Weekend in Review

So, what can ruin a good weekend faster than anything? How about the weather? It was hot, hot and...oh yeah, freaking hot. Nick's BBBQ (what's the extra "B" for? BYOB) was Saturday. The food was excellent, but it was almost too hot to enjoy the day. We had a chance to debut two great things though; the great blue cheese potato salad recipe I found and our chocolate fountain. The potato salad recipe was in the Journal a few weeks ago, and looked so super easy I had to try it. It is SO GOOD. I am not exaggerating. It was created by the chef who does the deli food for Sendick's and V Richards. Very good stuff. I had so many requests for the recipe, I decided to post it here on the blog.

The chocolate fountain was really cool, but pretty messy. The kids at the party loved it, and so did most of the adults. It was kind of a pain to get set up though. Too bad no one thought to take a picture of it. But once it was running it was pretty cool. We got some tips on how to do a great set up from the owner of the Cooking Store. He was very helpful, and gave us a great idea for the next time. Use nacho cheese instead of chocolate and have a make your own nacho bar. Eric is more excited about that than he was for the chocolate.

We had a good time at the party, everyone went a little crazy at the end with the Jenga game, but overall it was good. Sunday Sarah and I got some quality shopping time in while Nick and Eric geeked out with some video game. We went to the Cheesecake Factory after that and everyone got the drink they were dying for (Lemonade, a Dirty Martini, Irish Coffee and water, respectively). A relaxing weekend overall.

Maytag Blue Cheese Potato Salad
2 tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon kosher salt (divided)
3 pounds fingerling potatoes (small red potatoes can be substituted)
2/3 cup sour cream
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 pound Maytag blue cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
In large pot, bring 2 quarts water and 2 tablespoons of the salt to a full boil.
Meanwhile, chop unpeeled fingerling potatoes into ½-inch coins. Add potatoes to boiling water and boil 17 minutes, or until just fork-tender.
When potatoes are finished cooking, drain, turn out onto cookie sheet and cool in refrigerator.
In medium mixing bowl, combine sour cream, mayonnaise, blue cheese, chives, remaining ½ teaspoon salt and the pepper. Mix to combine.
Add fully cooled potatoes to dressing, tossing to coat. Makes about 10 to 12 servings.
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Spotty Posts and Spotty Tomatoes

Sorry about the spotty posting. We have been pretty busy ever since our return from Philly. We went to Randy's wedding on July 2nd in Elkhart Lake. It was a fun little wedding, but HOT. It was held at the Oostoff Resort, which is a huge, multi-building resort on the lake. The grounds were nice, but the whole resort smelled like a pool for some reason. Weird.

Also, we made our first foray into the world of gardening. I am proud to say that our yard looks better than it did last year. And hopefully that trend will continue into the foreseeable future. We are already making plans for some big improvements. We are definitely going to have a real vegetable garden next year, and maybe even a patio. I am giddy at the thought of it....or maybe I am dizzy and nauseous at the thought of the work. Yecch.

But this year we just have a container garden. We have tomatoes, tomatoes and....well, tomatoes. I received four small (now huge) tomato plants from a co-worker for my birthday. Two days previous to that we had planted a flat of seeds that we bought on a whim from Steins. I never thought they would actually sprout, but they did. All of them. So, we have four big plants and about 15 puny plants. I couldn't bear to not give the little plants a chance, especially after they survived that week when we forgot about them inside the garage. Every planter I have is now filled with a tomato plant. Not flowers. Tomatoes. Oh well.

In preparation for the tomato deluge I have done some research and found a way to store the Great Red Excess in the freezer. Apparently you can keep them well in a half-cooked state in the freezer and use them for sauce and chili during the winter. (I can hear everyone now. "Yes you idiot. " Well, this is the first time for me, ok? Have patience... :) ) But I may not need to whip out the storage plan after all. When I checked on the plants today I actually took an extra step and examined our many, many, many little green tomatoes. About half of them have a wide black or brown sunken indentation on the bottom of them. After some fast internet research we learned that this is what is known as Blossom End Rot, or BER. It is apparently caused by lack of calcium in the plant.

After a speedy rejection of Eric's suggestion for a quick fix, ("Let's water them with milk! Come on, you know it will work!") it was back to the internet for more research. And after more research, we are off to Stein's for more shopping. It is an endless struggle, but we will prevail and get the calcium supplement we need for our plants. With that, and careful watering, the second crop of tomatoes should be untainted. In the meantime, I have to cut off and destroy about half of our little green guys....

Rocky stairs

If Rocky and Ben Franklin got into a fight, this is where it would be.

"I'll meet you by the stairs, jerk!" was one of Ben Franklin's lesser known quotes.

Some Park

 

Margin Man

I think that's what these thing are called... anyway its from Sorry.

There is an iron from Monopoly in closer to the building. 

Philadelphia

 

Dinner?

One of Milton Hershey's original goals was to come up with a way of making chocolate affordable for everyone.

Then they made this bar... 

More lamps...

 

Street Lamp

The streets are lined with Kisses. They alternate between wrapped and unwrapped. 

CHOCOLATE!

The Hershey plant may be the best smelling factory in existence. 

Sturgis Pretzel House

I had to do some last minute extra credit to get my diploma, but it was the proudest moment of my life when I graduated from pretzel making school. 

It's a real place after all

It was tempting, but we didn't stay here... 

Reception

Wedding

Getting ready to go to the reception

Pennsylvania

This summer has been all about weddings. Between June and November this year, we are planning on going to a total of five. So far, we have been to two.

In mid June, we went to Philadelphia for Melissa's wedding and then spent a few days driving around near Hershey. There is a lot of history in Pennsylvania, and a lot of towns with funny names like Bird in Hand, Paradise, Blue Ball and Intercourse. We did go through Intercourse, which was much less funny once we got out of the car and looked around. We bought some apple butter and "I love Intercourse, PA" keychains and were on our way.

After nearly flunking out of pretzel making school at the Sturgis Pretzel house, we got to Hershey, which was fun and chocolaty at the same time. We went to Hershey park, and rode rides including the "Supper-Dooper-Looper" and the "Reses Peanut Butter Cup Xtreme Challenge", which actually consisted of Ruth and I shooting a laser gun at cartoon skateboarding teenagers. But at the end we got a peanut butter cup with carmel, so we quickly decided it was worth doing twice.