Medianoche

Well, this is it. Goodbye to the farm. For now. We’re off. The next time you’ll hear from me, I’ll be in Montreal. So, if you have any thoughts about must eat treats while I’m there, don’t hold back. I’ve literally got no plans for our stay. My plan is to wing it.

Mrs. Fussy will be working for most of it, so I’ll be hanging out with the Fussy Little Children. Side note: Young Master Fussy has started to explore the blog in some of his free time, so I may have to start being more careful about what I say.

Smoked meat. Poutine. That fried bologna sandwich. They are all on my radar. I hear there’s some good banh mi to be had. And I have it on good authority there are some great hand made dumpling places. But we’ll see how many food spots I’ll be able to hit in the short time we’re there.

As usual, I’m writing this post late at night. And I want to make sure to go to bed soon, so we don’t die in some kind of spectacular accident on the road. But there are two things I want to share before I sign off for the week.

First, I’ve been terrible about staying on top of the calendar.

This isn’t just about the blog, it’s about a whole host of personal things. The bar mitzvah planning is far far behind schedule. The invitation situation is a disaster. Well, disaster might be strong. But we’re significantly behind where I wanted to be. And I may just print them myself, to make sure they get out in time.

If you receive one, and it looks a little ragged, just know that the invitation reflects our current state of readiness, and come with your expectations in check. Which isn’t to say the bar mitzvah isn’t going to be a blast. It’s going to be a blast. And the food is going to rock.

Not to put any pressure on the caterers, but I suspect this will be the best bar mitzvah food I’ve had in awhile. It helps, of course, that we don’t have to make it kosher.

But I digress.

All of this is to say that I should have posted about the next Tour de Ice Cream by now. And I haven’t. The official announcement of the tour will happen next week. But the tour itself is going to be held on Saturday, August 19!

Yes, I do know that it’s just one week away from this Saturday. Hopefully, you can still come. Because this is open to all. Young and old. Old friends and complete strangers. Come alone, or bring a posse. The more the merrier. We’re going to eat some of the best hard ice cream the area has to offer, and all of the places will be unique from the last time we attempted this tour.

Most likely the tour will begin a bit before noon, and last through most of the day. It’s five stops. It will start in Albany, and I expect it will end near the Massachusetts border. But I promise it will be worth the effort and the drive. More to come on this soon.

The second thing I wanted to share was a quick picture, and an even faster story.

Usually farm eating involves lots of kielbasa, pierogies, sauerkraut, and scrapple. And this year is no exception, except for the “lots of” part. I’ve been trying to eat better as I’ve been watching my metabolism slow down before my eyes.

I’m hatching an exercise plan for the fall, that I hope will suit me well. We’ll have to see.

Clearly, the picture above is none of those things. What it is, is the perfect sandwich for fueling a late night blog post. It’s a medianoche. That translates to midnight, which is when I ate it. This is a close cousin of the Cuban sandwich. The only difference is that it doesn’t require Cuban bread to make it, but rather egg bread. A couple of eggy dinner rolls filled in quite nicely.

Amazingly, my Mother-in-law had all the ingredients in the refrigerator and already sliced. Roast pork, smoked ham, swiss cheese, yellow mustard, and pickles. In the absence of a sandwich press, I simply pushed the thing down by hand in a skillet with a little oil to coat the bottom.

Hot damn, that was good.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to pack and gear up for several hours in the car. Hey, at least now that the kids are older, we’re not listening to Rafi for the entire trip. Let’s thank God for small miracles.

Speaking of which, we’re all still here. And so is Guam. Huzzah! Still, it will be nice to be up in Canada for a few days, and maybe all this madness will blow over while calmer heads prevail.