The August Round-Up Begins

The "staycation" is a big thing this year. I have seen a mind-numbing number of articles and news features telling us how to have fun in the cities we live in. They all make it way too complicated. The key to a successful staycation is a well-stocked liquor cabinet. It’s even better if one can convince friends with bartending skills and a natural enthusiasm for the mixological (not a real word, but it should be) arts to come stay with one as part of their vacation.

So we talked our friends the Hamiltons into a last-minute visit and got ourselves a cocktail education, familiarizing ourselves with the Negroni, the Sidecar, the Manhattan, and the labor-intensive Ramos Fizz.

We didn’t get as fancy with our food as we sometimes do, which led me to discover the perfect casual summer meal for company. I meant to tell you about it in time for you to fix it all summer, but there’s always next year.

First, grill some sausages. The beauty of this is that you have many options. Fat, lean, gourmet, old school. Whatever you like. AND you can do more than one kind with no additional effort. Go crazy. Then, serve this salad with the sausages. It’s delicious and covers the rest of your food groups. (I substituted baby golds for fingerlings and it was great.) It couldn’t be easier. For the grand finale, make this clafoutis like the one that Amanda whipped up for us. We didn’t have crème fraiche, but sour cream made a fine substitute.

This adorable little bug wasn’t feeling well for most of the trip, which turned it into more of a survivalcation than anything else for her folks. Troopers all, those Hamiltons.

We love us some summer.