A holiday weekend hangover (with a dollup of Lee Greenwood)

Welcome back to the real world. After an extended weekend of eating, drinking, eating, Lee Greenwood (America - eff yea!) and eating - it's back to work time for most of us. It was actually a much quieter fourth of July weekend than usual since my travel schedule killed some of my zest for some of the late night festivities. Also, was a change to my dietary habits. Katie and I ate less meat and ventured into some more vegetarian options.

We started out the weekend by picking some strawberries at a local farm. Obviously it was at the end of the season for full, ripe strawberries, but we were able to muster up a few pints of decent pickin's and make some strawberry shortcake for dessert Saturday evening.

 On the way back from strawberry picking, we made a stop at one of my favorite ice cream joints in the country, the Ice Cream Man. If you're travels ever bring you north of Albany, it's a must stop. They've revolutionized what a milkshake should be in American pop culture. More to come on this in the next couple days.

On Sunday, Katie whipped up some fresh gazpacho andulaz with farm fresh ingredients from our local farmers markets. Even though she's Irish, she likes to add some punch to her cooking and may have put a little too much chopped jalapeno, crushed red pepper and peri-peri in the dish. Otherwise, it was pretty tasty - just needed my Peak Organic Pale Ale or two to wash it down.

Last night she made some Pesto chicken that is one of the best dishes in her repertoire. It's one of my favorite pesto recipes of all time. She makes the fresh pesto with a variety of secret ingredients and sautes the chicken so it's nice an tender. Grate it with a little fresh parmigiana and it's a classic dish. We finished our weekend with some grilled peaches and vanilla ice cream. If you want a simple, sweet and tasty treat - this is the one. Simply split some peaches in half and add a little olive oil and place on the grill with medium heat for about 3-4 minutes each side. Brush a little honey, salt and pepper and let mixture soak into the skin and add a little vanilla bean ice cream.

 

On Monday, we got our fitness on to work off a few of those hearty beers I threw down over the weekend. So, we decided to go for a hike with our Golden Retriever Lucy. For those of you not aware, the Adirondack mountains offer some of the best hiking trails in the country. Our home in Saratoga Springs sits at the foothill to these mountains. We kept the hike simple and trailed up Buck Mountain, just to the east of Lake George, NY. In the hiking world, this is about as easy at it gets. Except for a pregnant wife, a lazy golden retriever and an out-of-shape dude with a bum knee. We did end up making it to the summit and the view of Lake George was well worth it.