Crabby

Clockwise from top right: Pool crabs from Conrad's; aftermath of crabs in Delaware; XLs from Seaside; Cail helping Erin put up her hair after her hands are messy, while my dad focuses on picking; Missy's birthday crabs at Higgins in OC; the claw meat salad I made, which wasn't as good as Clementine's, but was still pretty good

Did you read Bill Addison's  love letter to Maryland crabs, published on Eater yesterday? It's excellent - the kind of article that could only be written by a Maryland native - and really, maybe only by a Maryland native who has spent years away from his home state.

(Side note shoutout to City Paper writer/NASA engineer/all-around good guy Ryan Detter for killing it as Addison's co-pilot.)

The article dropped during what feels like the end, but is really the middle, of one of the best crab seasons of my adult life. The Bay is healthier, this year, than it has been in years, the crab yield is up and those crabs are good.

We got a semi-late start on crabs this year, since we were away for most of June. But once we got started, we didn't stop.

We had crabs from Conrad's at the pool. Crabs for Missy's birthday at Higgins North in Ocean City. Crabs from a spot in Ocean View at Jeff and Christine's house in Delaware. Winston's claw meat and fennel salad during an awesome dinner at Star Bright Farm (and my own version at home, a couple days later). And crabs from Seaside at my parent's house, with my whole family.

This, of course, doesn't even include all the crab cakes I've eaten in that time.

Every crab I've eaten this year has been really good, too. It's hard to pick a favorite batch, but if pressed,I'd give that award to the ones from Seaside. They were huge, heavy and just really great all around. Plus, we ate them on a Saturday afternoon on my parents' screened in porch, after sailing trip up and down the Severn and swimming at my parents' beach. Start to finish, that day was pretty close to perfect. (More wind would've made it better, but you can't change the weather. And we never have any wind when I'm on the boat.)

That's the thing about crabs. They're so social and for people from Maryland, eating crabs is so often infused with all sorts of blurry memories from childhood and adolescence.

I've seen a lot of people joke this year that when you're from Maryland, crab pictures on Instagram or Facebook get about as many likes as, say, pictures of newborn babies. It's funny because it's true. And to me, it totally makes sense.

I don't remember my first crab - I was very young - and we ate crabs all the time when I was a kid and a teenager, so my memories sort of blend together. But they are, overwhelmingly, good ones.

When you have all sorts of memories and they mesh together, all hazy but happy, isn't that the best? Yes, yes it is. Especially when they're covered in Old Bay.

(This is a long way of saying you should read that Eater article. It's good.)

Pool Season

I love pool season. When I was little, it meant long days, starting with early morning swim team and ending much, much later, at the pond in Ben Oaks, where I grew up. My parents would sit underneath a big willow tree (which is, sadly, no longer), drinking beer and hanging out with their friends. It was pretty great - for me and for them.

When I was teenager, I was the lifeguard there and I spent my days off laying out on the little strip of land that separates the pond from the Severn River - always on my stomach, trying to even out my tan. (Or, rather, "tan." I am pasty or pink, but never quite golden.)

As an adult, I miss Ben Oaks, but the Stoneleigh Pool - even though it's not next to the river - meets all of my summertime social needs. We log a lot of evening hours there in the summertime. It's a good time.

Since there's a very strict no-glass rule at the pool, summertime, for us, is all about plastic and cans. This year, that means lots of LBLL's (schlepped back from Keuka Lake), Leinenkugel grapefruit shandies (finally, this year, available in cans), and Union Craft Old Pro (how can you resist that can?).

I've also developed a recent obsession with the salsa and guacamole made by the people who work at our local Giant. They are so good - especially the salsa, which is very slightly spicy and just a little bit sweet. I eat an embarrassing amount of it when I'm home alone.

But that's what summer is all about, right? Eating salsa instead of dinner and drinking citrusy beers while your kid wears himself out messing around with friends in the pool.

Now, if school would just end, we'd really be in business.

Thirsty

It's been freezing this week, but that has not chilled my seasonally appropriate desire to get busy mixing summery cocktails. Specifically, these:

Grapefruit margaritas from Town and Country. Margaritas are always good. Grapefruit continues to be the trendiest juice of all. Together, they're unstoppable.

The Positano, from Le Sirenuse, via the Tory  Burch blog. (No photo of the actual drink, but here's a pic of the lobby at Le Sirenuse, as a consolation prize. It's on the Amalfi Coast. Which is where I would like to be right now.)

Pomelo and basil cocktail from Serious Eats. I printed out this recipe weeks ago and it's been staring at me, begging me to make it. Do I wait until I have some basil in my yard? Or do I give in and make some for cocktail hour this Friday? Probably choice #2, right?

Photo sources: Town and Country, Tory Daily, Serious Eats.

Passe Rose

As usual, I find that, when it comes to booze, I'm right on trend. Rose is so yesterday. When Bon Appetit - a wonderful magazine, but not crazy edgy - says so, you know it's true. (Like BA, I am also not crazy edgy...which is why I am not ahead of this curve.)

This is not to say that I have not been drinking any rose this summer. Oh, I have. But between the grapefruit beer and the specialty cocktails, my pink wine consumption has slipped a bit. Honestly, it's been good for my head. As in, fewer headaches.

In the linked article, BA editor Adam Rappaport makes a few suggestions for what to drink instead of rose. My favorite pick? Vinho Verde. On this, I am trendsetting! (Not that VV is all that new of a US drinking trend - but it never did explode the way rose did.)

Rappaport describes it as "the Sierra Mist of Portugal." It's funny because it's true.

And that has summer written all over it.

August So Far

Today is the first day of school for Dixon. Shortest summer ever (literally - it was barely two months, from start to finish). 

We did make the most of that time, though. I have some writing to do about June and July...but I haven't organized those photos yet (I will...one day). So, instead, here's August - so far:

Top from left: BBQ at Willie's; beef tallow at Sugarvale, post-concert McDonald's, Kit + Erin at Willie's
Middle: Pretty carrots; me with friends Zim and Gene at George's bday; pre-ZBB Bill; Left Foot Braking band
Bottom: Cherry Slammer by Alicia; Curious Traveler shandies; Snacks at Bluejacket; end of summer dinner at our house

Week One: We kicked off August with a 40th birthday party for Bill L., at his house in Annapolis. My friend Rob's band, Left Foot Braking, plays, and a good time is had by all. Later in that week, our friends Sam and Stacey, and their kids, come to visit and I fail to take any photos at all. But we did have a fun lunch at CVP and a lot of very, very big laughs about the old days, when Sam and Cooper were post-college roommates.

Week Two: This was a big one. Tuesday night, we celebrated George's 40th with a surprise party at Greene Turtle in Towson, which was a very good time. Thursday, we had drinks with local friends and Friday, Cooper and Bill and I took a half day to head to DC for the Zac Brown Band/Avett Brothers concert at Nationals Stadium. We met my sister and Clark for the show and also got to hang out with a bunch of other friends, including Alicia's cousin Kelly. 

We had pre-concert snacks at at Bluejacket, including fried chickpeas, soft pretzels and a charcuterie plate, then we walked over to Willie's Brew and Que, where we were pleasantly surprised, especially with the pulled pork and pimiento cheese - we'd headed there mostly for the beer, to be honest. While there, we also got lucky: I won a raffle, including tickets to the show and a hat for Bill. Since we already had tickets, I gave the prize to a nice girl repping Sam Adams - in exchange, she hooked us up with a bunch of Curious Traveler shandies. Funnily enough, the company actually sent me a couple of the shandies earlier in the summer - and I loved them. So that all worked out!

Post-concert, we discovered that the area around the stadium is severely lacking in late-night food. So...Bill bought all of the food at McDonald's. And it was good. There's nothing quite like a 1 a.m. cheeseburger to make you feel good about yourself in the morning.

The next morning, we returned to Baltimore and wrapped the whole experience with a killer breakfast at Miss Shirley's in Roland Park. Just good stuff all around.

Week Three: Things calmed down a tiny bit last week, but we still managed to end the summer with a bang. Friday night, we had a fin d'ete dinner at our house, starting end ending with cherries, courtesy of Alicia. She made gorgeous cherry, vodka and lime cocktails to start and, for dessert, a cakey cherry cobbler. In between, we ate roasted carrots and fennel, a tomato, plum and mozzarella salad, crab cakes and, thanks to my general skittishness with poultry, slightly undercooked chicken (yum).

Saturday, Cooper and I went to another 40th party and, while we had a sitter, also squeezed in a couple great drinks and snacks at Grand Cru and Sugarvale in Mount Vernon, where we ate the beef tallow candle (sounds gross, tastes good, looks awesome).

And what I haven't mentioned is that on the in between nights, we went to about 8 restaurants - my reviewing schedule has been intense lately - and also put in some dinner-at-the-pool time. 

This month has been so much fun. I'm exhausted, even after just writing this, but it's been a blast. And now, with Dixon back at school all day, I'm ready to buckle down. To prepare for...more fun things. 

I Went to See Taylor Swift in Philadelphia...

And it was awesome. We were celebrating 40th birthdays - mostly Alicia's and Stacy's, which are this summer (Stacy's was last week and Alicia's is in less than two weeks) - and, kind of generally, celebrating all the things Swifty loves - girl squads, cute outfits, red lipstick, selfies, etc. (So, so many selfies.)

From start to finish, the weekend was just a treat. 

And now, I wish we could go back and do the whole weekend all over again.

Links:Jim's Steaks / Copabanana / Buddakan / Zara / City Taphouse

Straight Up Summer

As of today, summer has officially started Chez Pollard. School is out and we are shifting into vacation mode. (And by that I mean, Dixon starts his first camp on Monday.)

Of course, summer unofficially started a few weeks ago, with the earliest Memorial Day weekend imaginable. We went to Fenwick, where we had dinner with the Kennedys at Ropewalk and got to visit Jeff and Christine at their new house in Delaware. Plus, we started the weekend with a very nice, refined dinner at The Narrows and closed out with a fun lunch at Stoked in Cambridge (their wings...get them).

Since then, I have spent as much time as possible at the pool, drinking rose, and making the most of the huge amount of basil, mint and other herbs growing in our backyard. (All thanks to Cooper...I remain a non-gardener.)

This is what's been happening:

Top row, left to right: Dixon and his Sunsations/Maryland crab gun in Fenwick; braving the ocean; rose + pesto, which makes the best easy summer dinner

Middle: Dixon and Gray at Ropewalk Fenwick, where we had a fun, crazy dinner with the Kennedys and Missy and the girls; Mimi and Charlotte in the Ropewalk playground's picture board 

Bottom: Me with Mimi and Charlotte before Ropewalk (the matching stripes weren't even on purpose!); Dixon with a ginormous shrimp (shrimp cocktail is his new thing); Cooper getting his grill on with Maddy and her friend at the pool

Summer. It's just the best.

Trendy: Low-Octane Cocktails & High-Octane Beef

Summer is here...which means it's drink-all-day season. Oh, is that just how I think of it?

(Actually, I joke. Unlike many people my age, I really do prefer to do my boozing at night.)

No matter which hours you prefer to drink, summer does lend itself to marathon drinking sessions. So it's not actually that big of a surprise that lately, I've seen a lot of recipes for cocktails with lower alcohol content...stuff you can drink for hours without being totally obliterated.

This is a trend I can fully get behind. I like drinking for hours and hours. I also like remembering things and being functional on Sundays. (In related news, I also like water, and drinking it before I go to bed.) (In more related news, I am not always completely successful at avoiding unpleasant Sundays.)

You know what else is trendy, and pairs pretty well with a lot of low-alcohol cocktails? Brisket. It is just everybody's fave BBQ these days. Maybe it's because it's a little more challenging to get right (it does dry out easily). Maybe it's because Texas is having a moment. I don't know why...but I do know that it is all the rage.

Not-too-boozy booze and beef with some smoke. Not too bad as summer trends. Not too bad at all.

Ahoy!

Maybe it's because I grew up going to restaurants with anchors and rope on their walls. Or maybe it's because I have a box of maritime flags, that Cooper found at an auction, just sitting, unused in my office. Or maybe it's just because I love the water and boats.

Whatever the reason, I can't resist maritimey decor, especially in the summertime. Like this stuff:

Source

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None of these ideas - even the Martha Stewart ones! - would be that difficult to make happen in the real world. Especially if I busted out some of those flags that I already own. And I think they'd all pair very, very nicely with Dark and Stormies. Or maybe a Drunken Sailor or three.

Drink Up, Baltimore

Chef Bryan Voltaggio's Wit + Wisdom contribution

Earlier this year, the weather was miserable. Remember February? Then March? Winter seemed like it was, truly, never going to end.

Then it did. Just like it always does.

And in those first, gorgeous weeks of Spring, my mind always drifts in the same direction. Straight to the bar.

There's just something fabulous about a break in the weather that makes me want to whip up a batch of fabulous drinks. Or have someone else whip some up for me.

This year, we kicked off outdoor drinking season at the Wit + Wisdom patio opening party, which featured drinks created and mixed by handful of great local chefs. The party raised a bunch of money for Share Our Strength and was a great time all around.

On my work front, I spent a few weeks chatting with bartenders about their favorite local watering holes and what they like to drink there. Writing that article was, obviously, a good time.

This year, even my intellectual side is all about the booze. When I got my copy of Forgotten Maryland Cocktails in the mail, I nearly squealed. Maryland + history + drinks - it is so full of things I love to read and think about. The section on Southsides, alone, is worth the price of the book. Really, it's fantastic - well-researched and super interesting and engaging. I love it.

This past weekend, after a long, nearly beer-less winter, I got back on the summer brew train. While the Labbatt Shandy cans that Alicia brought us from Keuka were slightly disappointing (they just didn't have much flavor - unlike Labbatt's Blue Light Lime, which is magical), we discovered that Leinenkugel's newish Grapefruit Shandy is FANTASTIC. Seriously. I wish I was drinking one right now.

Red, White and Blue Lemonade for the Summer

Every year, as we gear up for our annual friends' trip to Duck, each member of the group picks a summer song. It's a huge production, with lots of emailing and back and forth, and at the end, Alicia makes a mix that we listen to over and over for the rest of the summer.

This year, Cooper's song is "American Kids" by Kenny Chesney. It is bouncy and summery...plus it includes a line about a shotgun lever-action rifle. Cooper likes shotguns guns. (Side note: Cooper likes guns enough that he emailed me to clarify that the gun mentioned is not, in fact, a shotgun.)

A few weeks ago, just as Cooper was choosing his song, I got an email from the PR company that reps Blue Chair Bay - Kenny Chesney's rum brand (and the official sponsor of No Shoes Nation). Did I want them to send me some rum, so I could make up a cocktail, and write about it, in the days before KC's concert at Merriweather? Why yes, yes I did.

The concert - Kenny Chesney + Jake Owen - is on Wednesday, May 27th. And the drink? Inspired by "American Kids," it's called Red, White and Blue Lemonade...and it is pretty, pretty, pretty good. Here's how to make it:


Red, White and Blue Lemonade
Yields 1 drink

3 ounces Blue Chair Bay white rum (the white)
2 tablespoons blueberry syrup (see below) (the blue)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons mint simple syrup (use this recipe)
Sparkling water
Strawberries for garnish (the red)

To make the blueberry syrup:
Combine 1 pint of blueberries, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/3 cup of water in a saucepan over medium-high heat.

Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring and mashing the berries as they pop. Cook, continuing to stir, until the mixture is reduced about halfway (about 6-8 minutes).

Let the mixture cool a bit then place in a blender and puree. Refrigerate before using.

To make the drink:
Fill a pint glass with ice. Add the rum, blueberry syrup, lemon juice and mint syrup. Fill the rest of the glass with fizzy water, then pour from one glass to another, to mix.

Garnish with a strawberry and you are ready to drink!

Note: if you want a boozier drink, you could add a little more rum. Or, instead of finishing it off with sparkling water, use prosecco.

The recipe above makes one drink - but you could absolutely make pitchers of the rum-mint-blueberry-lemon juice concoction, then just add the fizzy water to the individual drinks just before serving. Though it does involve two syrups, both of them are very easy to make, I promise.

I mixed up a batch of these on Wednesday and fed them to the Bargers and Kyle. They made everyone happy:

Maggie, obviously, has the kiddie version of the cocktail - Dixon helped with those. We replaced the rum and the sparkling water with a healthy pour of Sprite.

So there it is - the American Kids/Kenny Chesney/Red, White and Blue Lemonade cocktail. If that doesn't make you want to make out on some living room couches, I don't know what will.

Summer's Coming

As a general rule, I'm a stickler for tradition. But when it comes to Memorial Day, we like to mix it up. Some years, we just stay home. Last year, we went to Keuka Lake. This year, we're headed to the Fenwick for a few days.

As I started making my Fenwick packing lists, I realized that I'd completely skipped writing about a bunch of last summer's delicious exploits. Like, all of last summer's delicious exploits. So here we go with a few of them:

Left to right, starting on the top row: Dixon drinking Cheerwine in Duck, as we wait for our house to open; the fish tacos at Sunset Grille in Duck; Bill's gorgeous pina coladas at our Duck house tiki bar. Second row: Crabs and shrimp in Duck (note: NC crab steamers do not use NEARLY enough seasoning; A stuffed soft crab sandwich at Harris Crab House last Labor Day; Ropewalk Fenwick oysters. Third row: The final Fenwick Labor Day feast, including tomatoes and mozzarella, steamed shrimp and Patsy's soft shells.

Here's what I learned from these photos: I love shellfish.

Also: I am ready for summer 2015 to start. Right now.

Rose Season

I had my first glass of the pink stuff last night. I'm ready. And here's where I want to drink it:

Proving that even when your yard includes a messy wall, it can be pretty. (Source)

Yes, it's a restaurant. But...that green would work anywhere, right? (Source)

Those chairs seem impractical as hell...but I love them. Also, the blue and white curtains. (Source)

Teensy colorful patio surrounded by greenery and a pond? Very rose-friendly. (Source)

Besides the obvious downside (bugs dropping in your wine), I so love the idea of a ceiling of plants. (Source)

This little urban space is completely do-able, really. If you can just find some friends to help you drape all that fabric. (Source)

Cheers to rose! And spring!

This Week: Summer's Not Over Yet

Dixon went back to school this week...but summer's not completely over just yet! Here's a quick report on this week's exploits, starting from the top left and moving clockwise:

• Blog Candy: Last week, Cail texted me about these Chimes mango and ginger chews. For obvious reasons. I ordered some right away and am happy to say that I think they are delicious - all chewy and spicy with just a little sweet mango. However, all my friends think they're gross. Which is fine. More for me.
• Spice & Smoke: On Sunday, we had some friends over and Cooper smoked a batch of bacon-wrapped, cheese-stuffed jalapenos. We have a lot of jalapenos. Our garden is pepper central. And these...well, they were the best he's ever made. Not overly spicy and just really smoky and nice.
• Fancy French Poulet: Last night, I made this House Beautiful recipe for Chicken Veronique. It was super quick and easy and I would definitely do it again. However, I don't think it's necessary to open a bottle of sparkling wine, unless you're going to drink the rest with the meal. Regular old white would do just fine.
• Salsa!: We have more tomatoes than we know what to do with...so I have made several batches of fresh tomato salsa (it's also a good way to use some of our overabundance of jalapenos). I started with this Alton Brown recipe, tweaking and subbing - I didn't do any roasting, for example, and instead of anchos, I used dried cayennes left over from our garden last year.
• Shoo-Fly: We had such a good, spontaneous dinner at Shoo-fly on Saturday night. It was just the three of us and we sat downstairs in the diner space. Dixon drank tons of birch beer, I had killer fried chicken, and Cooper had a really solid pork barbecue entree. Plus, a couple great drinks (the one pictured above had bourbon and bitters...but it wasn't overly bourbony or bitter). It's settled into itself, I think, in a way that's really smart for the neighborhood. Which is nice.

This weekend...summer's swan song at the beach. There will be softshells. Among other things...

Making the Most of August

The end of summer means amazing food...and a mad rush to do everything everything everything before school starts again. Here's a smattering of what we've done and eaten recently, starting middle top and working clockwise:

1. We're sailing! Last weekend, for the first time all summer, I had a chance to go out on the boat with my dad and brother and sister - plus Cooper and Clark (Cail was on her way home from vacation, so she didn't make it). There was absolutely no wind but it was a beautiful day, so a good time was had by all.

2. Early August cupcakes at the pool. We've been all over the happy hour/dinner hour at the pool this summer, including one random Tuesday night in early August, when Alicia made some of her best cupcakes yet. They were snickerdoodle cake with light cocoa buttercream...and so good.

3. Jalapeno jelly time. Every year, Mary's parent's neighbors, Frito and Cindy, turn a bunch of their jalapenos into a kick-ass jelly to be served over cream cheese. A little spicy, a little sweet and old school in the very best way. It's awesome.

4. Haircuts. Our deal this summer was that as long as Dixon was good, we wouldn't make him have his hair cut until it was time to go back to school. It is now time to go back to school. Yesterday, he had his mop chopped off and styled at Salon Method...and it looks great in the cutest little boy band way. He is less enamored, since his fierce lax mullet is now gone. But he looks so cute! (And it will grow back.)

5. Pie! Post-sailing, Cail arrived at my parents' house, bringing lots of fun with her, in the form of her dad...and pie! She had been on vacation in Little Compton, Rhode Island (my brother was with her for a week then he had to go back to work, so her dad joined her for a week). In Little Compton, they frequent a pie stand called Wilma's at Walker's. She brought two pies for dinner - one blueberry and one peach raspberry. They were so good words can't do them justice. Seriously, just amazing.

6. Tooloulou at Belvedere Square. One of the city's most fun carry-outs, Tooloulou, has recently relocated to Belvedere Square. I'm thrilled that it's so close by. The other night, we gorged on fig and goat cheese pizza, a muffaletta sandwich, dirty rice and a whole lot of pecan pie. Welcome to the neighborhood, Tooloulou!

7. How 'bout them O's? Seriously, how about them? We're not huge baseball fans but I love all the energy around the Orioles right now. It's so fun. We took Dixon to his first game recently. Though he lost steam somewhere around the fourth inning, he was quite taken with the swag - and the food. His new fave snack: the pretz-cho. Soft pretzels, nacho cheese...what more could you really want?

8. Busting out the good stuff. Back in early 2006, just before I found out I was pregnant, we started buying Bordeaux futures from Wells. All of a sudden, this year, we realized that it was just about time to start actually drinking some of those wines, including the 2003 Cap de Faugeres - a part of our first big purchase. Early in August, we celebrated Mary's birthday with dinner at our house and a couple bottles of the wine. It was delicious, of course, and felt very special. It's weird to start actually drinking something you've been cellaring for years. Makes dinner feel super fancy.

9. Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes (in the center). We are growing them - successfully - but I also can't help buying them. They're just so gorgeous. And they taste so good. I'm in a rush to eat as many as possible before this gorgeous time of year ends.

Because it is ending...and soon. Dixon goes back to school next week and we will be back in our regular routines. I'm ready for the structure and I love the fall. But still, some days, it's easy to wish that summer would last forever.

#ertternation

Earlier this month, we went to the 35th annual Ertter Family Reunion, otherwise known around these parts as "Mary's family reunion." Mary grew up in a small town about an hour outside Pittsburgh; her parents still live there, as do a whole bunch of other relatives.

The reunion, which we've been lucky enough to go to three times, is held on a big piece of Ertter land just across the street from Mary's parents' house. There's a pool and an old tennis court (which becomes beer pong central at night) and a pavilion next to a giant fire pit. There are grapevines and blueberry bushes and apple trees...and overall, it's just awesome.

This year, right after we arrived, I jumped right into a wine tasting lead by one of Mary's cousins (I think - there are a lot of people and sometimes it's hard to tell exactly how they're all related). The guy who leads the tasting sells wine in Ohio - and he totally knows his stuff. This year, it included about 20 wines, half white, half red, and an interesting selection of similar varietals from different parts of the world. We'd taste a red syrah/grenache from Spain, for example, then follow it with a similar blend from California. It was great.

Other highlights included cheese-stuffed, grilled peppers topped with cheese (and so much butter), the zillions of salads, apps and desserts the family makes and, as ever, a Genessee beer truck.

We make a nice little road trip out of it, too. On the way to PA, we stopped at Family Meal to have breakfast with Sarah G. (My goat cheese and caramelized onion omelet was lovely but the potatoes - so crazy crispy - are the thing not to miss.)

During another stop, Cooper picked up the weirdest local birch beer - it tasted like wintergreen Lifesavers - and I had the probably not that exciting epiphany that Martin's Potato Rolls are a Pennsylvania product. (I just think of them as global. Who doesn't love a potato roll?)

On the way home, we stopped at Bedford Diner, where last year we had a surprisingly amazing breakfast. Unfortunately, this year's experience was not as good - thanks in part to a waitress who probably shouldn't be working in a diner (she was so scattered). But, just like last year, the scrapple I ordered was magical. Seriously, some of the best ever, and I consider myself a connoisseur.

As always, it was a weekend filled with so many laughs, so much fun, and so much love. We're so lucky to not only have great friends - our friends also have great families.

Gluten-Free and Glorious

Gluten-free eating is kind of a big deal these days, huh? According to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, about 1% of the population has celiac disease - a condition for which a completely gluten-free diet is the only treatment. But on top of that, a 2012 Mayo Clinic survey found that about 6% of the population has some sort of gluten sensitivity. And on top of that, there are a whole lot of other people who like trendy diets - and being gluten-free is definitely on trend.

Fortunately, I do not fall in that 1% or the 6% or the trendy diet category, either. I love gluten and will continue to inhale floury food products at every possible opportunity. So it is with some interest that I report this: I made two gluten-free meals this week. And I liked them.

The first (pictured on the top right) was grilled chicken over a salad of tomatoes, herbs, grilled corn and scallions, all doused in jalapeno-lime dressing. The recipe came from the August issue of Food and Wine - and it was good. It made good use of what we're growing and all of the summery flavors were fantastic. I liked it even more as lunch the next day, served taco-style with tortillas (not gluten-free).

That meal was sort of a gluten-free accident - I just wanted to make the dinner and wasn't thinking at all about gluten. But Wednesday night, when we had Tommy and his lady friend Sarah over for dinner, I was more careful. Sarah is both gluten-free and dairy-free, which means I got a quick grocery store lesson in everything that has some trace of milk or wheat. Which, for at least one defeated moment when I discovered that gluten-free bread crumbs include dry milk, felt like everything.

But in reality, it's not everything and we ended up having a really good dinner. To start, my trusty go-to heart of palm dip with plantain chips, cucumbers, artichokes and peppers. For the entree, rockfish (from Conrad's), rubbed with olive oil and marinated in white wine and herbs from the garden, plus heirloom tomato relish over corn grits (made with Earth Balance vegan "butter"), and sauteed spinach and garlic.

And for dessert, a selection of chocolate from Pure Chocolate by Jinji, the local vegan chocolatier that just opened up a stand in Belvedere Square. The chocolate is crazy rich - a little goes a long way - but it also looks so pretty that I wanted to buy everything.

It was good! All of it! And as far as I know, Sarah is still standing, which means I didn't accidentally slip any gluten or dairy into the mix.

Reading labels so carefully adds an extra layer of complexity to cooking. I don't envy those with gluten sensitivities - not at all. But at least these days, it's possible to eat a good meal without gluten.

Especially, of course, in August.

National Farmer's Market Week

Isn't August the best? Everything from that picture above came from my yard - and became our dinner last night.
I love this month.

I also love that this week is National Farmers' Market Week. I might have missed it -
but fortunately, I was alerted by Bridget Forney, one of my favorite local food PR ladies.
She emailed to let me know that Mark Tracey, the executive chef at Roland Park Place,
will be doing a live cooking demo at the Keswick Farmers' Market tomorrow (August 5th),
starting at 11 a.m. It sounds like it's going to be a blast!

Ahhh...August. These are the times I need to remember next March, when we're
on our fifth snow day and everything is gray. August...it comes every year.

Beach

This was taken on Monday, after stand-up paddleboarding but before Alicia and Kyle's water ballet performance, set to a group rendition of "Someone Like You" by Adele. We are multi-talented.

Our beach week is winding down - Kyle and Mary are already gone - and we are collectively preparing ourselves for real-world reentry. There's been a lot of the photo above - drinking by the pool in bathing suits. For the grown-ups, not the kids.

Also, togetherness. A lot of togetherness. It is, I think, rare to find a group of friends that can vacation together and still want to hang out by the end of the week. Was there a point this morning when we collectively agreed that next year, we'd like to bring muzzles for both the kids and the adults? Yes, there was. Am I currently in my room, alone, with the door shut, avoiding everyone? Yes, I am. But will I be sad and miss everyone when I wake up in Baltimore on Sunday morning? Totally.

More to follow on the food, bevs and festivities. It's been a great week.

Crabby Birthday

Alicia and Maggie returned from their six-week Keuka Lake sojourn just in time to celebrate her birthday...then get ready to go on vacation again (this is known among our friends as "Alicia's vacation preparing for vacation").

She came back on the 5th and on the 6th - her actual birthday - we celebrated with crabs (from Conrad's) and LBLLs and a pretty cake from Graul's.

We ended up with about eight leftover crabs, which I found in our refrigerator the next morning. I picked them (so slowly - I am the slowest crab-picker but I am very thorough) and turned them into a lovely crab and corn chowder.

I used this recipe to start, though I amped it up with fresh corn, more crab and way more salt. And it was good!

Crabs - they're the best.