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.