Summer Tastes and Travel

Wow, what a busy summer it has been so far! Shortly after my last post, I went home to NC for about a week to see my parents and my new baby sister, Miia. I had a great time being able to really take it easy and spend quality time with my family, but I wish it would have lasted longer. 

A few weeks after going home, I went to Chicago for work and had a great time exploring the city, eating obscene amounts of delicious food and enjoying some great local beer. I highly recommend checking out Goose Island Brewery and trying a flight of your favorite beers. They have over 40 beers you can choose from and really helpful bartenders to help you decide, which is how I found my perfect flight to enjoy. 

My awesome beer flight at Goose Island

One of the best restaurants I went to was The Purple Pig, a Mediterranean tapas restaurant with simple but delicious dishes. I had charred cauliflower with toasted breadcrumbs, cornichons and parsley and a pea salad with bacon and mint. Both dishes tasted so fresh and were a perfect blend of flavors. I highly recommend going there if you're in Chicago - just be aware of the long wait!

Finally, Matt and I went to Dallas to visit my college friend Laura for a long weekend. Despite the triple digit weather, we had a great time, eating more great food and even more local beer! My favorite bar was definitely Truck Yard, an outdoor beer garden that has an eclectic feel with food trucks that change every day. The food was delicious, getting to try dishes from each of the options, and enjoying some local beer.

We spent a day in Fort Worth and of course, we found beer! I tried a Texas flight at The Flying Saucer, which of course reminded me of being back in NC. We went to the Stockyards and saw the cattle drive, checked out some western stores, and had another beer.

Our last meal in Dallas was at Smoke for brunch. We had so much food, more than we could possibly eat, but it was all very delicious. We had ribs and brisket, which both melted in our mouth, cheese grits and fries. I would have eaten everything if I could, but unfortunately my stomach ran out of room. And of course, one final Dallas beer before we had to leave!

Whew, now I'm getting back on track with cooking - there will be some new recipes I've tried out coming soon! I hope you're all having a great summer full of food and great travel!

Weekend Getaway: Red Hook, NY

Sometimes you just need to get out of the city for the weekend, enjoy some fresh air and take in everything nature has to offer. Matt and I did just that this past weekend, heading to a lake house with our good friends Tommy and Julie. We headed two hours north of the city to the town of Red Hook, NY, where we made our way to the Painted Turtle Cottage, our home for the weekend.

The charming red house was exactly what we were hoping for - a rustic, yet modern cabin feel on the inside and a large sunroom to enjoy many meals and great views of the lake. There was a path down to the lake, where there were two balconies, the higher being ideal for enjoying lunch and the lower where you can find canoes and kayaks to enjoy. There was even a floating dock!

After loading up with food and drinks, we enjoyed everything the house had to offer for the weekend. While Friday was rainy, we had a great meal and made some s'mores once the rain died down. The house also had a basement with a ping pong table, which we took full advantage of throughout Friday and Saturday. One of the most relaxing features of the house was the outdoor hot tub!

On Saturday, we made a delicious breakfast before canoeing and kayaking in the lake, playing frisbee in the front yard, riding bikes, grilling burgers for lunch, swimming in the lake, playing lots of ping pong, hanging out in the hot tub, and having steaks and corn on the cob for dinner. We packed in all we could on Saturday!

Sadly, Sunday was our last day so we made breakfast, enjoying one last meal in the sunroom before cleaning up and taking a final walk around the property. We even saw some chickens as we were packing up the car!

I would have loved to have another day at the lake, but we definitely did everything we could while we were there. Hopefully we'll have another weekend getaway this summer, especially once it really starts warming up!