Progression
{Goodbye Cincy}
{Hello New York}
{Obligatory new home shot…don’t mind the pajamas…we rolled out of bed, ate a bagel, took this picture, waved goodbye to dad, and went right back inside and right back to sleep}
Summer Sights
The last of the vacation pics from my parents visit to the Roc City!
Love everything about summer!!
Fallin’ with the Folks: High Falls Rochester
After Niagara Falls and the Letchworth Falls, our final falls of the trip were close to home…High Falls in downtown Rochester! It isn’t too often you see a waterfall of this nature in the middle of a city!
Not too shabby, right?
And this concludes our falls trilogy…more fun free time pics from parents’ visits and Ted’s first week in Rochester to come!
Fallin’ with the Folks: Letchworth
After Niagara Falls we trekked about an hour south of Rochester to Letchworth State Park (known as the “Grand Canyon of the East”) to check out this awesome park, the gorge, and the beautiful Lower Falls, Middle Falls, and Upper Falls.
{Lower Falls}
{Middle Falls}
{Upper Falls}
Letchworth is a hot spot for hot air ballooning and offers a stunning view of the colored leaves in fall…both of which are on our bucket list. Needless to say, we’ll be back.
Up next: Rochester’s High Falls!
Fallin’ with the Folks: Niagara
Who knew the upstate NY region had so many amazing waterfalls? With my parents in town for a visit, we decided to check out just a few of them.
First up: The famous Niagara Falls (from the Canadian side!)
Check out those double rainbows…and all that power! Whew!
Phenomenal, right?
Our world is quite the amazing place!
Pieces of Cincy & Wonderful Surprises
As a going-away present to remember our wonderful 2+ years in Cincy by, a sweet friend of Ted’s from CCM sent Ted to Rochester with a goody bag full with housewarming items for us – all of which were made in Cincinnati by Cincinnati companies! After 9 months of living in Rochester, It was so nice to unwrap each item and be reminded of our time in a city I truly loved.
Our Cincy items gift bag included Puffs tissues, wine from Valley Vineyards (an awesome winery and grill-your-own-steak place in the country just outside the city), Dawn dish soap, Schiavone’s marinara sauce, Kroger Private Selections stone ground mustard, Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce, and La Rosas pizza sauce and Italian dressing. Practical, thoughtful, and amazing! Thanks Patti & Todd!
When Ted and his dad arrived in Rochester with the truck and trailer loaded with the last of our belongings on Monday evening, they had one more Cincinnati surprise as well. 10 whole pints of Cincinnati’s own amazing Graeter’s ice cream (stashed in coolers with dry ice to survive the 9.5 hour drive)!!!
I opened the freezer and screamed.
We are so loved! Cincinnati, we can’t wait to come visit you!
Chapter 2
As of Monday evening, after 11 long months of living apart, Ted is finally home with me in Rochester to stay, and we are now residents of New York state!
I made pie to celebrate and Ted brought the ice cream (more on that later)
Happy Chapter 2 to us! We are so thrilled!
*****
More shameless schmoozy lovin’ below…
Best Food Day Ever: WIN
Inspired by the amazing looking and smelling shaved asparagus pizza my friend Becca was eating for lunch on Friday at work (made with the asparagus from the CSA share we’re splitting), I literally could not help myself and decided to make the same recipe this past weekend.
Mind-blowing doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Thanks for the inspiration and recipe-sharing, Becca!
I used this homemade olive oil pizza dough recipe, and adapted this shaved asparagus pizza recipe. I stuck to the pizza recipe almost exactly except that I used liberal amounts of fresh mozzarella and fresh shaved Parmesan (because “there’s too much cheese on this pizza” has never been uttered from my mouth) and, because I have a mad love affair with Boursin (a soft garlic and herb cheese), I added hunks of Boursin to the pizza as well. I also substituted the scallions for fresh chopped garlic. It was incredible. Easily the best pizza I have ever made. I have extra dough leftover in my freezer and extra cheese and asparagus so I will be making it again very, very soon. Even if you think you won’t like this pizza, you should try it anyway. I think you’ll be just as impressed as I was.
And because I was on a roll (and because a bolt of lightening/crash of thunder struck so close to the house that I literally lost my mind with terror and decided that if I was going to out with the lightening, I was at least going to die with a belly full of awesomeness), I baked these whole peach individual pies, and took it a step further by topping it with a scoop of fresh vanilla bean ice cream.
Best food day ever: I win.
And now you know the secrets of food greatness, so you can win too…lucky you :)
A Foodie’s Favorite Topic
Ready to drool?
‘Cause the past two weeks have pretty much been filled with some intense deliciousness…and I’m sharing it all here.
And it’s been excellent.
{The first day my parents were in town I took them for an evening picnic among the lilac trees in Highland Park. We picnic’d on jalapeno poppers, cheese bread with balsamic dipping oil, shrimp cocktail, salami, fresh mozzarella balls, olives, and my homemade mini Le Cordon Bleu fruit tarts….followed by a long, leisurely walk among the flowers to work it all off. A totally perfect night with perfect company!}
{Super tasty overstuffed NY style deli subs at Harry G’s}
{My French dip sammy au jus with garlic butter and spicy shoestring fries did not disappoint!}
{Shared salted caramel and espresso ice cream at Hedonist Artisan Ice Cream}
{Bunches of farm-fresh rhubarb from Rochester’s outdoor public market! All of this amazing rhubarb for only $5. Be still my heart!}
{Nachos from Blue Cactus in Fairport}
{And afternoon snack tacos!}
{Lemongrass ginger and Irish cream ice cream from Moonlight Creamery}
{The best BBQ chicken I’ve ever had, and incredible cheddar chorizo grits and ratatouille from Sticky Lips BBQ}
{Flavorful Italian cuisine from Bazil on Irondequoit Bay}
{Food Truck Rodeo: Brick-N-Motor’s fab menu}
{Food Truck Rodeo: Pickled watermelon and duck tacos!}
{Food Truck Rodeo: Macarollin’s fare}
{Food Truck Rodeo: The Classic}
{The macaroni of my dreams!}
{Chocolate covered turtle cheesecake on a stick!}
{Week # 2’s bounty of our Community Supported Agriculture share from Peacework Organic Farm: Mizuna, thyme, rhubarb, asparagus, leeks, komatsuna, bok choy, vivid choy, and lettuce. Week # 1 included asparagus, leeks, lettuce, bok choy, carrots, garlic scallions, and oregano.}
{Ugly-looking but crazy tasty Asian noodle dish I made with the bok choy, leeks, and carrots from our CSA share, along with chicken, buckwheat soba noodles, toasted sesame oil, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sherry, salt and pepper}
{My homemade strawberry rhubarb pies!}
I am pleasantly shocked my pants still fit, though I don’t suppose I should push my luck.
And that’s not even all of it!
Food fans, you definitely don’t want to miss tomorrow’s post!
;)
An Open Letter
Hello loyal readership,
Again, I find myself excusing my blog absence lately. And, again, I find myself thanking you for your gracious patience despite the serious lack of posts around here. I do, actually, intend to get back to my regular schedule of blogging (for real this time) next week. Summers are so wonderfully fun and busy yet lazy and relaxing in all the best ways, are they not?
In addition to this lengthy, spread-out, three-week official move from Cincy to the Roc City and subsequent month-long unpacking and organizing spree, my awesome parents and Ted came to town for a visit over the past six days, so justifiably, my time was much better spent hanging out with these fabulous people, eating a lot of stellar food, and touring beautiful upstate NY rather than stuck inside with my face planted in my laptop. That, I do not apologize for.
I’ll have a full recap of all the great places we explored coming your way soon, but for now…a sneak peak of our afternoon on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls this weekend – gorgeous! You can even glimpse a bit of a double rainbow (upper rainbow very faint, lower rainbow a little brighter) in the bottom left corner. More to come!!
Can you believe it’s almost JUNE!? Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We sure did! Thanks mom & dad! :)