Snapshots from the East End

We took a trip out to the East End of Long Island this weekend to enjoy the beautiful scenery and hit up some nurseries. Snapshots below!

Chopped Salad & Balsamic Vinagarette

The star of our Mother's Day dinner was an enormous chopped salad. After a day full of eating, it was a light way to round out a steak dinner. The best part was the leftovers for lunch today!

Happy Mothers Day!

Prepping a Mother's Day feast on a gorgeous Sunday evening...recipes to follow!

Rowing it Alone: Against the Current

Friday night after work I was ecstatic to be able to head down to the beach for a row. It was sunny out, 70 degrees, and I actually left work at 5pm, for once. After a quick trip home to change and have a snack, I headed down to the water, not really considering the weather conditions. I was just so happy to have time for a weekday row.

No sooner did I get out there did I realize that it was really quite windy out. Not unmanageably windy, but windy enough that I got a serious workout in. I had also taken it upon myself to row opposite the direction that I usually do, so I was in more exposed water than preferable. Luckily, in spite of my atypical route, I still stuck to one of my big rules of thumb when rowing alone:

Row against the current on your way out, this way you have your easiest rowing to do on your way home.

While it may seem like simple advice, it's something that we could easily forget given that the majority of rowers spend a lot of time rowing in crews. If you get tired in a 4 or an 8, there's lots of other people to pick up the effort for you. And if, heaven forbid, you really couldn't make it back for some reason, you have a coach there to drive you back to shore. Not the case in a solo single.

In the end, the wind wasn't all that bad, and I got a really nice 45-minute row in, with lots of daylight to spare. It was a beautiful taste of what I'm sure will be a gorgeous summer of rowing. A great kick-off to the weekend!

Shortcuts: Dough

Shortcuts: Tricks for saving the 45 minutes you just don't have when prepping dinner.

I love making my own pizza. I love the freedom to pick my own toppings, add my own seasonings, and cook it exactly to my liking. I love baking it, grilling it, but most of all I love eating it...and quick. Do I have 45 minutes to spend waiting for my dough to rise? Not on a weeknight. Do you know who does?

You guessed it, my favorite local pizza joint. For $5 I saved probably a total of 60 minutes, and I had a damn good crust. For those of you who insist on making you own crust, but still don't have time for the dough to rise, I recommend this recipe, especially for grilled pizza.

Rowing it Alone

I spent 4 years in high school dreaming about the day when I would be able to take out my own shell, without a coach barking at me, or teammates unbalancing the boat. When I finally returned to rowing last summer, I ended up amongst a group of older-yet-not-necessarily-wiser "master" rowers. They were old enough to be considered masters, but certainly not experienced enough.

Now I'm finally able to row on my own, any time I want, without having to deal with anyone else. The funny thing is, no sooner did I started rowing on my own than I realized that rowing alone comes with it's own set of...complications. There are probably a dozen times already when I could've used a second set of hands, and I'm quickly realizing that there aren't a lot of places to find this kind of information. So why not share what I learn here?

This Isn't News: Reading Twitter

When did it become okay for the 10pm news to just read tweets from their viewers as a segment on the show? This isn't news.

Link Me: Cupcakes

Stopping by to share some links to my favorite cupcake recipes and shops! Follow the links below to check them out for yourself...

     Boston Creme Pie Cupcakes             Sweet Cupcakes Boston               St. Patty's Day Cupcakes

Onion & Thyme

Tonight I made a quick variation on french onion soup. This isn't the french onion soup that you make when you're looking for that deep, rich, meaty flavor. This is the one you make when you've had a long Monday, and just need quick comfort. I ended up messing this recipe up (I initially forgot an onion...how do you forget an onion??), but it still turned out okay. My only recommendation is to stick to the quantity of olive oil they give in the recipe. When I backtracked I ended up adding too much, and mine came out oily.

This is a great, quick, weeknight meal. Shopping lists below.

Weeknight "French" Onion Soup (adapted a bit from here):

What You Buy:
2 Large Vidalia Onions, Sliced
1t Fresh Thyme
1 Container Beef Stock
Fontina Cheese
Ciabatta

What You Have:
3T Olive Oil
1t Salt
1/2t Pepper

To Make:
Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add sliced onions, salt and pepper and sauté until softened a bit (10 minutes or less). Add the beef stock and the fresh thyme and cook at least 15 minutes. Serve with sliced fontina in the bowl and a side of crusty ciabatta (if you're lazy like me and don't feel like making the cheese crouton on top).

Sunday Row

This was one of those weekends where you spend all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday just waiting for the sun to come out. I had just about given up when the sun finally started peaking out Sunday afternoon. By the time I got down to the beach the sky had almost completely cleared up, and the temperature had reached about 70 degrees.

Overall it was a beautiful row. I took T3 out for about 40 minutes total, rowing down to Our Lady Queen of Martyr's and back to Fleets Cove. The current was with me on my way back, which made for an effortless return trip. It caused some problems when I ran up the beach to get the trailer for the boat, but luckily it was warm enough that I didn't mind wading a bit to go after the boat. Can't complain, I left the boathouse feeling invigorated and happy that I had gotten a row in this weekend.

After a showing and some cleaning, I headed down to Old Field's, in Greenlawn, NY with my parents for some burgers. It's their favorite Sunday night dinner spot, and I'm always happy to tag along. Their sweet potato fries are to die for, and I can't recommend the PEI muscles enough. Unfortunately this little guy wasn't with us for this trip, but it brought back memories of when we were all there last month.