Away for the Weekend

Frog in the Lily Pond at our host's place in the Berkshires

Even a so-called cheap house party weekend can add up: gas, food for the group, wine for the group, entertainment, meals en route.  I figure the outlay for around $230.00 in total for  three days.  Not bad, actually if divided by day.  I took along some pecan pie bars, which are actually to die for, and an "antipasto salad," of pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, proscuitto and provlone and salami.  This is an Emeril Lagasse recipe and it serves ten and is really good, probably less than $1 a serving.  The pecan pie bars consist of a shortbread crust (with brown sugar), baked and a pecan mixture (more butter and brown sugar) poured over the hot crust.  It makes about 28 bars if you don't cut them too big.  Very rich, so nice little pieces are fine. 


Our host made a wonderful pork loin, part broiled, part baked and part smoked, with plenty of garlic cloves.  I took a head of my fresh organic garlic and some tomatoes, too.  We just have to stop in Stockbridge, MA at the Red Lion Inn every so often for lunch in the courtyard.  A beautiful warm day, and nice wine and food.   We like the Saturday morning rehearsal at Tanglewood, for only $17.00 a head.  We had a nice picnic with the antipasto salad, the bars and some leftover pork and tomato/cuke/onion salad from the night before.  Oh yes, and wine.  


We could easily have spent 3 times as much on lodging, Tanglewood tickets, and eating out.  I did buy a CD of the Silk Road Ensemble which I've enjoyed at home already.  This is our only vacation this summer, except for my two days in Georgia visiting relatives.  I went to a wonderful party in the country where the host served is own (Angus) beef, his corn, his tomatoes, his okra, his figs and his peppers.  It was a very special evening.  Somewhere miles east of Athens.  The evening before, I partook of homemade peach ice cream.  Life is good in the summertime.  
We had insalata Caprese for lunch.  Home grown basil and home grown tomatoes.  I suppose I could make my own mozzarella, but that sounds like work.  
Last night we grill chicken dressed in fines herbes and seven different veggies.  Enough for a second dinner.  I have one (1) cantaloupe from a plant that was supposed to be a cucumber.  Go figure. 

I hope you have a garden.  The frogs and bees and hummingbirds, the butterflies and even the cheeky chipmunks make it a living spot where flora and fauna and exist.  
Yesterday, a brown creeper came in the kitchen window and existed the living room.  I heard a commotion in the kitchen and one of the cats was most uncharacteristically on the counter.  Bird had enough sense to leave when we opened the door. 

Yours in sometime frugality

The Cheeseparer