In Which the Squeak-Niece Goes to Jersey:

New Jersey.
The land of my birth.

Can't quite say I've missed it...except for one little part. A magical bungalow in Gloucester City- the South Jersey Museum of Curiosities-also known as my Aunties' house.

Auntie Deborah, myself, and Auntie Marilyn!

With this fellow to greet you at the door you know it's going to be fun! He works like a nutcracker, the tail moves his jaw up and down and his marble eyes glow quite nicely.

 

Two charms I made in my jewelry class are now keeping a watch on their house.

And some of Auntie D's work in the front hall.

My favorite room is the kitchen, I spent a lot of time parked on the stool watching the Aunties and their animals go to and fro.

When I was very little Miss Linda accidentally got a black eye, which I drew a picture of, and it turned up in a few of Auntie M's prints. One of which is in the kitchen!

I love this monkey. He climbs up the string!

Wee but adorable pantry. And a convenient window to holler at folks in the cantina.

They re-did the kitchen a few years ago making custom cabinets and generally turning it from a room into a life size work of art.

Windows out to the cantina. You can holler out this one too.

Finches!

A shelf for lid storage and behind this door is a narrow rack for cookie sheets! Romance AND practical storage for cookie sheets?! Now that's true love!

The salmon pink dining room. It was here that I learned I was complete rubbish at cross word puzzles.

Check out that chandelier! And the beautiful built in cabinet. There are bookshelves in the living room, one of the best parts of a bungalow in my opinion.

And this beautiful piece by their dear friend Connie, with one of Auntie D's pieces in front.

And this is my Auntie M's hideaway-basically a child's dream room. When we visited as kids D and I would spend hours in here pouring over her collection of old toys and odd things. Nun's that spit fire. Eyeballs. That sort of thing.

Not much has changed as I still spent hours with my Auntie finding treasures.

My wee Mom on the left, wee Marilyn in the middle, Godzilla on the right.



Auntie D joined us for treasure hunting up in the attic, that's a box top I drew on ages ago with Peter Pan, Wendy, John, Michael, and Tink flying to Neverland. Over twenty years later and I still love Peter Pan! You can't see much of it, but that wood framed thing on the left is a piece that's going to come live with me and I can't wait to share it with you!

Some treasures we found were old and in need of sprucing up, here's a wooden box getting tweaked down in the wood shop in the basement. (Yes. There is a fully supplied wood shop in the basement. And a metal shop in the garage and their computer/paint work is done upstairs. Paradise.)

My Aunties co-habitate with two adorable animals: Miss Ellie the doodle dog and Scout the cat.

 

We snuggled a lot. 

Auntie M and I fed Ellie lots of little tid bits from our meals, but not this ice cream. That's all mine.

And I made her a collar using our trailer ribbon, a reference to her being born under one. 

And have I mentioned the cantina? I failed to take enough photos of it but fortunately there's some on their SJMOC site I can show you:

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 The front gate- it's like walking into another world. Only the occasional waft of octane from the next door gas station or planes flying over head remind you you're in New Jersey!

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Door to the kitchen with the cantina on the right with Ellie the dog and Scout the cat standing guard.

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There's a different table now, but we ate here almost every day.

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Outdoor sink...

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...and brick oven makes a lovely outdoor kitchen. We grilled monkfish as an inaugural meal to open grilling season.

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There's now a hammock and two crazy lean-y back-y chairs that are divine once you get over the feeling you're going to fall head over heels. 

I spent a lot of time staring up at the ceiling from those chairs...when my eyes weren't closed since I was napping.

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And there's a lovely garden in back with a little hut where Auntie M holes up with the animals. 

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Cantina from the back of the garden.

Lots of skeletons. It kind of feels like you're in Mexico while taking a siesta in a hammock.

We spent most of our time in our pjs poking around the kitchen or the cantina. Auntie M even gardens in hers!
And we ate. And ate. And ate.
Gloriously.

Auntie D makes Molly of Orangette's scones once a week, but I managed to finish off a whole batch so she had to make another. Whoops. Cranberries and walnuts then lemon zest and ginger.

We went to the farmer's market for local bread and my first strawberries of the season!

 We also got some clams.

Steamy steamy death. Mwahahaa.

Bivalves and beer? Yes please!

Grilled monkfish and asparagus with my new love: green goddess dressing.

Aunt Deborah made olive oil cake which was served a la mode with vanilla ice cream and sliced strawberries that stewed in Chambord for a while.

East coast pizza, how I love you! And more green goddess dressing!

We even left the house to eat: a sojourn into Philly to visit the Mutter Museum which didn't manage to put us off our lunch which we had in Chinatown. Cold sesame noodles, chicken we sucked off bones, scallion pancakes and best of all: fat balls. Dumplings that have fatty pork in the middle which liquifies when it's steamed. Dip them in sauce and suck out the juicy fat so it doesn't explode on you when you bite into it!



And we didn't eat anything there but we did pop in to their friend Joel's house to behold his stunning collection of clock radios (as well as other fun things).

But I think the most satisfying meal was this Vietnamese green curry. My senior year of college the Aunties came to visit for Christmas. On Christmas day Auntie M made a big batch of this but I fell ill and was too sick to eat any! Clearly an indicator of how sick I was since this dish is delicious! By the time I could manage a bowl that's all there was left. One bowl! And I've been craving seconds for about five years now.

It's from Mai Pham's The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking, the recipe can be found here (Auntie M uses cod instead of chicken). I ate three bowls. Finally satisfied.

We also left the house to feast at Sagami, a Japanese restaurant my family raves about every time they go to visit. I refused to leave until I'd eaten there. And now all I want is their seaweed salad. And the sushi.

And this fried seafood. :-(

I'm just going to have to go back.

I feel so rested and my brain has been buzzing with creativity since I returned. It was a delightful week, my Aunties have created a wonderful world that was a true pleasure to be a part of for a few days. And I've brought a bit of it with me in a box full of treasure. I can show you what I've done with my prizes in my next post which will also include the real reason I went to New Jersey: Auntie M's show!