Why we love weekends with the family...

This weekend found us traveling north to spend time with darling hubby's family. Two birthdays in one weekend meant a lot of running around. But our mom (mom-in-law for me!) always makes us feel relaxed and at home.

We were greeted first thing in the morning by this delicious homemade bread/cake/amazingness. It's called zapikanka(please forgive me while I totally slaughter that Russian word.) All you need to know is that it's a dense cake like treat filled with sweetened cranberries and baked with ricotta cheese.

Add in the fact that we were able to eat it on the back deck overlooking a small forest of jewel toned trees and it's pretty magical. In fact, I just call it yum.

Oh, and we met our new nephew (and Lola's cousin) Beans. Yes, I think he is Beans with an S and gets extra points for cuteness with that added consonant. He is just about the cutest little thing ever with his brindled coat and his big beagle ears. What a darling boy!

Our big girl was able to go hiking in the woods and then proceeded to find the nearest lake where she decided to get as dirty.....

...and as happy as I've seen her in a while! The shaking off of lake water on mom's legs wasn't my favorite thing. But seeing how happy it made her certainly made it all worth it for us!

All and all it was a pretty tiring day for this little guy and us! We ate and drank and then ate some more.... (photo below is of the absolutely delish salad made with fresh sheeps milk feta, basil, pink ping pong tomatoes, and kerby cukes tossed with some good olive oil, balsamic, kosher salt and black pepper)

And when it was time to go home we all wondered where the weekend went!

Except for little Beans. He was too busy getting ready for another day :)

Warming up to fall.

Wilted spinach salad with caramelized red onions, pink ping pong tomatoes, and chevre

This salad was introduced to us about a year ago by my adorable sister-in-law and her brilliant chef of a boyfriend. We were at Thanksgiving dinner and I remember smelling the onions slowly caramelizing in their pan as we began appetizers. Fairly familiar with my mother-in-law's culinary repertoire I was curious to see what new creations were cooking up in her kitchen. And being the nosy daughter-in-law I stuck my nose in the kitchen to see what was cooking :) Shocker, right?

To tell you about the magic of this introduction is pointless... let's just say it has quickly made it into our culinary repertoire on a regular basis.

Anyway, the caramelized onions are gently poured over a base of spinach (in this case the baby variety) that has been lightly salted and peppered and speckled with pink ping pongs. The big finale is the crumbling --okay so it's more like force cut pieces-- of chevre cheese (that's just goat cheese rolled in herbs). The salad is then tossed together and viola! you have a hearty main dish, a delicious and savory starter....or a great fall lunch.

I can't wait to make this salad more often as the weather turns, with the addition of other seasonal goodies like seared butternut squash, roasted carrots, or just some good ole bacon!