Freaky Friday

Red Velvet Cupcake

Do you remember the movie where the child and parent switch bodies and live the other person's life?  Well that has happened at our home as of late.

In the past week and a half I made a butternut squash & apple soup, molasses cookies, and, last night, cupcakes.  This from a man who never cooks (the running joke is that when I cook we go out!).  To be fair, it isn't that I can't cook because I can-as long as I have a recipe in front of me.  I just don't usually cook because I'm married to someone who cooks much better than myself (and most others) and doesn't need a recipe to work from.

It's funny how things can drive you to do something.  The soup came about from a new restaurant that we lunched at one day.  They served an apple butternut squash soup as an appetizer.  I had never had it, and it was so good.  I wanted to see if we could recreate it so I could have it whenever I wanted.  And, now I can.

The molasses cookies were a lightning strike moment.  There is a soup place (not the same place as the apple butternut squash soup, go figure) that sells these molasses ginger cookies.  Ross and I will split one every so often when we eat there.  While we were at the Bethlehem Garlic Festival getting seed garlic for our vegetable garden (you plant garlic in the fall) we perused a sugar house's booth.  They had blackstrap molasses.  I had the "Aha!" moment that I could make molasses cookies myself.  They were good.  The next day Ross kept helping himself to a cookie every time he went through the kitchen.  Payback!

The cupcakes...
The genesis of the cupcakes starts with Ross playing with Max, then Ross running backwards from Max, and then Ross falling down and hurting most of his right side (and thankfully not falling on Max).  Last night, as he sat on the couch aching, he asked what's for dessert.  We've been together for almost ten years.  I don't think that question was ever uttered to me in all that time!  Not one to let my guy down, I picked up the laptop and started looking for a dessert.  I chose a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting recipe.  I looked at the ingredients and was mentally thinking what I would need to go get at the grocery-cream cheese, confectioners sugar...  I started going over the ingredients list with Ross.

I have this joke about a woman's purse that it is a gateway to a second dimension.  It's one of those things a woman can put her hand into and pull out just about anything, and I mean anything.

I guess Ross' cupboards are the same.  I didn't have to go to the grocery store for one thing (not cream cheese, not sour cream, not powdered cocoa, not even red food coloring-though the recipe called for a bit more than what we had).  Ross continually leaves me speechless.  Well, I whipped him up a batch of red velvet cupcakes, and they seem to be a hit.  Of course now I'm thinking I better stop while I'm ahead.  If I keep this going he might try to make this Freaky Friday thing permanent!

On another note, we had visited our local potter earlier this summer, and he mentioned that he made pie plates.  Ross and I both looked at each other in astonishment.  How did we not know this?  Of course, to our chagrin, he did not have any at that time as someone had come in and bought every single one he had.  Guy, our local potter's name is Guy Wolff, told Ross to bring in his favorite pie plate and he would make him one to his specifications.  Well, every time we remembered to bring the pie plate we never made it there or he wasn't there himself.  Today we finally got there with Ross's pan and to our luck and amazement Guy had several plates already made that were quite similar to the one Ross brought.  We bought two; the one with the cross hatches was closest to Ross' favorite in size and wall slope while the second was sentimental to me.  It is glazed with the outline of Mt. Tom Pond which is a state park down the road from our house.  The design includes an outline of the pond, Mt. Tom itself, and the tower that sits upon it.  The park sits in three towns (Washington, Litchfield and Morris) which are listed in the border around the pan.  So why is this so special?

First, Ross and I have lived in two places since we moved to Connecticut.  The first was in Washington and the second (our current home) sits in both Morris and Litchfield. These are the three towns listed on the plate.  Second, this park is really close to our home.  We pass it several times every week.  It is part of the landscape that I consider our home.  I look at it every time I pass it.  In every season it is beautiful (my most favorite is at Christmastime when this one lone person on the other side of the pond lights up a single pine tree that sits on the water's edge).  Finally, I have fond memories hiking there with Ross.  Note that we took our blog profile picture while we were on the top of the Mt. Tom tower.  The view from the top is breathtaking.

As I said the pie plate was sentimental to me.  Add to it that our favorite potter made it and Ross is destined to add his own charm to it from years of baking, and you have an heirloom in the making.  I bet the pie made on this plate will taste just a bit sweeter, at least to me!

Hall-O-Birthday

What a weekend.  My sister came to visit for a mini-vacation sans her family.  She needed a little R and R given all the excitement that she has had this past year; packing and moving your family to another state can be very stressful.  It was a good time for her to visit given that October is her birthday month, Halloween is her favorite holiday, and it is also peak foliage season in New England.  She flew in on Thursday and I picked her up in New York.  We celebrated her birthday that night with a jack o'lantern cake that Ross made.  It was cute and tasty.  He also made coq au vin for her first meal here-it was mighty delicious.  We were all stuffed afterwards (which given how much we ate this weekend it might as well be its unofficial theme).

We started Friday with a tour of the property and afterwards headed to breakfast at the local diner down the road.  Next we had lots of fun; Ross and my sister went shopping on the Litchfield green while I went to a dental appointment to fix one of my crowns (note to all kids out there-take care of your teeth because having dental work done is not fun and is not cheap).  During their shopping excursion my sister found a couple of small knick-knacks the she bought in one of the antique stores.  Happy birthday to her!  After my appointment we met up for lunch and then checked out the sights.  We stopped at the local potter.  Amazingly I left empty handed although there was something there that I wanted; for once my self control kicked in (I can control my addiction I swear).  We also took her to the Averill apple orchard in Washington to get some apple cider doughnuts which were yummy.  It was a chilly and blustery day so we headed home to warm up.  Ross filled our bellies with beef goulash.  We had a relaxing evening before hitting the hay.

I had a couple of events planned for Saturday.  The first was a ride on the historic Naugatuck Railroad.  We took a 75 minute ride in a circa 1920s railroad passenger car along the Naugatuck River.  It was fun and a nice way to see the sights and get some historical information about the area.  There was a little boy about to turn two with his grandfather next to us.  The boy was dressed in all his Thomas the Train gear.  I think he lasted about ten minutes before the rattling of the car caused him to fall fast asleep.  He woke up as the train pulled into the station.  It was so cute.  I could understand because the train made me feel the same way.

After the train ride we went looking for a place to have lunch.  I will say that this was more of a chore than I expected, and I have crossed one local eatery off my list for good due to poor customer service (when you tell me that I can't be served at 2:55 PM because the deli closes at 3 PM at least try to tell me nicely and not act like me trying to spend my hard earned money in your establishment is such an inconvenience-cough, cough Nine Main in New Preston, CT).  After finding a place to eat we headed to a local rustic, country shop where my sister was able to purchase an herb drying rack.  She really liked ours so we took her to the source.

We spent Saturday evening visiting the Glebe House in Woodbury.  This is a historical house, now museum, that had a special Halloween tour (I believe one guide said it was the ninth year for this event).  The house was candlelit and they had actors in each room.  This was not a fright-fest but more an educational endeavor.  The actors portrayed the ghosts of early residents of the house including the first owners.  It should be noted that this house was where the American Episcopalian Church was founded, so making it a haunted house would have been in poor taste.  After the house tour we went to the nearby cemetery where there where more actors who portrayed some of the more famous and infamous characters in the town's history (in most cases right next to where the residents were buried).  It was a beautiful night with luminaries leading the way and a full moon hanging brightly in the sky.  The actors did a good job too.  I would recommend going to this next year if you can make it to the area and like historical tours and such.

My sister left today so we had a quick breakfast this morning, loaded up the car, and headed back to New York so she could make her flight.  All the driving really took the wind out of my sails; I ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap once we got home.  We had a lot of fun, and it was nice to get some one-on-one time with my sister.  And now, I should probably go and make sure Ross is awake since I haven't heard him stirring in a bit.  I think he might be curled up with Bootsy on the couch.

Time Flies

Guess what...

Boy does time fly by in the blink of an eye.  It just seems like yesterday that we were growing and harvesting our garlic, and Ross planted his new bulbs for next year today.  His garden is officially defunct for the year.  He pulled the last of the plants this past week.  We were able to get one last lettuce haul that gave us enough for a salad, and there are some carrots in the fridge that we will need to eat.  For the most part it was a good growing year.  All did well except the potatoes.

I spent part of the day performing the sad task of disposing of our annual flowers that are now spent and cleaning and storing the pots for the Winter.  It's sad to see the plants fade away knowing that another Summer has come and gone.  I still left some plants that are hanging in there go so that there was at least something on the patio when my sister comes to visit next weekend.

Ross planted some more daffodil bulbs in the front of the house last weekend.  The first Spring after we bought the place we had some daffodils sprout.  Ross has added to them each year since.  I can't believe we are quickly coming up on three years in this house.  All I can say is that the house and the landscaping keeps getting better every year.

The weather seems to be getting cooler and cooler as the month rolls along.  I haven't broken out a coat yet but did pull out my quilted flannel shirt.  We are back to wearing multiple layers while we are outside.  What is worse is that I have turned on the heater in the house.  It kills me to say that.  I usually try to make it till November to turn it on, but the temperature has been low enough that the house does not get back to a comfortable temperature during the day on its own.  It is not fair to Ross to ask him to freeze his tuckus off all day long just because I'm a heat miser.  FYI, I know it's gotten cold when Ross tells me that he is cold.  He has officially been wearing jeans and even wore his coat one day while he watched the chickens.  The chickens on the other hand don't seem fazed by the temperature change.

Last weekend Ross and I had our anniversary.  We had a relaxing weekend at home.  We did go to the Garlic Festival at the the Bethlehem Fairgrounds.  It is fun to go and see all the people and try all the different garlic dips and sauces.  I bought a carved wood bowl there to house my pocket change.  While walking around we discussed whether to go out to dinner or to cook at home.  We ended up cooking.  For dinner we had prime rib, baked potatoes, fresh garden salad with a garlic vinegar dressing (we got the vinegar at the fair), mushrooms sauteed in red wine, and champagne to toast another year together.  Ross made an incredible dinner.  I am blessed to have such a talented husband.

All in all it does seem that time is flying by.  I think part of what makes it seem to go so fast is the good company I get to keep!

Fall is in the Air

I can't believe that it is Sunday already.  Ross and I have had a wonderful and relaxing weekend.  The weather Saturday was bright, sunny and cool.  It was a perfect day for our planned outing.  We went on a farm tour in Roxbury, CT which is one of those idyllic, small New England towns that commercialism has yet to reach.  We got to see two, historic farms and two, more-modern farms.  We had a wonderful time looking at the orchards and farm animals.  The not-so-little girl to the left is a Scottish Highland cow.  She was quite the character.  One of the guides mentioned that one farm in Roxbury imported this cattle breed a number of years ago, and now it seems that every other farm in the area has gotten itself two or so from the babies that followed.  They seemed quite the gentle giants and are supposedly well suited to our New England winters.  The farm where this picture was taken is one of the oldest continuous running farms in the country.  It is currently being run by the eighth generation of the family, and the land it sits on was originally granted to them in the early 1700s by the King of England.

On another farm there were goats and donkeys.  As stated in an earlier post, Ross really wants goats.  I was  surprised at the simple shed that was used to house them.  It is definitely something that we could build.   I should have asked if they stay in the shed in the winter or if they are transferred to another barn.  Oh well, we have some time before we get to goats, unless Ross pulls the chicken stunt on me again!

We also toured a certified organic vegetable farm and a local meat farm that focuses on humane treatment of its black angus cattle, heritage hogs, and free-range chickens.  We ended up buying some bacon for Sunday breakfast.  It was really good!  We had a great time touring the farms, but I think it was also very dangerous because now my head is filled with all kinds of ideas.

We awoke to an overcast and very cool Sunday.  I think the temperature might have made it to 62 degrees if we were lucky.  It was a good day to trim some of our trees though.  Ross got this picture of me climbing the ladder.  I wish he was able to catch the moment that I was trying to move it while it was still extended and almost fell backwards.  That would have been classic.  Always the worrier, Ross came around front (with the chickens in tow) and reminded me not to let the limbs fall on my head like I did when I trimmed one of our pine trees in the Spring.  I wasn't directly under that limb, but somehow or another when it dropped it hit me straight on the head.  It hit me so hard all I kept repeating to myself was "don't let go of the ladder."  It took me a couple of minutes to steady myself and then slowly descend to the ground.  Today was the first day since the pine that I tackled some larger limbs.  Believe me, not letting them hit my head was definitely a priority.  I got them down just fine with no new dents in my noggin, phew.

For Sunday supper, Ross made a most tasty pot roast with potatoes and carrots from the garden.  Ross likes to joke that it was his pot roast that sealed the deal on our relationship since that was the first meal he cooked for me.  I think my waistline agrees.

Since I'm on food I just wanted to give a quick update on one of our annual events-Peach Week-which occurred this past week.  Each year since we moved to Connecticut Ross and I go peach picking at a local farm; we did it this year this past Sunday (Daisy's last day-hence the reason that I'm getting to this now).  The week starts off with us just eating the peaches, and ends with jars of peach jam, peach butter, peach chutney, and halved peaches in a light sugar syrup all heading to storage in the cellar.  I can't tell you what a treat it is on a cold, late February night to open a can of the peaches we picked and get a taste of summer.  Peach Week is one of the main reasons we started our own, small orchard.

This year there were two additions to Peach Week; the first was Ross' new copper jam pot (which worked great), and the second was me.  He actually let me help.  It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about canning.   Of course my mom telephoned me at the same time that I placed a jar of jam in the hot water bath and the heat broke the bottom off lickety-split.  Nothing like trying to juggle a phone and a mess at the same time.  C'est la vie!

I should also mention that Ross made a delicious peach pie.  Some people love cakes; some love cookies.  I'm a pie guy.  Ross has always made stellar pies, but I must say that he has perfected his crust.  I think I could down a mud pie if it was cooked up in his crust!  And, on this note I think I will go since I know that there is still some pie in the fridge that needs attending to.

Ouchy!

Ross was being a trooper today and mowed most of the lawn.  He hit a stopping point in the orchard.  We located our bee hive in this area, and when I mow I try to go as fast around the hive as possible.  I've held on to the theory that the mower agitates the bees, and I guess I was right.  Ross was mowing around it and he got stung twice.  What made it worse was that the first bee stung him around his mouth and just as he was reacting to that sting (hence opening his mouth to gasp in pain) another stung him right on the fleshy part right next to his lip inside his mouth.  Talk about a boo-boo lip!

On the plus side, we got a good batch of cucumbers from the garden so Ross is working on canning me some dill pickles while he is also working on supper.  He made foil dinners to go on the grill, filled with squash, carrots, beans and potatoes from the garden.  I just love foil dinners.  They remind me of camping.

A Beautiful Weekend

Well the weekend is almost over and no more cougar sightings thank the Lord.  We had a very productive weekend.  Ross was able to can a batch of his homemade tomato soup and made a terrific Mexican dinner for us Saturday night.  He made everything from scratch including the nacho chips for the cheese dip.  Mmm, mmm tasty.  They were even better today as a snack!

On Saturday, we finally got the roof completed on the chicken run.  I had placed wire mesh over the top to keep our little cluckers in but it was not secured.  This weekend we connected each of the posts with 2x4s and nailed the chicken wire in place.  We started to weave each of the sections together with galvanized wire, but still have some weaving left to do.  I'll leave that to Ross to finish this week.  I am feeling much better about the safety of my little girls.

Ross noticed that one of the hens was limping as she walked.  We checked her foot and all seems in order.  We are hoping that she just strained it and that in time it will get better.  We'll keep an eye on that.

Today I finished up a job that I have put off for two summers now.  When we first bought the property the woods came right up to the house.  The house sits on a hill (hence Looking Glass Hill) with the area that the house sits on leveled out.  On one side of the house the property slopes upward and on the other the property slopes downward.  Several months after we closed the septic system was replaced.  To do this the contractor had to cut down a lot of trees to place the tank and leaching field as well as to gain access to those sites.  He created a quasi road on our property and opened up a lot of what is now green space for us to enjoy.  That summer I placed some stone steps on the downward sloping side of the house that led to the quasi road.  I always intended to build a hand rail as the grade is somewhat steep but have put it off until this weekend.  As fate would have it Ross and I came across discounted, end of season hostas and decided to place these in this small swatch of land right next to the stairs.  The area was overrun with weeds and was the last remaining section of the area between the driveway and the quasi road that we still had left to reclaim from the woods; probably half of Ross' poison ivy outbreaks have come from reclaiming this area of our property.  I decided before planting the hostas that I should place the handrail  so that I wouldn't have to disturb the plants later.  So as Ross cooked brunch, and a tasty bread pudding that we had for dessert tonight, I went out and started digging the post holes.  Thankfully there were no major rock obstacles so hole digging went quickly.  For the posts I used a maple tree trunk from a tree we cut down earlier this summer.  The handrail is a maple sapling that I cut down today.  I had the posts in place and the sapling cut all before Ross called me to the table.  After a quick trip to the local hardware store for some quick drying cement to hold the poles in place, I was close to being done.  I'm really happy with the railing and was done so quickly that I was able to get all the hostas planted too.  Progress makes me happy.  What makes me really happy is crossing a two year old project off my to do list!

City Chicken Weekend

The weekend is almost over, and it has been a full one!  We started it off with City Chicken for Friday supper. This is a new dish to our table.  I personally never heard of it before, but it is something that Ross grew up eating and thought only his grandmother made (until he did some research and realized that many others had grown up with it too).  Although the name states chicken it is actually not.  Ross' recipe calls for a mixture of beef and pork.  I guess in the old days beef and pork were cheaper than chicken so City Chicken was the poor man's dish.  All I can say is that it was quite tasty, and as you can tell by the picture we had plenty enough for leftovers.

Speaking of chicken,  all four of ours are now laying eggs pretty consistently.  On Saturday I took the camera with me when I went to let them out and collect the eggs.  I took this picture of these three brown beauties waiting for me.  We are now getting more eggs than we are using so either Ross is going to need to bake more, or we are going to have to start giving them away.  I am amazed, and feel somewhat bad, that these little hens push out something relatively so big on such a consistent basis.  I guess there is no rest for the little cluckers.

The ladies are also getting accustomed to their new run.  The first couple of days they tried to escape via their not so great flying, but realized very quickly that their was no escape from Chicken-traz (think Alcatraz-my other name for it is Fort Clux like Fort Knox).  They also went from wall to wall looking for a way out to no avail.  Now they go about their business like it's old hat.  They even found a little space to have their dirt baths.  They are so adorable as they roll themselves around in the dirt.  They get it all up in their feathers.  When they are done, they give a grand shake and release a plume of dust.  It reminds me of Pig Pen from the Peanuts cartoon.  They are my little dirty birds.

Ross and I also spent part of Saturday replanting his largest fig tree and changing out some of our spent annuals with mums and asters.  I have a thing for mums.  I just love their smell and the bright colors.  It is one of the things that I love about the late summer/early autumn period.  I will definitely post some pictures later once they start to bloom.  So far I picked up a couple of smaller pinks called Gigi and for the front planters I got a couple of oranges named Hannah.  Ross also picked out one that has a yellow center that radiates out to white; it is quite pretty.  In the evening we ran into town and got some more chicken bedding and food from the Tractor Supply store and then grabbed some supper.  When we got back it was dark, but it was still nice out so we took our kitty Daisy out to the rock garden with us.  I used this time to cut the flower stems off the lavender so that they could be bunched together and dried.  It was nice to just sit, talk and share a moment with our little girl who is quickly winding down (damn cancer).

We awoke today to rain.  Now I normally would be a bit down about a rainy day on my weekend, but we are in such need of water that I found it refreshing.  The rain caused a bit of trouble to my rain barrel though.  Those in the know know that I have had fits with this barrel since I got it.  It was sent to me as long wood slats with these small metal bands to hold them together.  Inside the barrel is a plastic bladder to hold the rain water.  The problem with it is that these metal bands cannot withstand the outward pressure pushed on them by the water.  I have now had three of the bands break so I went to Home Depot to see if I could find a solution.  Now my rain barrel is being held together by nylon tie downs attached to tensioning ratchets.  If it works...

I have included this picture of peaches I took Saturday because peaches permeated the whole weekend.  Our peach trees are young but have given us several tasty treats to snack on.  All I can say is that I cannot wait for these trees to mature so that I can stuff my face with peach after peach.  So, so tasty.  

So now I must go as I hear Ross in the kitchen working on his salsa (he finds so many ways to preserve all the tomatoes).  I also promised him I'd do the dishes, and then I think he wants to make a batch a red cabbage kraut this evening.  With all this still pending I'm really hoping to get to bed before the day's over.  Wish me luck!