A Few of My Favorite Things...

And here's a shot (finally!) of the one and only humpback whale of the four-hour tour, Salt. I guess they named him Salt because the markings on the underside of his tail look like the contents of an upside-down salt shaker - the typical naming rationale for most of the sighted whales... but I admit, I wasn't paying too much attention to the narration, and probably missed the important parts. We circled Salt for the entire whale-watching portion of the trip, and he didn't let us down. He turned out to be an impressive size, and a few times he opened his mouth like this and you could see him sifting food through his giant jaws.

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I leaned against the railing in the wind for a while trying to get this shot, as lightning was striking down against the horizon. It was cool to watch the thunderclouds literally roll in and create a thin bold border between the darkening sky and the ocean, which became dark and very flat with the weather.

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On the trip back, it got extremely windy on deck and we realized that the storm we'd seen far out on the water was actually getting closer. The crew told us to expect some rain and we started speeding back toward the shore - witnessing some impressive natural special effects along the way. This little girl's hair and the way she was so excited about the wind at the front of the boat cracked me up.

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The big event of the day was a whale watch out of Boston harbor. I haven't been on one of these in years, and was so excited to get out on the water again! Turns out we made it all the way into foreign waters... well Maine waters! We spent part of the trip making bad puns about whales, like "he's just out there blowing off some steam," "what a fluke sighting," and (the worst!) "do you think he's fin-ished yet?"

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Another birthday flew by the other day, but what a celebration it was. I'm going backwards with the pictures this time... this particular wave marked the end of the evening, but we watched some different kinds of waves earlier in the day.

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Clotted cream may make for clotted arteries, but there's nothing quite like it with tea! It comes served with very plain scones and strawberry jam, but the cream is definitely the star of this feature. Its rich, buttery texture melts against your tongue, tastes soft like whipped cream but also sweet like butter. It's probably my mother's favorite part of coming back to England as a tourist. By my second day, it was growing on me (literally) as well...

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Against this beautiful seaside backdrop, I was impressed to see these hardy kids playing in the English surf... chilly! I was interested by how, from a distance, their shapes made them appear like skinny little spiders scampering around in the glassy water.

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There's nothing quite like a draft beer in England! With varieties like Doom Bar, Rucking Mole, Butcombe, and London Pride (among others), every pint is an adventure.

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I had a dream I was back in England last night. So, as an homage to the U.K., here are a few shots of some of my favorite things (in England): country cottages, draft beer, seaside towns, and clotted cream. The country is filled with them!

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Being in Brooklyn, it seemed only natural to check out a local hangout for our last meal in the city. Our friends Amelia and Pete introduced us to a place called the Union Smith Cafe. Jason gave a lot of lead-up to the fact that I love to photograph food, so I think by the time the order arrived, Pete was expecting paparazzi for his entree. I didn't want to disappoint...

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Upon our Manhattan friends' recommendation, we tried a gourmet Italian pizza restaurant in the East Village called Pala on Allen Street. We amused ourselves by watching the expressions of a dog tied up outside the restaurant as we waited for our friends to arrive. Then we proceeded to spend a good two hours slowly devouring two pizzas, wine, a fava bean salad, calamari, esspressos, flourless chocolate cake, and tiramisu between the four of us. It was quite the epicurean adventure.

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Whenever I drive into New York, it feels enormous, industrial, chaotic, crowded, commercial, frantic, and incessant. But each time I visit, I also realize more and more the reality of this multitude of villages cobbled together: that it's logical, friendly, awake, and neighborly - despite its scale. A friend we'd never met personally was kind enough to let us stay at his place for the weekend. Believe it or not, this is the second time I've been loaned an apartment for the night in New York City. Never in any other city has this happened to me - particularly not with the hosts out of town. Another woman I met this weekend explained that if you move from borough to borough in this city, it's easy to feel that you are somehow betraying your local dry cleaner or grocer when you trade locations. People rely on their relationships here. There's something touching and alluring about that, even if it does take an hour to get from Brooklyn to Queens.

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A view from the party. I am savoring these summer nights. You can feel the rareness of them - like you're afraid to leave the balcony in case the next time you go out, it will be snowing or something! Granted, it's still only July, but one day I'd love to live in a place that allows you to enjoy the outside like this most days of the year. Boston just keeps you guessing.

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Here was the second part of my job. I thought we'd have too many green beans, but people love their legumes, apparently! We only just had enough!

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My job was to recreate this simple pesto and peas salad that my friend Joy had found in a Barefoot Contessa cookbook and to chop everything else...

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I went to a ladies-only birthday dinner this weekend, and one of my friends served as the master chef, planning not only the execution of this Cornish hen dish but also an entire menu soup to nuts - or, rather, cheese to carrot cake. The rest of the course included green beans with almonds and pancetta mashed bliss potatoes. When I first heard about any involvement of hens, I thought it was a reference to the "hen" attendance of the party and didn't realize it was to be the meal until these eight little guys were arranged in the oven. I'm impressed that all eight fit!

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One of the built-in benefits to working from home (other than skipping the AM commute) is getting to eat lunch for free (leftovers). Since I'm bad at getting to breakfast before noon, this was more like a late brunch - consisting of pinto beans, tapenade, tabouli, hummus, yogurt, and pita bread. Good thing I ate healthy for lunch...

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I dyed my hair this weekend and a friend suggested dedicating a blog post to the latest page in my book of disguises. It's only day three, so the color is still bright as ever - I love it! It makes me think how bored I'll be when it wears off again! What if coloring your hair is like slowly developing an addiction?

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This one didn't stand a chance. It split before it even felt the heat of the oven, but this actually helped to build a better golden crust. It may have been vegetarian, but I thought it was a promising first foray into hearty stuffed peppers.

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Tonight I thought I was on my own, so I figured I'd go vegetarian with some of the peppers wilting in our refrigerator crisper. Let me start by saying I have no idea how to make stuffed peppers. I've heard of them... I've seen them brightening hte pages of many a cookbook, but have I ever attempted to stuff a vegetable, let alone a pepper? Hardly. So I took out the Cuisinart and went to work blending together everything I had handy: sour cream, more chopped peppers, red onions, garlic, cream cheese, paprika, and basil. Then, I stuffed two hollowed peppers with Tabouli, breadcrumbs, and the Cuisinart mix. Jason got an early flight... good thing I made two!

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Okay, maybe I have Bob Barker on the mind, ever since I saw him bust up a late-night show desk on YouTube... But whether the spices are right or not, they certainly look better in these see-through, magnetic containers than they did stashed away in our kitchen cabinets! Since we've been doing so much home repair shopping, we picked up this little something fun for the kitchen. Now the real question is: will this motivate me to cook again?

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It's true! But this is one of the most exciting home renovation projects yet... and there have been a few. Pretty soon we're going to have a brand-new bar separating the living room and kitchen. Most impressively, Jason's doing it all himself in the heat of his least favorite season! I found myself getting all gooey when I discovered him sitting on the tile floor on Saturday morning taking apart the toilet and putting it back together again. I sense that this home repair stuff can get addictive. Thankfully, he wasn't just doing it for the practice, or I'd really be worried. 

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Grilling isn't only for meat enthusiasts! This summer, I've already exprimented several times with grilled vegetables, always obtaining a tasty result. The key - use loosely chopped veggies (not too small), keep them toward the center of the skewer and grill, and don't over-salt! The variety in color doesn't hurt either. I am absolutely in love with red and yellow peppers, but I think the grilled red onion is my favorite. Even cooler was the grill my dad rigged up over a fire pit in the back yard. The idea is to have a three-legged "tripod" suspension grill that you can raise and lower as necessary during the barbecuing process. Comes in handy for when you want to step away from the grill but still keep everything warm.

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My mouth has been watering ever since I set eyes on these skirt steaks that Jason's parents brought up from Connecticut the other day. We had them in a fridge waiting for the perfect opportunity to break out the grill and test out Bob's now famous recipe. Now, I'm not one to use "break out the grill" lightly. Never having had a grill when I was growing up, it seems quite a process to me, and I am always amazed at the frequency that people muster up the energy to cook outside in the summer. But it does lend a different taste to food, particularly those marinated meats. It was every bit as delicious as advertised - we've actually had this before in Connecticut - but I don't think I dare give away the recipe.

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