A Summer Re-cap (now that it's finally fall)

Well, I sure wasn't very successful in keeping up with blogging during the summer. I don't really have any excuses except that we were not eating anywhere but at Folk Fest for about a month and a half. At first the plan was to blog about the meals on site, but once arriving home at the end of the day it was just too much to re-think the day that had just past.

Anyhow, I'm back in school and ready to get back into things again...

The only pictures I have of site food is of the Christmas in July feast. Turkey with all the fixings is served (along with something fun for the veggies... ie. nut loaf). It also marks the completion of the Festival Kitchen, used to serve the volunteers over the weekend.

The food line-up in the newly completed kitchen

The Tree, courtesy of Terry (this is the top of a tree in his backyard that broke off during the July 25th wind storm)

After July, everything became a blur, but below is the first meal we ate at home since mid July, and I had to get a picture to remember it by. We even celebrated the warmth of the end of August by eating outdoors and using our not-quite-broken-in bbq.

An end of August meal of steak, string beans and grilled eggplant, along with the Adam's Apple wine from en Santé Winery

The hi-light of the summer was our end of August vacation to Prince Edward County in Ontario. We stayed in the lovely Eckhart House (thanks to Peggy, Zed's sister in-law, for organizing!), that was complete with a giant kitchen and a garden in the back full of fresh onions, garlic, herbs and other delights.

The area was full of fresh produce, wineries and cheese.

Blueberries, pears and peaches on pancakes made fresh by Paul (on the left)

A touristy shot of Cecile, Peggy, Zed, Zoe and I outside at Casa-Dea

The cheese cave at Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co.

After a fun day at the beach, we ate our final dinner at the Bloomfield Carriage House. It was excellent - they gave us an eight seat table in the loft upstairs and of course all the food was lovely too. I had a Venison chop with gnocchi as well as duck confit and risotto, while Zed went for potato and leek soup and a Bison steak. The kitchen even offered to make something special for Zoe (Zed's neice) - she is pictured below eating a custom creation of penne with a parmesan cream sauce.

I think that is about it. My most recent adventure in the kitchen was this lemon tart that I made the other day. I used Anne Burrell's crust recipe, but then a lemon curd out of the Bouchon cook book that was posted on Epicurious (you can find the curd recipe here). It tasted alright, but I think I need a bit more practice with that crust.

I'm hoping to discover more pastry secrets at a class I'm taking at Nait in November - Cakes, Pastries, and Plated Desserts. Zed opted for a class that will teach Pasta Making Fundamentals... I'm looking forward to the carb feast at the end of our classes.

We are off to the Great Potato Give Away tomorrow with some friends. I'm hoping to break out the camera for lots of pictures... but we'll see how it goes.