"Hot Fun in the Summertime..."

   

   

It’s Memorial Day weekend and for many people, it means the start of the summer boating season. It’s been quite a while, but for years, it was the beginning of the best part of the year for me.

   Lake Cumberland, Kentucky is about five hours south of Cincinnati, but it became the center of my summer life when my husband and I first started dating.  He and a friend shared ownership of a speedboat named “GoldiLox” (so named for the bagel-loving Jewish owners). We’d make the trek every other weekend and spend three glorious days waterskiing, swimming and of course, eating!

   Days were spent driving the boat around the massive lake with miles and miles of smooth skiing water. We’d head out early in the day soaking up the sun until late afternoon. After hours of multiple ski runs and swimming in the lake, we’d clean up and head across the lake at dusk to feed the voracious appetites we’d worked up during the day.

   A gin and tonic in one hand and the wind from the speed of the boat blowing our hair and sunburned faces, we’d head across the massive lake to Grider Hill Lodge. Not a Four Seasons resort or fancy marina, Grider’s rustic dock and log cabin lodge might have been overlooked by a less discerning palate, but we knew what was waiting up the hill.

   With all the calories burned that day water-skiing, we were ready for a meal to replenish us . Grieder’s restaurant was known for its’ pan fried chicken and peanut butter pie and they more than lived up to the hype.

  Before the days of eating clean and low-fat, low-carb foods, the meal began with baskets of dollar rolls and real butter. A salad came next; mostly iceberg & tomatoes, dripping with creamy dressing. But the piece de resistance was the fried chicken. Lightly coated and pan fried (no doubt in lard), the magic spices couldn’t be duplicated. Add the mashed potatoes, buttered corn and green beans (something healthy) served family style, and we were in food heaven.

   We’d gorge ourselves to the point of “almost full” because it was almost time for pie. The choice was always difficult. They were known for the peanut butter pie, but often they had banana and chocolate cream as well. As good as those pies were, they were always a disappointment compared to the peanut butter pie. Fluffy and creamy at the same time with an enormous meringue top, the peanut butter pie was always cut into “Grandma”-sized slices.

   Always too full to move right away, we’d sit and talk with the lodge owners and staff for hours until they closed. It became a sort of summer family and we visited often. As time went by, we moved away from the area and sold the boat. But years later, we went back to Lake Cumberland for a family trip with our children, and of course, took them to Grider. Their menu still includes the Cumberland Skillet Fried Chicken and Laura Ann's Famous Mile High Peanut Butter Pie.

   It was delicious, of course, but I think what it stood for was more important . The tastes, the smells, and even the pictures on the wall brought us back to a carefree, easy summer life: even at a time when we were dealing with all of the stresses of careers and parenthood.

   And, from my first bite of fried chicken to the last morsel of pie, work deadlines, carpools, homework, and “mom” stress magically disappeared.

"Good Morning Sunshine..."

   

Over the years we have been lucky enough to take a number of family vacations. Whether a resort, a cruise or a city hotel, one of my favorite meals was always brunch.

   Now,  I’m not normally a person who eats at buffets, but there’s something about the whole vacation atmosphere that’s conducive to a long and leisurely breakfast. No rush to get to work or (at that time) get the kids to school. No quick cooking oatmeal or frozen waffles eaten on the dash to the car. Just a relaxing stroll from the hotel room to the dining room, and more than enough time to peruse all of the breakfast offerings.

   It wasn’t so much the amount of food that we loved, it was the endless array of choices we had that we could never get at home (especially in MY kitchen).

   Having an entire table of fresh fruit already cut up and ready to eat without even having to lift a finger made me crave the healthy stuff even more. I rarely buy mangoes at the grocery store, but of course, I fill my plate with those and other “exotic” choices when they are right there in front of me, ready to eat.

  

And I know it sounds silly, but I always was obsessed with the little individual boxes of cereal available. Particularly when we’d go out of the country and have  “Zucaritas” (or Frosted Flakes) and “Bolas de Chocolate”. Even the oatmeal tasted better; no doubt because it was made with real cream and sugar instead of water in a microwave.

   Of course, the array of breads and pastries on most breakfast buffets would normally send this carb counter running the other way, but the special treats coupled with the fact that I would probably not have the chance to eat something that yummy again for a long time made them definitely worth the calories. However, the absolute BEST part of a breakfast buffet, no matter where we were was the omelet station.

   I tend to be kind of picky about how I like my omelets (half whole egg, half egg white, vegetable spray, well done, light cheese, double flip, etc, etc), so to actually stand right there and tell the chef how I want your food prepared is a joy to me!

    On one of our first trips to Mexico, my then 8-year-old daughter loved the “so-good omelets” as she called them because she could have them plain, which was how she liked them at the time. My husband loves smoked salmon (lox) and would always convince the omelet chef to cook it in to his eggs. I used to love seeing what my growing 6’4’ son used to pile on his plate and how I would try and be “healthy” in my choices, but rarely succeed. I’d stand over the chef annoyingly pointing to the egg whites, and vegetable spray, always insisting they cook the eggs more. Usually they got it perfect by about the 5^th day of vacation, but by then I’d succumbed to the pastries and rolls, so it really didn’t matter any more.

    My husband and I recently returned from a vacation where breakfast was, again, one of our main events of the day. We slept late, worked out, and just took as much time as we wanted at breakfast. The whole vacation was wonderful, but there’s something about those “so good omelets” that makes me want to go back for more!!

    I've tried to recapture that feeling at home but the closest we’ve come to that is making our own omelets.  We’re actually getting closer to the look and taste that those egg magicians create at the breakfast buffets, but  I still think everything tastes much better when someone else makes it for you!