travel – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

Other vacation treats (Baltimore)

While we were on the East Coast we tried several places on the recommendation of a friend and lucky for us they turned out to be delightful. If you find yourself in the Baltimore area try these two places out and you will be grateful.

{Greg’s Bagels}

Greg’s bagels: My friend worked here during high school which added to the charm as I tried to picture her behind the counter but the real pull was the l-o-n-g chalkboard list of salmon varieties and the incredible flavor we experienced after we’d ordered. Jenette had said to introduce ourselves to Greg, the bagel maker, and we did. He was effusive and charming even as he bumbled about the kitchen, laughing with young employees and restocking bagel baskets. My sister-in-law was with us and experienced the deliciousness and plans to take her husband back soon. She’s lucky she lives only a short 30 minute drive. We only head back every few years but this will be on our repeat list.

Captain James Seafood Palace: I remember when I was in high school our family had a fantastic East Coast trip where we gorged ourselves at oyster bars and crab houses and I wanted to share the same experience with our 20-year-old son. He loves seafood like many of us but we rarely eat at seafood restaurants because my husband has a shellfish allergy. We ordered the all-you-can-eat crab at $31.99 and it came complete with corn-on-the-cob, bread, and crab soup. It was cool to watch my son attack the pile of crabs with his mallet, cracking and picking out every little piece of meat. There was not a lot of talking from him.

My husband tried the wings, we shared a plate of calamari, and a cold pitcher of summer shandy. Sitting outside on the bay, which was beautiful even with the floating trash, watching the boats and hum of people activity made for a perfect evening in Baltimore for the 3 of us.

He made it through almost the entire pile of crabs and the last three I snuck home in a large napkin. Cheating, I know, but I knew Groovy Girl would want to try one as well.

I love to experience new places and it helps when you have a solid recommendation from a trusted source. Thanks Jenette for your last minute long list of places to eat!

Weekly Recipes 6 (the vacation files)

We’ve been on vacation for a few weeks in the Baltimore/DC area staying with Greg’s family. Every time we make it out here we try and explore something new in the capital. This time we went to The Building Museum and National Museum of the American Indian; both were fantastic. My husband and I walked through the Hirshhorn by ourselves one afternoon which had a fantastic display by Shirin Neshat, an Iranian artist.

Exploring Takoma Park area with my my husband’s brother and his wife we tried an amazing restaurant, Republic, that we could walk to from their house. Love that accessibility. Our dinner was extremely good. Expensive but worth it. I would eat there again on our next visit. Hopefully it stays put. We shared a mix of delicious appetizers; squash blossoms, oysters, and the crispy shrimp with kimchi. They brought out a basket of crusty bread with a bean dip. I ordered a salmon app for dinner and it was just the right amount. While the dessert menu looked appealing we were too full. Luckily with our bill we received a plate of bite-sized house brownies! Thank you to Matthew for the excellent service that night.

Fish Tacos-my sister-in-law Jayne made this for us one night. They were delicious and I loved all the variety of toppings she had for us. We ate after sitting on their lovely front porch for an hour or so enjoying the weather, the view, and a beverage or two.

Cherry-Apricot Crumble-Jayne served this for dessert and it comes with an interesting story. She keeps a notebook of guests and what she served to them and to her surprise when she flipped back to early entries she found she’d served this exact dessert to our family when our oldest two were young and Groovy Girl had not yet graced us with her presence. She remembered Teenage Boy exclaiming that it was the “best dessert he’d ever had” in his 6-year-old voice so she decided to make it again for us. It was delicious and this time I asked for the recipe.

Stuffed Peppers-recipe from my mother-in-law Phyllis, I prepared it for everyone though as she had Groovy Girl and her cousin off on an adventure. The peppers plus a salad made a great easy dinner. My mother-in-law is an excellent cook and I love to share recipes with her. She made us quite a few great meals including her famous taco salad. I appreciate all the recipes she shared with me over the years.

At this point we are ready to head home with great new memories, a few treasures tucked away, and very full bellies. Hope your weeks have been just as full.

Traveling Mercies

(collage by Groovy Girl: G.G. with her super cute cousins)

We spent three days last week in Minneapolis, one of my favorite cities. I lived there for years while I went to college the first time and loved it. Lucky for me I still have family there so it is easy to drive the 3 1/2 hours north to see some of my favorite people. Sadly I don’t make it as much as I’d like to but this time our purpose was to see our new niece born August 13th. You’d think (because of my deep love of babies) I would have made the journey before now except that was just about the time school started for me and then it seems that pretty much every weekend after that was filled to the brim with activities.

Somewhere in October I vowed not to fill November weekends up just so we could head north and it worked. I persuaded my husband to journey with us and he complied by finding a Bluegrass show to sweeten the deal. The show just happened to be on Thursday night so I took a day off from work (oh, so rare) and we headed to Harriet’s Brewery after dropping Groovy Girl at my (step)sister Robin’s new house. Her family of four just moved to the Minnehaha neighborhood after living in South Chicago for about 6 years and they are so excited about this move.

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/VFR63YxU6R4&source=uds

Greg and I enjoyed music by The Last Revel at the brewery. They were fantastic and I would head out of town again to hear them play. The second band was good also but I can’t remember their name.

This was a perfect toe-tapping band and the guys were equally as nice by they way they tolerated chatting with my husband several times about music.

I was a wreck that night for some reason. I got carded coming through the door into the steamy brewery and I could NOT find my driver’s license anywhere in my bag. While I was desperately searching my glasses dropped out of my hand because I’d taken them off due to that steaminess. They snapped in half and were completely unwearable. So I couldn’t drink the delicious brewed beer or truly see the band. It was a mess and I still managed to enjoy the evening. Now I have to buy new glasses and I wasn’t ready to do that and I still don’t know where my ID is.

(Upside down cousins)

The rest of the weekend was spent at my (step) sister Autumn’s home in Eden Prairie. We walked even though it was chilly. We ate delicious pizza and generally lazed around the house holding her little one. My hope was to give my sister time to sleep and rejuvenate. Maybe it worked. Sometimes just visiting with each other can make the day solid. We also had a delicious lunch at a diner in their neighborhood with Robin and family on Saturday before we left town. I had the best fish sandwich ever. The coleslaw had cranberries in it and the fish had perfect crunch.

Thank you for the alignment of the stars to bring us all together on one weekend even though my glasses and ID decided to jump ship.

We also checked out the construction of my brother’s new house. We can’t wait for a return trip in December or January to see the finished product.

(new house)

This picture is all about the cookie. Groovy Girl wanted to show the size; it is bigger than my face. My husband is behind me hoping I’m not going to eat that cookie. My glasses in the photo have been super-glued. That trick only lasted two days.

February; Weekend Cooking

We went out of town this weekend to attend a Bluegrass Festival in Des Moines. I do love to travel and going anywhere requires finding a few good restaurants to try. On this trip our main foodie experience was Gusto’s Pizza near downtown. This place does not have just your average pizzas plus they do gluten-free crusts for any of their pizzas. I didn’t snap any photos because I was too busy eating. With names like Buffalo Springfield, Vincent Van Goat, Francesco, and the Fromage A’Trois it was very hard to make a choice. With all the menu choices we somehow missed the special of the day which was a spicy Thai pizza.

{Gusto’s Pizza-just NOT the pizza we ordered}

After much deliberation we voted to get the Francesca which featured an Alfredo sauce, mozzarella, Roma tomato, artichokes, cremini mushrooms, and spinach. It was divine. We ate almost the whole thing. There is one lonely piece waiting for me in the refrigerator for lunch or dinner. Groovy Girl got to design her own small pizza; shrimp, fresh basil, Roma tomatoes, and extra mozzarella. She was in pizza heaven and she had a wonderful cream soda to make her smile.

My friend and I both tried 2 different salads from the menu as well. Mine was the Fromage Bleu featuring apples, spiced walnuts, mixed greens, red onion and balsamic vinaigrette. I wished for more bleu cheese crumbled on top-after all the name features bleu! My friend ordered the quinoa continental and it was by far the winner! A small amount of quinoa mixed with mixed greens, goat cheese, roasted butternut squash, dried cranberries, and balsamic vinaigrette. I am going to re-create this salad at home! All in all it was an amazing trip to Des Moines. Oh, and the Bluegrass Festival; it was fantastic as well.

We made it safely back yesterday afternoon just in time for Groovy Girl’s school fundraiser. Last night at about my bedtime I realized I needed to make something for our church potluck. I whipped this vegan curry dish (from allrecipes.com) in about 40 minutes and it was a huge hit. The bowl was scraped clean. Surprising as it was pretty spicy. No leftovers. I’ll have to make more. It’s been a good food weekend for me!

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads weekly foodie meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

Beautiful Colorado

{Way to go Jen!}

Groovy Girl and I just returned today from a week long road trip to Colorado. We cheered my friend Jen on as she ran her first half marathon. She is gearing up to run the Chicago Marathon in October and she looked so calm during the race that I think she is going to be ready!

This year we did not make it any farther than Denver but had lots of fun in the city. We ate mussels at Le Central, had margaritas on a patio, and had lots of dinners together with family and friends.

Enjoy these few photos as I head to bed. Not only are road trips harder as you get older but I have to be ready to celebrate my 51st birthday tomorrow. I know breakfast in bed is coming early as I have a board retreat for a foundation I am working with from 8-12. My husband and daughter have lots of fun activities planned for the day.

{Penny’s Diner pit stop in NE}

{Jen’s daugher, G.G.’s friend}

{Double rainbow from margarita joint)

Weekend Cooking; The Accidental Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer

Breezed through our one and only bookstore in the Cedar Valley to get a gift card for Groovy Girl’s birthday sleepover this weekend I couldn’t help checking out the front shelf of sale cookbooks. I left with a gift card and Simon Rimmer’s beautiful looking book The Accidental Vegetarian (2004). Don’t those stuffed pimento peppers look delicious on the front cover? I thought so.

I glanced through it quickly before I purchased and several recipes caught my attention like the Black bean and eggplant chili, the eggplant tikka masala, and the Lemon grass risotta with lime leaf tapenade. I don’t know if I can find lime leaves but I’m going to try. Even though Simon is English the recipes are written with American measurements (thankfully) and most seem to have easy to find ingredients.

There are six recipe sections, dips and morsels, salads, small platefuls, big platefuls, side dishes, and desserts. Every few pages a lovely photo illustration is included-nice up close and big so you can really see what the food looks like. The instructions are easy to follow and numbered. I’m going to make the Pumpkin enchiladas with mole sauce when I get home. I love the idea of making my own mole sauce and that I can use a really beautiful butternut squash sitting on my counter. There are tons of eggplant recipes which I love and many ethnic-inspired dishes. The salad section bowled me over with varieties of combinations like Coronation chickpeas and potato salad or the Santa Fe Caesar salad both sound delicious.

As College Boy starts his journey this summer, leaving us for the beautiful Colorado scene, I will be happy to return to more vegetarian cooking. I won’t lose sight of our new enjoyment of local meats but his desire for more meaty meals was what pushed me in that direction in the first place. Groovy Girl is less about the meat and more about simple meals and she loves sweet potatoes!

I know I am going to love this slender soft cover cookbook-I’m so glad I threw caution to the wind and shelled out $7.00 for this one. Find Simon on Twitter @simonrim

In other cooking news my mom gave me a subscription to bon appetit and I wasn’t so sure about it at first but I’ve loved looking through the last few copies. I love that they have family friendly recipes and lots of cooking tips. Thanks mom! This one works. Monday night I am making a Radish and white bean salad for book club featured in the April edition.

{Handsome Husband}

As I type this I’m sitting in a mediocre hotel near the airport in Green Bay, WI while my husband goes for his two-mile pre-race run. Tomorrow he runs the GB Marathon and I will meet up with him at certain locations to cheer him on (make sure he is still breathing…). We’ve traveled to quite a few U.S. destinations based on marathon races. Today though we are going out to explore. We found out that Natural Ovens is not far and we loved their bread when we lived in Chicago so we are going on a tour and buying spree. It also sits close to Lake Michigan and I always love being around large bodies of water. We’ve also heard a rumor of a local brewery we plan to check out. I also would love to find a great cheese shop. Much to do, so little time…

This post is linked with Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to locate many other wonderful food-related posts. Happy weekend.

Brave New World

For ten days I’ve been blog free-missing all the crazy political disagreements. We took a road trip to Oberlin, OH soon after election night. Long drive. Parent’s weekend. I still haven’t recovered. Car rides of that length showcase our age limitations as I struggle to unfold my small frame from our small/old Saab each time we stop for fuel and bathroom breaks. At least now we have three drivers so on the way there I didn’t have to drive at all. I played with Groovy Girl, read, and did some knitting. Bliss.

Friday night dinner-probably should have edited out all
that table clutter but hey, it’s real life.

My in-laws met us in Oberlin coming from the D.C. area and we had a wonderful time visiting together and exploring Oberlin. My mother-in-law is an amazing woman, truly. She is a successfully crafty woman, taking on new projects with gusto, turning out finished projects that look far better than the original picture. She turns out award-winning quilts, scarves, hats, towels, American Girl accessories, and period costumes for smallish children to wear to colonial villages. I have many of her handmade gifts and I treasure each one.

(Teenage Boy’s Graduation quilt)

She made a quilt for our oldest daughter for graduation and completed Teenage Boy’s quilt in time for his early graduation. She sent a photo of the quilt for graduation as they were traveling out of the country at the time so we waited until this weekend to actually pick up the quilt-I wanted her to be able to present the quilt to him. Isn’t it beautiful! It is a t-shirt quilt. She wasn’t very excited when I told her I wanted a t-shirt quilt for him. Her mind bleeped “tacky”, I’m just sure. But instead of tossing my idea aside she went to a quilting class and t-shirt quilts just happened to be one of the topics. I’m pretty sure Teenage Boy will love this quilt forever and for me, it makes me smile and teary as I can look back on all his adorable stages and activities; from the Winnie-the-Pooh theatre shirt, the “I need my space NASA shirt” that he wore for days on end as a four-year-old, to his love for various sports teams, HP, and his travels to Alaska, Montana, and Colorado. It’s all there, one pretty great life, wrapped up on a gorgeous quilt.

Every once in a great while I think I could trade my husband in but then I remember how much I love his parents and decide to keep him forever again and again.

Happy travels…