Definitely a daddy thing to love

What a crazy two weeks!! Back from Vermont and trying to catch up on life. I was in NYC suffering from the squelching heat and humidity while Juliette and Lila were away, and I was missing them terribly. They spent the first week in PA with their mom and for the second week, Juliette in the Dominican Republic on a community service trip and Lila down in Kentucky at National Pony Finals.

On the day of Juliette's departure I took her for lunch and then on a 40 minute venture downtown to the lower east side, with her wondering where in the world is he taking me, for the most delicious salted caramel root beer float at Van Leeuwens Ice Cream. It is the first time Juliette will be traveling with out a parent or an adult that she knows and in a foreign country to boot. She is traveling with a very close friend from school but I think I was more nervous for her than she was. From the one brief conversation I have had with her while on the trip it seems the other kids immediately assumed she and her friend where snobby upper east siders. I told her that they have been watching too much Gossip Girl and once they get to know her their assumptions will change. I know the overall experience will be great for her whether she has fun on the trip or not. Bunk beds, cold water showers and some mild stereotyping never hurt anyone, especially 14 year old upper east siders. Even growing up in NYC, with parents who try to expose them to as much diversity as possible, we still tend to be cocooned by our environment.

Lila, on the other hand, spent the week with her trainer Patty at National Pony Finals. This was her first time away with Patty alone and not having her sister around. An experience she was looking forward to having. As I am writing this there was an article published in the New York Times about parents not feeling the need to attend every single game, event or meet in which their children participate. I could not agree more and happy that Lila can have the time with her trainer alone. I did get to nervously watch her show on a live feed and found myself obsessively refreshing the scoring after each rider to see how she placed. Yes, like an insane person. With 132 riders in her division, she placed 4th in the under saddle class and 25th in the model, sitting 7th overall heading into day 2. She placed 15th the next day in the over fences class and finished 8th over all. Woo Hoo!!!, with lots of virtual high fives and yes, I am still beaming writing this.

With Juliette still away, Lila and I were able to spend the weekend together in PA. I had to bribe her, with Nutella crepes, to go to the local farmers market that weekend and had to endure her eye rolling as I stopped by the roadside farm stands that are dotted along our local roads in Bucks County. Many of these are still by the honor system where you leave your money in a box and take change if needed. Juliette and Lila never cease to find the humor in it and refer to me as earthy or hipster. They make fun of my yoga, my hipster eye glasses, how I love the rain and my early morning walks and they do this in a way only your children can. They say things like "definitely a daddy thing to love", when I text them pictures of beautiful clouds or huge trees. If they only knew me back in the day when I worked in finance and I lived and dressed the part. In the late 80's and early 90's I wore blue shirts with white collars and cuffs. Practically all my shirts were french cuff with english spread collar and yes, I even had shoes with tassels. Don't even get me started on ties, where on my trading floor, guys would often turn your tie around to see who made it, Hermes, of course. At night I went to charity events and client dinners. Today, I still enjoy wearing suits but they are less banker and OK, maybe a little hipster, and only wear a tie when necessary. I even go with out socks sometimes in the summer.

My perspectives have changed since my kids were born and my divorce. I have discovered that there is no beauty without strangeness, thank you Karl Lagerfeld or was it Edgar Allen Poe, and less is definitely more. Charles Warner once wrote 'Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough". I do try to teach these values to the girls with some varying degree of success. I just hope that they learn to appreciate the beauty in everything. This weekend it was about the beauty found in unripe tomatoes.

Tomato season is upon us

August has arrived and the locally grown tomatoes are everywhere. The varieties can be endless, each having their own flavor and texture. A weekend lunch or dinner in August will always have some sort of heirloom tomato salad. For this weekends breakfast I was yearning for the piquant flavors of fried green tomatoes. Green tomatoes are unripe red tomatoes and can sometimes be hard to find at markets in the early season, with the strong summer sun they tend to ripen on the vine quickly. Late in the season when the sun isn't strong enough and the daylight hours start to wane and can no longer ripen whats left growing do green tomatoes become more popular. This weekend one of our favorite local markets allowed Lila and me to go out into the field to pick some hard green tomatoes. This breakfast dish was inspired by a fried green tomato BLT I had about year ago at Root and Bone, a delicious fried chicken joint on the Lower East Side of NY. This is my version of eggs benedict with fried green tomatoes. I use a traditional southern style recipe with cornmeal and a buttermilk wash for the tomatoes and a thick cut piece of bacon instead of Canadian ham. The fat from the bacon can be used to fry the tomatoes and there is no need for the english muffin. The Hollandaise sauce recipe is Julia Childs and enough thanks can never be given for her inspiration.

Eggs Benedict with Fried Green Tomatoes

Serves 4

2 large green tomatoes, cored and thickly sliced
1 cup cornmeal flour
4 slices thick cut bacon
1 cup buttermilk
salt and pepper
1 egg for buttermilk wash
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs for poaching
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Fried Green Tomatoes

Cut bacon in half to approximate length of each tomato slice and in a large saute pan fry over low/medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and let drain on paper towel. Set the skillet with rendered bacon fat to the side for use later.
Beat the egg and buttermilk together.
Season cornmeal flour with salt and pepper and place in a wide dish. ( I have also used a large plastic bag for this placing several tomatoes in at a time and shaking bag to evenly coat.)
Dip each tomato one at a time in buttermilk wash and then dredge in the seasoned cornmeal. Set each coated tomato aside.
Add vegetable oil to bacon fat in large skillet and place over medium/high heat. The tomatoes will be low fried so only add enough vegetable oil to bacon fat to cover half way up tomato.
Work in batches so oil stays hot and pan is not crowded. Fry for 3 minutes, flip tomatoes over and fry for additional 2 minutes until golden brown.
Drain tomatoes on paper towels.

Poached Egg

Bring water to a steady simmer in a large skillet. If it starts to boil lower temperature.
Add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. Stir water to create a gentle whirlpool. This will help the egg whites to wrap around yolk and create that desired tear drop form.
Crack egg into a ramekin, not necessary but does make it easier to pour into skillet. Add eggs one at a time to skillet. The size of your pan will determine how many you can poach at a time. I generally poach four at a time.
With a slotted spoon gently cover each egg with water from skillet until tops are white. Then gently agitate the the water near each egg to keep them from sticking to bottom.
Cook for 3 minutes. remove each egg with slotted spoon and gently dip in a bowl of water. This helps remove any lingering vinegar flavor and place on a paper towel. This will soak up any excess water and keep the tomato from getting soggy. Teenage taste buds are acutely aware to the taste of vinegar on their eggs.

Hollandaise Sauce

makes 1 cup

3 egg yolks
1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 1/4 sticks (5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
salt and white pepper

Melt butter in small saucepan and set aside.
Whisk egg yolks vigorously for one minute until thick and pale yellow in color.
Whisk in lemon juice to egg mixture and whisk for additional 30 seconds.
Add 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter and place saucepan over low heat. I use a double boiler over simmering water, whisk until it starts to thicken and cover your whisk. I will occasionally remove top part of saucepan from heat to ensure the yolks do not curdle.
Immediately remove from heat and add remaining cold butter one tablespoon at a time. This will cool the egg yolks and stop the cooking.
By driblets, beat in the melted butter to make a thick sauce.
Season with salt and white pepper to taste and add additional lemon juice if needed.

To assemble place one fried green tomato in the center of the plate. Top with two pieces of bacon and then the poached egg. Spoon the Hollandaise sauce over the top of the poached egg. Enjoy every bite.

Knee High by the 4th of July!!

July 4th weekend was spent at the Brandywine Valley Summer Series II Horse Show at The Devon Showgrounds. Juliette and Lila went down earlier in the week with their trainer Patty Miller. They slept over Patty's house the night before and were up at 3:15 AM to help load the horses and drive to the show. I drove down on Friday. to spend the weekend with them. At the end of the day I asked Patty, what time we had to be at the show in the morning. I knew what the answer would be but I was hoping for a late morning. She answered 7AM, with a smile. We were staying at a hotel just down the road from the show and the girls had their own room and I just hoped they would get to bed at a reasonable time. If you are not familiar with horse show timing, here is a helpful hint, there is none. Unlike most other sports, where the game has a specific start time and you can usually calculate a reasonable end time, horse shows can be endless. They bring a new meaning to hurry up and wait. Lila was showing around 10 AM and Juliette not until late in the afternoon. J and L have a certain amount of pride in waking up at these ridiculous hours when it comes to anything horse related. I on the other hand do not....but when I am old and incontinent, you can be sure I will remind them of my sacrifices.

There is plenty of downtime and while I may be found reading, working or napping, the kids are constantly busy. Most of it is taking care of the ponies and horses but there is plenty of time to have fun. They have made lots of horse show friends from all over the east coast and when not following Patty around or helping at the stables they are alongside the ring cheering them on.

Juliette and Lila never tire from jumping, horses or themselves, especially Lila, who is always creating courses in the house jumping over pillows, books and bags. Luckily the Devon Showgrounds had set up some mini jumps for the kids. Where Lila spent a good part of each day. This was also July 4th and every one had to show their patriotic spirit. Lila who still wears braids when showing wore red, white and blue bows. The horses are no exception and their manes were braided with red, white and blue yarn and the tails with pom poms.

Lila had a great first day of showing with a first, second and a third. Sunday was a different story. On the first trip, Iparty was spooked by two large dogs outside the ring while heading into the last jump. Lila jumped beautifully but this set the tone for her other trips. She still held on for Champion but was very disappointed with her riding. We spent some time talking about the positives from each trip, finding the right distances to the jumps and her lead changes. The talk and a promise of an ice cream milk shake got her spirits back in check.

Juliette was showing her horse, Prestigious, in the Junior Hunter 3' 3" 15 and Under, for the first time. She is a very strong technical rider and a real student of the sport. Preston has been giving her trouble recently getting his lead changes, not listening to her leg cues, something he wasn't doing during the winter indoor season or down in Florida. It has been frustrating for her and today was no different. I was watching from the stands and as I have learned over the years to give them their space while showing. Several years ago when Juliette was on her schools gymnastics team, she asked that I not watch her compete in her first meet because it made her nervous. I went to the meet anyway and watched from outside, through the gym door windows. A story of which I am constantly reminded of to the delight of the other school parents.

She jumped beautifully but sensing Preston not getting the lead change Juliette was twisting her body to force it. After this continued on through the second and final day of showing, she was visibly upset and frustrated. I am appreciative of her relationship with her mom and how they can talk through her feelings and since her mom also rides she brings an insiders perspective. It was hard to watch her this upset and wish I could have helped more. I sat on the ground next to her giving as much support as I could. I know it means a lot to her to have the silent hugs and the offer of a lifesaver mint. I still wish I could have done more. They worked out a plan to get the help needed and this helped restore her mood.

Sunday late afternoon we drove back to the farm and passed a local farm stand that had some early sweet white summer corn, red spring onions and potatoes. The local butcher, Haring Brothers, was still open and I was able to buy some fresh bacon. Monday morning, before I headed back to the city and the girls to the barn, we had poached eggs with roasted corn and bacon hash. Seriously yum! on so many levels. The sizzling bacon smell had Juliette and Lila standing around the stove waiting to eat some. They helped with shucking the corn and slicing the kernels off the cob. The beautifully golden roasted potatoes and the sweet corn, which could be eaten right off the cob raw, made this hash the perfect American dish to help celebrate the end of the Independence Day weekend. All the flavors and textures are brought to life with the perfectly poached egg on top. I used a well seasoned cast iron skillet and saved the bacon fat for later use. You can also use any leftover corn roasted from the night before. Just toss in when you add the bacon , off heat, to warm up. Any leftover hash can be eaten later that evening with dinner.

Poached Eggs with Roasted Corn and bacon Hash

(serves 6)

6 fresh eggs
1tablespoon white vinegar
1 lb potatoes diced - 3 cups
1 red onion diced - 1 cup
1/2 lb thick cut bacon (at least 1/4 inch) diced
teaspoon salt
3 large ears of corn. Kernels cut from the cob - 2 1/2 cups
3 scallions thinly sliced

Hash

Place diced bacon in large skillet and heat to medium. Let cook, stirring occasionally until browned and crispy about 10 minutes.
Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and let drain on a paper towel. Leave bacon fat in skillet.
Heat bacon fat to medium high. Add diced potatoes to skillet in a single layer and add salt and pepper. Stirring occasionally to brown on all sides, about 20 minutes.
Add the onions and let saute until onions are clear.
Spoon off most of the bacon fat leaving about 2 - 3 tablespoons.
Add the corn and mix with the potatoes and onions. Cook until corn starts to brown about 5 minutes.
Add the bacon back to the skillet and cook for an additional minute.
Remove from heat, salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle the scallions over the top.

Poached egg

Bring water to a steady simmer in a large skillet. If it starts to boil lower temperature.
Add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. Stir water to create a gentle whirlpool. This will help the egg whites to wrap around yolk and create that desired tear drop form.
Crack egg into a ramekin, not necessary but does make it easier to pour into skillet. Add eggs one at a time to skillet. The size of your pan will determine how many you can poach at a time. I generally poach three at a time.
With a slotted spoon gently cover each egg with water from skillet until tops are white. Then gently agitate the the water near each egg to keep them from sticking to bottom.
Cook for 3 minutes. remove each egg with slotted spoon and gently dip in a bowl of water. This helps remove any lingering vinegar flavor and place on a paper towel. This will soak up any excess water and keep the hash from getting soggy. Teenage taste buds are acutely aware to the taste of vinegar on their eggs.

Spoon a mound of hash on a plate and press down in the center with the back of the spoon to create a space for the egg. Place poached egg on top, sprinkle with chopped scallion. Salt and pepper to taste.