Finding My Roots and Weekly Menu

This summer has certainly been a busy traveling season for us, with our last trip being a visit with family and friends to Ireland.  My mother Lilly was born in a small farmhouse in the tiny village of Knockmore, Ireland.   The first part of our vacation was dedicated to visiting with first cousins and exploring the farm and school where my mom grew up. 

Knockmore is a tiny portion of the Kilmactranny village in County Sligo, right on the border of County Roscommon and about 7 miles from the city of Boyle. 

FHFB and I met my cousin Gerald in the townsquare of Boyle - I didn't see him at first but he recognized me (probably because we stuck out like major tourists while we took pictures of the town!). 

After that, we drove a few miles to his home that he shares with his wife Tish and their two daughters, Sinead and Rebecca. They made us feel so very welcome, with a delicious Irish lunch
(which FHFB ate, even though we had just had lunch!)

  They live in a lovely home with horses and brand new black

and white kittens.

As an added wonderful surprise my cousin Angela and her daugher Sarah were also visiting for the weekend  - she reminds me so very much of my Aunt Nancy. 

When I told her this she laughed and said that I reminded her of our Aunt Nancy! 

Here's the Irish side of the family - without the Sicilian prince :)  FHFB - he took the photo. 

Our trip out to my mother's farmhouse was full of very mixed feelings.  Actually, I think I learned more about her throughout my travels through Ireland than I did from the visiting her home.  That may sound funny but what I realized throughout our trip is that I was hearing my mother's voice and expressions while listening to the Irish people speak, and I came to understand a little more of where she came from and why she approached the world in the way that she did.  Mom didn't talk about growing up in Ireland too much, I think it was a pretty hard life. 

This is the driveway that leads up to the farmhouse.  During the years that my mom was growing up, this cottage was covered with a thatched roof and did not have running water or electricity.
A small kitchen has been added to the back of the house.

This is the wonderful stone barn that stands to the left of the house.

Next to the barn is a lower attached building that was used to house the pigs and the piglets. 

The back building was used as a stall area for horses and cows. 

Can you see that beautiful view in the top left corner of the photo from the back of the larger barn?


This is just a small snapshot of our trip to Ireland, I will be sure to post more photos and let you all learn about and see the wonderful sights in this small island across the Atlantic. 

Something new that I discovered when I returned home is the new Blogger format.  I'm not sure if I like it better and I'm pretty confused about how to use it.  I needed to revert back to the original dashboard in order to edit this post and publish it - it seems that many people have received an error message like mine: bX-g04pxr and the recommendations in the Blogger chat room is to log in with the old dashboard.  Yikes, I'm not even sure what that means but I logged out and logged back in and there I was! 

I'm happy to be at home for the next month and will be busy cutting flowers from our gardens and entertaining on our back porch. 

Here's our menu for the next few days, using lots of vegetables from our garden of course.  If you want any of the recipes let me know and I'll send you the link.  It's a little hard to read due to the small size of the print but I'm not sure how to fix that - I just scanned this document so that I could include it in the post - is there a way to increase the size of the menu so that it's easier to read??

I'm linking in to Seasonal Sundays, On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable
and Menu Plan Monday! at I'm An Organizing Junkie!

Dinner for a Friend

FHFB and I have been to visit our friend Dave many times at Lindenmere in South Hero, Vermont. Dave is originally from New Jersey, and makes a trip back down here once or twice a year. 

The last time Dave was in New Jersey we hosted a small dinner party for him - and it was warm enough to eat out on the back porch. 

Here's what was on the menu:

If you have the time please check out some older blog posts about our trip to Lindenmere, Vermont.  It's truly a magical place that we love to visit.

http://froghollowfarmgirl.blogspot.com/2010/10/flatrocks-at-lindenmere.html

http://froghollowfarmgirl.blogspot.com/2010/10/vermont-vacation.html

(this blog post has another menu for you to check out!)

I'm linking in to Yvonne's first On the Menu Monday party at Stone Gable!

Ciao, bella!

xxoo



The Flatrocks at Lindenmere

As promised I'm posting some photos from the flatrocks on Lake Champlain.  Everyday around 4:45 when we're visiting Lindenmere we all pack a couple of picnic baskets full of delicious Vermont cheddar, whole grain crackers, olives, various spicy Italian salamis, fruit and of course - lots of wine! 

After we're all packed up we take as short walk down a narrow path through the beautiful cedar trees down to the flatrocks, which are these huge flat rocks that hug the perimeter of Lake Champlain on the west side of South Hero Island.  And when we arrive here's what we see:

 This flatrock area is the perfect place to set up several Adirondack chairs and sit back to watch the sunset with friends and loved ones.

 

It's such a gorgeous day here in north western New Jersey.  We're looking forward to a wonderful weekend with friends on the back porch!

Ciao, bella!



Vermont Vacation

I'm finally sitting down to share our wonderful trip up to Vermont in early September. 

Thirty years ago was the first time FHFB and I took the long drive up to South Hero Island in a very large old Cadillac with a 6 month old baby.  Truth be told I was a little nervous, I didn't know our host (he was another weather friend of FHFB's) and I wasn't sure how baby-friendly the house would be. 

We all fell in love with Lindenmere the minute we drove down the narrow tree lined lane to the magical little house overlooking Lake Champlain.

I can't believe I don't have any photos of the house - it's a summer house built in the 1920s with cedar shingle siding and  wooden windows painted with a simple white trim.

Cedar trees surround the house and lean precariously over the rocks into the lake.  The house is up pretty high so there's no danger of any flooding. 

Our host plants the loveliest garden every year, full of colorful annuals and geraniums that he saves year after year in their clay pots.  He really has a green thumb.

Tomorrow I'll post some photos of the lake and flatrocks.  

Our Vermont host is visiting Frog Hollow Farm this weekend  and we're planning to have a wonderful dinner on the porch.  Hopefully the rain and wind will be out of here and we can all sit snuggled in some sweaters and talk the night away. 

Here's our menu chock full of Italian comfort food:

Frog Hollow Farm Sausage and Peppers

(all the peppers are from FHFB's garden!)

Baked Rigatoni with Bechamel Sauce

Crusty warm semolina bread

Arugula salad with toasted walnuts

Ina Garten's Apple Crisp

(I use less of the citrus zest when I make this absolutely delicious recipe)

The first time I ever made this recipe was about 10 years ago.  We were expecting a phenomenal meteor shower that year, I think it was in November, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, we had some friends coming over at 3:00am (yes, I know, a bit crazy) to sit and watch the show with us.  And I say 'show' because I've never seen anything like it.  The meteors were so numerous and so very bright, they were lighting up the whole field.  It was one of the most magical nights that FHFB and I have shared together - and we had our dearest friends with us as well!  Afterwards everyone came into the kitchen and the aroma of the baking apple crisp was still in the air.  With a steaming cup of coffee the apple crisp just hit the spot - we still talk about that meteor shower and when we do our friends always mention the apple crisp. It was truly a memorable evening! 

(He just came into our office told me it was the Leonids meteor shower in November.)

I hope your evening is memorable as well - there are so many memories to make!

Ciao, bella!

Harvest Moon at Frog Hollow Farm

Last night was such a beautiful night to sit out on the porch at Frog Hollow Farm with a glass of wine and some delicious appetizers.  The air temperature was just right and the most beautiful waning harvest moon was peeking over the treetops at the back of the south field.  Even with the brightness of that moon it was pretty dark outside and our little porch, lit with a few small candles and lanterns, seemed like it's own little world, safe and sound from any harm. 

FHFB had been wallpapering our dining room for most of the day and it was time to kick back and relax.  We've chosen the Herndon Straw pattern from Thibaut's Chelsea collection.  The image from the Thibaut website is a little blurry but I have to tell you that the paper looks just beautiful on the walls!

(Have I ever told you that FHFB is the most expert wallpaperer in the world?)

Our Appetizers

Roasted pancetta and goat cheese drizzled with honey

Picholine olives, which are a French green olive, salt-brine cured, with subtle, lightly salty flavor

sicilian style olives, A medium green color olive, crisp and salty.

Dinner

Pan-roasted Frog Hollow Farm stuffed green peppers

Fresh, whole wheat linguini

Frog Hollow Farm marinara sauce

Arugula and red-leaf lettuce salad with a light vinaigrette

Dessert

Raspberry pies in a jar (Yvonne's recipe at Stone Gable)

I'm still studying for my NCED exam in early November but found time to have lunch at our local Brew Pub last week with Bunny, a fabulously talented woman and owner of The Paris House Designs. 

It was such a pleasure to meet her and chat for awhile, and she brought me the most gorgeous gift of several MOR beauty products -  MOR is proudly Australian and recognized globally for its range of innovative, luxurious pampering body care and lifestyle products. 

Please take a moment to stop by Bunny's absolutely beautiful Paris House Designs website and blog - it will take your breath away and leave you with a ton of new ideas for your home as well as ideas to pamper and take care of yourself! 

Ciao, bella!

Dinner on the Porch with FHFB

FHFB invited two very old, dear friends over for dinner on Friday night.  Now, I'm not sure I've told you that FHFB is a meterologist, and our dinner guests were meteorologists as well.  So, these three guys were in heaven, talking about weather like they were chronicling a new global resource guide for climate and forecasting.  Not really, but they do love to talk about anything and everything to do with weather, and they have uncanny memories with regards to dates of storms, the type of weather, how much it rained, how long it rained, snow, wind, hail, sleet and so on and so on.  It's so much fun to sit and listen to them when they get started.  They are truly passionate about what they do.