Sunday, June 29, 2008

Nora's Favorite Restaurant

Sunday was the day that we held Nora's postponed birthday party which had evolved from a "Survivor" party at our house to lunch at her favorite Clinton restaurant, Nick's a.k.a. Towne Restaurant, followed by an afternoon at Art in the Open at the Hunterdon Art Museum. Three of the four girls enjoyed Nora's favorite meal at her favorite restaurant, grilled cheese with french fries and a chocolate milk. At Nick's no one asks what kind of bread? or what kind of cheese? because who would want anything other than American on white bread? Zoe opted for a cheeseburger. At a nearby table, Sylvain had a Nicoise salad (I tried to dissuade him) and I had the always reliable Greek salad.

Then it was into the downpour to the children's art festival. They began in the very wet moon bounce with an impromptu game of Marco Polo before they were evacuated and the whole thing was deflated in a rush of water. Face painting ensued. Nora's skull and cross bones tattoo was only briefly very cool but thanks to my skill running with an umbrella, Kyra's elaborate face remained intact for the day. Balloon "art" was a big hit....





http://www.clintontownerestaurant.com/
http://www.hunterdonartmuseum.org/

Saturday, June 28, 2008

A Happy Birthday at KC's Chiffafa

Last night we met up with Mom and Dad for dinner in celebration of Mom's birthday at KC's Chiffafa in the center of Mendham. Our reservation was for 6:30pm. I'll get my complaints out of the way now - the service was friendly and knowledgeable but much too slow! We finally left at 9:30 p.m. Sylvain, starting work bright and early this morning, couldn't wait any longer for his dessert (did we really wait 40 mins.?!) and had to leave. Also, with a prix fixe of $75, it wasn't cheap for a BYO and it would have been nice to know that up front when I made the reservation.

That said, the food was excellent and the place was casual, quirky and a lot of fun. Everyone starts with a plate of bread with anise butter and a dish of warm, roasted pecans. Sylvain and Dad had the mussels which were fabulous. I don't say that lightly as for some reason, as easy as it is to prepare mussels to perfection, few pull it off. Mom and I had the gazpacho with truffles and creme fraiche. It was delicious with a taste more of smokey tomatoes than onion and peppers and a little spicy kick at the end.

For our main courses, Mom and I stayed in step with the monk fish wrapped in bacon. Dad had the Russian wild boar with mushroom risotto and Sylvain the fillet mignon with braised greens and potato puree. The monkfish was quite good and stood up well to the wide slices of lean bacon. It was served with roasted tomatoes and new potatoes.

K.C.'s is only open for dinner on the weekend and they have live music, in our case two fellows having a good time on acoustic guitar and piano regaling us with everything from Marshall Crenshaw to The Searchers. At one point two women who were clearly fans arrived rushing over to kiss them. One then came to our table and planted a big kiss on Bapu. We all scratched our heads and had a good laugh over that. Even in the dim light his blush was visible!

There was a choice of two desserts. Sylvain and Dad ordered the Tupelo Honey Souffle and Mom and I ended up eating Sylvain's. It arrived at the table hugely inflated accompanied by a smalled dish of apricots in a brandy sauce that were poured table side carefully into a slit made in the souffle. Nice!
What did Nora have? She enjoyed Lobster Macaroni and Cheese without the lobster (which she now avoids after being stared down by one on her plate last year in Maine). This was a sophisticated version with rich, more complex cheeses for adult palates. For dessert she chose the Frozen Hot Chocolate which came in a tall glass topped with whipped cream, marshmallows and sprinkles.
Overall we really enjoyed ourselves and loved the food. Clearly born of a couple's vision and their love of food, I was reminded of our own Cafe du Soleil.



Sunday, June 22, 2008

Vermont Overnight



Just back from a quick overnight trip to the Middlebury area with a duel purpose - a beautiful tented outdoor memorial service and party on cousin Will's amazing 300 acre farm for Aunt Cynthia yesterday and dropping off Thibault at camp this morning. We spent the night at the Shoreham Inn which dates from 1790. Sadly for Nora there were no reported ghosts though the kid's were housed in the Civil War Room which was decorated with creepy photos of men from the era. A large photo of a scary baby facing Thibault's bed had to be covered with a hand towel overnight. Our Green Mountain Room was more neutral. Overall it was beautiful, quirky and with comfy beds and we all liked the locally-made organic bar soap, foaming hand soap and shower shower gel!

Breakfast was excellent coffee, juice, freshly-baked muffins, perfect blueberry flapjacks with a choice of light or amber maple syrup and maple sausage. Quite the start to the day. After an unsuccessful geocaching attempt at a covered RR bridge we dropped off Thibault :( and headed home via the Fort Ti ferry over Lake Champlain with a quick stop to buy cherries for the ride at a nearby farm (we suffered a bit from Sylvain's overindulgence). In the same family for four generations, the farm offers six varieties of pick your own cherries and thirteen varieties of pick your own strawberries. Who knew?



http://www.shorehaminn.com/index.php

http://www.vermontsoap.com/

http://www.geocaching.com/

Saturday, June 21, 2008

The Clam Hut

Today was a gift. After much deliberating over whether or not I could "afford" to take a day off, I used a comp day to spend Friday with Thibault before surrendering him to Keewaydin Dunmore for two months. We dropped off Nora at camp and headed straight to Sandy Hook for a morning of sun and ocean. It was a beautiful day in the 70s with ocean temperature probably in the high 60s. Once we were in it was great.




In no time we had worked up appetites for lunch and headed to Highlands to see what was around. Of course I was immediately drawn to the "Clam Hut" and we followed the signs to a place on a pier. Usually I would choose steamers or clams on the half shell (sliders in New Jersey shore speak?) but felt strongly about trying the fried clam strips with a side of "hut slaw." A draft beer would have made the meal complete but it was noon with a bit of a drive ahead. Sad. Thibault enjoyed a fried flounder sandwich. Rambling conversation, the beach, great simple food and much laughter - does it get any better?



Thursday, June 19, 2008

Tito's is the Bomb!


I managed to escape the office to walk over to Tito's for lunch. So glad I did! It was a beautiful day all cool and sunny. I tried the southwestern chicken burrito special with pico de galo and it was perfect with green salsa from the free salsa bar and a squeeze of lime. Unfortunately the town was overrun with roving bands of preppy middle school bubble-dwellers. It must be the last day of school in Summit. But I made my way over to a park bench and enjoyed the feast accompanied by a bottle of Calypso lemonade and surrounded by nannies, their charges and Latinos lounging in the sun. If I can figure out how to download pix from my cell phone (Thibault????) I'll post them. I forgot my camera.

http://titosburritos.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/sssleestak

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Lovin' the Juice Caboose


I stopped by the Juice Caboose in Summit yesterday to grab lunch and say hello to cousin Steve Clark. I left with a #4 a.k.a. "Re-Fuel" (I beleive). I was quickly drawn to that name on a Friday that signaled the end of another excruciatingly long week. It was fabulously filled with orange, lemon, carrot and ginger juices and made while I waited. What was the magic fifth ingredient? Accompanied by a small container of garlicky noodle salad and another of chickpea, it made for a really good and healthy meal. Yum.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Herbie's Drive-In and Shades of Death


Tonight I granted Thibault's oft repeated request to find Shades of Death Road. It turns out to be oddly nearby in Great Meadows. Since we did not see any ghosts, "orbs" or supernatural anything, the kids were quite disapointed. We did see a creepy scarecrow with a skeleton head but they remained unimpressed. The fox that crossed the road and then paused on a rock on the edge of the forest to stare at us was a little better.

Spirits dampened by lack of spirits were lifted by a visit to Herbie's Drive-In on Route 46 in Liberty Township, an old-fashioned hokie place where everyone was strange, strangely friendly. I am not a big ice cream fan (though I never tire of gelati) but this stuff was good. And it was soft serve - custardy and rich with a little grittiness. Wow. Nora had a "dirt sundae" of ice cream, oreo pieces and gummy worms, Thibault a vanilla cone and I, chocolate. http://www.herbiesdrivein.com/



My Mom is the best!

Last night on my way home from a Dodge Foundation workshop in New Brunswick I made a detour to meet Mom in the parking lot of the Riverside Gallery in Pottersville for the drop. This one of several spots where theses exchanges take place. More common is the parking lot of Christie Hoffman Park. I use the word "exchanges" here but more often than not these are one way transactions. This was no different. I was the happy recipient of a supermarket shopping bag filled with leftovers from the Newark Conservancy picnic held that afternoon at Mom and Dad's house. We called it dinner!

The goods included chicken salad with halved green grapes and just enough and not too much tarragon, curried couscous salad, a ziplock bag of washed lettuces from their garden, two containers of chocolate-covered mini pretzels, one milk chocolate and one peanut butter (how many of those did I eat between there and Califon?), a bag of chocolate chip cookies (fortunately I didn't find these until after I got home) and a bag of washed and trimmed strawberries. Not only was there no dinner to be prepared but it was delicious. Today I added watermelon and called it lunch...

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Strawberry Festival




Today was the long-awaited day of the Strawberry Festival at the United Methodist Church in Changewater. For I think the 3rd year we biked over in the heat. We were greeted by freindly fellows in red church t-shirts and queued up for the selection of beef barbeque on potato rolls, hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, baked beans, potato chips and a choice of sweetened or unsweetened iced tea. The usual crowd was there - it could have been a church dinner in Ohio or anywhere in the US for that matter. Dessert is always the best part - white cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and sliced strawberries with sugar. For $7.50 I picked up a nice-looking pineapple upside-down cake to take home in my bike basket. The plate was included. http://www.changewaterumchurch.org/