This post has been sponsored by Stop & Shop, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Summertime is my family time. In Manhattan, we live in a two bedroom apartment that my hubby, two sons and I are quickly growing out of. We don’t have any space to host overnight guests, so it’s tough for my family to come visit. When the kids are out of school and temperatures start soaring I spend July and August out east at our house on Long Island. I have extra bedrooms and much more space than we do in the city so I get to host my family and friends all summer long!

For our last summer week at the house, my Mama was in town from Canada. Our time together is so special to me and revolves mostly around meals because when my mom is in town...I make her cook. My mom always had a homemade meal on the table for my sister and I while growing up and I am forever grateful for that. There are some recipes that my mom makes that I crave throughout the year and often attempt on my own but they just never turn out the same.

In meal planning for this week I asked my mom if she could make me her asparagus casserole, which is a summer tradition. She was excited to make it, and I told her I would pair it with my heavenly chicken (a recipe I got from my Aunti Marissa). I had most of the ingredients we needed at home, but we had to grab a few things at the store so my mom and Gavin tagged along.

My local grocery store on Long Island is Stop & Shop. Out east, the grocery stores are much more grand than they are in the city making it so much easier to find the ingredients I need. What’s even more exciting is that Stop and Shop recently renovated the Riverhead, NY location where I shop and it’s just glorious. It’s an entertainers dream. They have a huge selection of craft beer, and there’s even a kiosk that can help you pair foods with your choice of drink...brilliant!

We grabbed our chicken, Stop & Shop brand shredded cheese and a few other things we needed. My mom was so impressed with how clean and well organized the store was. Not only is everything so easy to find, they have new features in the store that make grocery shopping more convenient.

The produce department has to be my favorite... Not only is there a huge selection of farm-fresh fruits & veggies, but they have a ton of organic options that are really affordable. After we made our selections including our star ingredient, asparagus, Gavin would weigh them. He’d put a bag of fruit or veggies on the scale, select the item and it would immediately calculate out the weight, price and print out a sticker. Not only was this fun for him, but it made check out so much faster!

Before we hit the store, I had a super busy morning of errands and running the kids back & forth to camp & not going to lie...I was exhausted. I’m so used to schlepping my kids everywhere but the tables were turned and my Mom happily pushed me out of the store! It was a silly moment, but a memory that I’ll treasure.

Back at the house I whipped up a tablescape and we cooked our dishes together before enjoying a beautiful meal on the backyard deck. A pretty perfect day ended with an absolutely perfect summer evening spent with family.