MITZVAH

Helped out down at the homeless shelter this afternoon.

Don't like to take all that many pics when we are down there , just for the sake of privacy....

A very nice hot meal for who ever wants to show up -

Roast Chicken ( thigh and leg ) , rice/gravy, mixed vegetables ( beans, broccoli, carrots today )

orange, apple juice and some cakes and cookies from ... some church.

Only one family today, so it was no where near as difficult a day, 80 folks I think.

and totally not the reason you help out

but

REWARD 

 Gazpacho with Watermelon and Shrimp

Yeah, it does not sound like it would be good, but MAN, was it, I will get the recipe from our pal and pass it along, but Im guessing any good spicy soup and serve it like this. A real treat on a warm day!

Trailblazer

Some sadness with all the football celebrations

From ESPN via JMG : Sam's efforts to become the first openly gay player in NFL history came up just short in a competition against undrafted rookie Ethan Westbrooks. Westbrooks is one of nine defensive linemen to land a roster spot. Sam officially hit waivers Saturday at 4 p.m. ET when all NFL teams had to trim their rosters down to the league-mandated 53 players. From there, the other 31 teams will have until noon ET on Sunday to put in a claim for Sam. If he goes unclaimed, he will be free to sign with a practice squad. According to one league source, the Rams would like to bring Sam back to their 10-man practice squad. "There will be no challenge, no challenges whatsoever," for whatever team picks up Sam, Rams coach Jeff Fisher said at a news conference. "There's no challenge with respect to Mike Sam," Fisher said. "He's not about drawing attention to himself. He kept his head down and worked and you can't ask anything more out of any player for that matter."

Nothing I have read over the last couple of days has not been in high praise of how Michael Sams handled the last few months, and it is far from over.... stay tuned

WEEK ONE 2014

DONE

45 -21

It's Sunday night now, after another busy day, I'm just getting to this, but I am a little bit happy that I did, because yesterday was something else! The general consensus around the internets / newspapers is that this game was the best GEORGIA start in a very long time . Clempson is not a push over team and in the second half, we just did what ever we wanted, Todd Gurley was just amazing, and talking sports heads were falling all over them selves today, saying how WAY too early it was to talk Heisman, but that Gurley was THE man to beat.... 

Also just a fun game to watch -

Chicken and Waffle Bites

I on the other hand could just NOT pull it together yesterday. We had invited our pals Don and Susan over to watch with us, and Don was the person that pulled together our Friday night trip to the Redwings, with loads of ex and current teachers that he and Neil worked with  - and with me sitting down in our normal seats, Neil invited everyone there to our house for tailgate and football .....sort of.

Just in passing he said that we were doing it and would love to have any of them stop by, not an actual invite, but still stressed me out. That was just the start of it - I just could not finish a project, too many pots on the fire, etc. So, I was just much much to frazzled for a first football game Saturday. In the end it all worked out just fine and I was totally ready by the start of the second quarter. SOME things just dont change. ( and only Don and Susan came over  )

Your gameday Holy Dyad.

Went pretty classic on the food.

• Crock Pot BBQ
• Chip
• Pickles
• Broccoli Salad
• Cole Slaw
• Meaty Beans

All of which I have made on here before, everything turned out well.

WOOF!

This cake on the otherhand was far from my norm, and I'm not exactly sure I liked it all that much.

There is still half of it in the fridge downstairs, that has to tell you something.

Martha Stewart's

Chocolate, Banana and Graham Cracker Icebox Cake

I knew that it was going to be one of the warmest days we have had close to all summer , so the coolness of this really appealed to me. AND, other than the time it takes to bring all the elements together , it is very easy.

• 15 oz milk chocolate ( right off the bat there is an issue, they dont really sale the cooking/bakers chocolate in Milk, so chips it is, BUT, chips come in an 11.5 oz bad, and did not want to buy two, so over to the bulk bin... and some general guessing on weights, it all worked out fine , just a heads up)
• 5 large egg yolks ( I did six, how do you ever know what is large or not ? I pretty much always do this in anything that calls for a number of egg yolks  )
• 3 cups heavy cream ( to quote Ina, " how bad can this be ? )
• 20 Graham Crackers ( dont really know how many I used, it was almost all of two of the three packages that come in a box - and sidebar, always buy the real HONEY MAID ones, cause they love the LGBT's and we very much like to spend the pink dollar )
• 4-5 ripe bananas, sliced then ( will totally depend on the size of your bananas )
• pinch of salt

Very first time making it, I follow the recipe - but really, add what ever else you want - its really just a super rich thick chocolate pudding. Vanilla, some expresso powder, some orange zest and Grand Marnier - go crazy. Or leave it just as it is, the pudding part of this is great.

Directions

1. Line a 5-by-10-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Place yolks and a pinch of salt in another heatproof bowl.
2. Bring cream to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Slowly pour cream into bowl with yolks, whisking constantly; return mixture to saucepan set over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 8 minutes (mixture should not come to a boil). Immediately strain through a fine sieve set over chocolate; stir until chocolate melts and is smooth. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 4 hours. ( why it takes so long to make this, I just let it go overnight )
3. Spread 1 cup chocolate mixture evenly into bottom of loaf pan. Top with a layer of 4 graham crackers, trimmed to fit. Spread 1/2 cup chocolate over tops, and cover with some bananas. Spread 1/2 cup chocolate over bananas, and top with a layer of 4 trimmed graham crackers. Repeat with remaining chocolate, bananas, and graham crackers until you reach the top of the pan; finish with graham crackers.
4. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. Uncover, and turn out onto a serving platter. Remove plastic wrap. Garnish with whipped cream, and cut into slices.

Everyone here last night loved this, I was not crazy about the texture, and if I ever make it again will use a crisper cookie, one that will keep a little bit of bite. Neil suggested Lady Fingers, which might turn out really well....

Cake Sliced

We had a very nice time watching a great UGA game, again with Ina - " How bad can that be ! "

Koda cheering on his pal Russ .

Out With the Crack of the Bat ...

Labor Day Weekend, the end of Summer - enhanced this year by the start of College Football, only fitting that we end the Season with the Boys of Summer.....

We met a group of Neil's school pals there for the game, this was where they were all sitting, but I saw another friend of ours sitting alone, so I went and joined her.

ONLY to find, here on the eve of the UGA / CLEMPSON game some random Toronto Blue Jay loving Clemson Tiger - all orange and purpled sitting right in front of me.

 Neil, Jack and his son Drew finally showed up to join Larissa, but I stayed down here anyway -

our " usual " seats. Scads of Canadians.... or at least Blue Jay fans ( Buffalo is the AAA for Toronto )

Spikes says good bye to summer! 

 The Wings won 3-2 , beating thurway rival Buffalo in the penultimate home game of the season, with the Redwings still holding on my their little birdie claws to a chance at the play off. Beat Buffalo again here tomorrow night and Pawtucket twice over there, and boom, we are back for some play off baseball next week..

Really a nice cap to a season that due to weather ( mostly ) and travel ( some ) did not have all that much baseball in it! 

shut in

  I surrender - that's it. I give up, mosquitoes can have all of upstate NY till the first frost, I am inside. I am a good quart low I was bitten so much tonight. I have never, not in all of north or south Ga seen them this bad .

GOOD NEIGHBORS

( Dinner )

 Our wonderful next door neighbor Karin had a BIG birthday party while we were gone - we were sorry to miss it! - and had all these clams left over. She saw us grilling out burgers yesterday and called to see if we wanted to put then on the grill. Now, I know nothing about grilling clams, oysters YES, but not clams. So, i went old school " Ode to Camille's " and went Linguine with White Clam Sauce.

 ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

a couple ( or more  ) of Anchovies
2¼ lb. littleneck clams, cleaned
⅓ cup dry white wine
½ tsp. crushed red chile flakes
1 lb. linguine, cooked to al dente, plus ½ cup cooking water, reserved
2 tbsp. finely chopped parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 tbsp. unsalted butter

Put your water on to boil for your pasta

When the water is boiling strong, salt well and add linguini

then-

Oil in pan, add garlic and anchovies

cook for a couple of min - DO NOT burn garlic

When it smells very garlicy add clams, chili flakes and wine - shake pot and mix them all around

They should open in the time it takes the pasta to cook, but dont sweat it if they dont...

Pull out the open clams, chop or dont, and add the al dente pasta to sauce, add pasta water and butter - s/p to taste, but be careful, you used anchovies and the salted pasta water. Mix all around and eat.

We ate out on Karin's back porch

EAT OUR FEELINGS

New from the folks that brought us the web series that I really liked, THE OUTS comes :


Eat Our Feelings: Episode 1 from Eat Our Feelings on Vimeo.

Dinner

 Soooo good to be home - Tonight was a freaking Mosquito-pa-looza outside as I tried to cook out - Koda was out for like 5 min before just looking at me, shaking his head and walking inside....

• Funyuns Burgers
• Grilled farm fresh corn
• Beans
• Farmstand Salad

one more time :

FUNYUNS CHEESBURGER !

Seems like this is just way to early !

My fears of a rain soaked tomatoless summer were put to rest today when I hit the farm stand for the first time in almost two weeks. The best of high summer! BUT - there were also these :

( and just enjoy any new readers, we do a lot of pumpkins here  )

I will find out what type of pumpkin this is - it is new this  year!

CAUGHT UP

Sorry it took so long, but we are back in real time now.... ( I feel asleep very early tonight and was saved by my little number trick...)

THE LOST WEEKEND

Left the greater Bennington area Saturday morning, heading south to Brookfield Connecticut to visit our good pal Sharon, as we have done for the last few years. I usually keep going south and spend some time with the Brooklyn BFF, Harry - but NYU started and he had to work. We had such a wonderful nice RELAXING time. 

Her house is just the perfect little cottage tucked into some wonderful woods

and it is most dog friendly - Koda had a great visit

( he was exhausted after spending a week with Smithwicks and Dioggie )

She made us a fantastic dinner ( and let us both just sit, which was needed ! ) I did not take a pic of the great dinner of Scallops floating in a bed of pureed peas, asparagas and saffron rice. But our starter was SO darn good:

Avocado and Crab 1/4 cup mayo 2 Tbsp. Grainy mustard 3 Tbsp. Freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 Tbsp. Horseradish 2 tsp. grated lemon peel 1 1/2 tsp. hot sauce 3 cups lump crab 2 ripe avocado S & P 8 slices sourdough bread, toasted 1/4 cup mint leaves For dressing: combine all Toss in crab and avocado Spread on toast, garnish with mint

This is SO good, do try it.

The next morning we got up and went on some adventures, which I so enjoyed. First we went to the next little town over Kent, Ct. which sort of has a weekly street fair on Sundays.

Books! 

I got a great Southern Cookbook

Koda went with us and had a lovely time.

I loved riding around this area , just in a few miles there are two way preppy schools, ONE of which JFK went to in the 8th grade - yes, I walked on the same dirt....

Koda took a dip in the Housatonic River.

AND! Neil found a Kyle COKE !

THE LAST DANCE

Pompanuck After Dark

Out last night and we went out with , not a bang this year, but the nice animal friendly whoosh of sky lanterns.

Neil and Scott

 and then....

 What happens at Pompanuck stays at Pompanuck -

and we did pass the hat for my therapy - 

Last Full Day

Off tomorrow to Ct for a quick visit.

So last full day at Pompanuck

 These two free range dogs will have some major separation anxiety come Saturday afternoon

After they sleep for a few days.

 The Round House

BEAR! RABBIT! SQUIRREL ! ( leaf )

rare empty table

A most sincere kale patch