It’s been a little more than six months since I last posted here, which is a record. This blog is ten years old, and I’ve never gone that long without posting! But it was kind of a welcome break–I needed to concentrate on packing up, moving from New Jersey to Washington, getting settled, finding a house, getting H settled at a new school. It’s been a ride, and we’re just starting to settle down.
Tag: nj
My computer’s network adapter was fried earlier this week during one of the endless thunderstorms we’ve had here at The Shore, so I am only now posting about my wedding anniversary last weekend.
We were married on May 19, 2007, and this is the first year since my first anniversary in 2008 that I have not blogged on the exact date. This is because Adam and I decided to be brave and drop H at my mom’s for the night so we could head down to Revel in Atlantic City. It was the first time we’ve ever been separated overnight, and I was nervous the entire week leading up to it. But, she was thrilled to see her Nana, and we were able to Skype with her before her bedtime. She was in a great mood, having a great adventure. That made the entire weekend so much better, and I was able to relax after that.
The Reeve clan headed up to my mom’s neck of the woods a few weeks ago to take in the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Newark’s Branch Brook Park. This is down the road from where I grew up, and I hadn’t been since I was a kid. We were there on April 13th, and it was still pretty chilly. Most of the blossoms were still closed since it hadn’t really warmed up for the season yet. But it is a lovely walk. Now that I see all the blossoms in our neighborhood finally opening I want to go back and take more pictures.
I kind of scheduled a bunch of food posts to publish before Hurricane Sandy hit the New Jersey coastline. I figured by Halloween we’d all be back up and running, and I just thought I’d get a bit of a head start on a Sunday recipe post.
H and I headed back to The Berry Farm in Colts Neck this morning for another attempt at berry picking. I wasn’t sure I’d make it to today’s harvest, but when I saw the temperatures were in the 70s I kind of decided it was now or never. This time we did blackberries instead of black raspberries, and it went much more smoothly. It wasn’t too hot, there was plenty of fruit, everyone was happy. We left with 2 buckets full of blackberries! I see another jam making day in our very near future. Or possibly blackberry liquer? Or both? We’ll see. I forgot my actual camera, so I just snapped a few pics with my phone.
I go a little overboard sometimes with the adventures. I love trying new things, and since H’s arrival that desire has kicked into overdrive. Which is how the two of us ended up raspberry picking a week ago.
The Berry Farm in Colts Neck (right behind Delicious Orchards) has black raspberries in season now. Last Wednesday we had a late start because we finally got an attic fan installed! It’s made a huge difference to the upstairs air conditioning, I highly recommend it. Anyway, the farm isn’t open every day. It closes for a couple of days at a time to allow the berries to ripen, and you really have to get there first thing in the morning on picking day to get anything. But, of course, I didn’t know this so H and I rolled up around 3pm bright-eyed and ready for adventure. The owner looked like he just wanted to pat me on the head, and then he handed me a tiny Chinese takeout container and told me to go pick $4 worth of raspberries to make something for dessert tonight.
I’ve already mentioned this new cupcake bakery in Red Bank here and here. I love this place, I’m so happy to have a good local place for cupcakes given the Reeve family obsession. I thought I’d post about the shop itself, which is right down the street from Riverview hospital.
Last weekend was Riverfest, a free waterside food and music festival. Adam and I headed over there on Sunday and had so much fun. We’ve never been before.
There was so much incredible food, we didn’t know where to start. So we shared a few things.
The Reeve and Carney (my maiden name) families have more than a tiny obsession with burgers. Remember last year when Adam and I painstakingly recreated In-N-Out Burgers? So a few weeks ago, when my brother strongly recommended we all check out Zinburger in Clifton, we headed up to North Jersey to give it a chance.
It’s been a rough week with the weather we’ve been having around here. I’ve had bad headaches pretty much every day, and this morning I started getting a sore throat. So we decided to skip the Valley Shepherd cheese festival and just spend a quiet day at Pier Village.