Best Road Trip Ever! Kick-off brunch

    A road trip across the United States of America is "one of those thing you have to do at least once in your life!" The pressure! That was our initial plan. Then Julie and I looked at a map and looked at each other and got a little scared. "Thats a lot of driving!" And a lot of each other! We never traveled anywhere together, much less sat in a car together for 2 weeks straight. It could get ugly. There could be fits of rage, unconsolable tears, fists beating the dashboard, someone left dead in a ditch! So we modified our plans and booked plane tickets to Austin then planned on driving to New Mexico; two places we both  really wanted to visit. 

   Julie and I are very different people. Julie is a well put together, organized planner type. And she is gorgeous. While I pretty much wander through life without direction. Things fall into place. We have less control than we think we do. Yes, we can book tickets to Texas, but it turning out to be the BEST ROAD TRIP EVER, was really left to chance. Not knowing this, Julie wanted to do some trip planning over brunch. 

  "Let's just book the first night's hotel. Please? And maybe the car rental?" she begged. 

   Fine. I am not against planning attempts. Some idea or structure is good for the brain. But I knew we would get little done aside from chat and eat and drink gin and tonics in my backyard, but that sounded like a perfect afternoon for me. It was also during World Cup soccer and Martin swung by so there were a lot of factors that detracted from the plan to plan. 

   Julie "likes to pick," so a little bit of this and a little bit of that, plus some bread and cheese and it was a perfect brunch. We hardly got anything done, but we laughed, recovered from the previous evening's debauchery, collaborated on styling some gorgeous food photography "moments" (look at that bread and cheese!) and enjoyed a gorgeous sunny afternoon in Queens. Our road trip was off to a great start! 

    Pictured: Cucumbers in Water, Caprese Salad (Mozarella, Tomato, Basil, Olive Oil, Balsamic Creme), Local Strawberries, Watermelon, Bacon Marmalade, Homemade Strawberry Ginger Jam, Olive Bread, Local Raw Sheep Manchego with Peppercorns, Local Raw Aged Goat Cheese, Local Greens, Black Olives, Marcy's Famous Caponata, Rocco's Local Escarole with White Beans and Fennel Seeds, Duck Eggs (I meant to use these to make Duck Egg Pasta Carbonara, but later they made me hurl, so I am very glad I didn't serve it to Julie and Martin.)