Hello, Goodbye

while bicycling, ile d' orleans-- Goodbye, little sunglasses from the drugstore in Montreal. Our plastic liaison was brief and regrettable.

Montreal

montreal-- After checking in at our B & B "Le Houseboy" (that's right!), we headed over to the city's new hotspot, a tapas place called, appropriately, Pintxo. The Mexican chef/owner trained in the Basque Country, and seems to have spent at least a little time with the famed Arzak. Our favorite pintxo was clams with artichokes and jamon.

After waffles, crosaints, muffins and all sorts of other bread and cereal products the next morning, we headed to the Library and National Archives. Then, off to Quartier Vieux to see the Cathedral de Notre Dame.

Pretty gold stars on ceilings.



Anisa quickly became entranced by the candles, just like when she was little.







Karen was befriended by some kooky religio-tourism types, who advised her of all the other churches (some with light shows) that she should visit.

Bonjour, Neighbor to the North!

caywood command central-- We are packing... rather lackadaisically, but still packing. We're heading to Quebec to help them celebrate their 400th Anniversary of cityhood or French colonialism or both. See you soon, nos amis!

Indian Dinner

caywood kitchen-- Karen's had a recipe for naan posted on the fridge since it appeared in the NY Times magazine. This and a cooperative garden inspired an Indian dinner. We used eggplant and a green cayenne pepper (what the heck!) from our garden and cucumbers and mint from Jay's garden.

Roasted eggplant




Kitchen capers: We mixing up dry ingredients for scones in one bowl and dry ingredients for naan in another (similar looking) bowl so of course we got the bowls mixed up, but that didn't stop us from going ahead with the project! We call the resulting non-naan "sconaan".




Karen rolling out the naan



Into a hot pan to puff up



And it was good!

The Continuing Episodes of "What Should I Do With This Blueberry"

caywood kitchen--




Well, you could make some compote, as above. Then you have three more blueberry episodes!

2. Blueberry compote over strawberry ice cream Karen made





3. ... over biscuits. That's some fresh mozzarella cheese peeking out. Weird? Or delicious? We thought delicious!





4. ... over biscuits and peaches




Spot the secret ingredient!

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

around lodi-- Last summer, we were grasshoppers, goofing around, drinking beer, sitting on the deck. This year, we are ants, busily stocking our freezer!



We picked everything but the corn. Other ants did that.

What Should I Do With This Blueberry?

caywood kitchen-- 1. Scones for breakfast

A Blueberry Achieved

glen haven farm-- What happens to a blueberry deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? No... that's a grape deferred. Actually, it's neither and I shouldn't be tossing around Langston Hughes' poem so lightly.

Read the poem "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes here:

http://www.cswnet.com/~menamc/langston.htm

Now, back to our story.

We didn't tell you this, after the beer-laden blueberry deferrment of a week or two ago, our neighbors showed us the way to Glen Haven Farms and its abundance of blueberries. We picked 16.5 pounds that day-- not bad! Tons of ripe blueberries made easy picking, yet for some reason, I was fascinated by what unripe berries look like and so only took pictures of them:





Working on the maxim that it's gonna take a lot of blueberries to cushion the blow of winter, we went back for more Sunday-- 17.5 pounds more to be exact, which brings our grand total to 34 pounds.

God, I hope it's enough.

Tell It!

around ithaca-- We've been seeing a particular car around Ithaca and then yesterday-- boom! It was in the Sibley parking lot.



Couldn't get satisfaction from dealer who sold you the thing? Emails, letters, calls up the supply chain resulted in a stoney silence? Tell it to the world!

We will listen. We admire your gumption.