My son and his gf had let me know a few weeks ago that they were going to come for a visit on Sunday and stay over one night, since neither were working on that Monday. As soon as they walked in the door on Sunday late morning, SURPRISE! They announced their engagement. We are very happy and excited for them. I'm gaining something new . . . a daughter-in-law! She is probably the sweetest, most lovely young woman I have ever met, so I am beyond thrilled.
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| We had made reservations for brunch in Hudson, a very charming town. Another new thing for me is brunch. It's just not something my husband and I ever think to do, even though it's gained in popularity the last few years. We toasted to the engaged couple with Bellinis and I had the egg white scramble bowl with roasted heirloom tomatoes. Very good! |
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Then we went to a new (to us) brewery called Missing Mountain. There were plenty of choices, so I went with the flight, of course. The one on the very left was called Prince Juice. It was a raspberry ale. If you are a fan of Prince, you will understand the reference. It did taste like juice, but it was fun to try something different. When we visit wineries and breweries, we like to bring along some board games. This time, we played In A Pickle. The goal of the game is to win card sets by connecting 4 random words in an order from small to big. For instance, Baby-Bathtub-House-Hollywood. You do not have to use the words literally, so you can argue that a baby could be inside a book or a house could be in a file. My future DIL is always a good sport about playing these types of games, even though English is not her first language.  On Friday, my husband left work early so we could try a new place for happy hour. We went to a little hole in the wall Italian restaurant. It was old school with minimal lighting and servers dressed in black with white aprons. They had $5 small plates. We tried three different ones. Pictured here is the deconstructed bruschetta and the eggplant rollatinis. We had already tried two of the rollatinis before my husband snapped this picture and we ended up ordering another plate of them. They were unbelievably good and might be the best appetizer I've ever eaten. Breaded eggplant rolled around a spinach and ricotta filling and provolone melted on top. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but we will be back!  I also did something last week that I've said I would do for the past seven years: I walked to a restaurant for dinner. When we moved here, I was excited to be close enough to walk places, being about 1.5 miles from the center of town. Places like coffee shops, ice cream, groceries, restaurants. Unfortunately, time crunch and weather seem to prohibit me (yes, those are my excuses). Anyway, I had plans to meet up with a friend for dinner and it was only 75 degrees, so I did it. I had to wear tennis shoes instead of sandals, which was the only drawback, and I'm sure I didn't smell as fresh as a daisy, but I'm glad I did it and now I know to allow 23 minutes to get there. Talking points: Do you do brunch? Play board games? Have a favorite appetizer? Walk anywhere from your home? |
Congratulations, Bijoux! This is wonderful news! I wish only the best for your son and your daughter-in-law, and you!
ReplyDeleteNot much of a brunch person myself, but I'll glad dive in if the company is good. I like that Missing Mountain brewery, though I'm a little uncertain about the Prince juice.
And bravo for walking to the restaurant! It's always a great feeling to finally do something you said you were going to.
Sounds like an exciting few days. Thanks for the update, and, once again, congratulations!
Thanks so much, Rob! And I always picture you being able to walk to just about anything you need or want to do, though I know that's not always the case. Enjoy the rest of your week, my friend.
DeleteI used to live one block from stores restaurants and the railroad in a quaint little town loved it!
ReplyDeleteMy step daughter gets married next June, exciting, but stress on my wife, I think having a son marry is a bit easier, it was for me years ago.
Still congrats, it is a great thing.
One block away would be really nice. Yes, I think this wedding will be much easier than my oldest daughter's. I doubt this one will even be a traditional ceremony, but we will see.
DeleteFirst, a HUGE congrats on your son's engagement! That's FABULOUS! And it makes it even more fabulous that you're going to love having her as your new daughter-in-law. That's great!
ReplyDeleteSecond, Hudson looks like my kind of town. OMG...it looks so cute. Kinda reminds me of Chestnut Hill, Pa. Quaint and cozy.
"They were unbelievably good and might be the best appetizer I've ever eaten. Breaded eggplant rolled around a spinach and ricotta filling and provolone melted on top."
Oh dear god in heaven, just from the photograph I can tell how delicious it was. Don't ya love Italian food?
And CHEERS to you for walking to the restaurant! Being that I live in a city, I literally walk everywhere. Anytime my brother comes to visit he always wants to take an Uber or Lyft because he feels like it's too long to walk. And I understand that because when you don't live in a city, but rather the burbs, you just automatically take your car to go places. But I like that I have to walk because it's great exercise; especially after eating because I feel as though the walking works off the food. HA!
Thanks for sharing, my friend! Enjoyed!
Thank you, my friend. We couldn't be happier! And Hudson, my bff from high school lived there for a while and I loved visiting her. She's lived all over the US and still says it was her favorite place to live. Her worst? Portland. Sorry, Mark!
DeleteI do love good Italian food! Did you notice the delicious cab next to it? Sooooo good!
Yes, when you're not used to walking, it can seem far, so I understand your brother. We really liked that San Diego was so walkable. It's nice to get fresh air and exercise. Have a super week!
Congrats on his engagement. A daughter-in-law you enjoy is a win too.
ReplyDeleteBoard games can be fun, as long as you have fun people to play with. 23 mins isn't that bad of a walk, but yeah, that long I'd probably drive.
Thanks, Pat. I feel like most people wouldn't want to walk that far to eat.
DeleteBig congratulations on your son's engagement! We count ourselves pretty blessed in the DIL department, too. . .
ReplyDeleteAnd these beer flights are becoming quite the thing for you, aren't they?
Thanks, Craig. I always liked wine flights, so I'm happy to add beer to the mix. Someone needs to start chocolate flights.
DeleteCongrats to the engagement! That's exciting news. The eggplant rollatinis sound interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mary. And it was delicious!
DeleteCongrats to your son and future DIL! How exciting! That board game sounded fun; I'll have to look for it as we're looking into playing more games here. I like doing brunch on Sundays; its fun to do it and then not eat until dinner time! Your little plates looked delicious too! I love to walk but there is not too much around here in the way of restaurants to walk to. However, finding a parking place sometimes and then walking to a restaurant can be a good 20 minute walk!
ReplyDeleteAgain, congrats to all!
betty
It's a fun game for something different. I enjoy games with words or questions more than strategy. That's a far walk just to park! Sounds like not enough parking spots? And thank you for your good wishes!
DeleteThat is fantastic news! And you also walked to a restaurant for dinner?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Blue. I'm blogging this year about new things I'm doing in 2019. Last week, one of the new things I did was walk to a restaurant in town to meet up with a friend for dinner.
DeleteGood for you! :)
DeleteCongrats budding Mum-in-law!!
ReplyDeleteDo you do brunch? Yup, most Saturday mornings we brunch at home, about one Sunday a month we brunch out.
Play board games? Nah. Um, Queenie and her family are all about the celebrate-til-ya-drop on a win. And they don't take losing well at all .... obnoxious winners, sore losers.
Have a favorite appetizer? jalapeno anything. Or onion when not feeling as spicy
Walk anywhere from your home? 500 yds to my hunting grounds, 1/4 mile to the park, 1.25 mile to soft ice cream.
Thanks, X. I remember you mentioning the sore winner and loser dynamic. 1.25 miles from soft serve is nice!
Delete" 1.25 miles from soft serve is nice!" Only if'n you like the paunch life-style .... ;-)
DeleteThank you for letting us know that last photo wasn't actually you. I was very confused and couldn't help wondering why you were wearing a hat and a full suit and also why you were a MAN. Whew!
ReplyDeleteBrunch is one of my favorites! It's the perfect excuse to order a Bloody Mary, so really, this should not surprise you.
I'm more into card games like cribbage and gin rummy, but board games are fun, too.
Fave appetizer? Steamed clams!
I walk everywhere. As in, EVERY. WHERE. :)
I was hoping to humor someone with that picture. I like that guy! He looks like he means business, but is still friendly enough.
DeleteI forgot about you and the Bloody Mary's. That's definitely a brunch thing.
Wait! You can walk to places from your new house? I thought you were in the burbs, but maybe lots of sidewalks?
Good to know you approve of your new daughter in law and aren't secretly thinking "Oh my God"!
ReplyDeleteRe your questions, no I don't do brunch, it's not a thing here. We play Scrabble and chess quite a lot. I don't have a favourite appetiser, I just try anything that's going. And yes, we walk to places all the time - shops, restaurants, coffee shops, the Stormont Estate. We both try to minimise our car use for the obvious environmental reasons.
I love Scrabble, but I have only beat my spouse once in all these years. He's too good with the strategy.
DeleteIt's hard to get by without a car in the states. Even if I lived in an urban area, it would be impossible to visit anyone who lived elsewhere without having a car.
Congratulations to your son on his engagement!
ReplyDeleteWe're getting more and more local craft breweries here in central Florida - some day I'll have to try a flight. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but your photos always look so tempting!
We rarely go out for breakfast or brunch, but when we do, I always enjoy it.
Our house is two miles from the closest store, drugstore, restaurant, anything. So it would be OK for me to walk there, but I doubt I'd be willing to walk another two miles to get back home.
Thank you! If you ever try a flight of beer, I will expect a picture on your blog!
DeleteFour miles is nothing for me, as that's my usual exercise routine. The problem would be carrying any purchases. I've had few people in my neighborhood who have mentioned the error of buying a gallon of milk or a few bags of groceries after walking into town.
I've never heard of that board game, but I definitely want to check it out. Have you ever played Apples to Apples? It's another kind of word association game, and it's really fun. We keep saying we're going to have a game night and invite people over for games, but it hasn't happened yet.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to your son and future D-I-L! That's great that the two of you get along so well. I get along well with my M-I-L, and I realize just how lucky I am when some of my friends talk about their M-I-L.
The Italian restaurant sounds great. I wish more places had small plates like that. It's always so hard to decide what to order, and it seems like the option to pick a couple of smaller things would help.
Brunch rarely happens for us. I'm usually starving when I wake up, and very unpleasant before breakfast, so waiting around to do brunch later doesn't happen often.
Yes! We love Apples to Apples! It's a really fun game. We also love Loaded Questions.
DeleteI've also had a son-in-law for almost 5 years now and I try to be as non-meddling as possible! Sometimes it's hard, though! LOL
Aw, that's great news! Not surprising, though!
ReplyDeleteI had a weird beer the other day - a chili pepper ale. Left my tongue feeling like it was burning.
I have walked to a pub on the edge of our neighborhood and to a breakfast place. None of the dinner places we like are within walking distance. When we travel, though, we do that all the time.
We love to walk to places on vacations, too. So nice to not have to worry about how much we drink! I had a jalapeño beer recently! It didn't take over the flavor, but I wouldn't try it again.
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