Five on Friday

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Happy Friday!  I cannot believe that it is August already!  I know some kids are heading back to school soon, but here in New York, my kids don’t go back until Labor Day.  I feel like there’s so much I still want to do but the weather has been so hot and humid, that we don’t really want to be outdoors. Plus, we are running out of free weekends!  Besides a couple of trips to Rhode Island, we didn’t have much of a vacation. But I feel like we’ve been so busy! We have a big trip planned over Thanksgiving though so we are excited and looking forward to that. This weekend my car has to go in for an air bag recall. Then we are going to a concert at West Point on Saturday night. Sunday, my husband’s family is coming over for a belated birthday celebration for our son. It should be a fun weekend. Here are five from this week:

1. Boy Scout Camp – so all week we thought our son was having a good time at Boy Scout Camp.  My husband picked him up Saturday and when he got home he told us that he actually hated it.  There wasn’t just one particular thing, but a combination of lots of bugs (and bug bites! He was covered!), smelly bathrooms and being away from us for a week.  We told him we were proud of him for putting up a good front and sticking it out.

2. Reading – I finished The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver  this week. I think I read it in three days! I watched the movie, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, years ago, but don’t recall reading the book.  It was fast paced and suspenseful. I now have to watch the movie again! And I just put the second book in the series, The Coffin Dancer on hold at the library!

3. Eating – Doughnuts! Last weekend I tried a new-to-us doughnut shop called Peaceful Provisions. They are a local, women-owned family doughnut shop that is vegan. They make everything from scratch in small batches. These doughnuts were a bit on the expensive side, but so good!

4. Cooking – I had a bit of meltdown recently feeling unappreciated (especially by the teenage daughter!) with all of the meal planning and cooking I do.  So I made her plan a recipe and cook it this week. She chose and made this Creamy Cherry Tomato and Squash Pasta, mostly by herself.  This has gone so well I told my husband and son that they also need to start planning and cooking one weeknight meal. We shall see how this goes!

5. Impromptu date night – A neighboring town had a music festival last Saturday. After my son came home we helped him unpack and had dinner together. But then he wanted to catch up on missed Fornite time and my daughter didn’t want to go out. So, my husband and I went to see the last band of the day, River of Dreams. By their name, you might be able to tell that they are a Billy Joel cover band. They were actually pretty good and who doesn’t Billy Joel?!!

This week on the blog I shared a post about visiting Minnewaska State Park Preserve.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hooray for the weekend!  I was exhausted on Monday and unfortunately, it didn’t get much better as the week went on.  I’m glad that the temps finally dropped a little bit this week and we actually got to turn off the air and open the windows for a couple of evenings. Saturday I’m looking forward to seeing my son who has been away all week at Boy Scout Camp! My husband is leaving the house around 5 AM to get up to the camp by the 8:30 AM pick-up time! I volunteered to keep him company on the drive, but he’s actually carpooling with another dad…..so I get to sleep in! I have a feeling that when they get back my son is going to be wanting sushi for dinner. I’m not sure how good the camp food was and he loves his sushi! Here are some highlights from this past week:

1. Supper Club – Last weekend we had our monthly supper club.  This month’s theme was California. My husband made Sriracha Turkey Burgers.  I chose dessert and made this Candied Citrus Ricotta Cake. I was pretty proud of myself because 1. I never bake.  Unless you count boxed brownies, rice krispy treats….and the occasional cookie or muffin. 2. It just turned out so pretty!  So even if it tasted bad I’d be okay because it looked good. But it actually tasted really good!

2. New York State Museum – My husband and I dropped our son off at Boy Scout Camp on Sunday.  It was an over 3 hour drive to get him there. On the way back we ended up stopping in Albany and visited the New York State Museum, since my husband had never been.

3. Eating – we stopped for dinner at City Beer Hall in Albany.  My husband enjoyed a beer flight and we shared some delicious pork buns and this Greek Island Beef and Reef platter.  It included hanger steak souvlaki, grilled octopus, tzatziki, fries, heirloom tomato, cucumber and herb salad and pita. Everything was cooked perfectly and it was so good! I’ve found a new tasty combo – fries in tzatziki sauce!

4. Reading – I’m currently reading A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams. This is an older book that has been on my to read list for awhile. With the word summer right in the title, I thought it would make a good, seasonal read. I’m not loving it yet, but it’s gotten pretty good reviews, so I won’t be giving up on it.

Our Podcast!!!! – I saved the best for last.  But yes, NY Foodie Family is now a podcast! The first official episode, minus our short intro episode, was published yesterday!  Would love for you to check it out!

This week on the blog I shared a post about visiting Playland in Rye.

I also shared the show notes for Episode 1 of the podcast!

Sharing with Friday Favorites! Have a great weekend!

Hooray for the weekend!  This has been one long, HOT week!  We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Tomorrow night we have our “California” themed supper club. Our daughter is going to Hershey Park this weekend with a friend of hers and we drop our son off at sleep away Boy Scout Camp on Sunday. Here are five from this past week:

1.Birthday Boy – Last Sunday my son turned 11.  He went with a couple of friends to see the new Spider-Man movie.  Then they went to lunch at IHOP and had frozen yogurt from TCBY. We went out to dinner to Palace Dumplings, at his request, for all the dumplings!  This restaurant makes so many different varieties and they are all so good!

2. Reading – I am almost finished reading The Favorite Daughter by Kaira Rouda.  It’s a suspense read that I’m almost finished with and that I’m feeling so-so about.  I’m curious to know how it will end but it has felt very repetitive.

3 Watching – We finally finished the third season of Stranger Things.  It was a great season but definitely more horror-like than I was expecting.

4. Tomato Plants – Look at how well my tomato plants are doing!  I’m so excited to actually have some tomatoes this season. My husband made some adjustments to our box system this year and the plants have been thriving!

5. Farmer’s Market – There’s a farmer’s market within walking distance of my husband’s office.  I’ve decided that he should go every week to try out all the vendors. This week he picked up some fruit and veggies.  Last night he made beet chips with the orange beets and they were delicious!

This week on the blog I shared 20 Fun Things to Do in Putnam County.

Sharing with Friday Favorites. Have a great weekend!

So glad it’s Friday. And in the summer, that means I get out of work at 12 PM! And today we get our kids back! They have been in New Hampshire with my sister and her family for the past week enjoying time with their cousins. You would think my husband and I would be living up a child-free week……well, not quite. Here’s what we’ve been up to this week:

1. Cat sitting – We trade cat sitting duties with our neighbors. When we’re away, they take care of our cats and when they are away we take care of their cats. However, once of their cats was recently diagnosed with diabetes and needs an insulin shot twice a day, 10-15 minutes after she eats. Well, almost two hours of every day (one in the AM before work and one in the PM) was spent this week at their house taking care of the cats. Which did not leave us a lot of time for a date night.

2. Watching – This week we have been watching Stranger Things season 3 and have only one more episode to go. This season really felt like a horror movie to me. While it’s been suspenseful it’s also been a bit gross and scary!

3. Reading – I haven’t had much reading time this week but I’m about half-way through The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms. It’s a fun, light summer read that I’m hoping to finish this weekend.

4. Cooking – With the kids away, we’ve been cooking all the foods that the kids don’t like – farro, tofu and these stuffed portobello mushrooms. These were so good and something the kids would never eat!

5. Date Night – Last night after we finished our last cat sitting duties, my husband and I did get a chance to go out to dinner. We tried a new-to-us local restaurant where we shared a couple of dishes. Our fave was this burrata served over fried eggplant and roasted peppers, topped with a pistachio basil pesto oil and a balsamic reduction.

This week on the blog I shared my June Reads.

Have a great weekend! Sharing with Friday Favorites.

Did you have a fun time celebrating the 4th of July? We are back in Rhode Island for the holiday weekend to spend a couple more days with my family. My sister will be leaving tomorrow for New Hampshire to visit her mother-in-law in and is taking my kids with her for the week. They get to enjoy some more cousin time while my husband and I head back to work. Here are some highlights from last weekend’s trip to Rhode Island and some other highlights from the week:

1. Beach Reading – Reading at the beach is one of my favorite summer activities. I just finished One Day in December by Josie Silver this week. It was a cute chick lit/romance read, perfect for the beach.

2. Fishing – It’s an annual tradition for us to go fishing with our dad. It was a small group this year with just my dad, sister me and our husbands. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch anything (that we could keep), which hasn’t happened in awhile. Regardless, it was such a beautiful day to be out on the water.

3. Seafood – It’s also tradition to stop at Iggy’s on the way home and pick up clam chowder and clam cakes for lunch. This time we also picked up some clam strips and fried calamari. There’s nothing like seafood by the seashore!

4. Kitsby – Kitsby is a baking kit company where you pick the recipe and they ship everything pre-measured to you (minus a few ingredients like eggs). The recipes are pretty fancy and things that I normally wouldn’t decide to try on my own. They sent us a kit to try out and the kids and I made these Earl Grey Mini Cakes. They weren’t a huge fan of the tea flavor but we had fun making them together. Kitsby also has a bakery/storefront in Brooklyn, but I don’t ever travel there!

5. Watching – My daughter and I watched the movie Isn’t It Romantic earlier this week. I’m glad we opted to wait to watch it on DVD. I like Rebel Wilson, but the movie felt too similar to I Feel Pretty and not as good.

6. Tween Summer Reads – The “Summer Slide” is real and kids lose so many of their math and reading skills during the long summer break. National Geographic Kids kindly sent me some of their newest releases and my kids are loving them! I love that they can work on their critical thinking skills with Brain Games. They love reading all the interesting facts in Weird But True! USA and the 2020 Almanac. They are working on non-fiction reading skills and learning, but don’t even realize it! It’s important to me that they are reading and working in actual books, since they get so much screen time in the summer.

Hope you have a great weekend! Sharing with Friday Favorites!

Happy Friday! As you read this, I am currently in Rhode Island. The kids had their last day of school Wednesday and then we headed up to my parent’s house in Rhode Island for a long weekend. We are kicking off summer with some much needed rest and relaxation. My sister is up with her family as well so the kids are getting lots of cousin time too. Last weekend was super busy and I’d love to fill you in on all the family fun we had!

1.Strawberry Picking – June is strawberry picking season. We tried a new to us farm, Saunderskill Farm, a little over an hour’s drive away. There is nothing like ripe, freshly picked strawberries. They just scream summer! And they only cost $3/pound!

2. Vietnamese Food – After we went strawberry picking we headed into New Paltz for some lunch. It’s a college town with lots of restaurants. We found a Vietnamese restaurant and enjoyed a tasty lunch, including this pho.

3. Hot Air Balloon Festival – Sunday we got up at 4 AM to make it to Barton Orchards. We wanted to be there for the sunrise and to see the hot air balloons at the Empire State Hot Air Balloon Festival take off. It was a fun experience. Now, I want to take a ride in a hot air balloon!

4. Farmer’s Market + Animals – We got home from the hot air balloon festival and I took a much needed nap! Then my husband, son and I went to the Muscoot Farmer’s Market. We picked up some veggies for dinner and then since it’s a farm, we had to visit the animals!

5. Game of Thrones – So this past week my husband and I finally finished watching season 3 of GOT. I was recently warned about the dramatic scene in episode 9. But I still didn’t see it coming!

ICYMI this week on the blog I shared what was Cooking Lately in June.

Sharing with Friday Favorites…..have a great weekend!

It’s officially summer! I keep seeing everyone’s last day of school pics on social media but my kids are still in school until next Wednesday! My daughter especially, who is still studying for finals, is not quite feeling the summer vibes yet. Here are five from this week:

1. Father’s Day – My husband wanted to go on a family hike for Father’s Day. Since the weather wasn’t looking great for Sunday we went Saturday. His request was a hike with a good view. I chose Minnewasksa State Park in Gardiner, NY. And it appeared everyone else wanted to go there too. We had to wait 20 minutes to get into the park, since the parking lot was full. It was worth it though. We do love a good waterfall and this one didn’t disappoint.

2.Reading – This week I started reading Passion on Park Avenue by Lauren Layne. It’s contemporary romance that is a super light and so far, a fun read.

3. Watching – We just canceled our cable a couple of weeks ago. I’m not really missing it too much, since we have Netflix and Amazon Prime. This past weekend we watched a couple of episodes of the Netflix show The Chef Show with Jon Favreau and chef Roy Choi. I loved the movie Chef and so far this show has been really enjoyable. It’s a mixture of cooking and celebrities/entertainment. We also ended up watching a couple episodes of Awake on Netflix. The concept is ridiculous – contestants are kept awake for 24 hours and then have to compete in different challenges for a chance to win $1 million dollars. Somehow it hooked the family that we watched the first two episodes.

4. Black Thumb – I love plants. But I seriously have a black thumb. I keep buying them and end up killing them. Take this basil plant pictured above. My mom was at BJ’s and they had a deal where she had to buy 3. She offered me one and of course I said yes. I left it out on my front deck. Her plants are doing amazing…..my plant doesn’t look like it’s going to survive. It currently looks worse than this. Her advice was to repot it. Which I did, but I think it was too late. I love fresh basil, especially in the summer – pesto, caprese and more. So, I will likely be buying a new basil plant! LOL!

5. Cooking – This week we really enjoyed this One-Pan BBQ Ranch Chicken Gnocchi from Yes to Yolks. It was easy and tasty.

ICYMI this week on the blog I wrote about my Mom Escape to the Lodge at Woodloch.

Sharing with Friday Favorites….have a great weekend!

Happy Friday and Happy Birthday to my dad! This weekend is also Father’s Day. My husband has requested a family hike with a rewarding view. The weather is looking a little iffy for Sunday, so we may have to take that hike on Saturday. Here are five from this week:

1. Supper Club – Last weekend we had our monthly supper club. This month’s theme was bite-sized food. I made Truffle Mac and Cheese Bites and my husband made these Asian Turkey Meatballs. I liked his dish much better than mine! The whole meal though was delicious as always with chicken wings, Thai Turkey Sliders and Pea Pesto and Burrata Crostini. Dessert was mini Lemon Tarts.

2. Reading – This week I started Run Away by Harlan Coben. His books are so fast-paced that I’m sure it will be finished by the end of the weekend, if not before.

3. Eating – My husband picked up this Steve’s dairy free ice cream at the grocery store. We aren’t dairy free but the flavor looked interesting. It’s a Sri Lankan Coconut Cream base infused with honey/orange blossoms, a pomegranate swirl and chopped almonds. They have some other interesting flavors that we will have to check out as well!

4. Watching – I started watching The Society this week on Netflix. It’s a teen drama about a town where everyone but the teen residents mysteriously disappear. I’m only two episodes in. Even though it’s rated MA, I recommended it to my thirteen year-old daughter, who I was surprised hadn’t started watching it yet. I likely won’t watch the whole season, but I do like to be aware of the teen shows.

5. Kohl’s Shopping – I don’t shop very often. However, whenever I get a 30% off Kohl’s coupon, I feel like I HAVE to shop. Yes, the regular prices there are way over-priced. But, you should never buy anything at regular price there. There’s almost always a sale and/or a coupon. I picked up a pair of sandals and some shirts. I also got some shorts and a romper/dress for my daughter.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I shared my May 2019 Reads.

Thursday I posted about a visit to the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden.

Sharing with Friday Favorites. Have a great weekend!

Is anyone else ready for the weekend? Let’s get right into today’s Five on Friday.

1. Solo Getaway – This past Monday and Tuesday I visited the Lodge at Woodloch…..alone. I had been saying for awhile that I needed a solo getaway. After much research, I found this place. I will have a full blog post up soon, but it was just what I needed. This is an adults only, health and wellness resort, less than two hours drive from my home. Two days away, does a body good. Follow along on my Insta-stories to see lots of pics! But look at the Hydro Massage Waterwalls (above)! A combo hot tub and waterfall that was so relaxing.

2. New Classes – While I was at the Lodge at Woodloch I enjoyed new-to-me fitness classes like Splash Dance (aquatic pole dancing – poles in the pool pictured above), Tower Pilates, Drums Alive and the Great Wall of Yoga (check out my Insta-stories for a picture of that!).

3. Reading – So I joined my first in-person book-club (besides my work one). We are meeting in a couple of weeks and this month’s book is Behold the Dreamers. I’m about half-way through and am enjoying it. This is one of those books that I probably would have never read if I hadn’t joined this book club. I’ll have to report back in a couple of weeks after my first meeting!

4. Lunchtime Walks – Last month my work had a health and wellness challenge to walk/run a marathon (26.2 miles) over a month. I handed in my tracking sheet and think I squeaked in the 26.2 miles at the end. Most of the walking took place during my lunch hour. I can usually get in a good 1.5 miles in a half hour and enjoy either walking with a co-worker or walking solo and listening to a podcast. Even though the challenge is over, I am trying to continue my lunchtime walks until it gets too hot.

5. A Chipped Tooth – There’s nothing like getting a call from the school nurse when I’m two hours away and my husband is in a meeting in the city! While I was on my solo trip away, I got a call from the nurse that my son had hit his chin outside on a bench during gym. In the process he chipped the back of his tooth off. Luckily, it wasn’t an emergency. After a trip to the dentist, it looks like it will be an easy repair. My son’s not in pain but the tooth is a little sensitive to cold and heat. He will get it fixed in a two weeks after making sure the tooth is healing properly without any complications.

6. Website Down – Here’s a bonus vent for you all! Wednesday I went to check my Google Analytics and saw that there were zero visitors to the blog on Tuesday. I don’t get huge traffic to my blog…..(yet!), but I definitely get daily traffic. I go to find that my website is down. After chatting with Bluehost, I discovered it would take 24-48 hours to fix. Fortunately, they were able to repair the issue (since you are reading this post!) but it was super frustrating and annoying.

ICYMI this week on the blog I shared You Can Support a Tobacco Free NY.

Sharing with Friday Favorites. Have a great weekend!

And just like that May is done. I can’t believe how quickly the month went by. We had a great Memorial Day weekend, spending several days in Rhode Island at my parent’s house. Here are five highlights from this past weekend:

1. Beach Time – We spent Friday at the beach. We lucked out and it was empty! I told the kids to enjoy it since we wouldn’t see the beach this empty until after Labor Day. It was chilly and windy but we still enjoyed collecting shells and driftwood, walking on the beach and sitting and reading in the sunshine, while we listened to the ocean waves.

2. Book Reading – I got in some good book reading time as well. Over the weekend I FINALLY finished A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, the first book in the series. I started it in January and have been reading other books, but I’m so happy I finally got it finished. And it was really good too! I enjoyed the book much more than the first season of the show.

3. Waffle Sundaes – My mom made special desserts while we were up visiting including a homemade peach pie one night and these waffle sundaes the next. We might have been a tad bit spoiled!

4. Beautiful Sunset – My husband and I made a trip to the beach one night to catch the sunset. I mean, who doesn’t love a good sunset?! And this one didn’t disappoint. Everything’s better at the beach.

5. Memorial Day – We came home Sunday night so we were home for Memorial Day. Both the kids are in scouts and participated in our town Memorial Day ceremony.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I shared what we’ve been cooking lately.

Thursday I posted about what we’ve been watching this month.

Sharing with Friday Favorites! Hope you have a great weekend!