a friday

this morning I woke up and realized that I had no idea what day it was.  sunday?  tuesday?  friday?  I suppose.  the beautiful thing was that it didn’t matter.  I could really get used to this unemployment thing (at least until I need a new pair of shoes or want to go out for drinks or something.  somehow, I do need money and independence).

a text from my sister reminded me of our brunch date.  we decided to go to the lone diner in town – Papa Nick’s.  we’ve been coming here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner since we moved to Hinesburg in 2o00.  in addition to having really delicious creemees, they have pretty good coffee.  I tried their eggs benedict, and it was my first time ever sampling the dish (sans Canadian bacon, of course).  I thought it was delicious and I will definitely be trying my hand at egg poaching and throwing together some Hollandaise sauce.

 

 

for the past few days, my mom has been bugging my siblings and me to go pick strawberries from a nearby farm.  we have  a lovely tradition of picking a few quarts, making homemade jam with some, eating most of them, and freezing a portion to thaw on Christmas morning and eat with our holiday waffles.  while I love the idea of fresh juicy red strawberries, all warmed from an early morning sun, straight off the plant, I do not like to go out and pick them myself.  it’s hot and I always get scratched by the hay they line the fields with and one time I even got stung by a bee.  yeah…so we didn’t want to do it.  being the smart kids that we are, we found a local farm stand selling their own quarts of berries.  we probably paid a little bit more than we would have if we’d picked our own, but it was worth it.  (and check out the ‘money brick’ #onlyinVermont)

 

my sister is currently housesitting the most amazing example of the ideal Vermont house (in my opinion): big porches, open floor plan, huge property, STUNNING views, a hockey rink, in-ground pool…but really, the picture that I tweeted yesterday morning can say more than my words:

I did not complain at all while I helped her clean the pool so that we could lounge it in on this hot, sunny day.  people don’t always believe me when I say this, but Vermont rarely sees temperatures in the upper 80s and 90s, so comfortable pool and beach days don’t happen too often.  I was very happy to sip on some half & half and listen to music with the July issue of Vogue and THIS view.  seriously, ILOVERMONT.

we’ve always had the tradition of going out for Friday dinner as one big family, but as we all got older and busier this became impossible.  tonight was one of the lucky opportunities when we were all available to dine at the same time, so we decided to try Sky Burger, a relatively new restaurant on the lower end of Church St in Burlington.  I checked it out on Yelp before we went to make sure that they had vegetarian options, and I was very, very pleased with what they had available.  they have all sorts of interesting burgers and toppings for the carnivores, but they also have several salads (which you can add any burger to) and a delicious black bean burger on the regular menu.  they have a seasonal menu which had a vegetable and quinoa dish, but I opted for a black bean burger sans a bun with an extra portobello mushroom on top and fried green beans as my side.  while I wouldn’t say that any of it was especially healthy (those green beans sucked up oil but were DELICIOUS dipped in their garlic mayo), it was really tasty.  the place had a really cute modern diner feel and I would definitely hit it up again.

 

I keep having the most amazing days.  sorry.  I’ll stop bragging.

have a lovely weekend!