Visitors be ware...

The Catskills were great...we stayed in Catskill (yes, it's an actual town), in a 200 year old farm house that had a lot of 'charm' (read - no central air and millions of spiders), a huge yard for the dogs, and a stream that bordered the property so we didn't have to worry about anyone wandering off. K.J. and J.P. were able to join us for a few days as well - which was great, except that J.P. is never invited back because he beat us in every game we had except bowling. We also visited Woodstock, and just by sheer coincidence happened to be there on the 40th anniversary. It was pretty overblown...there's not much more pathetic than an aging hippy who just can't let go of the past and the tie-die.

So, Jim & Geishi came to visit us 2 weeks ago. It was, as per usual, great to see them. I'm not so sure they have the same sentiments, as we literally walked them all over hell's half acre (aka, brooklyn). They had gorgeous whether while they were here, so it was nice to take advantage of it. We also saw Josh and Lauren and Lilly that same week, on their whirlwind tour of several east coast friends and family. Unfortunately, they got stuck in the vortex that is known as LICH - Long Island College Hospital - which is right down the street from us, because Lilly (who is so gd cute I can hardly stand it) came down with a high fever the day they were supposed to leave. But it ended well, and 3 days later they were on their way down to PA to continue the whirl.

We'll be seeing my mom for a long weekend starting on the evening of the 15th. I'm very excited to show her our new digs and the neighborhood and NY, but it also means extra cleaning. Which, I suppose is a good thing, as we haven't really cleaned since Jim & Geishi were here. I'm Kidding!!! kind of. Anyway, I've also (GASP) started to develop an interest in (WHEEZE)...wait for it...wait for it...cooking. At least simple dishes with 5 ingredients or less, so she'll be a good one to practice on.

This sudden interest has been really weird - you read about people who have suffered some brain injury or gotten struck by lightening, and suddenly their personality completely changes? Well, it's just like that...except I haven't (to my knowledge) suffered a brain injury, and my personality hasn't really changed - I just am interested in being able to occasionally cook good, simple and healthy meals. Meredith kind of gets the credit for inspiring me to take more interest in what I'm eating. (No algae, though - I draw the line at popping dozens of little green pills every day). Another major factor is that I'm sick of going to all these wonderful farmers markets that are close to us and never buying anything because it would involve cooking after the purchase.

So far, I have a meditteranean chicken dish, an herbed salmon dish, and a good filet mignon recipe, and a pretty decent turkey meatloaf. Of course, Chris is "benefitting" from this by being my primary guinea pig, but I haven't heard any real complaints yet.

So - moral of this post:
a) come visit - we're always open to visitors. We'll run you ragged, send you to the hospital, and use you as food testers - not necessarily in that order.
b) if you have any SIMPLE recipes (and I really do mean simple - few ingredients, not a lot of time, easy to prepare), send them my way...