Marth's Vineyard!

Dawn and Alexis

As is Joe and my tradition, every year for his birthday, we spend some time on Martha's Vineyard at my parent's summer house.  This year was Joe's 30th birthday and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Edgartown's Harborview hotel.  It was delicious.  My parent's house is almost 100% solar and on a land reservation on Martha's Vineyard Chappaquiddick Island.  It is a retreat like no other.  While there Joe and I kayaked, read, cooked, clammed, fished and generally enjoyed ourselves for one week.

Living in New York City, sometimes it is a

Victor and Alexis

challenge to remember that we need our own time outside of the City enjoying all that nature has to offer.  Once again, this is more of a photo entry than a recipe entry, but there are some recipes from our vacation coming up in the next post.  For those of you who feel like you should work, work, work and save later - let's not forget that family and friends are the most important thing out there and that when we look back at our memories those are the ones that will stand out the most.

quick rinse off

Joe and Aquinnah fetched, swam, and generally goofed around together and hearing Joe's laughter echo around the bay made me feel happy and content.  It's so very easy to get wrapped up in our everyday stresses and forget how lucky we are and how short life is, cue sentimental music now.

cozy post dinner swaddle.

Whether it be a small dinner out (last night we went for burgers with our lovely neighbor and my college friend Adam Castaldo) or finally purchasing a plane ticket to Chicago to visit my amazing friends (Catherine and Ian Merritt) and meet their child Teddy, our memories are of experiences and our friends shape those; it's important to me for those experiences not to fall to the sidelines.

Anyway,  I will post some delicious recipes that Joe and I tried out while trying to use up all the fresh produce that would otherwise have spoiled... including: spinach dip; mango salsa; and a delicious pasta salad!