Salmon Dinner and Catan

The main meal of the evening was Atlantic King Salmon, which was accompanied by roasted potatoes and sauteed squash and zuchini. CPM did the potatotes and squash/zuchinni while I handled the salmon and a salad. Everything turned out quite well.

Afterwards we enjoyed a round of Catan and Brutus slept, wiped out from all the walking we did earlier in the day.

Chicken, Mac n' Cheese and Catan

As I'm sure I mentioned in the past, after I graduated from college I stuck around the area for a few reasons. Most of my peers, however, moved on. In an effort to strengthen the connections with those still around, I began a weekly shin dig formally known as "Adult Macaroni and Cheese Night." K. was a regular presence on these nights, and so there was no question that I'd be making the dish out of nostalgia. And there is a smidgen of pride in there too; I still think it's a pretty unbeatable dish. Along with the pasta I spatchcocked, salted and peppered the chicken that I picked up  at Fleishers before throwing it on the grill.

While the mac n' cheese and chicken baked and grilled respectively, we continued our multi-day Catan marathon.

And actually played even while eating, or immediately thereafter. The chicken did well for itself. I think I tinkered with the grill less than at home, and it was really nice and golden and crispy. The meat was good too, but I think if I had taken the time to brine it it might have been just a bit more moist. Or perhaps if I had taken the chicken off the grill maybe ten minutes earlier. The mac n' cheese turned out quite well if I do say so myself.

And then we played again. I think K. won this lower one.

And then on perhaps the next afternoon, we played again. A running theme. Our outdoor games were intermittently interrupted by rain showers that peppered each day, but on the whole they didn't last long and the view was quite lovely. I don't have a lot of photographs of the lake, or me in it, but I usually made it down to the shore and did a bit of swimming and floating each day. Though it is true I probably spent more hours reading a series of books (Gone Girl, The Host, Sweet Tooth) and playing games with J. and K. than I did immersed in the waters of Lake Champlain.

Cheese and Tacos in the Country

The next day I did some work, and I'm not sure what M. did. Then I locked my laundry in the laundry room and we spent a number of hours trying to figure out how to unlock the door. This included M. getting a ladder, my trying to open the door with a card much in the same way, our trying a variety of old fashioned skeleton keys, and M.'s mother eventually suggesting that A. break down the door. So the day had some highs and lows. Perhaps the highest of the locked laundry room saga was when A. managed to open the door without breaking it down; that was pretty great. I brought a few cheeses up to enjoy before Saturday's diner, which included a black and blue blue cheese, an aged manchego and a goat camembert.

I made us taco dinner that night, which involved a lamb/beef meat mixture, homemade guacamole and pico de gallo, black beans with peppers, and rice. I also made a shrimp option in a green/tomatillo sauce, but its photographic qualities were found lacking.

After dinner we played a rousing and challenging game of Catan. I ultimately won, but it was touch and go.

Brisket, Charades and Catan

This last afternoon was perhaps the sunniest of the days I was up in the Adirondacks, which was ideal for the preparation of that night's dinner: smoked brisket.

A number of us sat around as the fire was built (helped along with the aid of grease) and the brisket was positioned for a good number of gentle smoking hours.

At some point I roused M. and we went to Lampson Falls. This is something we've done in previous years, and which I planned on properly documenting. Unfortunately I forgot the camera in the car. This is basically what it was like. The big excitement of the excursion was when I accidentally allowed one of my flip flops to float away from me. I accepted it would never be seen again. Then, maybe ten minutes later, a strange swirl of a current boomeranged the flip flop back to our general pool area and M. was the heroine of the day....jumping into the water and swimming further out than either of us usually do to retrieve the dang thing. Seriously. I was very impressed and grateful. It made walking back to the car far more pleasant than it otherwise would have been. On the drive back we saw this bird.

We arrived just in time for dinner. That brisket and its accompanying sauce, salads and stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon were just the way to end a lovely day.

Then it was time for charades. A game that I do not consider myself particularly good at, but which I played nonetheless. In fact I managed to successfully get my team to guess a Japanese film name. I wish I could remember exactly what it was so you could then consider whether you would have found an effective way of acting it out. Alas. In any case, here is W. getting her team to guess something. Maybe a bird?

In between turns the two youngest kids would dance for the crowd.

T. taking his turn.

M. being intense and expressive.

I forget exactly what the circumstance of this was. V. may have disagreed with some word guessed or decision made. Whatever the cause, it was decided that she needed to be sat upon by M. to calm her down. It had the opposite effect.

V. and I had a nice separate chat about finances, which I'm grateful to her for having with me...even if at this point I still couldn't really tell you what a mutual fund is...a fund made up with bits of stock shares?

Father and son. A. was very displeased with all the photographing going on, so I didn't take any photos of him.

Three of the G. bros in various versions of profile.

Dessert.

And once charades was concluded, with my team winning, A., C. and I played Catan while a larger group played Trivial Pursuit.

Then there was the thing with the canoe.

Well Hello 2012

Ours was a relatively subdued New Years Eve night. I think M., A., C. and I played a game of Catan while S. and M. went to bed. Then M. made a yule log while A., C., T. and I played a second game as the minutes of 2011 dwindled. We cheered to the new year first with sparkling Italian wine that was found to be a bit lacking, and then switched to the better stuff while finishing up our second game.
Here you can see the process of rolling up the yule log.
Once it was rolled up, it was covered in icing and then we all contributed a few marzipan (marzipan?) mushrooms to make it have more of a log-look. And yet no photographs of that truth are available to me.
I don't think I won a single game of Catan over the course of our three days of playing, but did I mind? Not too terribly; I just like getting to play.

Onion Soup and More Catan

So, because we had a rather late lunch, dinner was a smaller deal, but just as tasty. M. and A. put their minds and efforts together and made a lovely onion soup, which was served with toasty bread and cheese. Mmmm, yes. Then, if you can believe it, we played some more Catan. This time I don't know who won. I was blue and I may have won...or someone else did as a result of a large number of victory points. Can't remember. For the sake of it, let's say I won. Ha ha.

Catan, Champagne and Smoked Salmon

A.'s brother C. and I spent a good amount of time constructing an original Catan board. It resulted in a good game, which I lost. I forget whether M. or C. won.
We all had a particularly hard time opening a certain bottle of wine. C. tried. A. tried. M. tried by leveraging the bottle against the floor, and then I succeeded. Yes, yes, all their efforts resulted in it being very easy for me ... or I am exceptionally strong. Believe what you want to believe.
I really should have taken the time to color balance these.
Throughout the weekend many would sit down at the nine million pieced (hyperbole) Monet puzzle that M. gave A. for Christmas. Ugh. I think I put two pieces together. I'm not an abstract, really hard puzzle-piecer-togetherer. As the soup M. and A. made was coming together, we snacked on a generous platter of smoked salmon with gluten and gluten-free bread, eggs, onions and creme fraiche.

And champagne.

Welcoming in 2011 with Champagne and Catan

After dinner M. and I, at one point, thought it would be fun to fall backwards into the snow drift outside the house. Turns out that's not a good idea. If we could stand on it, why did we think it would be a soft landing spot for our bodies? Man it hurt my head. But the drift was still really neat. I walked along its tippy top.

While we waited for the midnight hour we played Catan, and then the time came and more champagne was poured.
Huzzah.

A.'s dad collects pocket knives. He said I could choose from any of these as a gift. There were so many nice pocket knives. The last pocket knife I had was a Swiss Army Knife. But early after the 9/11 stuff it was confiscated in the Nashville Airport. Guess which one I chose.
We played Seafarers with the island hexes face down, so where you were going was a mystery until you got there. A.'s brother was red. He won. I was blue.

Chinese and Catan

At some point last month I made it over to C. and R.'s not for laundry or pizza, but for a round of Catan and Chinese food. I went with the sesame tofu.
C. and R.'s friend M. also played. This was her first ever experience with Catan. I think it went well. I won but only with the help of a last minute victory point.

Salmon and Catan

Last Sunday I went over to C. and R.'s house without laundry. Instead I carried with me a Costco-sized portion of wild caught salmon, two shallots, a fair amount of lemon balm, a lemon and Catan. Soon after arriving at their place, the salmon was properly laid out on the bed of balm, liberally sprinkled with sliced shallots and lovingly covered with white wine, olive oil and a little sea salt and then sealed up tight and put into the oven. While the salmon did its thing, we ate spinach dip and mini crab cakes, which somehow I didn't get good photographic evidence of...and I taught C. and R. how to play Catan.
The salmon turned out pretty good. I could have taken it out of the oven a little sooner, but it wasn't too dry.

In the end, I won. But I saw potential in both C. and R. I hope to play with them again.