Sounds of Relaxation from the Lake

Before we left for the lake, we had some prep work to do.IMG_7143 (640x427) IMG_7151 (640x427)

Remember those brown bananas from the other day?

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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.

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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.

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

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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!).IMG_7171 (640x427)

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.

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

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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!

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

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Bailey is having  a grand time exploring.

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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.

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

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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. 🙂

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We ended up having some arugula and baby spinach salad.

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Tortellini with red sauce and a mini meatball.

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

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My banana bread made a guest appearance for dessert.

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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).

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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!

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I had a giant piece.

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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)?

9 thoughts on “Sounds of Relaxation from the Lake”

  1. That looks like a great time! You look so cute in that apron too. 🙂

    Windows Livewriter is my best friend for blogging. It makes it so much easier to organize posts and create them even when you can’t be on the internet.

    Reply

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