buster, burrito, and buster

a horse named buster

our neighbor judi, who lives nearby on woodland road, has a horse named buster, and a donkey named burrito. on a sunny sunday morning, she stopped by to give them a good run in our paddock. buster, the dog, was unsure about his namesake running around the front yard, but all the animals got a good run out of it. afterwards, i got to walk buster (the horse) home with judi and burrito, with a pause with admiring fans in a car.

ice cream!

i have been making a lot of ice cream this summer. not only because of the heat, but its fun to make, easy to make, and much tastier than store-bought. i have been making a custard-based ice cream as well as sorbets. for the sorbets, i have made nectarine and watermelon sorbets. with the eggs down the street, classic vanilla and chocolate were in order. here you can see where i pick up a carton of eggs, usually returning an empty carton at the same time. the yolks of the eggs are very yellow, and very big. here you can see the nectarine sorbet (the nectarines are from the CSA), along with vanilla and chocolate.

bugs on a plate

a nice addition to our home were dishwasher safe plates to look like paper plates, and with printed special little ants to keep things active. we love them! thank you cynthia for the 1-year home housewarming gift!

steve's family visits

Steve's family visited from the harrisburg area. Mom (Mary Buela), sister Cassy and her husband Mike, aunt Stephanie, uncle Steve, cousin Teresa and her boyfriend Kerry, and cousin Mary Katherine. They all got to stay at a house down the road. They explored the whole county over the week's stay. The day of their arrival, it was a hot day, but a BBQ was in order for friends and family, packed with hot dogs, hamburgers, plenty of vegetables from the CSA, frozen margaritas, and homemade ice cream. On the following day, we hosted a simple brunch with farm fresh eggs, slab bacon, and (gluten free) cranberry muffins.

another CSA

last week's CSA had leeks, onions, turnips, shard, bok choy, nectarines and peaches. with the nectarines and peaches, i made a gallette using a cornmeal crust. in addition to this dessert, we made homemade chocolate ice cream using fresh eggs from down the road. i will send out another posting all about the eggs and making ice cream.

buster found a bone

buster found a bone in the back yard. cattle? goat? human? unclear.

our first CSA

this weekend, we picked up our first half-shares of fruits and vegetables from the stone ridge orchard. as you will see, we got arugula, oak leaf lettuce, strawberries, garlic scapes, bok choy and cherries. it was the perfect amount to take home and plan some options for our lunch and dinners. here is what all the food turned into...

for lunch, we grilled some hotdogs from fleisher's in kingston, and served it with an arugula salad with a lemon olive oil dressing topped with asiago cheese, toasted walnuts and the fresh sliced strawberries. as a side, we made a dip of pureed cannellini beans, lemon, olive oil and the garlic scapes.

in the late afternoon, i muddled the rest of the strawberries with some of our mint, and added vodka and ice for a nice cocktail before dinner. the thin glasses are designed by our friend deborah ehrlich, who lives nearby.

for dinner, we grilled some hangar steak (from a local farm). we added the bok choy to the grill with a vinegar-chili marinade. accompanying this is the oak leaf lettuce salad with tomatoes and shaved paremsan with a mustard vinaigrette.

with the cherries, we made a cherry clafouti which used almond and rice flours. ideally, we would have made it in a glass pie plate, but the square tin did well and custard-y sweet dessert hit the spot on this hot summer day.

one year at the house

we've been here one year. i'm sure we spent more money than we ever anticipated but the house is still standing and getting better each day. as a kind of celebration, here's rather large double-layered gluten-free red velvet cake and cupcakes!

close to home

when we hosted a brunch, we made scrambled eggs from a little farm down the road, and picked wild flowers on the way back. yes, very local but the shell colors were in so many browns, tans, white, and pale blue-greens. the yolks were as big as the egg itslelf. more importantly, they were the tastiest, yellowest, and fluffiest eggs! along with free roadside flowers, we served bacon from fleishers (http://www.fleishers.com/), a bibb lettuce salad with lemon olive-oil dressing, and (gluten-free) popovers. i promise to try and document our food a little more in the future. once our CSA kicks in, you'll be seeing some creations or catastophes that we try out.

new porch lights

recently, we updated our front porch lights with recessed lights on a dimmer. it offers a nicer cleaner look, and i am very happy to depart from the prior and ugly colonial-style fixture.

dora the explorer

i think dora lives at the photo store in Kingston NY were she "will always love Momma" and Michael Jackson.

garden tea party

at our favorite mexican restaurant in kingston, we stopped by for a "garden tea party" which benefited rescue dogs of two local animal welfare groups. victoria coyne of victoria gardens in rosendale gave a talk on gardening tips and types of plants that would do well in the area. there were items for sale and auction. steve was interested in the margarita kit. though this tea party might have served iced teas, i never really saw them. instead, this tea party had plenty of strawberry margaritas. an excellent benefit!

tree down

while we were hanging at the house, we heard a loud crack in the distance. we were not sure if it was someone doing some construction work, but we decided to walk down the road and see what it might be. across the street, at "goose pond", a large tree section broke off onto buck road.

catalpa time

the summer is here and everything is very lush and green. all the northern catalpa trees in the area are now in bloom, and leaving a nice carpet of white flowers in the driveway.

stone ridge csa

one of our local orchards is part of a csa (community supported agriculture). by signing up, you give money upfront to support the farmer's growth of various produce, and in return you get a heaping bagful of fresh fruits or vegetables grown and delivered only 10 minutes from our house! stone ridge orchards will supply us with rhubarb and berries, various fruit throughout the summer, and apples, squash and pumpkins into the fall, all the way up to thanksgiving. this is the same place we bought apples for crumble when mom, dad and victoria visited. for vegetables, there is an affiliation with another farm across the hudson river. they will supply herbs, and endless vegetables. you can sign up for a full or a half share. we signed up for a half share since there is more than enough food to go around each weekend. they are also offering eggs and homemade pastas, but we kept to the fruit and vegetables this time.

pella!... pella!

in just two days, four guys arrived early to remove our old windows and replace them with all new pella windows. when the delivery truck backed up the drive, there was a brief moment if he would clear the tree branches. after the two days, all our windows now all lock, all have the single grid (farmhouse-style), all are energy efficient, and all have nickel plated hardware. and no more storm windows and nesting bugs. we saved the windows from the living room since they are original to the circa 1820s house. if only stanley kowalski was yelling up at the house as an ad placement for pella windows.

lilacs

at 17 downing circle, there was a lilac shrub outside the kitchen window... i think of mom when the lilac is in bloom.

portrait of a pointer as a young dog

spring is here

all our flowers are coming up, snakes are basking in the sun, and salamanders are hiding under logs. rosemary, thyme, two types of mint and basil are planted for later this summer.