The bounties of a Vermont Lake

I hope that everyone was fortunate enough to spend the fourth of July weekend with friends and family, laughing and playing and enjoying wonderful food. After two days in the village of Lake Placid, New York, riding, shopping, and eating - I headed East, across Lake Champlain by ferry to visit a college roommate on Lake Dunmore. It is a beautiful, scenic spot, and the cabin was occupied by a family rooted with VT pride, growing a vegetable garden, brewing their own IPA beer, recycling and buying local, fantastic food.

My first taste was of bacon from a local butcher. Each strip was 2/3 fat and 1/3 meat - a nutritional nightmare perhaps, but that fat means flavor and if you cook it all off you are left with strips of delicious, crunchy meat. The right balance of smoke and salt, gave the tender meat a great flavor, perfect for a BLT dinner! The bacon was so good, I had to indulge again the next morning, but this time it would be inside a breakfast sandwich (egg, Cabot cheddar, tomato, spicy brown mustard) on a multi grain English Muffin (you knew something healthy would its way into the equation).

As soon as I got breakfast down the hatch, I began to be tormented by the wafting smells from the smoker of lamb and a Cajun crusted brisket slow cooking away. To keep my mind off food, I enlisted the help of the girls with preparing a large pitcher of Sangria, (and then refilling it countless times). We first used a Gewurztraminer with strawberries, peaches, oranges and an apple. The subsequent refills were with a Barbara di Alba (red) with apples and strawberries. The perfect thirst quencher after water skiing and for sitting on Paradise Island - a jumbo inner tube anchored near shore for a group floatation session.

About 7 hours later our first course arrived on the table for picking. Local cheeses (pepper jack, sun dried tomato cheddar, and brie), homemade pickles, rustic bread, salumi, olives and the fabulous lamb. I told the Vermonters their lamb was going to have a vigorous Armenian inspection, and though no Armenian would have dared to give the meat a little pepper kick, I did enjoy the different perspective on the preparation. Even after 7 hours in the smoker, the meat was cooked rare, it was juicy and tender with a crisp skin on the outside.

Later, the brisket came out with coleslaw, potato salad, and grilled aspargus. The grill master was sorely disappointed with his brisket (the Cajun-chili peeper rub gave excellent flavor and created a nice thick crust around the meat which kept it moist) mainly due to its lack of tenderness. He had the attitude of a champ though stating that he would not be had by the brisket - it was only his second attempt at cooking one and he was going to figure it out! The night was finished off by a superb homemade blueberry pie with real, creamy vanilla ice cream (more to come on the pie later!)

It really is quite amazing, how wonderful foods are when they are grown and sold right in your back yard. The flavors are so much warmer then foods bought at a conventional grocer. The added plus is that you get to have something to eat that your friends 200 miles away don't have access too, and for me, that makes it even more special and perhaps maybe even more tasty!