Our visit to my brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Trish, at their vacation home on Crystal Lake in Barton, Vermont was filled with great food, amazing wine and wonderful times to create lasting memories. We picked up our youngest son, Zach and his girlfriend, Agata, arriving from Germany, at the airport last week on Thursday and headed straight up north. Barton is a quiet village with a population of 720, near the Canadian border. This makes for a marked contrast to the hustle and bustle of our daily lives in NYC. We have been going up there for 34 years now and not much has changed. Crystal Lake is aptly named. It is very crystal clear.
Steve and Trish are the most amazing hosts. They planned every meal to perfection along with delicious pairings of wine. (you may remember that Steve has a wine and food pairing blog – www.wineandfoodpairings.net) We were joined by their friends, Dana and Richard. (They are the owners of the beautiful Bernese mountain dog, Otis.) Richard was celebrating a birthday last Saturday, and he brought some fantastic champagne, French Chardonnays plus a magnum of Tensley Syrah from CA and a 1977 port! Both Richard and Steve have full wine cellars. Richard said that since it was his birthday, he picked very special bottles he had been saving and felt like a kid in his own candy store. We got to be the lucky beneficiaries!
We arrived home this past Wednesday, relaxed, refreshed, and happy. We all ate and drank too much – but I’m not sorry. Here are some visual highlights so you can take a vicarious tour of our little vaca. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy drinking all the delicious wine.
We are a cooking family! Here’s Trish’s agile hands on the mandolin cutting raw zucchini into pasta-like strips to make Jenny Ross’s zucchini pasta with lemon pistachio pesto recipe from Jenny’s cookbook, Raw Basics. Jenny has the restaurant 118 Degrees in Costa Mesa, CA, where everything is served at 118 degrees or less. It was delicious!! Totally raw and totally healthy.
Here’s my brother, Steve completing his fresh tomatoes and basil side, with balsamic vinegar pearls or as he likes to call them, balsamic caviar. This is made with the Molecular Gastronomy Kit by Cuisine R-evolution. To make them you put a tall glass of vegetable oil in the freezer for 30 minutes. Combine agar-agar with balsamic and bring to boil. Fill a pipette (dropper) with this mixture and then slowly drip the liquid from the pipette into the cold oil. The pearls will form and then you use a sieve to remove pearls from the oil, rinse with water and serve. Pretty cool, eh?
Zach and Agata helping themselves to my brother’s famous grilled baby back ribs. What a beautiful meal with a gorgeous wine pairing!! The Williams Selyem vineyard is one of my brother’s favorites, and mine too!
Having just come back from spending the summer in Europe, Zach and Agata wanted to make some traditional food for us for lunch – borscht and pierogi.
Here’s Zach’s Ukrainian style borscht, which was delicious and oh so healthy with homemade chicken broth. (I liked it with a small dollop of sour cream.) They brought back a bottle of wine from Georgia to give to my brother. They said they knew that it was a little like bringing sand to the beach, but did you know that Georgia has some of the oldest wine producing regions on earth? I surely didn’t.
The pierogi ready to boil. Agata made 71 of them!! Aren’t they beautiful?
The finished pierogi with a bacon onion topping. Delish!!
The starting point of my 10 mile bike ride around neighboring Lake Willoughby.
Steve and Steve (my husband and brother) out for an afternoon cruise. You can see just how clear the water is.
Always a highlight of a Vermont visit is the weather permitting, early evening cocktail cruise. Here’s our appetizer tray for one evening – homemade kale chips, jalapeño hummus, vegetable dipping sticks and lightly salted cashews.
My husband enjoying the cruise. Notice the “S” on his hat – so he doesn’t forget his name is Steve! (Actually it’s from Summit, NJ baseball when our boys played.)
Now you’ll notice I have no mention of my meal made there, as my Provencial chicken got quite the blackened treatment from a fire on the grill. Although it still tasted good and seconds were had, it was not something to share in a photograph.
I hope you all have been able to fit in relaxing vacation time this summer as well. School is starting soon!
What a lovely vacation.
Jovina Coughlin recently posted…Italian Treasures – The Castles of Piacenza
It sure was, Jovina!! Hope you were able to fit some down time in too!
What a brilliant place…beautiful. The picture with the mandolin brought back memories. I had one those professional ones, like Trish’s, which I eventually swapped, with a food stylist, for a compendium of M.F.K.Fisher books! I now have a much smaller,but brilliantly efficient, Japanese one.:)
Roger Stowell recently posted…It’s all Greek….
🙂 I know just what you mean, Roger. I have a small hand-held Japanese one that I use all the time. Those peelers that make these strips are also good. She had left hers at their main CT house.
Your collection of M.F.K. Fisher books sounds wonderful!!
Beautiful Mary Frances, I just love New England and i love that gorgeous lake, What a wonderful time you had with family, the food looks amazing.
apuginthekitchen recently posted…The Challenge: A Cookout Crate for Man Crates!
It was just so very nice, Suzanne!
I’m glad you had such a great visit, the week’s weather was glorious! And the food (and drink!) looks scrumptious!
Totally!! Thanks Chris!
Mary: We loved having you and your family in Vermont. Great cooks and wine lovers make the greatest guests!!!
Ringo recently posted…Salmon with Spiced Onions & Currants
Well we’re more than happy to oblige at ANY time!! Thanks for having us all!!
When our children were young, we asked that they come to the dinner table each night with a topic. We were trying to teach them the art of conversation.
Last night, Sunday supper of Ginger Peach Scallops and Herb Rice, HAPPILY, YOUR blog post was our topic!
We live in Washington state. My husband is from Quebec. That is where the evening began.
We talked about his swimming lessons at Lake Willoughby. We talked about his Aunt Daisy who lived in NYC and had a cottage on Crystal Lake. He loved to visit her.
Then we talked about his niece, a teacher, starting the first day of the year, today. She teaches fourth grade at the Catholic school in Barton.
Thank you so much for joining us last night. You made Sunday night supper at our home, joyful, full of really great memories and so enjoyable.
You have an amazing way of bathing your readers in Grace and Goodness.
Thanks for sharing your vacation. We enjoyed every moment.
Bruce & Daleen
Daleen recently posted…good morning, boys
Daleen – this is incredible!!! Thank you so much for sharing! You might remember a small, real log cabin with a covered porch that spanned the front, somewhat hidden in the trees? That was Trish’s grandfather’s cabin and my brother built a large log house on the property next door, where a girls camp used to be. Such a small world!! Such a magical place!!
After reading this and looking at those ribs I suddenly felt hungry.
And what a really nice vacation you have
Raymund recently posted…Sour Cream and Chives Twice Baked Potatoes
Raymund, do you get my newsletter? I published my rib recipe in the June issue. If not, let me know and I will forward it to you!
Midge – what a beautiful part of the country! Looks like you had a fabulous time and so happy Zach and Agata arrived just in time to join you. That lake is gorgeous!! Hope all is well. Miss you.. xoxo
Thanks Joannie!! Miss you too! xx
oh! what an incredible vacation time you had! I adore all your photos 🙂
marcela recently posted…Mięsne kulki z nasionami chia
Thanks Marcela!! We had a lovely time!
a population of 720? OMG. But what a great trip and fabulous food…and drinks.
Evelyne@cheapethniceatz recently posted…Layered Jello Yogurt Cake
Yes, it’s hard to believe but it’s true – a tiny, tiny town!
It’s really important to eat and drink too much with good friends sometimes, isn’t it? Sounds like a lovely time. Thoroughly enjoyable read — thanks so much.
John@Kitchen Riffs recently posted…Blueberry Flaugnarde (Flan)
Thanks John!! So glad you enjoyed it!
Wow, what a beautiful area! And what a feast! Those ribs look extraordinary!!! Such a nice way to end the summer.
PS I was a failure at my first attempt to make balsamic pearls. Since I have the agar agar, you’ve inspired me to try again 🙂
Oh Liz – I do hope you try the balsamic pearls again – they were great!!
What a beautiful time to enjoy yourself in Vermont – thanks for taking us along 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Choc Chip Uru recently posted…My Hatred of Stats
Ohhh – so glad you enjoyed it – nothing makes me happier!!
What a dreamy post! It was fun to read it. You had a nice vacation. School started here last week and I am already really looking forward to Holidays!
Ansh recently posted…Grilled Rosemary Potatoes with Peruvian Sweety Drop Pepper Aioli
Thanks Ansh!! So glad you enjoyed it!
I* love Ukrainian borscht. Friends of ours made it for us when we visited there years ago. They called the pierogi, varenyky. Essentially the same thing.
You and your briother are very much alike in the food department!
What a beautiful spot for a vacation.
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef recently posted…Sous Vide Cheeseburgers
We are all very much alike in the food department – thanks to my mom!!
How lovely. It looks like the perfect destination if you want to unwind. The scenery is gorgeous and the lake certainly has been well-named. You sure did enjoy beautiful food and I wouldn’t have minded seeing your blackened chicken – that’s what holidays are for; relaxing and not worrying about what’s happening on the grill! Glad you had a wonderful break xx
No – my chicken was not fit for your eyes – but it did taste good! My husband used the excuse that my brother’s grill was too powerful and he wasn’t used to it!