It seems that summer is coming to an end slowly, the temperatures just dipping enough for us to feel that change is in the air. On the way to Cape Cod this Saturday morning, I saw the first, yet untimely early, signs of fall foliage, and my heart skipped a couple of beats in excitement. My favorite seasons of the year, fall and winter, are about to begin!!
I had spent a leisurely day and a half at the Cape at the Barry house with my cousin Rebecca, her husband Tommy, my two favorite little monkeys Liam and Dawson, and Tommy's high school friend Jeanetta and her daughter Sappho. It was all very relaxed, I had brought some home-made quiche and banana bread, the afternoon was spent swimming at a nearby pond (where Liam and I invented "Superman Swimming"), we looked at old family scrap books, and we had some nice burgers for dinner. The house is 300 years old, has tons of character and needs lots of TLC, but has so many family memories within its matured walls. I always enjoy staying there. It is located in the Yarmouth/ North Dennis area of Cape Cod (http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&q=Cape+Cod), and you can walk right behind the house around the cranberry bog into the woods and get lost on some hiking trails for quite some time. The Mercantile in Dennis can be recommended for a great cup of coffee and breakfast sandwiches, and the Barry house backyard for bowling with old bed posts (don't ask).
Today is a holiday -Labor Day (for my European friends who are slaving away while we are lazy) and I will spend the day cooking and baking. Dinner for tonight will be salmon in a cream sauce with Jasmine rice, and a lovely salad, followed by apple pie. I have been inspired lately to cook again, and have been caught sitting on my couch reading cook books.
It has been an interesting week to say the least, which included a visit by the fire department to our house, a series of interesting cocktails and some not-so-good singing. After a period of self-induced abstinence, this week was a little more on the wet side, starting off Tuesday with another one of the Four Season's Epicurean evenings, which features a wine-food pairing under the wonderful guidance of sommelier Brick Loomis (who is becoming our friend rather quickly, which is a good thing). The motto for this wine-infused event, was wines from Walla Walla, Washington (try to say that quickly after a couple of glasses).
Walla Walla is an area in southern Washington State at the Oregon Border, which has two (or three) claims to fame - sweet onions (the so-called Walla Walla Sweets) and killer wines (and Drew Bledsoe for the football fans among you). It has emerged as a favorite destination for wine aficionados, and let me tell you, it was hard this time for me to pick a favorite.
The meal started off with a 2005 L'Ecole No. 41 Semillion "Seven Hills Vineyard" which was wonderful - a heavy, almost oily wine which was paired with a dish of Salmon Escabeche (similar to ceviche - a fish that has been poached in an acidic mixture) accompanied by a grocel sauce (greenish, could not find this on the web.... looked like basil to us). Second was a 2004 Lattitude 46 North Merlot "Katherine Leone Vineyar" from the Walhuke Slope, which was served with a Bavette de Boeuf (bavette means thin steak) and chanterelle ravioli (TO DIE FOR) in a rosemary bordelaise sauce. The meal was rounded out with a 2004 Tyrus Evan Claret "Del Rio Vineyard" from the Rogue Valley and with that we ate a Lincolnshire Poacher (a cheese), toasted cauliflower, pickled mustard seeds and a fleur de sel biscuit. The claret was favored by my three oenophile friends Hannah, Christos and Holly, but I have to go with the Semillion, and must go in search of a bottle of it soon.
Friday night it was time to take my friend Christian, who moved here from Texas a not-too-long while ago, and introduce her to Friday nights at Jacob Wirth's, the German restaurant in Boston's theater district. Friday nights are special at Jake's because the charismatic Mel Stiller plays the piano, and everyone sings. Every table has a song book, and Mel yells the page numbers so that the crowd knows what's next. In between each song, everyone screams numbers at Mel, in order to get their favorite song played next, and this bartering exercise gets quite rowdy, often with Mel yelling back "It's too early for that one!" Christian and I had a grand time, there was lots of laughing involved, especially as a baritone section of young men behind us took Billy Joel's "For the longest time" to unknown heights. I have to send a thank you to the lovely Christian right here, since she treated me to some fine German food to celebrate my 19-year anniversary in the US (same goes for the wonderfully charming Ana Holzbach who did the same with a fine Japanese meal this week).The cocktails, right - that was the fault of my neighbors Chris and Tina on Gore Street - they decided to move to London, and when I stopped in to say goodbye, they gave me bags full of groceries, and a quite substantial amount of various liquors. Needless to say last Sunday evening (after just having returned home with the loot), I was in quite a merry mood (which did not carry into the next day - I wonder why....).
Last but not least, the fire department - oh well.... I leave the house once, once!!! Apparently my upstairs neighbors started smelling something funky, of the burning plastic, sulfurous sort (which is never a good thing). I was out at Jacob Wirth's singing and unaware of all the hoopla going on. Anyway, they called the fire department, who checked things out, but needed to get the basement. Now our basement door is usually locked, but the key for it is on top of the door frame. Do you think either the neighbors (who I had told about the key a couple of times) or the fire department checked for that? Nooooooooo. Instead I come home at 10:30 - all the lights are on in the hallway, the basement, the whole house is lit up like a Christmas tree, the basement door is off the hinges, the screws just strewn across the floor, and no note, nothing!! Wouldn't you think I get a note saying come up and see us, we'll explain??? So after a fun night out at Jake's, here I was reassembling doors, by myself of course. Aaaaaaaaah! Never a dull moment at 10 6th Street in Cambridge, that is for sure. The fire department of course could not find anything wrong and the smell must have come from somewhere outside...
On that interesting note, I must go now for some food shopping, and cook up a storm!
Talk to you soon.
pet:)
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