Sometime even a foodie needs a weekend off.  By this I mean that I have been surrounded by amazing dishes to request the recipes for and photograph, but I have not. (D likes to publicly complain that he hasn’t enjoyed a hot taste of food since I started this blogging thing).

We arrived Friday evening at the beach house to a bulging platter of grilled chicken Thai salad served on the deck.  We did not even unpack the car-just tucked into the meal, wine and an oportunity to get caught up on family news of who was going to be out at our three cottages, who was travelling where this weekend and anecdotes from our youngest family member who had just had a marvellous 2 week vacation.  “Auntie-ask me what grade I going into?” (He’s 2).  “What grade are you going into this fall Colton?”  His answer: “grade Home and Miss Mommy’s gonna be my teacha!”

Daughter #2 and her Frenchman drove Grandma out and got to join us for 24 hours before they headed to his home town for the next eight days.  Sister #2 made them eggs benedict as a send off.  Her poached eggs are perfectly cooked, the English muffins toasted so that they are not too doughy and she tops them off with with an extra generous ladle of bernaise sauce. 

Almost immediately cleaning up from brunch, D got supper going.  He fired up the barbie and I chopped up the veggies to add to the roaster for ribs.  He had marinated them in apple cider.  He covered the roaster and then closed the barbie lid and left them there for the entire after noon.  When we walked back and forth on the road that links our cottages, we caught the aroma and knew that supper would be a treat.  He drained and cooled them and then put them back on the grill to brush with barbeque sauce and more splashes of apple cider.  Soon after supper, he was at the stove again making his Mom’s hot fudge sauce recipe which is a much requested cottage dessert.   

This morning there is the annual pancake breakfast at the sports field as it is homecoming weekend at Lester Beach.  We are opting instead for salami denvers when D gets home from tennis with the guys from Grand Beach and our son and wife arrive from the city.  He has just been to the airport to drop off his sister and pick up his wife.  She has been away on a mission trip to the Domincan Republic.  Sister #3 is vacationing in Bejing.  Sister #2 is grouting a mirror that she has decorated with beach glass for their not yet built cottage that will provide the fourth property of our vacation compound. 

There are beach towels drying on the railing, newspapers and open novels lying around, a big white lab sleeping in thse sun, bouguets of day lilies attracting bees and a cool breeze in the surrounding birch and pine-life is good.  Is very good indeed.

Kath’s quote: “A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish.”-W. H. Auden

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