(The companion post, if you will.)
I asked G to put together a menu of food for the past weekend with Neil and Damaris visiting. Sometimes I just hate planning meals! I was initially skeptical of the list G sent me which included, for example, one lunch of kielbasa, cheese, and hotdogs. But you know what? We had kielbasa and cheese from N & D as a snack with some wine (D and me) and then before we left for the game, we split a couple hot dogs.
So maybe there is something to his meal planning accuracy that I underestimated.
For the fourth of July BBQ (post-golf), G wanted steaks and potato salad. Now, I’m not really a potato salad kind of person. I’m not really a ‘salad’ kind of person unless you mean the lettuce kind and not the mayonnaise kind. And I’ve made that mistake more than once in a restaurant. So I set off to find a new potato salad recipe that was mayo-free (and preferably something G could whip up). We ended up with a recipe of food network for grilled (that means G!) potatoes tossed with red onion, naval oranges, olive oil, red wine vinaigrette, steak seasoning, and arugula. I already want the salad again.
G was two for two. (And I haven’t even mentioned that he made red, white, and blue pancakes on the grill that morning!) It was a delicious food weekend with the only disappointment being our requisite trip to Skippers which was a bust. They’re closed on Mondays. Even holiday Mondays. Who knew?
We kept busy over the weekend (besides just eating) with the baseball game on Saturday (Nats win! Nats win!) followed by Cbeach fireworks in the Bay. To say we underestimated the popularity and magnitude of this event would be, well, an understatement. On Saturday, we did a small portion of the Fossils and Farmscapes Calvert County driving tour (driven by G, directed by me). We really needed an entire day to do this and cut out the entire second half to make it to our scheduled late lunch in Solomons, but even the first few hours showed us new parts of Calvert (and a surprisingly good pinot grigio from a local winery). After lunch, we hightailed it back to the house to change into our best knee-length shorts for 18 holes at Twin Shields. I wouldn’t say it was the best golf that course has seen, but there were some pretty good shots to go around. (As for our putting, well… yeesh.) After golf was our July 4th cookout. On Monday we went to North Beach and enjoyed the Hot Hot Sun and the very warm water. (I don’t think I’ve ever felt sand that hot. It was unwalkable!)
All in all, it was a very Maryland weekend. We had a great time with another family visit and another beautiful cloud-free weekend of sunshine.
But it has officially become too hot for fun. It’s somewhere close to 150 degrees out. So hot that Starbucks has been closed twice this week due to a malfunctioning a/c and a melting supply of food and drinks. They were offering free iced coffee out front this morning, but that doesn’t really help me or my writing. And although I can write a bit in the office before work (she says with a grumble), it really doesn’t help G with his reading. He is WAY behind.
Maybe Sbucks will be open tomorrow. It’s never too hot for hot chocolate.
Sounds like a great weekend of fun!