Begun as a snarky diet diary more than ten years ago, Sass & Veracity and its “fat-free opinions on a food centric life” quickly evolved into a food blog. Recipes are involved, but not always. Travel is a welcome diversion from it all. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find there.
Travel
Accidental Ramblers: Hiking Inn-To-Inn Through Southwest England
I suppose I can blame The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry for our most recent trip. If you’ve not read it, it’s about a man who spontaneously decides to walk across England. An odd story, it’s one which will always stay with me. And it isn’t so much that I immediately wanted to walk across England after having read it, but I was intrigued.
Like Harold, I’m more of an accidental rambler. My mother most likely sowed the seeds when, by necessity, she decided I would walk to my Kindergarten class which was more than a mile from our home. I thought nothing of it because I was six, or perhaps five. Do children that age think about such things? I chide her about it now, having had my own children and knowing I would never have sent one of them off to school at that age unaccompanied. Still, it could explain my urge to walk from a sink or swim perspective. (Read More)
Vacationing In Midcoast Maine
“So where are you staying?” the woman on the other side of the Avis counter asked as she processed our car rental. My husband and I had just arrived in Portland, Maine after a red-eye from San Diego followed by a botched connecting flight in Philadelphia. We were more than ready for our vacation to begin.
“Thomaston,” we replied in unison.
“Ah, well. You must know someone there, then,” she said, as if we wouldn’t have considered visiting that particular area of the Midcoast for any other reason. I imagine when you rent cars at the airport all day, you become an expert on where the most popular areas of a given region might be. (Read More)
Food
Green Salad With Blueberries, Apples & Mustard Chive Vinaigrette
I should call this the Monet salad. I’m teasing, of course, but whenever I see varying tones of green and purple with touches of blue, I think of French Impressionist Claude Monet’s most famous and recognizable series of paintings — Waterlilies.
To be accurate, I’d have to specify which waterlilies painting, there are so many created over many years spanning most seasons and at varying times of the day. It’s impossible for me to choose a favorite. Although I appreciate his more precise earlier work, what I enjoy more are the hazy, increasingly abstract pieces that were a result of the cataracts clouding his vision in later years. Not only did they alter the clarity with which he saw the world, they distorted color as well. (Read More)
Baked Apple Dumplings With Sweet Browned Butter Sauce
I think the first time I tried to make an apple dumpling I was about 26, give or take a year. I don’t remember cooking much during that particular time in my life, but what I did cook has stayed with me — for better or worse. A successful pot of chili verde qualifies as one of my better accomplishments, and apple dumplings one of my worst.
At the time, my two older boys were just out of toddlerhood and I had a part time job requiring a 3 am wake up. Several days a week, I’d fumble to quiet the huge wind-up Big Ben I kept stuffed in the lingerie drawer in my bedside table, shrug into my uniform and stumble downstairs for a hit and miss application of mascara and foundation. (Read More)