AAAh Vermont

And like that, we all piled into Black Car and headed up to Vermont on Friday morning!
We haven't been to our house in Stowe since November and have been dreaming about it for months and months.
Sylvie calls it her Mountain House. We call it heaven, literally.

I don't know the last time I smiled this much. I was so excited to cruise through downtown Stowe past Jamie's on Main and The Cakery, home of the best hummus sandwiches EVER and incredible baked goods. After unloading the car and dogs, I cruised over to Stowe Seafood to pick up some arctic char for me and salmon for Sylvie. I had a piece of swordfish marinating in cilantro and soy for Michael ready to go on the grill. Next stop was Harvest Market (affectionately called Harvest Mark-Up for reasons I need not explain) where I bought a bag of Pete's Greens, local hydroponic tomoatoes,Point Reyes blue and fig balsamic. Dinner was almost complete. A final stop at the local Shaw's for mac and cheese, butter, milk, bread, vanilla ice cream (Ben and Jerry's of course, duh we're in Vermont) and Polar sparkling water, Michael's favorite. Sylvie was mad at me because I finished the macaroni and cheese that I had bought for her and Samantha at Whole Foods the other day. And since we were very far from Whole Foods, I picked up several boxes of Annie's and also all the ingredients to make some from scratch.

When I got home, Michael took Lucky and Lucy to the Quiet Path for a romp. It was Lucy's first time, also her first time swimming.

And so we settled into being at home, our other home.

Dinner was great and after Sylvie fell asleep in the big-girl bed, Michael and I fell asleep watching the Yankees-Red Sox game. We're in Red Sox country up here so we always wear our Yankees baseball hats much to the chagrin of the local population.

Sylvie woke up before 5:30 and was starving. We started off with a scrambled egg and moved onto Macaroni and Cheese. She must have eaten for hours. I had long since gone and returned from the Swimming Hole and she was still eating. Here's my EZ kid friendly recipe:
1 lb pasta
2 cups whole milk
1 stick butter
1/4c flour
8 oz mild cheddar cut into tiny pieces if you don't have a grater
1 bag grated mixed cheeses
4 oz fontina cheese also cut into tiny pieces

Prehead over to 350.
Cook pasta as directed and strain.
Melt butter in saucepan. Add flour and stir until slightly browned (1-2 minutes)
Add milk slowly and stir. Don't scald it.
Stir milk until it thickens. A few minutes.
Turn off heat.
Stir in cheese.

Mix cheese and pasta and pour into pyrex or whatever you like.
Bake for 20 minutes.

Sylvie specifically forbids us to eat it which is fine because it has about a million calories. If you want to make it more 'adult,' use 2% milk, add a little nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Today was the antique car show in town, a favorite of ours. We went back to the quiet path as a family unit today, Sylvie and I cruised through town, played outside and had an AWESOME day!

For a weekend, we are a normal family.