blue_dolphin

Up at 4:15 AM to see my brother head off to the airport. I'll be doing the same later this afternoon. Since I was up, I started the day with a walk to take advantage of the pre-dawn coolness (76°F/heat index 83) after yesterday's high of 95°F/heat index 109. Today is forecast to be hotter. Here's a pre-sunrise view of the lake from the neighborhood beach, just down the street. Folks who don't live directly on the lake can moor their boats here. By the time I was back at the house, the sun was up and ready to sizzle! Did I mention there is no AC is this old house? Breakfast on the porch: Fresh fruit, iced coffee and an doughnut from Rulf's Orchard, just down the road. They used to sell them along with fresh pressed cider just during apple season but they now have a year-round bakery and café. Best doughnuts ever and the only ones I'll eat!

Last night, I enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Anthony's Restaurant in Plattsburgh, NY. I had sautéed scallops and roasted vegetable ratatouille with roasted garlic aioli served over linguini. I posted more over here in the Upstate NY Dining thread. My third dinner at this restaurant this week and all have been excellent.

Last night, I went to Anthony's Restaurant in Plattsburgh, NY for the 3rd time this week. Excellent food, wine and service each time. Both of us started with a seared foie gras appetizer special. Apologies for the poor photos, they really don't do the food justice. The foie gras was served on toast with mango chutney, pea shoots and a roasted plum. The pea shoots and flower garnish are from their on-site garden. I followed that with the Sauteed Sea Scallops & Roasted Vegetable Ratatouille It was served with linguine & roasted garlic aioli. My brother had the Sautéed Shrimp & Sea Scallop Risotto With dinner, we shared a bottle of Soter “North Valley” 2014 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir For dessert, we shared a scoop of the house made ice cream I think it was called roasted coconut crunch or something like that. Delicious. On my previous visits this week, I had the house salad that was packed with fresh and lightly pickled vegetables from the restaurant's garden, a fabulous soft-shelled crab with sauce Provançal, the Duck Confit Spring Roll appetizer and the Grilled Salmon with Warm Lobster Salsa. All were excellent. The wine list is good, head and shoulders above any other restaurant in this area with plenty of food-friendly selections that are fairly priced. When we were there on Saturday night, there was a party of 50 in one of the dining rooms and the rest of the place was packed as well with lots of tourists due to the Canada Day holiday but there was no negative impact on the food or service. I may be biased as long time chef-owner, Scott Murray grew up just a few doors down the street from my family but I've eaten here many times and have never found anything I could complain about. If anyone happens to be traveling through or near Plattsburgh, NY, I highly recommend Anthony's.

Had a michigan and potato chips for lunch A michigan is a hot dog with a squiggle of mustard, topped with a mildly spicy meat sauce. Can be ordered "wit," "wit buried" or "witout," all referring to the addition or absence of raw, chopped onion. My michigan above is wit buried. Procured from Clare & Carl's I took the photo above yesterday AM, before they opened for lunch. The parking lot is usually filled with cars while they're open. They have car-hop service but my brother picked up ours to-go. I had one, he ate three.

Thank you for taking us along and safe travels home!

Today started with this sunrise, photographed at 5:13 AM: Temp was a pleasant 74°F. The sunrise was followed by this plate eaten on the porch with a view of the above lake. Toasted sourdough baguette, McCadam's Adirondack wicked sharp cheddar, apple salsa - purchased from a local orchard, raw veg and black coffee. It's presently 90°F and forecast to be hotter tomorrow so iced coffee may be in order!

Today's sunrise was much improved over yesterday. Imagine the sound of loons calling over the water.... I went up on the bluff for a different vantage point. Crab Island is in the middle. The mist is obscuring our view of the Green Mountains on the other side of the lake. That performance was followed by a soft boiled egg, pepper jack cheese & mustard on warm bread.

As I do when I'm up here in northern NY, I ventured out to take a scenic sunrise photo to share with you, along with my breakfast. Here is the view over Lake Champlain at sunrise (5:10 AM) today. Apparently I didn't bother to focus but I don't think it would have made much of a difference. 61°F, rain and gusty winds. Back inside, I made a pot of coffee and nibbled on a slice of espresso walnut loaf cake (recipe here) that I'd stashed in my bag as emergency provisions

That dinner sounds amazing! I saw Joe Batt's Arm on the map and was wondering if it would be on your route. Love the name of the place, and the restaurant, too!

Thank you both for the kind thoughts. It's not super fun trip but it's all OK. I was blessed to have both of my parents for many years and enough time has passed that it's gotten easier to focus on the happy memories. Both of my brothers are coming for a couple of days so we'll make some decisions about how to sort things out. It will be good to see them and there will be a little time to catch up with a few old friends, too.

Mine was pretty gunked up and I cleaned it up a week or 2 ago. I kinda followed this How To Clean a Oven with Baking Soda method except that I skipped the vinegar. I ran a steam cycle @ 210 °F for 30 min, then applied the paste of baking soda and water and let it sit overnight. The next day, just kept cleaning with a wet sponge and plastic scrub brush until I got it as clean as I could. I used a razor blade to get everything off the glass on the door. Then I ran 2 more steam cycles. I was actually afraid to try this until I had my back-up unit, just in case the baking soda messed something up but so far it's working fine. It's not perfect, but not bad, as you can see in this photo I posted earlier today: You can see that I didn't clean the rack. The only part that I didn't get super clean is the top (ceiling?) of the interior. With 3 elements to work around, it was kind of a pain and I started to lose interest. It's cleaner, but could be better.

Sadly, no. Flying into Burlington VT (via Newark, NJ) and heading across the lake to northern NY to start clearing out my late mom's house. The cuisine will lack the beautiful seafood you've been enjoying but I'll partake in the delicacy, a hot dog with chili sauce, known locally as a michigan. How's that for gourmet 🙃?

I figured you had enough on your hands, trying to stay warm while avoiding potholes, moose and ticks so I figured I could help add some local color. Also, I have a flight tonight at 12:55 AM and am procrastinating about packing my bag! I hope your weather improves!

With the shelf on the bottom position there is space for the Lodge LCC3 Combo Cooker with its lid in place. You'd need to cut off about an inch and a half or so of the handles, on a diagonal, to allow the CSO door to close.

Here's a photo of the Lodge combo cooker in the CSO. The lid is on top. You can see that the handle is just a bit too long to allow it to fit. It's close, but the door won't close.

I went to a U-pick cherry orchard the week before last week, on their opening day. Not cheap @ 6.00/lb but the quality was stellar. The weather has been relatively cool. When it gets super hot, they can go from ripe to overripe in a flash. They've had an odd year and had to close for a few days in between the Brooks and Rainiers and again for several more days before the Bings ripened. Usually they go fairly seamlessly, with some overlap between the varieties. I got an email from them saying they expect today to be the last day of picking. I'd hoped to go back for some Bings but I'm heading out of town tonight so that's it for my cherry picking this year. I reported on my bounty in this post.

Google maps seemed to know the place. Whether they'd actually get you there on passable roads is another question! Newfoundland map - Stephenville to Twillingate You guys are covering quite a lot of territory!

I have that Lodge combo cooker. It's a very useful pot. Good for baking bread in a regular oven. But it won't fit in a CSO.

Pasta alla Gricia with Sugar Snap Peas from Six Seasons. I added some shrimp which weren't in the recipe. Nice but not necessary.

Ditto the thanks! I also enjoyed this video that queued up following your link with the same 3 Roman chefs preparing their versions of carbonara: Wish I could try them all!

I was just going to say the same. Amazon prices over the last year:

Thanks for mentioning this. I went back and re-read the whole Part I CSO thread. Good stuff there!

I'm just plugging the places that @ElsieD mentions into Google maps, not actually making anything interactive. Edited to add a link to the route as of today: Newfoundland-Stephenville to Springdale

In honor of our current adventure, I'm re-reading @ElsieD's first Newfoundland blog. It's a wonderful travelogue so I'm adding a link here in case anyone else would like a little more background on the area: A good scoff, cod tongues, toutons and tea on The Rock aka Newfoundland. I'm also keeping a tab opened to a Newfoundland map so I can follow our route. Thanks for taking us along, @ElsieD, I'm enjoying the trip!