to college #3.

I absolutely have to mention that this is the outfit Rachel slept in at the Red House (this year’s Halloween costume) and wore to breakfast! “Mom, it’s warm and fuzzy,” is what she said to me.

Daughter as Power Ranger?

Obviously, we were having way too much fun here. Perhaps she should pursue acting? Why were we looking at colleges with Criminal Justice/Psychology programs anyway?

When we finally left the house a few hours later, I have to admit I cheated a little.  I really want her to go to college #3 (state school, lovely campus, nice town) so I took the scenic route.  That would be the one that goes past lots of pretty little lakes and charming towns filled with antique stores.  She slept the entire way.

We were early for our tour, drove around town, then walked around most of the campus ourselves.  We stopped to have a cup of coffee and split a piece of cake.  We finally had the tour (us and only one other family), and this campus was empty, too, not because the kids were sleeping, but in fact everyone had already gone home.

It was nearly 3 p.m. when we got back on the road when Rachel decided she was hungry (again) so we stopped at a Mickey D’s (don’t tell anyone!) and got fries and cheeseburgers for the road.

After our trip, I felt as turbulent as the waves I had seen on the cliff walk 24 hours prior.

Ocean View From The Cliffwalk

I was wondering how many more colleges we would be visiting in the next few weeks…and all the money we would need to come up with to make this happen for her. Because I’ve realized one really simple equation:

College = No Money for the Red House

But I’m good with that, who needs a kitchen anyway?

P.S. This week we found out Rachel was accepted to a college which was not one of the three we visited that weekend.  It is also the most expensive one.

P.S.S. Have I ever mentioned how very much I like my one burner?  I think so.

The "Flame" As We Know It

Now it’s not like me to give up cooking even when I’m flying solo but the truth is I was working from the Red House and was actually welcoming the idea of just having some granola for breakfast, a yogurt or cottage cheese for lunch, and salad for dinner.  Plus, I’m at the age unfortunately, where I, too, could stand to lose a few pounds.

It started out fine, at first. I poured myself some granola for breakfast one morning and sliced a banana on top.

Banana And Store Brand Granola Breakfast

After sitting at the computer for too many hours, however, and feeling like my eyes were in the back of my head, I got up and decided some cottage cheese with perhaps a few sliced cucumbers and tomatoes would perk me up. It didn’t. The cottage cheese was bland and the tomatoes and cukes (both hot house) had no taste either.  I ate it anyway.

Not That Tasty Cottage Cheese Lunch

Coming off a crappy lunch, I decided dinner would have to be better so I decided to make myself a version of a “chef’s” salad.  I picked some lettuce from the garden, cut up a few slices of ham, fresh mushrooms, more tomatoes and some thin slices of real Parmigiano Reggiano.  I dressed the salad with a homemade mustard vinaigrette and it was really good!

Chef's Salad, My Way

The next few days I did a few variations on this theme –sometimes having a slice of toast for breakfast and a yogurt with granola for lunch.  One day for lunch I decided to go “Scandinavian,” making myself an open faced sandwich of a sliced hard boiled egg with a plum for dessert.

Scandinavian Polka Dot Egg Sandwich

And for dinner one night, because I was bored, and also because I started to think of what my life would be like as a single girl (just kidding, Lynn!), I made myself a tuna fish sandwich but kicked up a notch as a tuna melt.

This lasted for about three days, these simple breakfasts, lunches and dinner but then came Day 4.  Day 4 you see, I made the mistake of walking into town because I wanted to pick up a few things for the weekend and I went to the market.  Sitting there, staring at me under a big heating lamp was a roast chicken.  It looked at me (I swear!) and said, “Miss your oven, huh?”

I bought the chicken.  And I bought an entire jar of applesauce.  Why, I don’t know.  It just sounded like a good thing to eat with the bird.

I walked back home carrying my chicken and my applesauce and decided I would make a salad from my garden and top it off with some leftover gorgonzola cheese.  Since it was  Bastille Day, and I like all things French,  I opened a bottle of white wine, too.

I ate standing up, welcoming a break from sitting and staring at the computer screen, and looked at all the sanding and spackling and painting that still needs to be done. In between I took bites of chicken, salad and huge spoonfuls of apple sauce.

Lovely Lettuce Greens With Gorgonzola Crumbles

Surely this was one of the best store-bought roast chickens on the face of the earth I thought as I was licking my fingers….or was it just my boring meals for one would make anything taste delicious?

Oh yeah, and since Lynn and I always look forward to ending our day together with a nice meal, I was talking to him on the phone as I was eating.  Had he been there, enjoying the chicken with me, he would have been able to pull the other side of the wish bone.   Breaking the wishbone in half myself, I knew we would still both wish for the same thing.

1.  We tore down a part of the house that had a kitchen and bathroom whose roof had collapsed and we started framing a new one.

2.  We put in a new furnace, but left the old one it its place.

3. We tore out two bedrooms that were basically useless and decided to make one big master bedroom suite.

4. We sheetrocked 5 rooms (partially).

5. And primed one staircase wall.

6. We redid the bathroom to make it ok for now.

7. And primed a small room which hopefully one day will house a piano.

8. We nearly finished painting the family room.

9. And for the first time ever will have a kitchen that has a fan and two overhead lights.

10. We learned how to mow the lawn on a ride-on lawnmower.

11. And how to do dishes by hand (again).

12. We learned that even if you have no heat in the house and sleep with your clothes on, you won’t freeze to death.

13. We learned that contrary to popular belief, if red wine is too cold, it’s bad stuff.

14. We learned not to be afraid of bugs that suddenly appear out of nowhere, of snakes that slither out of the garage, and chipmunks that like to sit in the middle of the driveway just as you want to start the car.

15. We learned that country life is slower.

16. And that you really don’t need a stove to put a meal on the table.

17. We learned to cherish the bounty of our summer garden.

18. And that if you take a 15 minute nap in the hammock even with all the work that needs to be done, it’s not the end of the world.

19. We learned that watching a movie at night on a laptop works just fine.

20. And that even if you have worked all day, hit traffic, and don’t get up to the Red House until after midnight and there’s five feet of snow in your driveway, you still have to shovel a path to the door or there’s no way in hell you are getting inside!

21. That sharing one bathroom, is ok, too.

22. We also learned that we shouldn’t be running to the window every time we see the Amish family driving down the road in their buggy as if they were some sort of exotic creature, or something.

23. We also learned that if we wanted any “fancy food” up at the Red House, we had to bring it with us.

24. And that because of technology we can never truly “escape.”

25. Most of all we learned we don’t fight up at the Red House. Ever. This last point is particularly nice since we’ll be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in a few months.

On that somewhat positive note, it’s really kind of amazing everything we’ve learned to do in one year! Last year at the Red House, our 4th of July was kind of quiet.  We were probably in a state of shock about how much work we were facing. This year, we arrived a few days prior to the 4th, and were able to catch a glimpse of a small fireworks display in the distance, if we stood on our tippy toes and peered over the ever-growing bamboo forest.

To celebrate the 4th and how much we’ve accomplished (with lots more to go), I decided anyone can put a hot dog or a hamburger on the grill.  But since I always like to be a tad different, this is what we ate at the Red House on the 4th of July.

For breakfast, I made an omelet which stuck to the pan I was cooking it in because I simply couldn’t get the pan hot enough since I only had the side burner of the grill to use.  Working on the theory that if I covered the pan with a lid the eggs would “steam,” and thus, somehow warm the ingredients inside, I did just that. So while it may not have been the best omelet I ever made, it was decent enough.  Loaded with cheese, red onions, and even a jalapeno from the garden, the spicy factor started off the morning with a bit of a bang (sorry, couldn’t resist) in anticipation of the holiday.

Japalepeno, Red Onion and Cheese Omelet

After breakfast and running a few errands, Lynn came back to the house and started sanding the sheetrock in the living room.  Even though he hung a thick roll of plastic between the living room and dining room, it didn’t help much since dust was everywhere. Consequently, we spent much of the day coughing and rubbing our eyes from it and saying to each other, “this can’t be good.”

He kept working but I started to think about dinner. My original plan had been to make lamb burgers. But since ground lamb, which had once been fairly cheap had suddenly become trendy and thus overpriced, I picked up a package of chopped pork instead.  My idea? Pork burgers with gorgonzola on top.  I unwrapped the package, made lovely little patties by hand, and carefully crowned them with tiny balls of cheese, then put them on the grill. They cooked up fairly nicely (quickly, too), and I think they looked quite presentable on the plate!

Pork Burgers with Gorgonzola

I picked some fresh lettuce from the garden, made a simple salad, and also fried up some potatoes. Unfortunately, I started the potato portion of the meal during cocktail hour and actually forgot about them, so they well, got a bit dark. Luckily, Lynn likes anything that’s remotely spud-like and burnt to boot, so he was still pretty happy with this dish.

Burnt Potatoes

Finally, to end the holiday on a sweet note, I emptied an entire container of raspberries onto half a pint of vanilla ice cream into a single bowl, stuck in two spoons, and we ate the whole thing in about 10 seconds flat.

Happy 4th!

Fresh Raspberries and Vanilla Ice Cream

When we opened the door of the Red House, we were pleasantly surprised by the beginnings of our new kitchen.  Gone were the ugly burnt beams and in their place, a lovely in-the-works vaulted ceiling with new beams holding the room from collapsing in on us.

Even though it was late and we really wanted to have dinner, we walked around the space and “oohed” and “aahed” like little kids marveling at how different the room looked.  We also thought the replacement of a regular old window with a nice octagonal window was really neat, too.

New Kitchen Beams

Another View

In the morning, bright and early with the sun beating down on the meadow, I caught a glimpse of the beginnings of a garden, my new friend Natalie had started for me.

The Beginnings of a New Garden

Natalie (and her husband Greg) spent much of the previous week removing a large patch of sod (in the rain no less), raking the earth and coming up with a design idea of what should be planted where.  Luckily, she’s not only creative but appreciates using found objects as much as I do.  Consequently, she was able to take some hay we found in the barn as well as a couple of old railings and use them as accent pieces.

Flowers and Stepping Stones for a New Path

I love what she’s started for us and can’t thank her enough for helping me start my first vegetable and flower garden up at the Red House.  Her own blog, http://gardenspot-natalie.blogspot.com/ is sweet, too.

Before I came up to the Red House this weekend, I had already decided I would try to make pizza on the grill since last summer’s attempt resulted in a charred, inedible mess.  This time I was prepared.  I dug out my pizza stone and decided that I would roll out the dough on the stone, then put the stone on the hot grill, before the cheese or any other toppings were added.

Now, I realize this is ass backwards; the stone is supposed to be piping hot to cook the dough but I figured this would be the easiest way and would circumvent me having to try and transfer dough from one board (wooden) to another (stone) without it falling apart.

Pizza Fixings

So I rolled it out, put the dough on the stone, put the stone on the grill, added my tomato sauce and cheese, stole some basil leaves from Natalie’s newly planted garden and viola — Pizza on the Grill!

Grilling the Dough

The Pie!

I will admit it wasn’t the best pie we’ve ever had, the crust was still a little bit too doughy but we’re getting there!  After all, I have all summer to perfect this technique and experiment with different toppings, too.