Snapshots of Vermont

The Dorset Farmer's Market, where you will likely find us every Sunday morning for the duration of our stay in VT. I am so pleasantly surprised by both the variety and quality of the products here, this market didn't even exist when I last lived here!

It has been a busy few weeks since arriving back in Vermont! I have been meaning to share pictures and stories for days and days and days now but things keep popping up that pull me away from my computer. I've hardly had the chance to write or work on any of my projects lately, but I think things are finally starting to mellow out now that the chaos of this big transition back to the east coast is wearing off. My grandfather come's home tomorrow after nearly six weeks at the hospital and recovery care center in Rutland from a tick-born virus called Anaplasmosis, a rare disease that has recently been introduced to Vermont thanks to global warming making the past few winters in Vermont too mild to kill the tic population with the vigorous force it once did. So when we found this natural bug spray at the farmer's market and were told that it also repels tics, we grabbed a few bottles to pass around to family members. With all the gardening and berry picking we are doing, I'm glad we have this stuff around.

One hour of strawberry picking at Dutton's meant a good boost of vitamin D and a whole lot of fresh fruit for us.

Anyway, visiting my grandfather, and driving my grandmother to visit him has been an every-other-day occurrence since I arrived and it has meant a LOT of time in the car, especially when combined with all the other adventures we've embarked on. It's been worth it, though, to see my grandfather's face light up when he gets visitors and I'd happily continue to make the trip for as long as needed. He has been quite anxious, however, to get home and join us for many a meal cooked by Dylan, in fact he's been talking about Dylan's cooking nearly every other time we've come up to visit, in fact, I think it's been a sort of light at the end of the tunnel for him considering how abysmal the food is where he is staying. It baffles me how something designed to be a "recovery care center" can serve the exact food that likely landed many of the patients in it's care. How they expect to help anyone recover when they rarely serve fresh fruits and veggies and most meals come from a can or is cooked in the microwave is beyond me. So we snuck in some of the strawberries we picked at Dutton's pick-your-own berry field in Newfane, VT on our last visit.

My sister searching for the perfect strawberries to bring home for shortcakes, jam, ice cream, snacking, and yogurt...yum!

So many sweet, summer strawberries...

Since last time I posted, Dylan has returned to me in VT (hooray!) after a very long week away, and immediately got himself two interviews and subsequent job offers. Today he start's his first day cooking at the Reluctant Panther Inn and Restaurant in Manchester. He is excited to get back in the kitchen, although I'm still hoping he gets some day shifts so he's around for dinner at our house sometimes. We have all been enjoying Dylan's cooking at my mom's house since he's been back and are sad not to have him around as much at night time, but I am excited to go visit him at the Panther once he gets settled in. I've never been there are he said the just opened a new raw bar out on the patio and I checked out the menu, the cocktails sound quite tasty.

While Dylan was waiting for call backs after submitting his resume, we spent a lot of time in the kitchen together making all sorts of goodies. It's so nice to have him back, and not just for the upgrade to our home-dining experience, a week was a long time to go without him! My grandmother has joined us for dinner a lot lately, so she doesn't have to eat alone, and so we made her favorite, lamb, which we found farm-fresh and local at the Sunday Farmer's Market in Dorset, which Dylan served with a straight-from-our garden mint compote he made, alongside a bed of rice and sauteed kale. It was so delicious that I completely forgot to take a picture before devouring it. Luckily, at Dylan's next meal, I remembered to grab my camera before digging in to this tasty treat of fresh asparagus from the Someday Farmstand down the road topped with duck egg hollandaise next to tri-colored quinoa (my new favorite) and chopped maple sausage sauteed with carrots and onions. We have all been eating like queens since Dylan's return.

As if chopping all those strawberries wasn't enough, on Friday night we also whipped up an amazing quiche with the egg whites left over from hollandaise (and about 6 more whole eggs) and the rest of our maple sausage, which Dylan de-cased and crumbled, sauteing it with a handful of fresh tarragon and thyme from the garden and steamed spinach, also from the garden. We topped it with West River Creamery's Farmhouse Jack cheese, courtesy of our favorite Sunday market. I'm sorry to say I also forgot to photograph the quiche, but take my word for it, this was the best quiche ever. We didn't stop with the quiche either, Dylan also boiled up some beets he found laying around in the fridge and we enjoyed them chopped and placed atop a bed of our own garden-fresh arugula with just a touch of salt and pepper and a good coating of olive oil. Once we were done with that, we moved on to jam making. Dylan had chopped and sugared a bunch of rhubarb from the garden earlier in the week so we decided to finally put it to use and combine it with strawberries for a batch of jam. We ended up with 12 jars of deliciously sweet strawberry rhubarb jam which I have since put on everything, including the strawberry oat pancakes my mom made all weekend.

I love when the moon shines bright in the late afternoon sun.

In addition to all the food related activities, we also managed to get out and explore the Stratton snow-making pond, a favorite swimming spot from my late adolescent years which my sister has also been frequenting. Dylan had never been so after our first failed attempt at strawberry picking (our (no-longer) usual spot was closed), we headed out for a swim. The sky was beautiful, the air was warm, and the water was cold. I didn't swim but Anna and Dylan went in for a dip while I took lots of pictures so I could share this beautiful swimming spot with all of you out there wherever you are. We walked around the path circling the pond three or four times, breathing in the mountain air, listening and watching for the bull frogs near the lily fronds and filling our hearts with Southern Vermont. It was a lovely way to greet the evening and we followed it with a quick stop at our favorite local take-out spot, Cilantro's, for delicious and quality burritos which we devoured ravenously the moment we got home.