Country Roads and Hidden Treasures

We spend a lot of weekends in VT enjoying my family’s vacation house. Just like at home we tend not to eat out much, but when we do finding a new place is always a fun way to enjoy somebody else’s cooking.

Because the area where our house is located is near several large ski resorts there are lots of restaurants to be found in the high traffic areas, but the random find seems to be the best way to get out for a local bite. This weekend we happened upon Stoddard’s in Londonderry, VT. Mom & Dad had a gift certificate from the Fireman’s Auction in 2010, but didn’t know where the place was. It turns out we have driven by the place hundreds of times, never registering it was a restaurant; and all day breakfast & lunch diner at that!

I had a club sandwich with fries, and everyone else had a burger. Margot opted for onion rings which turn out to be a great measuring stick of a restaurant. Both the rings and fries were perfectly cooked and very clean tasting with minimal salt. There was no commercial packaged food here and the bacon on my club and my parents’ burgers had been deep fried! The burgers were the real deal, made by hand on site. When paired with the deep fried bacon and some VT cheddar cheese they easily satisfied our crew.

Next time you are in the Londonderry, VT area check out Stoddard on Main street right near the junction of routes 100 and 11.

Cheers!

Jason

The Luck in Finding a Good Beach Diner

Lenny is back today sharing a few details from the last couple of days. On Monday night we mixed up a new drink with our SavvyHost Bartender-In-A-Box set, the Raspberry Beret (thanks Prince!). Merv and Phil are experiencing some cabin fever on the third day with clouds AND rain at the beach, and thus the names Zombie Apocalypse and Cabin Fever were offered. Lenny can be shown displaying the ingredients to the new drink below.

 Raspberry Beret

1 oz Pomegranate Vodka
1 oz Grenadine
4 oz of Lindeman’s Framboise
Slice of lemon

Shake vodka and grenadine. Pour over lemon slide. Top up with Framboise.

John, Julie and Kora came to visit us last night in York. The wind was blowing and the low clouds and beach spray made it look a lot darker out than it really was. We had planned to hit an age-old Italian place on Long Sands, but they weren’t in service this night. It was even BYO, something we could happily do! We took off north towards Ogunquit figuring we would find a restaurant to sit and laugh for a while. We happened upon Bessie’s at the four corners downtown where found a nice eclectic mix of home-style comfort foods and all sorts of sides and appetizers to mix it up. The food was good to excellent, the service was prompt and accurate, but the conversation is what made the night. Kora didn’t weigh in on any of the hot topics. I suspect she is still collecting information on the players to feed her master world domination plan that will be debuted later. The giraffe she was playing with was pretty cool though.

Resuming our monthly dinner dates John and I (I forgot Julie and Margot, or did I?) talked about everything, and from some people watching earlier in the day I had some great stories to poke fun at. Colorful alliterations, crazy outfits, kids hopped up on sugar and other fish out of water never fail.

We walked down to the beach to take some photos and enjoy an unusual summer day. The beach wasn’t completely deserted, but did offer opportunity for some good photos.

I’ll end with our group photo from the beach. Kora did such an excellent job taking the picture… I asked, she just laughed. She was too busy playing with her own hand.

Cheers!

-- Jason

p.s. Lenny hung out for breakfast this morning. Bacon, sweet breads, cheddar cheese and bananas made for a nice slow meal to start the day. He wouldn't say what he was up to while we were all out last night...