Hamptons, Take Two

It was my second time to enjoy Nate and Neil's lovely new home in the Hamptons. Once again, we headed out late Thursday evening (they wait until 8 when the traffic clears). We made great time and arrived in just under two hours.

On Friday, Nate and I both worked remotely while Neil continued to restore his computer. His hard drive crashed last week after a full day of grading his students' papers.

Neil and I went to a gourmet market, the regular grocery store and a farm stand to get provisions for dinner: grilled pork chops, grilled corn, grilled squash and zucchini, and tomato pie. I used this Tomato and Cheddar Pie recipe as my inspiration, but I nixed the homemade crust and just used a regular deep dish frozen crust. I went ahead and made two pies in case we wanted seconds...the pork chops were too big and delicious for that, but we did enjoy the second pie for brunch the next morning.

We probably should have checked the forecast before we decided on such a grill-heavy menu, but the showers mostly lifted for our grillmaster.

It was around 8:30 when Angelina and Caroline arrived from D.C. After a quick tour and a glass of wine, they pitched in to shuck corn...

After three weeks of grilling chicken, Nate was ready for a new challenge. He knocked it out of the park! I have blogged before about these pork chops...they remain one of my favorite things. Search for "pork chop willy's grilling rub" on epicurious.

It was a really tasty dinner! All of the flavors really paired together well, and we washed it all down with several bottles of rose from the nearby Wolffer Estate winery. 

We had a lazy Saturday morning, so the stash of bagels Nate had purchased on Friday was perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better pool day. When I went in around 2:30 to reapply sunblock, I decided we could use a mid-afternoon snack (plus we needed to make the most of the rest of the $16.50 worth of tomatoes we'd purchased at the farm stand...yowzers, pretty sure that price ($3/pound) would curl my tomato-farming father's hair!)

I threw together a panzanella salad -- chopped tomatoes, basil, corn and green onion, tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and the rest of the parmesan, just for kicks.

I crushed a few garlic cloves and put them in a large bowl with olive oil, then tossed some bagel cubes in the garlic oil and toasted them.

So good!! Definitely best eaten immediately...you want the bread to get a little bit soft, but not soggy. After a while, we showered and took the girls for a ride, with a stop at the beach around sunset.

Dinner was at an Italian spot in East Hampton, Citta Nuova. Nate and Neil love their spaghetti and meatballs; I had oricchete with sausage, broccoli rabe and a cream sauce. Once we got back to the house, I heated up the oven and made some broiled peaches with ice cream.

Lunch today was at LT Burger in Sag Harbor. I loved getting to see a bit of that town and cannot wait to return for more.

The girls needed to hit the road, but we stopped at Wolffer Estate so they could take a few bottles of rose back to D.C.

What a wonderful, wonderful weekend! Thanks again, boys.