Sounds of Relaxation from the Lake

Before we left for the lake, we had some prep work to do.

Remember those brown bananas from the other day?

I used them in the kitchen on Saturday. I did my baking in the fabulous apron that Katie of Sweet Tater gave me for our housewarming gift.

Pre-baking.

I turned those brown bananas into homemade banana bread using this recipe, but with some substitutions. We were out of spelt flour so I used all whole wheat pastry flour. Plus I subbed almonds for pecans.

Hubby whipped up a fabulous lunch using one of the books we received from our housewarming party.

We had grilled, seasoned shrimp with a roasted pepper/avocado/creamy sauce, plus micro-ed frozen veggies and deeeelicious, tender, wondrous Virginia roll (gosh these things just melt in your mouth!).

I had most of our stuff laid out in advance: books to read (In Defense of Food, Thrive, The Gentle Art of Domesticity), magazines to leisure over (Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, Grill It), plus snacks and eats: Kashi crackers, Larabars, fruit & nut mix, Barney Butter, chocolate cookies, bread, and Virginia rolls.

We ended up bringing a lot more food for the dinner we offered to cook for our family, plus 3 bottles of wine, cheese and other goodies.

The lake is really nice. There’s a little creek near us that I can hear from some places around the house.

The music of the creek meandering away is so relaxing! I feel like maybe I should record it and slap it on a CD that I could sell for millions!

Yea, I’d call it “Sounds of Relaxation from the Lake”. C’mon, you know you want the CD already.

Bailey is having  a grand time exploring.

Turns out our lakehouse does not have wi-fi. *sad face* So, hubby and I took his laptop to the local pub where they do have wi-fi to download Windows LiveWriter. I must admit, I’m an apple girl myself, but I do love LiveWriter for blogging – it’s the best tool I’ve used.

Hubby and I enjoyed a brewskie to kick off our vacay. Yuengling was our choice brew.

We headed back to the lake house later for dinner. We were actually supposed to cook dinner the first night but we ran into 2 fatal flaws with our plan:

1. We needed aluminum foil, which was in hubby’s sister’s car (since we forgot to bring our own).
2. The dinner I planned was vegetarian since hubby’s sister and her fam are all vegetarians. They were a few hours behind us and wouldn’t be there in time for dinner.

Though the local pub was actually kind enough to give us a piece of aluminum foil, we decided to save our vegetarian dinner for Sunday night when our vegetarian side of the family could really enjoy it.

We ended up having some arugula and baby spinach salad.

Tortellini with red sauce and a mini meatball.

Plus hubby and I split one of those irresistible Virginia rolls.

My banana bread made a guest appearance for dessert.

PS Note almond and flaxseed topping. I took a cue from Mama Pea and added the flaxseeds and subbed the pecans for almonds. (Last time I just used pecans).

I must say, I think I am now addicted to zucchini bread. I remember the first time I heard someone say zucchini bread. I was a kid and I didn’t like vegetables, so of course, “zucchini bread” sounded quite “gross” to 8 yr old moi. When someone told me zucchini bread tasted like banana bread, I decided to give it a shot and I found out that zucchini bread, though made with “icky” vegetables was actually quite tasty. Of course, it wasn’t until I made my own loaf several days ago that I really fell in love. And now…I think I actually prefer zucchini bread over banana bread! Who knew!

I had a giant piece.

Which I enjoyed with some of my magazines. Ahhh…the simple pleasures of vacation. Enjoying homemade eats at a cozy lakehouse whilst perusing the magazines I never have time to read. Yessssss!

What kinds of food do you bring to your vacations (where you rent homes and have space to bring food)?