Flower Power

The bumblebees seem to get a kick out of the Zinnias. At night, they curl up and sleep inside the petals. What a life, to sleep on a flower petal, roll over and wake up in the morning and slurp a yummy ole' nectar breakfast.

The flowers were meant to be "multi-colored." There were multiple shades of pink, at least!

Zinnias in a vase are absolutely classic and elegant. I suppose we should plan on planting some for next year ourselves!

Good food with good friends

We had friends over the other day for lunch and enjoyed a delicious spread of sandwiches, tomato & basil salad, tabouli, spinach salad, and lebanese bread with hummus...

My husband's summertime favorite may very well be fried plantains. He cooks on low heat with vegetable oil. Unlike bananas, plantains tend to stay quite firm even when extremely ripe. As they cook, they become sweeter and sweeter, until they are like candy with a crispy golden outer shell.

Speaking of candy. Okay, okay, this was a different occasion, but I liked the picture. On our way home from CT, we had dinner at Crocker Barrel. Now I can say I've been there once and can cross it off the list. My arteries rejoice.

Weekend at the Shore, Madison, CT

My husband and I actually had our second date here at the Shore when he came up to visit for the day. See how we're awash in golden, glowing light? And, of course, a beautiful sunset we couldn't resist.

The wooden dock behind Home Comfort cuts through the salt marshes...

Boats docked on the Neck River...

Beautiful.

Classic old truck next to the barn, just across from the Cottage.

Blubes, Blubes, and more Blubes

We spent the weekend on the shore in Madison, CT, and arrived at the peak of 6 blueberry bushes ready to be picked and screaming my name.

My job is the self-appointed title of "Head Blueberry Picker," a very important position which could only be compromised by my core competency of "blueberry taster." The only thing more pleasurable than picking Blubes from the bushes is eating Blubes you just picked.

Despite the hundreds of Blubes sacrificed and eaten along the way, we picked about 4 cups in 15 minutes. I truly believe that blueberries are the world's most perfect fruit. The blueberry pie we later enjoyed from these babies was also positively delectable.

Our New Hampshire Hike took us to Maine

We intended to go hiking somewhere in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. However, I missed my exit, and miles and miles later, realized we were heading a different direction. Our GPS search of "nearby hiking points of interest" took us to Vaughan Woods State Park in Maine. Some rich fellow lived here long ago. They advertised free ice cream at the little cottage near these gardens, but nobody was even there...

The hiking trail was along the Salmon Falls River, which straddles the NH/ ME border. At one point, the reflection of the trees on the water made us question whether we were looking at actual water, or gazing uphill at the horizon and blue sky.

After the hike and picnic, we followed the signs to ice cream and wound up at Brown's Old Fashioned Ice Cream in York, Maine. With full bellies, we walked down to Sohier Park and caught the ocean breeze...

With full bellies, we walked down to Sohier Park and caught the ocean breeze...

...And, of course, snapped our own pictures of Nubble Lighthouse, one of the most photographed light houses in the country. I know they must say that about every lighthouse, but it was lovely and scenic.

Honeymoon Day 2- South Dakota

We paid our respects to our stone-faced Presidents...

...And then went to see the world's largest log rocking chair...

...Before passing by the Sugar Shack, close cousin of the Love Shack.

We learned South Dakota has dinosaurs, and in fact, boasts the T-Rex capital of the world.

Finally, we enjoyed miles and miles of driving next to Lake Oahe. Seems like too many vowels to us too. Our goal for ending destination was to cross the border into North Dakota.

Imagine kayaking in YOUR backyard

First of all, I think every public lawn should have a ready-to-go kayak pool, like this one I spotted at the Boulder Creek Festival over Memorial Day weekend in Boulder.

Also, I'd really like to see more adult-sized bouncy castles. It is so unfortunate that all of them seem to have height and weight restrictions.

They don't sell jeans like these at the Gap

I caught this storefront while driving through the Bronx earlier this year on my way up to Boston. Note the "J" is a little bit hidden by the No Parking sign.

How could I resist the opportunity to fully enjoy the lengthy traffic light?

Snazzy Kicks

Over the past few years, I've been lucky to be involved with a running club in New York called Run NYC. It was sponsored by Nike, and 3 runs a week were hosted out of the Niketown store. Through this, I accumulated a hefty collection of Nike socks, gloves, and other giveaways, and discovered my obsession with Nike Tempo running shorts. Please don't ask me how many I own... let's just say I don't need to do laundry weekly.

Anyway, at one point I became involved in an ongoing focus group, called Nike Pack, where we did various running activities. I tested products, completed surveys, and merged two of my passions- writing and running. One assignment was to give my running shoes a job review, as if they were a company employee, or to write a personal ad to meet "the ones." Another particularly fun task was to design a pair of Nike ID shoes (and then complete a survey about the ease of the online design tool).

Either my design, my survey answers, or my general enthusiasm impressed the marketing gurus enough to send me the shoes I designed. The unfortunate thing is that they are too cool to actually wear running (I blow through 4-5 pairs a year, so I wouldn't want to wear these out so quickly!).

You can design your own shoes here

These are Nike Lunarlites.

Storms over Northern Wyoming- Honeymoon Day 1

On our honeymoon, a 9-day road trip from Colorado to Boston, we first drove through Wyoming on our way to Mt. Rushmore.

Wearing our purple "we got laid" leis and with our rental car (free upgrade for the newly weds!) packed with wedding gifts and luggage, we left Johnstown and drove about 6 hours to Custer, South Dakota. Trust me though- we weren't sideways. Feel free to comment and tell me how to fix this.

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We bought gas in an old trading outpost with a population under 200. We stood out.

We saw the landcape change over time.... from completely flat fields to completely unpopulated land dotted with buttes, rolling hills and trees.

The East-Coasters visiting Colorado for the wedding teased me when I insisted that Northern Colorado had been largely developed over the past few years, because I remember when there was "nothing" between Boulder and Ft. Collins. I laughed when we drove through Wyoming.

We were stuck in a little bit of road construction watching this amazing rainstorm develop. Outside the opposite car window the sky was still blue and sunny. The air smelled heavy with rain, manure, and farmland.

Getting ready for football season!

Actually, I made these this year for a Superbowl party. They're super easy. Cookies were store bought, and I made white icing for the piping. It took a while to get the icing thick enough to where it didn't drip though. I think I squeezed it out of a regular zip-lock baggie. On a scale of 1-10, it was about a 7 on the messiness factor though.

Vanilla cupcakes. These also came from a box. In retrospect, it helps to not overfill the tins, because you want the top to remain flush after baked to support the "football."

Finally, I adhered the cookies football tops to the cupcakes with more frosting-glue. Once it dried, they stuck like rocks. These were a huge hit!

Yes, it was as delicious as it looked

I love cooking dates with my husband. Tonight we sipped wine while cooking up this delicious summer feast before a few games of gin rummy (let's just say I had an endless flow of good cards, though one of my wins was a technicality, but our card games are another story). Anyway, the wine was an organic Semillon from Yorkville Cellars in the Mendocino County highlands, a delicious wedding gift from a dear college friend, Naomi. We'll have to pay her a visit out west sometime soon!

Salad was spinach, corn, celery, orange bell peppers, almond slices, and golden raisins. In retrospect, I would have added at least half a pint of blueberries. This week at our Friday-and-Saturday-only produce market here in Boston, called Haymarket, I snagged four pints of blueberries for $5. Except they call them "Blubes." Trust me, Blubes truly do taste better than Blueberries. Anyway, there you go, blubes to be added to the remaining salad.

Our second salad was two sliced tomatoes, courtesy of our next-door neighbors and their vegetable garden layered and stacked with fresh basil, and a light drizzle of olive oil and a few shakes of crushed sea salt. We live on a very impressive block as far as back-yard veggie gardens... quite the peer pressure standard to live up to! Next year at this time we expect to be eating our own fresh-picked produce, but for the moment we're simply picking the brains of our green-thumbed neighbors and gladly welcoming the sample delights they share with us.

And now this baby... mmmmm mmmm mmmm! We like to keep this whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe's on hand in the freezer, which we defrosted for a few hours in the fridge, and then at room temperature for the rest of the afternoon.

We sliced an organic onion (thanks again, Haymarket) and slowly cooked on super low heat with a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a few shakes of brown cane sugar, and about 2 branches of fresh rosemary until the onions caramelized and turned transparent.

We started with normal red pizza sauce (Trader Joe's!), a layer of basil, and then a blend of shredded cheeses. Don't ask me which blend though. Next, we added seven sliced figs, one sliced avocado, and a small head of broccoli. My hubby added sliced green olives with pimento to half of the pizza. I love olive oil, but plain olives... um, not a fan! Anyway, we cooked about 9 minutes at 425 and then proceeded to enjoy the most delicious summer meal.

Once again, I absolutely adore cooking dates with my groom. We both tend to become super creative in the kitchen, and it is so romantic and satisfying to together create a tasty (and colorful) meal that nourishes us both.

Anyway, it's finally a decent enough hour (woke up ridiculously early this morning) to justify a slice of leftover pizza for breakfast...

A Columbian Dark Roast to start the day

Since moving to Boston in March, my coffee drinking habits have changed dramatically. In my New York City condo, Starbucks was literally adjacent to my building lobby, and my baristas knew me by face and by my coffee order- grande drip coffee in a venti cup with cold soy at the bar. If I needed more coffee, there was also a Starbucks in the lobby of my office building.

Daily between 9:00 and 10:00 am, my Coffee Buddy and I would rendez vous in the elevator bank for a coffee run... I'd get a refill (free, of course) of my drip coffee, and he'd get a single-shot expresso (double if the week was really tough). Keep in mind, I worked on Wall Street at the time, an industry that has perfected the dysfunctional balance of high stress, low sleep, and intravenous caffeine drips.

Just before I left the city, I even received a gold credit card with my name engraved on the front in size 16 font. Preferred Customer. Basically, Starbucks was probably going to ask me to run the company, because I had earned gold card status for my loyal coffee consumption.

And then I moved to Boston, where I'd maybe pass by a Starbucks once a week. Certainly there were none in my neighborhood. But all was not lost. I shortly after married a former-Starbucks-barista, who brought not only his coffee expertise, but a stainless steel coffee press.

We registered for a Cuisinart expresso maker, and my fabulous hubby now makes lattes for me in the morning, swirling the tip of the foam milk just so as to make the treat delicious and aesthetically appealing.

Today I attempted regular coffee in the coffee press, for the first time in a solid 3 or 4 months. I guess I underestimated the capacity of the container, because this brew is as thick as sludge. Since beginning to write this, my typing has increased by about 20 words per minute. My heavy eyelids no longer beg me to return back to bed- in fact, I'm probably about ready to go take on Wall Street or something like that.