David and I decided to leave for the Hampton's to stay with our friends Danielle, John and their adorable kids Max and Julian last weekend. This was our first trip leaving the chickens and ducks by themselves. I got home from work Friday at around 3.45pm which gave me about an hour to get everything done, pile the dogs into the car with our weekend bags, and drive to Flemington, NJ to rendezvous with David.
I had let the chickens out, so they could get some "free ranging" in, before being cooped up for the weekend. I filled numerous bowls of water and put them in the fenced area. Watered plants that would need it, and gave black cat enough food and water to survive living inside by herself.
After I loaded up the car it was time to get the birds back in their coop. They had all gathered under the hibiscus tree(one of their favorite spots). As I walked towards them to corral them towards the barn, they decided it was not time for them to go in and just ran around the base of the tree with me in tow. I got so frustrated, I picked up a branch and started hitting the tree, hoping the birds would run away. I forgot that the tree was also a feeding ground for bees. Needless to say it took about 10 seconds before I felt a sharp pain in my arm and saw something yellow and black dangling from it. I screamed which set the chickens off, and they ran right into their coop. Mission accomplished!
Next, dogs piled into the old Mercedes convertible, and off we went. Met up with David transferred everything into the suburban and headed for NYC, to have dinner with Danielle and gang before heading out to the Hampton's. Of course it being Friday, traffic at the Holland tunnel was bumper to bumper, I think it took us about an hour and a half to get from Hoboken to NYC through the tunnel:)
Got to Brooklyn and took the dogs to the dog run, and ate pizza back at the brownstone. Danielle had a "few" bags of food, and asked if she could load them in our truck. Lets just say that Costco must have had to close their doors, because she bought them out! For those of you who know this petite girl....you know what I'm talking about:)
2 hours later we arrived at their house in East Hampton's.
Saturday morning after taking the dogs, ours and their 50 pound puppy, Luca to the dog park we went into town to buy more food. Stopped at Lucy's Whey, a wonderful cheese shop. We got this amazing creamy blue cheese with a hint of hazelnut, the hint due to the cows being fed hazelnuts. I wonder how many hazelnuts they eat.........they're not cheap.
Stopped by a thrift store, yes they have them even there. Items just cost more! Got hungry and stopped to get some lunch, lobster rolls, fried oysters YUM!
Back to the house, but first a quick stop to pick up some arugula. Once back at the house I took a nap while everyone else lounged around the pool. Julian the 4 year old never tiring ball of energy decided to come into my bed to play with the dogs. I tried to get him to take a nap, but to no avail. He just ran around the room, pulling on the dogs legs, trying to get "high 5's" from them. Toby, the dachshund had this look of disdain on him, while Cooper and Milton were ever patient with him. I managed some sleep, woke up hungry and dove into the cheese we bought, combined with some other goodies, such as truffle infused salami, and olives. We grilled some shrimp that were marinated in lime pesto. After nibbling on those delights we went to the bay with the kids to go clamming. Such fun, the clams were just laying on the surface, ready for the picking. I got nibbled on by a crab, found a scallop and fished out a big ass crab! As is evident by the photo you see. Clams were rinsed and put on the grill with corn, which gave the clams a smoky flavor. I don't think I have ever had clams that fresh. This was followed by Danielle's veal chops, marinated with garlic, basil and lemons. Accompanied by my purple pole beans and great wine. Actually there was a lot of wine....:)
Danielle and I played backgammon, she whooped my butt...and now I owe her a homemade piece of art. That was our bet. Does a jar of pickles count?
Sunday morning, grrrrrr not feeling so hot. I went back to bed, while David, John kids and dogs went to the beach. They came back rather quickly, turns out since they went in our car, without beach permit it was impossible to go. beach cops were in full force handing out 150 dollar tickets. I wonder if that came with a sombrero and lounge chair.
David had stopped at Gold something Deli picked up some bagels, cream cheese, chopped liver and nova salmon....$50.00 bucks! Hampton prices.....anyway it was yummy. A few hours later, a neighbor showed up with more clams, really big ones, and a half hour later Danielle had whipped together a clam and crab chowder. Now I'm fast but this girl not only beats me at backgammon but putting gourmet foodis some fierce competition. Soup was delish, while eating it we were planning dinner. Seriously this whole weekend was a gastronomic weekend. Everything revolved around eating and planning the next meal. We decided to all pile into John and Danielle's jeep for another attempt at the beach, but not without stopping first to pick up some pistachio gelato, a bag of chips, crab dip and shrimp!
Even though it was overcast, the beach was great, it was afternoon, so not to many people were left. Except for the 2 "crazy queens" who mistakenly took Luca the puppy playing with their dog
for fighting and got all upset when Luca knocked down their "designer dog". We ate our "designer" snacks:) played with our mutt dogs, and headed back to the house, where Danielle proceeded to make burgers. A perfect ending to a perfect weekend
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