This is our first day on food duty. We’re supposed to be keeping it more low key than last time, and breakfast is supposed to be self serve buffet. We had Lucy cut up the pineapple last night, since she does that all the time in the salad bar. Rob cut up a cantaloupe, and we put out English muffins, raisin bread, and crumpets—a special treat for the English folk. Lucy is our helper today, but we haven’t seen her yet (9am).
As I was putting the breakfast breads/pastries back in the corner, I noticed the bag of “breakfast buns” had a tear in the bag and the top bun looked like someone took a chunk out. I instantly clued in that the crumbs I had seen in the corner when I picked up everything was courtesy of a mouse. Indeed, there were mouse droppings in the corner. All the breads are now in a cooler.
I'm sure one or two were expecting more gourmet cooking, but we’re supposed to be keeping it simple. It was a challenge enough finding cooking and serving dishes! Rob and Lucy did a lot, I just got things in the oven and worked the timer—though I think I messed up the temperature when I set the timer. But everything was cooked and we were just a couple minutes late. Rob even handwashed a bunch of the dishes that didn’t fit in the dishwasher. I made a rum and Diet Coke and called my Mom, who is babysitting Skippy, our dog. He seems to be having a nice vacation too.
There’s lots of boat traffic; luckily the kids are old enough that it doesn’t bother them while swimming. It might be a challenge if you had small kids—though the stairs to get down to the gorgeous dock might stop many kids from bothering to go down.
The afternoon was spent relaxing until it was time to start dinner. Rob and Lucy went looking for public boat launches. They found one up the road, but the parking lot was full. Interestingly, none of the cars had boat trailers, or trailer hitches. Maybe they had roof top canoes/kayaks?
Several of the adults here don’t eat beef, so kabobs are a nice way for those that do eat beef, to still have some. The salad was based on a Hello Fresh meal "Lemon Chicken and Goat Cheese with Crisp Pear, Arugula and Citrus Vinaigrette but I wasn’t putting the potatoes in. The goat cheese had been sitting out so it was very soft and blended into the dressing, making it creamier. The meal had been for only 2, so I only had one pear and one little thing of goat cheese and grainy mustard, but it was good. I added slices of the tiny cucumbers we had left over from lunch, and combined lettuces from a couple meal kits (okay—I was sure I had declined last week’s delivery, but the box showed up on Wednesday so I had to figure out what to do with it all!). I think some dried cranberries would have added a really nice touch to the salad, but didn’t bring them. Megan was really skeptical of the salad because she “doesn’t like goat cheese” but she did try it, and thought it was really good. She probably wouldn’t have if the goat cheese was in crumbles like it was supposed to be.
For the potatoes, I was originally going to do twice baked potatoes, since we’d have the grill on, but the potatoes were too new and didn’t have skins. Then I thought I’d do my Christmas “Race Rock” potatoes but it seems I left the roasted garlic at home. Roasted potatoes are good, but we have to step things up a notch here. So I decided on “smashed” potatoes. However, I was worried about over cooking them, and when Lucy tried to smash them, it wasn’t working. They ended up being “rustic cut” roasted potatoes with garlic, bacon drippings, bacon, parmesan cheese. Very good. The kebobs were good too. They also came with vegetables on the skewers. We had originally planned to get the all meat ones, but at the last minute, Rob changed his mind. evening snack.
I had a dessert planned—grilled peaches with raspberry sauce, but I didn’t get the raspberries and didn’t feel like grilling the peaches and didn’t know if everyone would want dessert.
After dinner, everyone went out fishing while we cleaned up, then we joined them for a bit. Or, rather, Rob joined them while I made dessert. I boiled the peaches to skin them, let them cool for a bit, and used a brand new pairing knife Lou bought from a local kitchen shop because she didn’t like the knives here. I had used it earlier and noted it was very sharp. Well, oops, a peach slipped and in went the knife. Bloody, sore, and awkward, so I had to get Rob to finish slicing. I made custard (from custard powder, not from scratch LOL), and got out the blueberry sauce I had made at home. Lou suggested adding some of her granola cereal for crunch. Should have kept the extra toasted walnuts from the salad.
The fishing was surprisingly good. We think it’s very deep off the dock, and Megan reeled in a good size small mouth bass.
Then grandma came down and wanted to get in on the action. Next thing we knew, she hooked a fish even larger than Megan’s!!
While I was cleaning up from dessert, I managed to slice my other thumb on the same knife, as I put things in the silverware section of the dishwasher! Not as bad, but again, right at the cuticle of my thumb. This is why my thumb nails never grow right.
The kids and Pawel played Scattergories Jr; I was Megan’s assistant because of her language issues. Grandma came in and teamed up with Pawel. It was fun to play with new people. While setting up the game, I found some pages that had my Dad’s handwriting. He enjoyed playing the game with the kids, getting creative with answers. I’ve pulled the pages out because I was worried someone would throw them out, but I might paperclip them together and tuck them back in the box with a note.
It was a
lovely second day for us.
