Day trip to Block Island

On Saturday a friend and I jumped on a ferry and sailed away to Block Island (a woman on the ferry even sang the radio jingle...if you live in New England you know what jingle I'm talking about!).  As soon as we got off the boat, we fell in love with the Block's charm immediately.  It is full of tourists and day trippers (us included!) just like the other New England islands are in the summer.  However, there are no fancy shmancy hotel-spas and just about all of the traditional, clapboarded seaside buildings still stand.  It is much more untouched and quirky than the other islands, random petting zoo and all.  We rented bikes, which I definitely recommend, and cycled around most of the island.  You have to share the road with cars and mopeds but the island is very bike-friendly and I never felt unsafe.  The beaches are gorgeous--soft sand, not even a pebble in sight, and light bluish-green water which was pretty warm by New England standards.  I can't wait to go back again with my husband in the early fall, which is supposedly the best time to visit because the temperatures are a bit cooler.  Hopefully I'll escape with less of a sunburn next time!

Pretty buoy wall in the harbor. 

               Typical BI architecture.

Clay art wall at Block Island Blue Pottery.

The menagerie at the Manisses Petting Zoo.  We visited all of these cute little guys twice we liked them so much.    

The Oar restaurant takes quite a literal approach to decorating.  We loved the colorful oar collection which covered every square inch of this large BI institution!

I will have this beautiful beach on my mind for a long time.  I can't believe that this was the first time this summer that I have set foot on a beach!  

Roasted Summer Veggie Soup

Soup in the summer?  Yes, please!  A chilled soup, that is.  I was on a gazpacho quick in Spain and first order of cooking business when I got home was to make my own gazpacho.  Well, I haven't made gazpacho yet but I did come up with my own chilled soup recipe last night by accident.  I set out to roast some fresh baby eggplant, bell peppers, red onions, white onions, canned whole plum tomatoes and garlic that I had in my kitchen.  The final result was delish but the eggplant had gone gray and didn't look pretty anymore.  So, I got out my immersion blender and blended it all together with some chicken stock to make a pureed soup.  I added a little tomato paste to the mixture to boost the red color of the soup.  The eggplant gives the soup a creamy consistency and the flavors of all the veggies are heightened thanks to the roasting.  If you don't like cold soup, which I know many people do not, then turn up the A.C. and heat it up on the stove.  It tastes just as good warm!

Recipe for Roasted Summer Veggie Soup:
Roast any amount of baby eggplant, bell peppers, onions, garlic, and canned tomatoes that you have in a 350F oven until the veggies are tender and cooked through.  The more veggies you roast, the more soup you will have.  Before roasting, drizzle the veggies liberally with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and add a bay leaf to the mixture.


After the veggies are cooked, transfer them to a large pot.  Remove the bay leaf.  I also removed the garlic cloves but that is optional.  Have about 1 cup of chicken stock on hand for every cup of roast veggies that you have and add it to the mixture cup by cup as you blend.  Add more stock if you want a thin soup or less stock if you want a thick soup.  Blend soup until it is smooth and creamy.  After the final addition of stock, add 1 tbsp. of tomato paste to the mixture and blend once more until well combined.  Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or until ready to serve.  Or, heat up on the stove on low heat before serving.     

Hacienda Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon has always been one of my favorite actresses and I was super excited to get a peek inside her Ojai, California hacienda.  Her home is a work of art in and of itself (it was designed by Wallace Neff) so she and her designer Kristen Buckingham kept the interiors clean and simple.  My favorite parts of the home are the beamed ceilings, fireplace, daybed nooks in each of her children's bedrooms and her vine covered terrace that makes me dream of being in Italy again.


  

¡España!

I miss Spain already!  I have a special place in my heart for Spain.  I majored in Spanish in college and studied abroad there on two occasions, once in Salamanca and once in Madrid.  This was my husband's first time visiting Spain (but not his last!) and we visited my old stomping grounds as well as Segovia.  One of my favorite parts of going to Spain is having tapas at night.  I love sampling all of the different snacks they have.  My all time favorite tapa is the tortilla española but this time we had a really delicious tapa that was new to me.   It consisted of a piece of bread topped with cheese that had been marinated in olive oil.  The cheese was topped with fresh rosemary and then quickly heated up in the oven to brown.   ¡Delicioso! 

So many different kinds of marinated olive skewers at the Mercado off of the Plaza Mayor in Madrid.  Great place to stop for tapas if you want to have lots of options.  

El Retiro, Madrid.  We rented one of those boats for the afternoon for only 4 euros!

La Plaza Mayor, Salamanca.  Still my favorite plaza.  It's absolutely stunning, especially at night.  It's completely enclosed but this photo only captures one side of it.  

La Catedral Nueva, Salamanca

Roman aqueduct, Segovia

Monastery of San Esteban, Salamanca.  

Segovia's gothic cathedral

The plains of Spain

Alcazar, Segovia.  Walt Disney drew inspiration from this palace when he designed Cinderella's castle for the Magic Kingdom.

  

The Alcazar is decorated in the mudejar style.  Arabic influences are seen throughout Spanish palaces, "alcazar" is an Arabic word, since Spain was once ruled by the moors.  

Hey, look! It's me!  

Italia

Oh how I wish I was still in Italy!  We visited Verona (not to be missed!  It's a beautiful Roman city) and Venice.  Venice in one word is "magical".  When you exit the train station upon arrival you are on the grand canal!  This was our first time visiting Italy and we didn't want to jam too many cities into one visit because we wanted time to explore and enjoy each one.  It was nice to visit the sites during the day then go back to the hotel, change and go out for the evening.  The food was amazing, of course.  Who goes to Italy and doesn't like the food?  Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the meals I ordered at restaurants because I started eating them so fast there was no time.  I just couldn't wait to dig in!  It was a total carb overload, "carbicide" as Bruno would say.  I don't plan on eating pasta, rice, bread, or ice cream again for a few weeks but it was totally worth it.         

Gates enclosing the old city center of Verona.

Piazza Bra, Verona

Roman Arena, Verona

In the summer the arena is used to stage operas.

My husband was obsessed with this street performer in Verona.  We had to stop and watch him everyday.  There were street performers dressed as babies in Verona, Venice, and Madrid but this guy was the funniest.  Find him on Youtube by searching for "verona baby guy" like my husband did :)

Roman walls in Verona.

Verona

Verona's skyline

There is no historical data to neither confirm nor deny that there were actually a pair of star crossed lovers named Romeo and Juliet who lived in Verona, but that doesn't stop millions of people, including myself) from visiting this tourist trap that claims to be Juliet's balcony.

In Verona and Venice there were drop boxes on the sides of public buildings that looked like this.  From what I have read, people used to be able to write letters complaining about others in the community and then drop them in the box.  The local authorities would read the letters, bring the the perpetrators to local courts and punish them if they felt it necessary.  Wow!  

Roman bridge, Verona

Roman Theater, Verona.  Shakespearan plays are acted out here in the summers.

St. Mark's Basilica, Venice.

Doges' Palace, Venice.

Bridge of Sighs

All over Spain and Italy we noticed padlocks locked to bridges and old wells.  According to Rick Steves', couples lock these to the bridges and wells then throw the keys in the water as a sign of their commitment to one another.  I think it's a pretty sweet tradition.      

Rialto Bridge

Venice at night is spectacular.  It is so perfectly lit and glowing from the reflection of the water that it looks like a movie set.  

Fresh scallops at the Rialto market.  The orange part is delicious!

Murano

I LOVED the colorful houses of Burano!

This one was pink with purple shutters!

Torcello, the most remote and probably least visited of the lagoon islands.

Ciao, Italia!  Check back tomorrow for photos of the third leg of our trip in Spain!