And The Rockets Red Glare.....

Oh No, That Was The Lobsters

It happens once a year, which is both good- because it's lots of work, and bad- because it's lots of fun.

The fourth was super muggy and hot. This is how it goes.

Gar gets up in the 6am hour and goes to meet Ralph on the rocks in Rye to cut seaweed for the bake. Why the 6am hour? That would be low tide this year. It usually is at an early hour. Go figure.

Then one of us picks up the lobsters and clams at Defiant Lobster and the keg at Joe's Meat Market. This year it worked out that Gar swung by both places on his way back with seaweed. While he's gone I'm prepping my appies and starting to haul stuff like paper plates, utensils, grilling supplies and more out to the backyard, putting table cloths on tables, setting chairs up, etc.  This year I even had a chance to hop in the pool for some brief downtime. Then it was back to the kitchen to make Watermelon George, who makes everyone pleased as punch.

Then people start rolling in, dropping their lobsters off early so they know they make it on the bake. We bag and tag 'em in big old onion bags with clothespins, so everyone gets their own lobsters and clams back.  After Tom puts the 800 pound plate over the fire pit, the guys get the fire going good and hot.  Then the lobster/clam bags, corn and potatoes are all put into the baskets (square wood frames with screening on the bottom) that are loaded with seaweed. 

Then the bake goes on the plate, and it's wet down to bring up the steam.
Then we mingle and schmooze; enjoy a cocktail, Watermelon George or a red solo cup of draught beer; swim in the pool, nibble on some appies; eat stuff from the grill; melt the butter and then finally, we dig into the lobster and clams!

Good times and a great way to celebrate America's indepedence. Our furthest travellers this year were Aunt Joan and Uncle Bobby who came up from Yonkers, NY.  Yay!  Thought Aunt Joan was going to run all the way home when Uncle Bobby did his best redneck impersonation with my cowboy hat on.

It sounded like you all celebrated in perfectly wonderful ways. So happy to hear it!  I think it's a holiday worth celebrating. It makes me think of the hard fought battles to win this country's independence. It also makes me think of all the servicemen and women that aren't home to celebrate and it's a good way to honor them I think, in true American style.

Hope you enjoyed the weekend too. We pretty much hung low, other than a ride on Sunday morning.  The sunsets cooperated, as usual, giving us quite a show.

Sunset Meadows

What a day yesterday was. Beautiful summer day. Couldn't have been anymore perfect. It ended perfectly too.

So beautiful.

So blessed to have this view.

After a few days of vacation, this week the to-do list is long, but it's all good including ad design, bookkeeping (ok, maybe not all good...blech!), marketing, tomorrow's post on 4th of July chowder making and more. What do you plan on accomplishing this week?

Have a great day,

A Map, Lunch, Some Decanters & A Cod

A Map

Yesterday my parents asked me to go to lunch with them. You see, I'd found a beautiful map of Cuba in my Etsy friend Maria's shop. It was perfect for our friend Desi, man about town, the face of the 401 Tavern in Hampton, New Hampshire (where I grew up and my parents still live) and who I affectionately call The Mad Cuban. Desi was born in Cuba and his parents sent him and his brother off to America when he was only a boy.

After the map of Cuba arrived from Montevideo, Uruguay (where Maria is), Dad was on a mission to frame it so he could present it to Desi.  Luckily, they have lots of old frames in the basement (from my cousin's days as a trash collector in Yonkers, NY.....Johnny snapped up the things that he thought were too good to throw away, hence the frame collection in my parent's basement). If you can believe it, he couldn't find one that worked from the collection and had to take one of the hall wall. It too was from Johnny and had held a family collage of sorts for about as long as I can remember. Well it doesn't anymore. Now it holds Desi's antique map of Cuba.

The "Presentation" by Dad (aka Jerry)



Mom (aka Marge) and Desi Share a Smile



Desi giving the map a thumbs up.



Another shot of Mom and Desi. Just because it's cute.



And finally a toast to the map. Rather appropriate.
Thanks to Maria  for making this moment possible!

I should mention that Desi took a moment to read the back of the frame, where my parents had included the provenance of the map........the year of the print, that Maria had sent it for Montevideo, etc. It's just like them.  If you're looking for a great gift or just have a love for vintage prints, be sure to check out Maria's shop Carambas. You'll be glad you did. I mean, just look at Desi's face!

Lunch

Onto the food...........my parents both ordered 'The Commish', an tip of the hat to our friend Jimmy who passed away last year and loved the lobster pie. Nothin' fancy here folks, just big hunks of lobster.




Lobster and butter topped with breadcrumbs. Simple and delicious.



They tried to convince me to get the same, but I had my heart set on a garden salad and the baked haddock sandwich.



See why? Yum.

Then my father proceeds to tell me that Brother Mike (no he's not a monk, he's just my brother) had stopped by that morning with fresh Cod from Captain Peter Lag (aka Peter Lagerstrom).  It's good to know people in the fishing business. They're big on sharing. So after lunch I stopped by my parents house to pick up a share of the Cod. Yup, we LOVE seafood round these parts (probably because we've got some of the best seafood I've had anywhere).


Some Decanters

When I entered my mother's dining room, all I could see were 'collections', reminding me of yesterday's post. Bells, plates, decanters...........so I got a couple of shots.



Don't you just love the gentleman on the left? So proper.




Part of their Norman Rockwell plate collection, and yes, more decanters.




Even more. They go all the way around the dining room at the top of the wall. They added this plate rail to hold their collections, after they raised the ceiling in this area years ago.

 A Cod

I got so distracted by the decanters and plates, I nearly forgot the Cod!! That would have been a tragedy.  Here's a tip. Want to know if fish is fresh? It should look just like THIS!!




Straight from the sea. Beautiful color, consistency and smells like the ocean.
There should be NO slime and NO fishy smell.

 
I'd love to show you pics of how it came out, but I did not take pics. Whoops. FYI, it was an easy fish dinner.  I layed the fillet on some tin foil, sprinkled it with some breadcrumbs and spices, then I added some frozen corn to the mix, topped it all with pats of butter. Folded tin foil over the make a pouch, and Gar popped it on the grill on low heat, with other side on high, for about 25 minutes (this was a big fillet!). So, so good. I really wish I'd taken a picture, it looked as good as it tasted. Thanks Cap'n Lag!

All in all, it was a pretty darn good day.

Happy Friday everyone.........Ah, the weekend!



Independence Day

It was another fantastic 4th of July Lobster Bake. Best we can figure, we've been having the annual bake for about 13 years now.  Everybody does their part to pull off the big production.  Lots of good food, good family and good friends.  Nobody did  an official head count, but from what I can figure, we were in the 80+ range.  Let freedom ring!



Charlie (on right behind truck) found us a new plate
to put the bake on. Tom manuevers the 750 lb behemoth out
of the truck with his tractor.



  



Gar and Ralph unload the bags of seaweed they cut off the rocks at 6:15 am- got to get it at low tide.
Cousin Eddie even ventured with them this year.




Everyone brings their own lobsters, which we then put into
big onion bags and tag with clothes pins. They're put into baskets (made of 2x4s and
screen), covered with the seaweed and put onto the steel plate over the fire.








Gar and Ralph stacked the baskets on top of the steel plate and cover it with tarps.
The tarps are sprayed down with the hose and everything is 'baked' over the fire.
Smokey goodness at it's best.



Me, Carey (aka Martha) and Mom.



Janey came all the way from Vermont to serve up some appetizers!




Dad, Charlie & nephew Jeff sharing a laugh in the Taj Mahal (our screen tent).



Doesn't Marge look like a Matriarch in this one?
And even Max made the picture!




Brother in law Al and neighborhoodlum Gerry-- The Grill Masters.




Feathers (aka Susanne) making the rounds with
her world famous jello shots.




The New Yorkers enjoying their lobsters. The Dubliners did too, but I didn't get a picture!
People travel far and wide to get to the annual bake.



Great Niece Sophia strolling through the bake with mom.



How do you say 'pursuit of happiness'? Almond Joy Martinis (thank you Cocciardis!).



Another beatuiful sunset, complete with crescent moon. And another wonderful Independence Day.

 I'm sure my cousin Eddie got better pictures of the whole shebang. I'm usually too busy playing hostesss to get all the pictures I'd really like to get.  I'll post when I get some from Eddie and other guests.  Time to start 'clean up' and put the chowder pot on!





FurBalls & Tumbleweed

When my friend Tina was recently here, I had to laugh when she said I might be 'addicted' to Sharking the house.  Sharking, as we fondly call it, is giving the house the vacuum once over with our Shark (love that thing- picks up quite a bit for a small, motorized sweeper and it's battery powered- no cords!). I told her that I was not addicted per se, but rather Sharking out of necessity. If I take a few minutes to Shark each day, it cuts down on the furball tumbleweeds that adorn my home thanks to the hounddog.  She wasn't really buying it. However, when you consider that Lucan (our pointerX mutt) is probably about 5 times as big as her jack russell Buster, it would would equate to that much more doghair tumbling around. Need I say more?

So after having to pull out the heavy hitter vacuum yesterday because I hadn't Sharked in two days, I thought I'd take the dog comb to Lukes.  Viola, proof for Tina.



Lucan with his pet cat Fluffy.
No, not really.
That's what came off him after a
3 minute combing. Can you take it?

I can honestly say, I don't have an addiction to Sharking. I just know it makes my housekeeping job easier.  That said, even with regular Sharking, there really is no keeping up. Perhaps that's why I like the sign my sister Gloria gave me a few Christmases ago so much.  It hangs by our front door as one last reminder.




What? You can't see the sign?



Still can't see the sign?



How about now?

So, since I worked the heavy hitter vacuum yesterday, I'm hoping to only have to shark the next few days. I'll be too busy to care about dog furball tumbleweeds anyways. You'll find me checking things off the 'Get Ready For the 4th of July Lobster Bake' list. 

Yesterday I checked a few things off the list, including the lobster/steamers order from Defiant Lobster. The only place we get our bugs and clams. Right on the Hampton marsh.  Been going there as long as I can remember.

Beyond the list, took a moment to enjoy the sunset last night. It wasn't 'brilliant', but rather subdued and quite pretty in it's own right with rays of lights streaming down.



This particular shot didn't show off the rays of of sun the best,
but I love the way the hues and lighting give it a 70s kind of vibe.

Have a wonderful Friday where you are!