Could I have picked a hotter day to plant this year's vegetable garden? It was g-r-o-s-s!
In
the middle of planting I ran to the local Rite Aid to pick up some
vitamin B, because I was getting so drained because of the heat and
needed an extra jolt. If my beets, one of the new additions this year,
come out, it will be a miracle, because they were the last thing I
planted and I was so tired, they were lucky they got done at all.
Despite
the heat, it was definitely worth all the sweat that went into it --
now I have two gardens with tons of {hopefully}delicious vegetables!
If you and the girls want to get away this summer, there is so much to do in the Lake George region! A friend asked me about this the other day, and I wrote an entire email detailing some ideas, so I figured why not share it with you all here, too.
Enjoy!
The best girlfriends getaway is a weekend in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, specifically in the Lake George area. Stay at the newly renovated Sagamore Resort, named one of the of Travel & Leisure's Top 500 Hotels, where you can enjoy beautiful views of the lake while sipping wine on the Veranda, take a dip in the pool, sign up for stand up paddle boarding or kayak lessons with the girls at theLake George Kayak Company or treat yourself to one of their specialty massages in their spa.
In the evening stroll into the town of Bolton Landing to shop at small boutiques, like Serendipity, where you will find trendy clothing and accessories and then enjoy live music at one of the many outdoor restaurants.
No, it's not the lyrics to the latest country song, although I think it could make for some fun music. Instead, it was me almost $200 later as I ran all over the area getting items for my garden here in the Adirondacks and my Dad's in New Jersey {the veggies are his Father's Day present}.
I spent hours yesterday pouring over the large variety of vegetable, flower and herb plants at Watkins Garden Center in Hudson Falls. They have more types of peppers, tomatoes, squash and eggplant than you can imagine!
Every year I like to plant something I haven't grown before. Last year year it was watermelon, butternut squash, cantaloupe and pumpkins. This year, my "newbies" are beets, acorn squash, brussels sprouts and bok choy. I also bought some new varieties of tomatoes, as well as Italian parsley which I've never grown before either.
Maybe I'm not a good beer drinker, because most of the time when I bring home a growler from a brewery, I never end up drinking it all in the appropriate amount of time. It gets flat and gross and undrinkable.
This is exactly what happened with the Ubu Ale I brought home from the Lake Placid Brewery a few weeks ago. I'd love to say I deliberately kept it in the fridge to use for this exact purpose, but unfortunately, I had just forgotten about until I went in there to see what I had to marinate some portobello mushrooms in.
I only marinated them for about 20 minutes while I was getting the grill ready, and they came fabulous. So tender and tasty!
If you don't have Ubu Ale, head to the Adirondacks to get some immediately, you can use any good ale and feel free to substitute regular sea salt for the Hiwa Kai Hawaiian Sea Salt. Also, you can use regular goat cheese instead of the kalamata olive goat cheese if you don't have a Trader Joe's near you.
But if you do have access to all these specific ingredients, use them, because the combo comes out really good!
Hi, my name is Michelle and I'm a flip flop addict. Walking into Happy Jacks a few weeks ago in Bolton Landing didn't help my little habit -- a huge rack of flip flops on sale!
Although the sale may not still be going in, if you're looking for a place in the Lake George area to pick up stylish flip flops Happy Jacks is your place. I walked out with three pairs, plus a cute Roxy bag to carry them all in!
I spent all much of this weekend creating a recipe for the Double H Ranch's Chuckwagon Cooking Challenge. Part of the requirement was that you had to create a 3-5 minute video, which of course had me in a panic.
To get over my fear of being on camera, I decided I would do several Touts giving people a little behind the scenes look at what it takes to make the recipes found on The Adirondack Chick. The good news, is that it was a ton of fun, they came out good and when it came to shooting the regular video today, I did pretty well.
The bad news is that after we were all done -- at 7 p.m. -- the audio didn't transfer over to my computer, and then on top of that, one whole segment, which was pretty important to the recipe didn't record. I was so upset. By the time we finally got the audio to work, it was so late that we really didn't have time to record the missing segment, because the deadline to enter the contest is today.
But, at least we had a total blast shooting, and these Touts were even more fun to create. I hope you enjoy them! Oh, and the recipe ended up coming out fabulous, so don't worry, I will be sharing it with you all very soon ... Maybe I'll even try shooting another video of it. :)
Last week I was invited to the press reception for the Cheeses of France pop-up shop in Manhattan, where Chef Ash Fulk, a contestant on Season 6 of Bravo's "Top Chef," was cooking up a creamy, cheesy mac n' cheese.
Fulk, a California native who now works in Manhattan, was nice enough to talk with me about his love of cooking and how he ended up behind the stove.
He also gave us some tips on what every home cook, like myself, should have in their own kitchen.
