One hitch in our plans actually ended up being the fortuitous impetus for this post: we missed our noon car rental reservation, because we were late and they closed at noon. (Who closes at noon?) Thus, we were forced to cab it up to the house from the Kingston bus station, making a pit stop at the Phoenicia deli for provisions, and possibly stranding ourselves in the mountains for the weekend.
We picked up some sandwich materials for lunch, some dry pasta and prepared pasta sauce for dinner, and placed them on the counter. We were 3 bucks short. While digging and scrounging for $3 worth of change in our respective purses*, two words rose out of the fog of my hungover brain: Quickfire Challenge. "Screw the sauce!" we cried, throwing caution and purse lint to the wind, and applauding our ingenuity.
*Admittedly too dainty a name for our huge crapbags full of essentials and nonessential garbage.
Delicious mountain sandwich. Turkey and muenster on toasted rye, w/mustard and mayo. [Full disclosure: this photo was staged. I wolfed down my first sandwich before realizing that I wanted to post about the trip, and so was obliged to create a new 'picture sandwich,' with cutely criss-crossed cornichons. And eat that one, too. The sacrifices I make.]Isn't it wonderful how a 2 hour bus ride, 1 hour cab ride, and unfortunate mishaps can turn a simple thing like turkey on rye into such a beautiful, glorious thing? It was.
Kitchen Stadium (I know, mixing my cooking show references. I'm capricious like that.)
The Challenge: Make a delicious meal using spaghetti as the main ingredient, and only what was found in the pantry and fridge. Thankfully, neither of us opted to use the marhsmallows.
Susan's Cold Soba-Inspired Spaghetti Salad: did not taste good. I won't say what went in it, because I think this is something that should never be replicated. But I got points for carving radish flowers, and making little scallion wispies for aesthetic appeal. I was going for a "Summertime Garden" sort of look.
Susan's Simple & Tasty Spaghetti: onions, garlic, olive oil, salt/pepper, dry oregano, dash of lemon juice, fresh tomatoes, and turkey bacon. I played it safe this time, and it ended up pretty tasty, indeed. Not revelatory, but it did the job. It took everything I had to resist covering the whole thing in cheese.Lisa, however, did not show such restraint.
Lisa's Spaghetti Casserole Surprise: the surprise was cheese. Gobs and gobs of 3 kinds of melted cheese. Like grilled cheese, but with spaghetti instead of bread. Lisa's an artist. It's conceptual.
Lisa's "Wakey Wakey Eggs & Bakey" Appetizer: the "bakey" is actually hot dogs, not bacon - but she's so adorable, who cares? She also cheated by making 2 dishes not using spaghetti, but the judges [ourselves] were willing to let it slide, since it meant not having to eat anymore spaghetti.
Lisa's Fiesta Salad Surprise: Lisa does not like predictable food. I'm actually uncertain what the 'surprise' was this time. Vegetables? Interestingly, her appetizer that supplanted bacon with hot dogs did not contain the word 'surprise' in the name.She also stole that radish tulip from my dish.
In the end, we both won. Duh. We also had a lot of fun making quippy, Top Chef Judge-esque remarks like, "I can appreciate what you were trying to achieve here, but the flavors just weren't there." Lisa was a lot more ruthless than that - she was playing Gail Simmons.
Endless fun. Yes, we are nerds.
And now, some gratuitous idyllic nature shots of the gorgeous creek and swimming hole where we spent hours lying around like happy manatees (do manatees lie around?).
Nature
We watched that dude (scampering on the bottom right) catch a big fish. It was pretty neat.
Crick
(In the neck of the woods that was populated by tired nation on the fly...)
Swimmin' Hole...too cold for swimmin'.
I played tic-tac-toe with myself. It was a cat's game, which was a relief.
Fun Time House
Phoenicia, NY
oh i just figured out how to leave comments.
ReplyDeletethat was an awesome post! so sad the soba-inspired noodles were not good. phoenicia rocks!
ReplyDelete(how was that, does that sound like me?)
hahaha. no, but thanks for the effort.
ReplyDeleteNice capture of an unplanned, off-the-cuff experience; really some of the best things human life offers but often considered too unremarkable to write about.
ReplyDeleteAlso thanks for the random old dime-store Pavement quote, which totally fit.
Aw, thanks, Seth! And thanks for reading!
ReplyDeletePavement is almost always apropos...in my world, anyway.