Meeting Places

One of the most amazing logistical feats for a summer weekend getaway just took place.  Our family was invited to visit good friends John, aka Fish, and Sue, who have a home in the Catskills in Twilight Park, New York.  Sounds simple and straight forward doesn’t it?  Certainly if any of the guests lived nearby but that is not the case.  We travelled from Quebec, Canada, New Hampshire, New Jersey and North Carolina to get here.  This included the logistical steps involved to meet an ex who drove from New York City to pick up his children in Brattleboro Vermont, and the North Carolina daughter Margot, who left Asheville at 6am to get to Allentown, PA to meet girlfriend Hadley,  who was working in New Jersey for the week and rented a car to get to Allentown, PA.  New Hampshire daughter, Katie,  and North Carolina daughter Margot, arrived at Twilight within 15 minutes of each other!  We should be running an airline.  If you could see the road we travelled on to get here you’d be even more impressed and there is no cell service so you are on your own to figure it out.

Forty-seven years ago our families came together in a little spot on the Ottawa river in Quebec to celebrate what we now refer to as the “first” destination wedding.  Family travelled from all parts of Canada and the United States.  The weather was glorious and the location spectacular.  Where we are this weekend reminds me of that spot.  The houses are tucked away on the side of the mountain, the views are spectacular, and the air is crisp and clean.  The official anniversary isn’t until the 21st but the celebration has begun.

Milestones and Memories

Grand daughter Libby is now officially a middle schooler.  The elementary school doesn’t call the ceremony a graduation but rather a celebration event.  It is full of everything that is good about a smallish school in a smallish town in New Hampshire.  The children in Grade 5 had been together for six years.  It was a smaller class, only three sections, so they all knew each other pretty well.  They will go off to the regional middle school in the fall and will meet many new faces when they get there.  Scary and yet exciting and fun.  Libby is so ready to get there.  She has one upped her brother and will enter the school by joining the accelerated math program.  She will not let her brother forget that accomplishment!  Good luck Libby, we are so proud of you and your brother.

Food for thought

What is essentially Canadian food?  Tourtière, maple syrup, Molsons beer?  We brought that and more with us for this weekend rendezvous.  Our hosts are so welcoming of our whole family and feeding five extra people for three days is quite a challenge.  So we brought along as many Canadian items as we could find including local cheeses from the Abbey and Compton.  The tourtière were made by a local farmers market and I can say without question it is the lightest and best pastry ever.

Farm to Table

Sue announced that knowing that we were coming she had eggs from her step-daughters chickens and local cured bacon, plenty of fresh berries from local farms and to top it off she invited the farmers to come for dinner Saturday night.  The farmers in this case are daughter Liz and Robert.  Her best comment was she knew if she didn’t invite Liz and Robert, who raised the chickens that provided the eggs and also provided dinner, and who cooked the dinner, that I wouldn’t come.  Which of course is not true but it shows me that people are becoming more and more aware of how the food they eat is being grown and farmed and that they care about the quality of that food and the process.  If you have a chance to taste the difference I hope you will.  The dinner was a true Farm to Table experience and we cannot thank them enough for providing this experience for all.  Here are the three chickens, one was a heritage and the other two were Cornish Cross cooked two different ways, spatchcocked bar-b-q and roasted.  They were all delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weeks recipe comes from @Delish.  I shared it on Facebook but here it is for you to enjoy.

[mpprecipe-recipe:35]

And last, but not least, Happy Father’s Day!