Goodby Summer

 

This was the last hike we took before summer was officially over. I love summer but the one thing I never miss are the bugs! Now it's time to enjoy all the blazing colors Fall has to offer!

August Sunset

My daughter and I drove to Wethersfield Cove, a boat launch area in Wethersfield, Connecticut, for the specific purpose of watching an August sunset. My daughter skipped rocks while I sat near the water's edge with my dog and watched a duck peacefully drifting around in the water. I snapped off at least a dozen pictures as the sky changed from pale pastel colors to vibrant and intense shades of yellow, purple and orange. I wish I could take credit for this photo, but it was the one and only shot my daughter took with my camera. She came over and asked if she could take a picture, snapped off this one, handed the camera back to me and went off to skip more rocks. Her picture turned out the be better than any of the ones I had taken. So much for all those photography classes I took.

Vacation Breakfast

I'm not much for breakfast but when vacationing in Vermont we have to have something with maple syrup at least once so we usually visit Anthony's Diner for pancakes, only this time my daughter chose to top hers with whipped cream rather than maple syrup.

Farm Stands

One of the great things about living in New England is the abundance of farm stands. We get to drive by farms, barns and orchards along Rt. 17 and have our choice of stopping at several different farm stands. I always look forward to buying, and cooking with, native produce straight from our local farms. Going out to shop at the farm stands always feels like being on a mini-vacation. Now many of the stands have bakeries and offer coffee so I buy myself a cup of joe and an apple cider doughnut to share with the dog and just load up on the fresh veggies!

Easy Beef Fried Rice

When I'm at the store I often find those packages of beef strips and chopped peppers and onions marked down and I stock my freezer with them. Everything is already prepped so it doesn't get any easier! So here is one thing I do with them...

I saute the beef and veggies in either sesame oil or olive oil (or butter in a pinch). I season it all with some ginger, garlic powder, onion powder, a little soy sauce and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and of course, salt and pepper. I cook it until the veggies are tender and the bottom of the pan is nice and brown. I throw in a dash of parsley and deglaze the pan with a cup of water. Stir it up until the water turns into a nice brown broth and then add in a cup of instant rice. Bring to a brief boil and then simmer until the rice is done. Sometimes I add in some mushrooms and corn. Broccoli is good too. If you have orange juice in the fridge you can deglaze the pan with with a 50/50 OJ and water mix. Add in whatever you have around that you like. It serves 2 to 3 people so if you need more use 2 cups of rice and water and some extra veggies.

It's quick and easy and won't turn your kitchen into an inferno...enjoy!!

Easy Steak Fajitas

I love peppers. I love the colors, the flavors and the added bonus of them being good for you, too. I grow them in my own garden in the summer. At the grocery store I often find packages for stir-fry that have steak strips and already chopped red and green bell peppers. That makes life easy when it starts to heat up around here and staying in the kitchen doing all sorts of prep is not something I feel like doing. So for this supper I pull out one of those stir-fry packages from my freezer stockpile and make an easy supper.

Just heat a couple of tablespoons of butter and a tbsp of olive oil in your skillet and then toss in your steak strips and chopped peppers. I also added in some chopped vidalia onion. I love vidalia onions! We see those in our Northeast stores in the summer.  Put a little brown on your steak and a little caramelizing on your peppers and get a little brown on the bottom of your pan.

Now take out some instant rice and see how many servings you want and pour the proper amount of water into your steak and peppers, deglazing that nice brown stuff off the bottom of your pan. Add in a package of fajita seasoning (or less if that suits your taste) and about a half a cup of some kind of cheese ( your preference). I use whatever I have in the fridge. Sometimes a blend like cheddar and Colby. Stir it up and bring the water to a boil, stir again and then slap on a cover and simmer until the rice is cooked. Eat it as is or roll it into a tortilla with some chopped tomato and enjoy all the free time you'll have left.

Note: You can use beef stock instead of water and add other good things like mushrooms or corn. What I love about recipes is that they can be changed to suit each individual cook. And if you want to make this even faster? Buy one of those packages of Lipton fajita rice.

Victoria Earns The Game ball...Twice

Congratulations to my daughter Victoria for getting awarded the game ball two games in a row! Both times it was for stepping in to pitch when the other pitchers were having a bad day. The very first time Victoria was brought in this season she pitched a 1*2*3 inning. Good work in the circle!  (The photo was Victoria pitching her first season a few years ago)

Making Pretzels

Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 pkgs yeast
2 teaspoon honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1 stick butter
1/2 cup honey
4 teaspoon salt
8 cups flour
 Extra salt for tops

Dissolve yeast in one cup of warm water + 2 tsp of honey.
Melt butter in a saucepan, add milk, honey and stir.
Add yeast mixture to warm melted butter mixture and stir to blend.
In a bowl blend flour and salt and slowly mix into warm butter mixture until a dough forms.
Kneed dough and then set aside to rise for about an hour.
Punch down dough and take about a baseball size portion and roll it out so it's long and thin and form it into a pretzel shape.
Brush each pretzel with an egg wash and then sprinkle with course salt.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

My New Ford Fiesta

For the first time in my life I have a brand new car! Not a new used care but absolutely new. Technically it's not *my* car since I'm leasing it, but so what? I think of it as mine, all mine!
I got to pick the color: violet/gray. And it has all sorts of great features, like it tells me how many miles I have left to go before the tank is empty. It even tells me what song is playing on the radio. It gets 38mpg on the highway, all the repairs and maintenance and property taxes are covered in the lease payments, and it just plain runs great! Time to head out for a drive

Holy Waxwings!

I put up a bird- feeder last spring and began to see an impressive variety of backyard birds. I'd seen pictures of cedar waxwings and started looking for them in my yard, neighborhood and local parks. No luck. I just never saw this particular bird around town. This morning my husband asked me to look at a bird that was sitting on a wire over the road beyond our driveway. He thought it was a jay but when I glanced out I suspected it might be the elusive waxwing. I rushed for my binoculars and was absolutely stunned. There were waxwings by the dozens!! What a sight! They were sitting all over the wires. What a way to start the day!

Enchiladas!

The Good Times of Summer

My friend and coworker when we visited another friend at her lakeside campsite last August. Another summer is just around the corner with the promise of evening sunsets, leaves rustling in gentle breezes, colorful wildflowers and fun times!

Creative Maxie Photo

My older daughter got artistic when creating a memorable photo of Maxie the Schnauzer.