Yearly Archives: 2015

Things have been slightly less adventurous, but still pretty darn busy, on the home front since my parents visited nearly two weeks ago. Summer is always busy, isn’t it? We have these very chill, lullaby images in our heads of lazy summer days spent running through sprinklers and reading books in hammocks and churning homemade ice cream and embarking on bike trips or hikes with our buddies between visits to the zoo and planetarium, in all our copious spare time. And there is a certain amount of that. But summers as an adult are definitely a different ball game than the summers of my childhood. Anyway, here’s a few small highlights of what the last part of May and early part of June have brought:

{Many beautiful several mile canal-side and lake-side runs with my bi-weekly running buddy and her pup. Sometimes we stop for creamy, dreamy Pittsford Farm Dairy lemon chiffon custard after a run. You know, to refuel…}

{Martini is “so big!”}

{Much to my delight, my funny co-workers have started making use of my Shakespearean word magnets on our temporary office door…theatre renovations are gearing up to start soon…eek! It’s going to be a wild few months while the theatre is under construction, with hopefully stunning, world-class results!}

{A pair of stupid-soft and perfectly fitting overalls arrived in my mailbox from my sister. They’re so awesome I can hardly stand it! I’m bringing overalls back this summer, y’all…}

{Delicious, relaxing breakfast at Harvest Cafe on a Saturday morning before a busy day ahead!}

{This little piggy may have gone a bit overboard at the public market. I can’t help it that NY has such fantastic, fresh, local produce that demands to be eaten! A lot of awesome rhubarb recipes, tasty breaded asparagus fries, and a killer ratatouille were in my future when this photo was taken…I just didn’t know it yet!}

{I have a real obsession with rhubarb…don’t send help}

{My first rhubarb creation of the season: a classic rhubarb crisp flavored with fresh vanilla bean and zested orange peel. It’s everything I hoped for and more! On future rhubarb menus are a rhubarb-gin sorbet I’ve been lusting after for weeks now (need an ice cream maker ASAP! Please send help!), lots of neat rhubarb drinks, and a bunch of adventurous rhubarb desserts!}

{One of my first and best friends in Rochester, Kristen, moved to Vegas last summer and I’ve been missing her terribly these past nine months. Our sushi date was wonderful and I love that we can always pick right back up where we left off. We really “get” each other – through thick and thin. Our monthly hour-long phone dates help, but there’s nothing as sweet as having her back in town for a visit!}

 I’m looking forward to seeing what else summer has in store!

My parents came to town for a week over Memorial Day weekend and, I have to say, it was the best. The week they were here was simply wonderful! We drank a bottle of wine, ate custard or grape pie (it’s a Finger Lakes thing), and played cards every single night. We ate Greek, Italian, German, American, and more at a bunch of fantastic local restaurants, took a long and lazy stroll through Highland Park, made lots of guacamole, did Friday night Bingo (I can hear you laughing from 600 miles away…it’s a big thing up here!), went to the market for rhubarb and fresh-cut lilacs, visited many ice cream parlors and apple markets, had a family movie night, saw a play at the theatre, spent a day on the Keuka Lake wine trail, and cruised the scenic Erie Canal on a charter boat with margaritas in hand. Clearly, I want them to come back immediately.

In case you missed it, click here for Part I and here for Part II.

Below are our photos from the 3-hour Colonial Belle scenic cruise of the Erie Canal that’s part history lesson (very interesting canal history and you get to go through a lock and back to see firsthand how that works) and part relaxing river cruise (cue the mellow music and strawberry-peach margaritas!). I’ve been on this particular cruise twice now and have loved it both times. It totally helps if you go on a beautiful spring day before it’s too hot out. That day we also enjoyed our fresh-cut lilacs from the market, made a tasty dinner of wine, cheese, crackers, guacamole, olives, and salami, chopped some rhubarb, and did our usual post-dinner bottle of wine, plate of grape pie, and round of cards. It was a perfect day!

Thanks for coming Mom and Dad! I loved having you and you are welcome anytime! Come back soon! And everyone else: you’re long overdue for a visit! ;)

My parents came to town for a week over Memorial Day weekend and, I have to say, it was the best. The week they were here was simply wonderful! We drank a bottle of wine, ate custard or grape pie (it’s a Finger Lakes thing), and played cards every single night. We ate Greek, Italian, German, American, and more at a bunch of fantastic local restaurants, took a long and lazy stroll through Highland Park, made lots of guacamole, did Friday night Bingo (I can hear you laughing from 600 miles away…it’s a big thing up here!), went to the market for rhubarb and fresh-cut lilacs, visited many ice cream parlors and apple markets, had a family movie night, saw a play at the theatre, spent a day on the Keuka Lake wine trail, and cruised the scenic Erie Canal on a charter boat with margaritas in hand. Clearly, I want them to come back immediately.

If you missed Part I, you can view it here.

Below is our morning at the Rochester Public Market where we ogled all the tasty, fresh, local upstate NY produce and came home with a beautifully fragrant bunch of just-cut lilacs (which only last a day or two after cutting, unfortunately) and about 12 bundles of freshly picked rhubarb (my culinary obsession, if you didn’t know) from my resident rhubarb guy. Mom took a bunch of it back home to Texas since limp rhubarb runs about $8 lb. there. When in NY, you stock up on excellent rhubarb for cheap!

Afterward, we piled in the car for our day trip to the stunning Keuka Lake Wine Trail. The trip down was nothing short of divine! Really, the views around Keuka Lake are absolutely splendid and the weather that day was mild, breezy, sunny, and generally unbeatable! The wineries are up in the hills surrounding the lake and, in addition to a wide array of truly fantastic wines, the wineries around this particular lake have the most incredible views from their tasting rooms. We visited 4 out of the dozens of wineries (Dr. Konstantin Frank, Keuka Spring Vineyards, Keuka Lake Vineyard, and Rooster Hill Vineyards), tasted somewhere between 24 and 36 wines each, had lunch at Bully Hill Vineyard’s restaurant that boasts a killer view of the lake and equally killer food (the best Texas brisket sandwich I’ve has outside of Texas, ever!), did a wine and gourmet chocolate tasting at Keuka Lake Vineyard (highly recommended!), and collectively took home about 15 bottles of wine that day alone. There are many more wineries around this lake we wanted to try…but that just means we’ll have to return for round 2 this summer…and my parents will just have to come back for another visit!

{I don’t remember what size bottle this is, but it’s about 4x the size of a standard wine bottle…and I think I need it}

{It may not look like much, but it was remarkably delicious. A tender, flavorful brisket is an art!}

{This tasting room view at Keuka Spring is so fabulous I can hardly stand it!}

{I hope you noticed the cat I captured strolling right through this field of cows. I took this picture from the passenger seat of our car going 60 mph. I wanted a picture of the sweet cows grazing in the field and was later surprised to see this picture had been photobombed by a cat! Love it!}

{9 of the 15 bottles of wine my parents bought. They took home 10 of them in their 2 carry-on sized suitcases and managed to make sure both bags weighed in under 46 lbs each and none of the bottles broke on the flight home. That’s true skill! We drank the other 5 bottles. They were delicious}

More to come tomorrow; stay tuned!

My parents came to town for a week over Memorial Day weekend and, I have to say, it was the best. Of course, I’ve always loved and enjoyed spending time with my family (maybe just a little less so during my teenage years? heh), but I think you just reach a certain age where you remember how cool your parents really are and you wish they didn’t live clear across the country so you could spend time with them more often.

Anyway, the week they were here was simply wonderful! We drank a bottle of wine, ate custard or grape pie (it’s a Finger Lakes thing), and played cards every single night. We ate Greek, Italian, German, American, and more at a bunch of fantastic local restaurants, took a long and lazy stroll through Highland Park, made lots of guacamole, did Friday night Bingo (I can hear you laughing from 600 miles away…it’s a big thing up here!), went to the market for rhubarb and fresh-cut lilacs, visited many ice cream parlors and apple markets, had a family movie night, saw a play at the theatre, spent a day on the Keuka Lake wine trail, and cruised the scenic Erie Canal on a charter boat with margaritas in hand. Clearly, I want them to come back immediately.

Today’s post highlights some of these adventures. The wine trail is another post for another day, but you gotta start somewhere! And there’s no better place to start than with insanely delicious and authentic Swan German (which, I’m sure, took mom and dad right back to their years living in Germany) and some good old majestic Flower City blooms and Blue Angels flyovers at Highland Park.

 Part II: The glorious day in which we drink wine around a lake all day, coming soon!

You know what’s great after a really long and bitterly cold winter? This. Spring! I was never big on spring growing up in Texas because, aside from the awesome emergence of bluebonnets and other wildflowers painting the sides of every road and highway, it was very cold in the morning but sweaty hot by mid-afternoon and those great 60 and 70 degree temps just seemed to get skipped right over. At least that’s what I remember. But upstate New York! Now there’s a real spring! Upper 60s, sunny and breezy for days on end and the most vivid blooms in the lilac and magnolia scented air. And Highland Park in Rochester is nothing short of phenomenal in May.

My running buddy, her coonhound, and I often run different parks throughout Rochester a few times a week, but a few weeks ago we hit up Highland Park for one of our runs just after the Lilac Festival closed. Highland is really hilly, so I wouldn’t say we “ran” so much as we tried desperately to run up 4 miles of very steep inclines and keep up with the vivacious pup, who dragged us the whole darn way, but I think these stunning colors, smells, and views alone were worth all the panting and burning thighs.