Our visits to Estes Park, Colorado are filled with hiking, cooking, lively conversations, looking for wildlife and visiting the fun park (A running tradition for the last night of the trip, which is always followed by ice cream!). But to us, a vacation isn’t complete without a visit to a local winery, and we found the perfect spot in town. Continue reading
By now we’ve left the mountains of Colorado and are making our way back to the Finger Lakes region of New York for the Wine Bloggers Conference courtesy of Finger Lakes Wine Country. For how this adventure came about, click here. You may remember from that first post, that we had the opportunity to pick cherries at Sawmill Creek Vineyards. Continue reading
Just a brief post to say we’ve all recovered and we’re bound once again for one of our favorite destinations! Finger Lakes New York here we come! Hopefully Hobbs will keep himself out of trouble while we’re away! What do you think?
If all goes as planned, we’re hoping to bring back some fresh cherries, wine and a lifetime of memories. We then hope to have a delicious cherry recipe to share too. We’ve been dabbling in the kitchen, but haven’t given it our official spoon ratings yet. It does appear to be blog-worthy though as Mr. N did declare, “You should make this more often. It’s delicious!” Perhaps I found a non-dessert 4 spooner?
So, until next time…we’re on the road again – laughing, smiling, singing, planning, scheming and probably breaking up a few sibling squabbles along the way (“He’s touching me.” “She started it!”). Frankly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
We just returned from our second summer at the Michigan country house. It was another magical stay with the kids. There’s no other way to describe it. Peaceful, serene, beautiful, fun and lazy are all words that come to mind. We cooked, played baseball in the fields, played a game of monopoly (and finished it!), read books cover-to-cover, roasted marshmallows and did jigsaw puzzles. We even found time for a fun park, the beach, wineries and picking fruit. I swear the hours are longer in the country.
As we know all to well though, all good things must come to an end. School starts in a week and we’ll be back to our regular routines. It’s always bittersweet. We’ll miss our extended days with the kids, but there is something to be said for the routine of school. So while we wind down our long summer days, here’s a look at what was on our menu in the country.
After picking a bushel of fresh peaches, we went through the archives to find our favorite recipes. 
First on the list was the Peach Rosemary Lemonade.
Print the recipe here: Rosemary Peach Lemonade
Then there was the very delicious (and highly recommended) Bourbon Steak Quesadillas with Peach Salsa. Best meal of the trip!
Print the recipe here: Bourbon Steak Quesadillas
And there was no way the kids would let fresh peaches escape the Peach Bread Pudding.
Print the recipe here: Peach Bread Pudding
Oh and there was a crisp. This time it was peaches, blueberries and red currants.
The one pictured above didn’t have a recipe as it was just thrown together, but here are a few other options with recipes:
The Peach Blueberry Crisp
Print the recipe here: Peach-Blueberry Crisp
The Peach Cobbler
Print the recipe here: Georgia Peach Cobbler
Finally here are a few more peach recipes we didn’t get around to this year, but we haven’t forgotten about them yet.
Peach Salsa
Print the recipe here: Peach Salsa
Peach Fig French Toast
Print the recipe here: Peach & Fig French Toast
Peach and Ricotta Pancakes
Print the recipe here: Peach and Ricotta Pancakes
Peach Teriyaki Buffalo Steaks
Print the recipe here: Peach Teriyaki Buffalo Steaks
South Dakota Peach Kuchen
Print the recipe here: South Dakota Peach Kuchen
I’m hungry just thinking about these again. We hope you enjoyed the peachy round-up. Now, I’m off to go whip up one last peach recipe with the few peaches that made it home with us. Nothing like ending the weekend with memories of a vacation!
We’ll be back after school starts. Until then, here’s a little slide show of our country vacation 2014. Cheers!
Well, tonight is the big night for Mr. N. Opening Night. He’s been rehearsing non-stop (with the exception of school) for nearly a week. They are ready. He is ready. I am a bundle of nerves and excitement!
So since we haven’t had the opportunity to be in the kitchen in the past month, I thought today I would share some of our pictures from our recent adventure to the City of Lights, our first stop on our spring break vacation. It seems like only yesterday. The pictures still bring back the wonderful moments and memories of our trip. I can feel the emotions all over again. I hope that never goes away. It was a trip to remember – for each of us. 
The kids did a fabulous job on the overnight flight. They managed to catch about four hours of sleep on the plane, an hour in the taxi and then stayed bright and happy for a 15-hour day of sight-seeing and walking about. Since our flight arrived early in the morning and our apartment wasn’t available until the afternoon, to help with our time change adjustment, we planned a day outdoors and moving. We must have walked four or five miles that day. (Of course, drinking cafe au lait and snacking along the way!) 
Since this was Mike and the kids’ first trip to Paris, we planned to see a lot of the renowned tourist spots – the Louvre, the Eiffel, a canal tour (as recommended by Charles), Sacré-Coeur, the Champs-Élysées, Notre Dame, a bus tour of the Paris lights at night (which we all slept through as it was at the end of a long first day) and the Arc de Triomphe. As you can well imagine, I took more than one or two photos. So to simplify this post a bit, here’s a slideshow of our sight-seeing adventures.
We also managed to still have a lot of time for relaxation, dining and playing. I’ll share those pics in our next post along with a recipe for the kids’ favorite food from Paris. Can you guess?
As for highlights from this beautiful city, well, for Miss A it was the sidewalk games along the Seine as well as parks and gardens. I have to say, she was quite taken with this city, even exclaiming at one point, “I am made for Paris!” At the end of the trip she also noted, “I would go to Paris eight more times. I like it A LOT!” (Not nine more times…just eight.)
Mr. N loved Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel and the gardens as well. My ever-cautious boy, he was a bit concerned by all the scam artists, particularly after witnessing one woman who was aggressively grabbed by the folks that tie a bracelet to your arm. She was definitely scared and in a bit of a panic, which really concerned Mr. N. Mike too, as my ever-gallant husband, actually went to her rescue. Scammers aside (which we explained to Mr. N aren’t limited to Paris and tend to target tourist-heavy areas and how it’s nothing to worry about…just use common sense), Mr. N did enjoy Paris immensely and says he’d go back for sure.
Mike and I, well, how do you choose a highlight in Paris?! The gardens, cafes, the blooming trees (especially since we left snow!) and just about everything that makes Paris one of (if not the) greatest cities in the world, it’s impossible to choose. While we only had three full days in this beautiful city, we have no regrets. We did and saw everything we had hoped and had a glorious time doing it. We are so grateful for having had this opportunity and we won’t soon forget it. 
Eat, Play, Love 