Scenes From a Country Weekend

I worked from the country for the Thursday and Friday, which went off without a hitch. At some point Yma decided that this remote contral was the perfect pillow. I questioned her on this, but she was really committed.

This was a breakfast I had one of the days - two fried eggs and turkey bacon on a toasted English Muffin with a smear of cream cheese. Because if it's one thing I know how to do, it's clog my arteries.

I think I've watched these dogs/spent time in this house going on three or four years, and each time I sueually end up making some kind of 'welcome back' dish for the family. In years past it was some variation of a chicken noodle soup - though I think perhaps one year it was a lentil/artichoke soup of some kind. This time around I had my own hankering and figured I could combine my own gourmet want with the need to also leave them something to enjoy. The result was two batches of curry, one with chicken and shrimp and decidedly not vegetarian, and the other very much the opposite. Pictured is the meat version, which I think turned out quite well. Had a little spice to it through quite a number of chopped peppers and a little extra help from a curry paste. Other ingredients included fish sauce, okra, snap peas, portobello mushrooms, basic, lemongrass, ginger, garlic. Quite satisfying on what turned out to be some relatively cold and snowy days.

I had grand plans of taking a really good photo of my tattoo with my tripod in a pretty lighting set up. And I sure did take a lot of photos, but pretty much failed on the 'good photo' part of my quest. I'll need eventually to just have someone else do it for me. Help stop the guesswork.

It did eventually snow (this was the day that Gronkowski and Reggie Bush messed up my FF plans). Not only were my FF plans torn asunder, so too were the traveling plans of Mr. Ass and his parents. Their flight was eventually canceled and so I ended up spending an extra day and evening with the dogs, which was quite a bit more relaxing, I would imagine, than being stuck in Florida when all you want to do is get home. In any case I was on the look out for interesting birds by the bird feeder, but didn't see anything so totally interesting.

These six deer were only one small part of a much larger herd that ran by at one point. I think I counted close to, if not more than, 20.

NYC Salmon and Bagel; Icy Woods Walk

The next morning those of us without gluten allergies enjoyed toasted everything bagels (from NYC of course) along with the salmon pastrami that I asked L. to pick up from Shelsky's, as well as some of their horseradish cream cheese. Honestly the cream cheese could have been more horse radishy and the salmon wasn't quite as delicious as I remembered it from the crazy bagel I had a while back. Though perhaps they didn't entirely live up to my expectations, I won't say that I was actually unhappy. I was very happy.

After breakfast and laying about for a bit, we took another walk adventure in the now snow covered woods.

We had an especially good time breaking ice, of which there were a few different sets. Here you'll see Fatty holding on to a tree while investigating this particular ice pool.

Here you will see me truly thinking that I was about to be eaten by the ice (it was hard to sense how deep it would be once we broke through, so it was a little scary for a second). Poor L. didn't have very warm shoes/socks and even though she was wearing galoshes they weren't 100% water proof.

Ice. Ice. Baby.

Stop. Collaborate and listen. This ice is going to glisten.

My hat in a new configuration.

A lovely morning and afternoon. I was very sad to see the two of them leave shortly after our walk but I was very glad that they had been able to make it at all.

Cheesestravaganza, Country Walk, Sweet Potato Soup, Salmon and Snow

L. has not been having the easiest of times as of late, so I thought it would be nice if she and Fatty could come out to the country for a little respite. Additionally, she's in the process of trying out a new diet, which would pretty much put an end to her cheese consumption. This is, of course, a travesty. I figured if she had to bid adieu to cheese in all its glory, she should go out with a bang. So before going out to the country, I stopped at DiBruno Brothers to pick up a few stellar cheeses for us to all enjoy in a sort of final stand (for her...I simply cannot imagine my life without cheese). Mad props to the cheesemongers for being so good natured and chatty with me. They were equally sympathetic to L.'s cheese-less future and had good recommendations that further strengthened the list of cheeses already on my list. And just what was that list?

Well, some I chose based on previous McCrossen's cheese and wine events. Other cheeses made the cut due to a longer standing love of them. And then there were a few new ones I tasted at the suggestion of the mongers, and enjoyed heartily. So. Starting in the top left corner (the cutting board was a present from cousin K...it's a map of France with different cheese regions notated): Cabot clothbound cheddar; Hudson Red; Comte Essex; Fougerus; Ossau Iraty; Chatham Hearts; Truffle Tremor...with a Roquefort in the center.

Oh boy a good plate it was. I might could have gotten a bigger slab of the fougerus, and the Chatham goat was good but not as interesting as the goat's cheese I had wanted (which had peppercorns in it/it wasn't in stock). The Ossau Iraty was a definite nutty delicious success. And the cheddar remains some of the best that I've had.

I was very pleased with the plate. While L. and Fatty were driving to meet me, I began preparing some of the elements of the dinner we would eventually eat. Once they arrived, the cheese plate went out so all the cheeses could warm up and live up to their potential.

While the cheeses were warming up we went on a woodsy walk.

At some point during that walk, it started to snow. Also, we did a photo shoot of silliness.

This is me practicing to be a goal post in the Super Bowl.

While this is Fatty running.

And this is me out of chronological order.

His return.

So in addition to the cheeses, which we enjoyed with baguette and red wine (gluten free crackers for Fatty), I made a sweet potato chorizo soup with a little walnut/arugula pesto accompaniment. Turned out pretty well.

I also poached a salmon in white wine. The salmon was laid upon a bed of leeks and topped with shallots. Turned out nice, though I think I used a slightly too sweet white wine. It wasn't moscat sweet, but something a bit dryer would have made me slightly happier. Additionally, I made a brie/mushroom/pea risotto, but by that point in the evening I totally forgot to take any photographs of it.

Once we were properly stuffed we went back outside, where the snow had really begun to fall and stick. At some point we went back out to the field, feeling the snow fall on our eyelashes and seeking the stars from the crowds.

These two are always great company and I delight in being able to feed them from time to time.

Country Snow

I woke up pretty early for my Saturday morning in Bucks. I can't say I was surprised to find that it was snowing, because I had actually checked the weather. That said, I still found it quite pretty. I took a photograph with my iPhone I will have to track down for my next iPhone photo round up. Here is Yma. She looks more worried than I think she actually was.
This is Pipo. Pipo sometimes seems confused by what she wants. Or perhaps more accurately she doesn't know how to communicate her feelings in a productive manner. In other words, she's a growler. But she is also a lover of stuffed hedgehogs. We played some keepaway with the hedgehog, where I pretended that I really wanted the hedgehog, and she growled and ran in circles...I know this was actually fun to her because when I stopped chasing her, she'd look behind her with a expression of 'I wasn't done growling and running away from you, please continue.' When I was done with the game, she would lie down in a comfy pile and just keep the hedgehog in her mouth. It was funny.
It eventually stopped snowing. I don't think the accumulation was more than three inches. I noticed a definite uptick in geese flying around the big field that runs up to some woods, which is then bordered by a creek. There were so many of them that you could hear the honking from inside the house. I decided to investigate, as I had a suspicion that some kind of congregation of mass proportions was happening in the creek.
I was right. But what I was wrong about was forgetting my zoom lens at home, so the photographs of the hundreds of geese I saw are just not all that impressive. Apologies to myself.
Snow and cut corn stalks.
Geese taking flight as they clue in to my presence by the creek.
Flippity, flappity, flippity, honk.

Very pretty.

Sunowday

When I went to bed last Saturday, it was still snowing a little bit. When I woke up and went outside the following Sunday, it was hard to imagine the snow would last a week it was so warm and sunny.

In this photograph you might catch a light sense of motion as a big wallop of snow falls out of a tree. Or you might not catch that, but it's happening.
The nice thing about the relatively warm weather was that nothing got iced over or slippery. When I eventually drove to the grocery store the issue wasn't slippery roads as much as downed trees and lots of them. Because the snow was prolific and struck before all the trees and thought it time to shed their leaves, the extra weight of the snow caused some major damage. While S. had a generator, the majority of folks didn't have power from Saturday afternoon to Wednesday evening - maybe even Thursday, I'm not quite sure.
Already the snow was melting its way off roofs.
Drip.
But the trees still had a fair coat in place.
It's like those little bunny hill courses for skiers, only the skiers in this instance would have to be very small mice or insects. What do you call those hills? Moguls!

Here, however, the look of the green and the snow suggested that this was the beginning of spring - of green pushing through the slowly melting build up of a long winter. I wish that was the case. I kept on getting this strange misplaced sense of spring as I drove along the country roads, a healthy stream of melting snow water again making me think that in a couple of days we'd be seeing crocuses and daffodils. Alas.
The pumpkin flowers didn't do terribly well after the storm.