Anyone for Tennis?

You know summer in New York is coming to an end when the US Open begins the Monday before Labor Day. For me, going to the US Open is a favorite annual ritual. It's got everything: triple match points, shopping at Ralph Lauren and my personal favorite, courtside cocktails! This year, our seats at Arthur Ashe were great; we were practically on top of the players. In fact, we were sitting right behind Andy Roddick's wife, Brooklyn Decker, who was cheering him on as he easily trounced Stephane Robert. In addition to Roddick, we got to see two of my favorites, Melanie Oudin and Kim Clijsters.

Tennis and I go way back. From the age of 12, I was my dad's doubles partner and I played on the team all through high school, ending up as #1 my senior year. I liked the strategy and the psychological component of it. To win, you've got to psych yourself up! That said, I was happy to give it up when I graduated and, not incidentally, got kicked off the team for insubordination. (In my experience, high school sports are all about conformity of the most draconian kind).

So, tennis. It's kind of like opera: I love it, but I prefer to be a spectacter rather than a performer. Plus the cocktails are better on this side!

Bandu on the Roof

So I was walking along, minding my own business in Central Park when I saw something odd on the roof of the Met Museum.
Looks like a giants birds nest! Like anyone who adores birds, I had to get closer. So I popped into the museum, took the elevators to the roof and stumbled into the best Friday evening party in town!

Shapely Vegetables from my CSA

Not too shabby for 20 bucks a week!

Purslane, a tart, succulent green, was a first for me. My brother Chris made a purslane salad with tart yogurt, mint and thyme from the rooftop garden. Simple and delicious!

4th of July Midwest style

My brother Chris returned from his Europe jaunt, full stories, and we decided it was high time to visit our other sibling in Wisconsin and his baby, who is 9 months old and absolutely beautiful. So we spent Fourth of July in the Midwest, first in Milwaukee, where we saw our gorgeous nephew, A.

He's the first grandchild on both sides of the family and is universally adored! We toured a brewery (which you've gotta do in Milwaukee), stopped by a cheese shop (cheese curds!) and enjoyed frozen custard (awesome!). Where can I get frozen custard in New York? Anyone know?

Then we drove to Michigan, where we visited our grandparents and attended my friend M's wedding celebration. Her celebration, which doubled as a 30th birthday party for both the bride and the groom, was at a park on the most beautiful day imaginable. She had a yellow and white striped tent and served delicious barbecue where guest brought sides dishes. As befits a guest just in from Wisconsin, I contributed the smelly cheese platter. After the barbecue, there was rugby, frisbee activity and swimming. How many brides can say they went for a swim at their own wedding? So cool! That's just the kind of bride she is!

Salty Dogs on the Roof

At our first braai of the season, held, as always, on our rooftop, we served the usual: hot dogs, burgers, roasted vegetable kebabs, chicken kebabs, roasted corn, barbecued chicken, lemon and herb potato salad, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, lemonade and Cape Town Collins. My favorite new recipe was for Salty Dogs, a tart refreshing vodka cocktail. (Technically, it's a Greyhound with vodka instead of gin and a salty rim.)

Ingredients:

• 2 oz vodka
  
• 4 oz grapefruit juice
• coarse kosher salt
  
• lemon for garnish
  

Preparation:

1. Rim the glass with salt and lemon juice
   
2. Pour the ingredients into an ice cube filled collins glass
3. Stir
   
4. Garnish with a lemon wedge

It's my favorite new drink of the summer. Enjoy!

PS We were also going to serve homemade ice cream at our braai, but, as it turns out, our icecream maker--which is the old fashioned bucket kind that screetches and makes a mess rather than the dainty William Sonoma model--is a lemon. Guess this warrents another trip to our favorite dry goods store in Pennsylvania!

Pa, reprise

And here we are back in Pennsylvania. This weekend we attended my cousin's wedding at an Amish church in southeastern Pa. This gave us an excuse to enjoy an extended weekend in Pa, doing what we do best: shopping and eating! Eats included stacks of blueberry pancakes, peanut butter pancakes, waffles, veggie omelets, Eggs Benedict (bacon on the side), scrambled eggs with sausage, quiche, apple dumplings with ice cream and corn fritters with maple syrup. And that was just breakfast--lunch and dinner were equally extensive.

As for shopping, we got enough dry goods to weather the apocalypse, which J. anticipates with glee. I swear, we must have a year's supply of rice and beans in our pantry! We also purchased an ice cream maker, the old fashioned bucket kind, so we can try our hand at making ice cream for our next braai on the roof. When I was a kid, I got homemade ice cream at every birthday and beyond--there's nothing as delicious as a Pepsi float (hey, it was the Philippines, no root beer to be had!) made with homemade ice cream.


The wedding itself, on a hot Saturday afternoon, was absolutely beautiful and it was a treat to see my Pennsylvania Dutch relatives. There are always newborn second cousins (my cousins' children) to meet and new gossip to hear, like which of my cousins has started dating. It's a vast family--my father was one of seven children, I have 30+ cousins, and now my cousins have started building their own, large families--and I only see them at family gatherings held at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love their old world way of life: canning produce from the kitchen garden, sewing clothes by hand, baking their own bread. Some days, I wish I lived that way. It would be a respite from my silly urban life where I run hither and thither.

Green Hills of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is one of our favorite spots to visit on a long weekend like Memorial Day. It's green, there's lots of beautiful produce to buy, enormous buffets of farm-style cooking to devour, antiques to peruse, furniture to commission and friends to see.

This is our very favorite place to order furniture, C&S Rustic Furniture, on Route 897. It's a family business, and the Amish guys, as we call them, will make any wooden piece that we dream up. J. is in the market for a new desk, and this fall we have our sights on a kitchen renovation, meaning that we will need lots of wooden cabinets. These days, they are too busy picking strawberries, zucchini and tomatoes to do much carpentry, so we'll have to wait for our pieces. After a long weekend of eating, shopping, and hanging out by the swimming pool we head back to Brooklyn...only to come to a dead stop in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike. I forget how bad traffic is every year, and every year I say "I'm never going to do that again!" But I do.