Musings

A lot going on lately--not all food-related.

I trust you survived Irene.  Even though it wasn't as bad as it could have been (or as bad as predicted), it was quite an experience.  We didn't even lose power for a second.  The worst we had were a few small branches down and our garden was sort of squashed by the wind.  (Our Brussels sprouts looked like fallen trees.)  My parents are still out of power (in Haycock, that happens with a nice summer breeze, it seems).  They hope to have it back by Thursday--maybe. 

The flooding in Vermont is devastating.  I saw on the Weather Channel terrible flooding in Jamaica Village, Vermont (see video below).  MB & I stayed in this little artsy village for a couple nights on our first trip to VT a number of years ago.  Sad to see it.  By the way, if you ever get to Jamaica, consider staying--or at least eating--at the Three Mountain Inn, just down the road from the video.  Great accomodations and wonderful food (ate rabbit for the first time here).  Just wait until the water recedes.

After a day's delay becasue of the hurricane, Jake started kindergarten today.  (No pics yet--I think MB took the camera with her when she dropped him off.)  Can't tell if he's excited or not--I think so.  I told him to practice strutting around saying, "That's right, I'm in kindergarten."  He looks like an astronaut with his big backpack on.  I'm looking forward to seeing how he does.  He loves to learn new things, so I think he'll be just fine.

I just read a short article on Philly.com about the "family tree" of Philly's restaurant scene.  These days, the city's food offerings are seen by many to be right up there with some of the great food cities of the world.  I still think that a meal that I had at Buddakan was the best meal I've ever had.  It was amazingly expensive, but worth it.  Read the article here.

How do you open this thing?

We're looking forward to our annual trek to Maine coming up soon.  Can't wait.  Jake's excited about fried Maine shrimp (he learned to love them last year) and he's going to try lobster again this year (he tried it a couple of years ago, but wan't crazy about it--a textural thing, I think). 

Saw on the news that any kind of chocolate (not just dark) might be good for you.  There are some out there who might take that as a call to go on an all-choclate diet.  You know who you are!  Good luck with that.