Little variation.

I literally ate nachos all day today.

Back.

It's been really hard to start this blog back up after such a long hiatus, but demand has been so high that I can't let it go un-updated in good conscience. Plus, I promised Katie P two entries by Saturday morning at 8 am with serious consequences if I don't deliver. I'll give no excuses concerning my laziness, I'll only say I'm going to try to do better. I'm turning over new leaves left and right starting with this one.

One of the main reasons for my absence was an actual physical absence as I went on a two week vacation to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I went with my dad, step mom and two little brothers. We had a grand old time filled with hiking, kayaking, lounging, and of course, eating. Before I left I decided I was going to take full advantage of my time away from the lure of Joe's Inn meals and try to eat healthier. I think it worked to some extent or another, although pizza was involved quite a bit. I'll get to all that eventually, for right now it's best that I start at the very beginning....a very good place to start.

We left Virginia Beach, my hometown, at about 8 pm and drove through the night in a cramped van stuffed to the gills with unnecessary items and no air conditioning. After awkward attempts at sleeping with a seatbelt choking me in the oddest places we arrived in Tilton, New Hampshire, home of my dad's step mother, at about 9 am. Before the obligatory visit with her, we went to our favorite breakfast place to re energize. Pauli's is this tiny diner in the heart of the very small town of Tilton. From the outside it looks like not much, with a cartoonish painting of eggs and bacon on the outside window. The inside, however, is chock full of options. Their menu is huge with every breakfast combo you could ever want, including kielbasa polish sausage. Where do you ever see that on a menu? Kielbasa takes me back to my childhood where my mom would boil some up with potatos and carrots and we would sit down with an array of dipping sauces and go to town. In addition to Kielbasa, and other breakfast meats, Pauli's makes their own toast with the options of white, wheat, dark rye, cinnamon raisin, and anadama. Anadama, you may ask? I was also curious and decided to try it. Anadama bread, as I later looked up in my food lover's companion is a traditional bread of New England made with flour, cornmeal, and molasses. My book also spouts an old wives tale concerning the origin of the name. "This bread was created by a New England farmer plagued by a lazy wife who served him the same cornmeal-molasses gruel every day. One morning, the disgusted farmer grabbed the bowl of gruel, tossed in some flour and yeast, and began stirring like crazy, all the while muttering angrily, 'Anna, damn 'er.'" How do you like that? Anyway, the point is...this bread was out-of-control delicious. I can't stop thinking about it. I wonder if anyone makes it around Richmond. I guess I could always look. In addition to toast, for my actual meal I got a huge veggie omelet that I shared with my step mom Kema. It was delicious. One bummer is that in New England when you ask for hot sauce, the only kind anyone really has is Tabasco. Not my fave, but it had to do. After Pauli's, full and happy as clams, my family piled back into the van and went to my grandmother's. Upon arriving we discovered that not only had she forgotten entirely that we were coming, but she was also headed out to lunch. We figured it was best to just pretend that we hadn't just eaten without her, so feigned hunger and went along with her to her favorite haunt, The Soda Shoppe. I ordered a house salad and cottage cheese and everyone else got soup or something small, with the exception of my growing teenage brother Nick who ordered a 20 $ fried seafood extravaganza. He proved to be a serious hog for the rest of the trip, eating everything that crossed his path.

After parting company with my grandmother, we happily moved on to our true destination, North Conway, New Hampshire where we rent a lake house from a family friend. After settling in and of course a few hours between meals we decided to celebrate our arrival by going to our favorite restaurant in town. Flatbread Pizza is an absolutely delicious pizza place with all natural ingredients and a huge brick oven right in the middle of the dining room. We usually go to this place a couple of times during the vacation and this time was no exception. This first time we went I got one of their yummy house salad made with mesculin greens with celery, carrots, seaweed and sesame seeds. It's tossed in this fruit juice dressing made with lots of garlic and pepper. We also got quite a few pizzas between us and ate them vehemently like the plane was going down. One of the specials this night in particular was a veggie pizza with fresh mozzarella, basil, and balsamic vinegar. MMMMMMMM. I have not a bad word to say about this place. I also had wine.

We spent the next few days hiking and swimming and participating in various outside activities. If there's one thing necessary after vigorous physical exercise it's a delicious meal. My stepmother did not disappoint. One night she made her famous corn cheddar chowder served with cornbread and a big homemade salad. The meal went by wonderfully until, purely out of good humor, I poured a little hot sauce in my brothers soup bowl, and he freaked out and stormed out of the room. If he had just given it a try he would have realized how delicious it was. Both of my brothers drove me crazy with their blatant refusal to try new things. I guess when I was that age I was probably the same way. Hopefully, eventually they'll come around. Another night Kema made steamers and grilled scallops with rice and grilled vegetables. Steamers, if you don't know, are basically just steamed clams. Honestly, I wasn't too in love with them, but I did enjoy the act of pulling them out of their shells, dipping them in hot water to get rid of the grit, and then dipping them in butter and hot sauce. The scallops however, were something else entirely. She marinated them first in coconut milk, lemongrass, ginger, and chili paste. I poured the remaining marinade over the rice and veggies and ate it hungrily. Yum.

About halfway through our trip, my good buddy Nicholas, who recently moved to Boston, decided to grace us with his presence. He drove up on a Saturday morning, about two and a half hours out of the city, and met me at the lake house. My parents were running errands at that moment and we took advantage of that time to prepare for the day by going to Dunkin' Donuts. I LOVE Dunkin' Donuts. Can I just say that? I love how New England has them on every corner, I love their coffee, I love Coolattas, I love their wide variety of bagels and muffins, not to mention the glazed namesake. Why Starbucks exists here in Richmond and not DD is beyond me. Anyway, Nicholas got himself a little egg sandwich and I got a coffee, but secretly also a bite of his sandwich. I also was kind enough to pick up donuts for my little brothers. When we got back to the house my parents were home and we all decided to go on a hike and show Nicholas what vacation is all about. After a long day of hiking, then lake swimming and kayaking, Nicholas and I went to Flatbread and feasted hard. We also drank beer. One of the pizzas we got was a BBQ chicken pizza with free range chicken and red onions. I have definitely gotten Nicholas onto the Flatbread train. Hopefully he will take advantage since he lives around where it is. The next day, Nicholas planned to leave, but with my stepmom's powers of persuasion, not to mention the beautiful day looming outside, we convinced him to call in sick to work and stay for one more night. To celebrate his decision we cooked up some eggs scrambled with cheese and various vegetables and some bacon. It doesn't sound like much, but for two unprofessional chefs like ourselves, who barely can cook ramen, this was quite a feat. The eggs were a little dry, and the bacon a little wet, but otherwise, a good solid meal. After that, we went on a serious hike up a mountain that took us about four or five hours. By the time we got back to the house we knew we had earned a feast fit for kings and queens alike. My brother proved his mettle by grilling ribs. Yes, that's right. Ribs. He cooked up two huge racks and splayed them on the table for us like a hunter showing off his prey. We dove right in with all of our hunger building up inside, with no thoughts to the future or the past, until we realized there was not a single napkin or paper towel in the entire house. Boy, you should have seen our faces. A motley crew if ever there was one. After that dinner, my stepmom put the icing on the cake by mixing up some frappes. Frappe is the new england name for a thick ice cream milkshake. It's one of our vacation staples that Kema usually makes with black raspberry ice cream. After sucking those down every last person went into a food induced coma and didn't wake until the next morning.

For Nicholas' last meal, we went to a little place that I had seen many times on the drive to town and always admired the outside of. Peaches, is an cute little breakfast/lunch spot inside of a cottage with big windows facing the street enclosing a little porch. It is, as you can imagine, painted a lovely peach color and has an adorable sign out front with...you guessed it, a peach. Sometimes I am such a sucker for adorable things. It did not disappoint upon entering. The whole place is like a doll house, with lace curtains and silver urns. The hostess was a grandmotherly type while all the waitresses were cute girls. Georgia peaches, if you will. Nicholas dug them. I dug the menu. We decided we definitely needed to get some pancakes. They had a wide variety of different options including the standard chocolate chip and blueberry flavors, but also peaches and cream, and pina colada pancakes. We went a little bold and got 'very berry.' For my main meal, I got a breakfast quesadilla and Nicholas got a chicken crepe. They were both good and we did half and half. I think we may have gotten a bit too daring, but that's sort of par for the course for me at least. They had a whole boatload of other items on their menu that looked absolutely delicious and for the rest of the trip I tried to convince my family to go back, but we never did.

After Nicholas left, we continued on with our vacation fun and kept eating. My family is huge into snacks. There's always someone eating a pretzel or digging around in the bottom of a cracker box, even more so when I'm around. Near the end of the trip we went to town and ate pizza again and on the way out stopped off at this great little general store, Zebs. It has every jam, pickled item, syrup, hot sauce, candy, salsa, you could ever want. It also has a number of cheesy wall hangings and tee shirts. I love it. The woman who rents us our lake house actually works at Zeb's and hooks us up. I went a little nuts with buying food items. I figured I'd pass them off as gifts for friends and then ask for bites. I bought Lisa pineapple chipotle salsa, a chocolate 'moose patty,' and pickled fiddleheads. A fiddlehead, if you've never had one, is a strange bird..although not an actual bird. Not knowing quite what it was, but purely out of curiosity, I bought a jar last year and ate the entire thing. Looking it up now, it is the unfurled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption. They are very odd, but the way they pickle them at Zeb's is quite a flavor experience. Anyway, I bought Dawn some spicy mustard, Ryan some buffalo summer sausage, Leslie some maple syrup taffy, etc. I also got a bunch of just random stuff to bring to work and share; peach hot sauce, mango lime salsa, corn relish, more fiddleheads, etc. They have tons of candy and fudge too, but I barely touched the tip of the iceberg with those options. There's always next year.

All in all, a great vacation with perfect company, ideal weather, magnificent scenery, and tasty treats.