Notes from New Hampshire

I love vacation!

It has been a long time since any posts from me and there is so much to catch up on. First, since it is most recent, I want to talk about New Hampshire. We returned last week from an amazing 10 days on Squam Lake in Holderness, NH. The picture above is from Rattlesnake, a hike we like to do that gives us a great view of Squam Lake and, through the binoculars, Camp Arcadie.

There are three NH food highlights that I want to share and the first is the person who makes the most amazing blueberry waffles on the planet . . . my Gampa! (This picture shows me and Gampa having a great conversation out on the dock before dinner. If you can find the rocks on the mountain right above my head . . . that is Rattlesnake, where I was standing in the first picture!)


Gampa's waffles are perfectly crisped on the outside and still soft inside. They aren't too sweet, and they have just the right balance of blueberries to enjoy the fruit flavor without being soggy and overdone, or purple. The recipe he has tested for years is made even better, once cooked, with a bit of butter on top (some people like more than I do) and the best maple syrup, made almost next door in NH at Burleigh Farms - this is REAL maple syrup from maple trees, not maple-flavored high-fructose corn syrup made from an ear of sweet corn from Iowa.

Gampa's tools are also part of the secret to his blue ribbon waffles and these tools are his waffle iron and timer. While most waffles have large-holes, called Belgian waffles, Gampa's waffle iron has small holes, which helps keep the waffles crisp because they are not as fat as the Belgian ones - this also helps with holding the butter and syrup in just the right amount when they're done too. The waffle iron's timer - beep beep beep beep beep - let's Gampa know when the iron is hot enough to pour on another batch; his own kitchen timer (I think it is set for four minutes) let's him know when the waffles are actually ready (he doesn't trust the waffle iron timer for this).

Everyone in the family tries to match his recipe and timing, even searching out the proper waffle iron, which is hard to find and extra expensive because it isn't as popular as the Belgian waffle irons - no one's waffles so far, that I've tried, even come close. Daddy has promised to give it another go over Labor Day weekend. Even if they aren't as good as Gampa's, it is worth the try, and I'm sure they'll still be "Dee-lish!"

On a day trip to Portsmouth to visit this cool town, have a day at the beach, and a lobster dinner (for my parents), I began my NH clam chowder tour. I'll rank them first:

1. Old Ferry Landing in Portsmouth, NH has the best
2. Squam Lake Inn in Holderness, NH was second best
   
3. Ray's Seafood Restaurant in Rye, NH was third
   

We started with lunch at the Old Ferry Landing in Portsmouth overlooking the harbor. This is our second year to eat lunch there, sitting out on the deck and watching the boat traffic, the drawbridge that goes up to let the big boats through, and to see Maine on the other side. This year Auntie Holly and my cousin Karla came with us. This chowder that I liked the best was the most thin without being runny, had paprika sprinkles on top that turned it kind of pink-ish, and because the flavor was the most like ocean - like when you first arrive at the coast and the smell is so strong you can taste it too - salty-ish, fishy-ish, yummy . . . Dee-lish.

View from our patio table at the Old Ferry Landing - the drawbridge is in the up position and the red boat with big antennas is about to go under.

We were down at the beach in Rye, NH at the end of our beach day and had dinner at Ray's, where we've been many times before. Mom and Dad like to get lobsters there for dinner and I really don't like breaking them apart and seeing their little eyes - it freaks me out. So I ordered clam chowder once again and it was good, but not as good, really it was only so-so in my book, though Auntie Holly liked it better. What I didn't like as much was that it was too thick for my taste and was just too creamy tasting - where's the ocean? Even though I could see the ocean there was no ocean flavor.

Back at the lake a few days later, we all had lunch at the Squam Lake Inn in Holderness. Last year, my Auntie and Uncle had a really nice anniversary party at the Inn and it is really a great place (they have great homemade cookies and homemade ice cream sandwiches with those cookies too). For lunch that day I had a half turkey sandwich and bowl of clam chowder. It was a bit thicker and creamier than Old Ferry Landing with nice big chunks of potatoes and clams. The only thing that puts it second on the list is that it didn't remind me so much of the ocean. More ocean taste than Ray's but not enough to match the deliciousness of my favorite at the Old Ferry Landing.



These are my two cousins who live in California. The top picture is Purna - she was my roommate last year - and the bottom is with Emerson, we are sharing the wind board that we turned into a stand up paddle board. It was great to see them! If we weren't swimming, paddling, hiking, or singing, we might have been dreaming about Campground Ice Cream. Although that isn't really the name, just the name we all call it, they have the very best Peppermint Stick ice cream, in fact the only Peppermint Stick ice cream, that I've ever had! It is a really pretty pink color and this year, cousin Karla had the great idea to put hot fudge on top!

My FAVORITE ice cream of the whole NH trip this year though was at Annabelle's Ice Cream in Portsmouth. After our lunch at the Old Ferry Landing, we walked on this really cool street and in Annabelle's I had the very best chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream - EVER. Really! The chunks of dough seemed like they were about to make real cookies, the dough was so fresh and soft (in a good way). They had nice BIG chunks too, which was my favorite part.

This is a picture of our fire pit on the end of the dock watching the full moon rise over Squam Lake - picture perfect vacation!