hudson valley – Page 2

{More Catch-Up} R.L. Stine at Oblong Books

Posted on November 11, 2014April 14, 2017by Carol

I’ll be honest here: as a pre-teen (because “tween” did not exist in the late 80s), I was a Christopher Pike girl. Chain Letter got me hooked. But my husband has a crazy love for R.L. Stine that didn’t start until he was in college. It’s a long story involving his band, someone’s girlfriend and R.L. Stine’s book The Girlfriend. We had a huge box of Fear Street novels in our attic, our boys both enjoyed the “Goosebumps” series, and Laura likes watching the likewise-named TV show on Netflix. So the excitement level at our house when I learned that R.L. Stine was coming to Rhinebeck was seriously off the hook.

At first, Drew hemmed and hawed a little. I love going to author events. Sometimes, though, the reality of who that author is can disappoint. There can be an attitude that shatters your image of how awesome they are. But I convinced him 🙂 So after the Sheep & Wool festival back in October, we headed over to Oblong Books for this super-cool Halloween event! R.L. Stine is rebooting “Fear Street” and has been making the rounds to promote his new book.

I’ve been to a lot of signings in my day, but this was certainly one of my favorites. Stine didn’t just read from his new book and answer a couple questions. He told stories. Stories about growing up. Stories about how he thought of book titles. He took tons of questions from kids in the audience. He connected with everyone there. And not only that, but he was willing to sign anything that people brought up. Sometimes there’s a limit, sometimes it’s just the author’s latest work. But R.L. Stine signed a stack of books for us (including some really old twist-a-plots that Noah adores).

Drew told him the story involving his band, his friend’s girlfriend, and the book. Mr. Stine seemed amused.

The kids had such a great time, and what a thrill to meet such a prolific writer!

Thanks, R.L. Stine and Oblong for hosting an event that my kids (and husband!) will remember for a long time!

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Hudson Valley Living
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- This & That

Snow Day

Posted on December 10, 2013by Carol

You’d think that after living in the Northeast for my entire life, that snow would be boring by this point. But you know what? That first real snowfall is still so exciting and beautiful and I just stare and think about how magnificent nature is.

I really am so lucky to live in the most gorgeous part of the country.

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Home & Garden

A Perfect Fall Day

Posted on October 8, 2013by Carol

I’d be hard-pressed to choose a better month: May or October. They’re both my favorites. Yesterday some stormed ushered in the most wonderful, cool, fall weather. And finally, finally, finally I was ready to open up that pumpkin spice coffee creamer 🙂

After getting Noah on the school bus this morning I decided to snap a few photos. The rain brought down a lot of leaves, but really the colors are just starting to show up. I’m hoping that they’ll pop in the next few days. Saturday we’re having a family portrait taken and I would be thrilled to have some brilliant color in the background. Anyway, here are just a couple shots from the yard.

Mums & scarecrows:

My Knockout Rose, still going strong:

My burning bush — I think this is the brightest I’ve ever seen it!

In the meantime I’ve been puttering around, doing some detailed cleaning. Boy, are those circular knobs that are grooved a pain to clean? We have them on some cupboards and somehow there’s always something stuck in the grooves. I also caught up on laundry — hooray!

Tonight I think I’m making a simple Western frittata for dinner with a salad. Maybe I’ll throw an apple crisp together, too… just because I feel like a bowl of some apple-y dessert and a cup of hot tea would be the perfect way to end to the day. Might have to get peeling those apples now!

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Home & Garden

In the Garden

Posted on August 2, 2013by Carol

Well, this year my garden is overgrown and underwhelming. The one-two punch of some heavy rains and two weeks of crazy hot weather made the weeds go crazy and sadly I’m just not motivated to keep up with it. (Happens every year — I’m a gardener in my head, but not in reality, LOL!) But I figured I’d share a few snapshots of the plants that haven’t died!

First, there’s my knockout rose bush. This is one of the hardiest plants we have in the front! And what’s amazing is that a few years ago, I bought the plant half-head on clearance for $1, just to see if it would take. I love how bright the pink is.

Then there are these Black-Eyed Susans that came from my mother-in-law’s garden.

And the Tiger Lily from my mom’s garden.

Even though Queen Anne’s Lace might be considered a weed, I love having it around the house. It’s so pretty and delicate and when I feel motivated to cut some flowers to bring in the house, the Queen Anne’s Lace makes such lovely filler.

This one is called a Balloon Flower and I think we might have gotten it as a bare-root plant from Spring Hill. We placed an order when we first moved here and while a lot of the plants didn’t take, a few did! The flowers close up in the evening and look like little balloons.

And here’s the Spoon Flower my dad made. This one is pretty rare 😉

I found this spiderweb this morning and I never tire of how magical they look. I left it alone — I feel bad anytime I have to wipe one away. I know it’s silly, but they just seem like so much work and this web wasn’t in a place where it was bothering anyone.

And finally, my hydrangea. I had only one pathetic bloom last year and it doesn’t look like I’ll have any flowers this year (no idea why!). I did, however, find this adorable little toad hanging out on a leaf!

Maybe in September I’ll put out some mums and marigolds and kale… I’ll try to take advantage of fall flowers and pretty things up for autumn. So, how are your gardens doing this year?

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Family
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- Hudson Valley Living

Saturday Catch-Up

Posted on July 6, 2013July 8, 2013by Carol

Hey everyone! I know, I know… it’s been a quiet week. My MIL took the boys to Maine earlier this week, so I guess I’ve been on vacation of sorts too. Things just weren’t on schedule, you know? We were going out more, I was being a little bit lazier… but I guess that’s the beauty of summer, right?

They came home on Friday morning and had a great time! They walked on the beach, swam in the hotel pool and had a ton of fun. Meanwhile, we kept things pretty quiet. We did go to the Indian buffet (Laura was obsessed with the mulligatawny soup!)

We kept things close to home on the 4th of July. We grilled burgers and watched movies. Nothing too crazy.

I finally (finally!) got my new crock pot. Oh yes, I definitely needed an appliance lift. As I mentioned, my old slow cooker died. Today I broke in my new one with sauce, turkey meatballs, and Italian sausage. Sure it’s great using the slow cooker when it’s cold, but it is a life saver when it is hot & humid — no heating up the kitchen!

This morning we headed over to Poet’s Walk Park in Red Hook. Although it’s a very popular place to hike we’d never been there before. We all had a great time!

This is the bridge I drive across several times a week to go… well, pretty much anywhere (Walmart, Target, Michael’s, Dollar Tree, any and all fast-food restaurants). I love getting the different perspective! That’s the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains you see in the distance.

I also decided to step WAY out of my comfort zone and plank in public. I’ve been doing the 21-day Plank With Bex challenge. I started out at around 58 seconds 12 days ago. Today I was up to 2 minutes 10 seconds!!! It’s amazing to see how much progress you can make in just a few days — so awesome!

Ugh, as for tonight, I’m just trying to keep cool. It has been ridiculously hot & humid lately. Hate it! I started a granny stripe blanket and I love it and I need to blog about that, too. But honestly? I think all I’m doing this evening is drinking ice water (actually, chewing on ice) and vegging out to whatever we put on Netflix.

Tomorrow Jake has SCUBA (seriously, he does the coolest stuff with his Boy Scout Troop! We absolutely made the right decision when weighing the two different troops in town). Then we need to head over across that bridge and get house stain at Home Depot. After that, who knows? Lake? Sprinkler? We shall see…

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Food & Wine
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- Hudson Valley Living

{Recipe} Skillet Sour Cherry Cobbler

Posted on June 28, 2013April 14, 2017by Carol

Sometimes I just feel so blessed to live where we live! Sure, once in a while I get homesick and think about moving back to Massachusetts, or feel like exploring a completely new area of the country. But by and large, my adopted home of the Hudson Valley suits me very well. One of the things I like best is all the pick-your-own farms. A favorite is Fraleigh’s Rose Hill Farm just a few minutes away in Red Hook. Yesterday we took advantage of some free time to head over and pick a real summertime treat: sour cherries.

Contrary to the name, I don’t find sour cherries to really be all that sour. But certainly they are not as cloying as the sweet cherries. They are also infinitely easier to pit, which makes them my preferred cherry for baking, jam, canning, and so forth. The kids were begging me to bake a cherry pie, but I didn’t have all the ingredients for the crust so we went with a cobbler instead.

I was very excited to use my Lodge cast iron skillet for something besides steak!

Skillet Sour Cherry Cobbler

2013-06-27 14:48:08

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Filling

4 cups pitted sour cherries
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Biscuits

1 cup unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
6 Tbsp. cold butter, cut into pieces
1/4 c. boiling water

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine cherries, cornstarch, 2/3 cup sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a bowl. Set aside and let everything come together.
Combine the dry ingredients in a second bowl, adding the butter pieces last. Using a pastry tool or a fork, cut in the butter until the mixture becomes crumbly In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients, cutting in the butter until crumbly. Carefully add the boiling water, a little bit at a time, and stir until the mixture forms a soft dough.
Add the cherry mixture to a cold cast iron skillet and gently bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and drop spoonfuls of the biscuit mixture on top of the cherries. If desired, sprinkle extra sugar on top of the biscuits. Bake for 45 minutes until the biscuits turn golden.

Notes

* You can probably use regular old AP flour -- I just prefer the unbleached flour and that's what I had.
* You are probably supposed to use unsalted butter for this. I didn't have it and used regular butter. Tasted a-okay to me!

Pure Sugar http://www.puresugar.net/

All three kids oohed and ahhed as I took this delicious dish out of the oven. And Mean Mommy made everyone wait until supper was finished (and vegetables had all been eaten) before anyone could have a taste. But it was worth it! Everyone savored this yummy dessert. It might have been better if I’d had whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but I didn’t hear any complaints so I’m not sure anyone even noticed.

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Family

This Moment

Posted on May 31, 2013by Carol

In an effort to write better, write more, capture more, be more honest, I give you this.

My four-year-old daughter, my sweet, sassy little girl, just marched downstairs and straight into the kitchen. She had changed into a bathing suit for no apparent reason (because that, apparently, is what 4-year-old girls do) and was petting a cicada exoskeleton, cooing, “Oooh, you’re such a good boy. Yes, you are are. What a good little guy.”

She wants to bring him to Babci & Dziadziu’s this weekend. Mom… I hope you’re ready! 😉

And you mean to tell me that something like this is not a regular occurrence at your house? Well, then…

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Food & Wine
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- Hudson Valley Living

Can It, Bake It, Grow It, Swap It!!!

Posted on May 11, 2013May 11, 2013by Carol

Last week when I was talking about my carrot cake jam, I mentioned that I was making it for a food swap our library was hosting. I knew that there would be some tasty treats there (we have a large population of excellent cooks in our community), and the results did not disappoint!

So… what is a food swap and how does it work? Well, basically you bake, can, grow, forage, or otherwise bring something to the proverbial (and literal) table. You taste. You talk. You trade. It was so fun, and a great way to engage with our neighbors! We had many curious patrons who expressed interest in participating in our next go-around. And I hope they do! What a fun way to try new things.

Here’s what we had today…

Cookies:::

Ginger-chocolate mini scones:::

(My) carrot cake jam:::

Granola:::

Fresh honey nut butter:::

Local eggs from happy chickens:::

Sriracha (better than anything with a rooster on it — trust me!):::

Handcrafted vanilla extract:::

Spicy Guinness Mustard:::

We shall eat well, indeed! I feel a little bit spoiled, and a lot bit lucky to be part of this.

I am already thinking ahead and deciding what to make for our next one. Perhaps some fermented sauerkraut or spicy pickled vegetables? I definitely think it will be something fresh and vinegary. But homemade hot fudge could be fun too… So many delicious possibilities!

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Family
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- Hudson Valley Living

Morning at the Lake

Posted on April 27, 2013by Carol

This morning Jake and his Boy Scout troop participated in the 43rd annual Wappinger Creek Water Derby. He went through a swim test and canoe training to help him prepare and he was psyched! After a filling breakfast of buttered toast and ham and egg scramble, D. dropped him off at the location where he meets for Boy Scouts and he was on his own. It’s hard to “let go” but so good for everyone at the same time.

Jake had an amazing experience (and is wiped out, understandably), but it was so much fun for him. While he was off at the derby, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to take our brand-new canoe for its maiden voyage. (Yes, after seeing all the scouts having a ball in the canoes, and not being able to jump in himself, D. bought one as a birthday present to himself.)

We headed down to Landsman Kill here in Rhinebeck and it was absolutely perfect! I can’t believe more people (especially those who live right there) weren’t out on the lake). The temperature was just right for spending some time out on the water.

After rowing around the lake twice, we had a picnic lunch and called the outing a success. Next time we will probably go for longer, but considering it has been many (many!) years since I last canoed, this was a perfect way to ease back into it.

As Drew loaded the canoe back onto the Subaru (oh yes — now I totally feel like part of the club, driving around with a canoe strapped to the roof of our Forester, LOL…), Noah tossed rocks into the lake while Laura picked some flowers.

It was such a great start to the weekend. But now I need to make a salad and get the pizzas on the grill. Drew and Jake set up the big movie screen, and we have cupcakes and wine and tea and coffee, and… I’m just so looking forward to this fun, relaxing family night. I hope the same for you!

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Home & Garden
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- Hudson Valley Living
- This & That

First Snow of the Season

Posted on November 8, 2012by Carol

Thankfully it wasn’t enough to even cause a school delay this morning, but yes we got our first snowfall of the season! It looked so pretty as it came down late yesterday afternoon. Laura couldn’t wait to get outside, so we bundled up for a few minutes and I (of course) couldn’t help but snap a few shots.

It’s still quite windy, though. I can’t lie — I was pretty happy when she finally agreed to go inside to warm up!

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