Camping & Hiking in the White Mountains

This past weekend for Memorial Day we drove up to the White Mountains to camp and do a little hiking.The weather was wonderful and other than the massive mosquito's it couldn't have been a better weekend.

 

We arrived early Sunday morning and went on a short 2 mile hike up some beautiful falls. NH is the granite state and you can definitely tell because there are an insane amount of rocks around.

 

We set up our tent for the night and made some dinner of sausages and baked beans. 

  

After a surprisingly good nights sleep we made our eggs and toast for breakfast and then headed out for a more rigorous hike/climb.

Our 5 mile hike to the top of Mt. Hedgehog was a little more intense that Sundays little hike but it was worth it

 

28 weeks!

 

This was the actual trail at one point. A little freaky walking that close to the edge. 

 

The White Mountains reminded me of The Lord Of The Rings movies. I felt like I was walking the road to mordor.

Iced Coffee

So it's finally warm enough for iced coffee here in NH. We've had a whole week of 70 degree weather and a few days were it's just reached 80. Nathan still drinks his morning coffee before he heads to work and every once in a while I'll be motivated enough to clean out the french press once he's done and make some decaf. I'll be glad when I can go back to the real deal.

Last week I made Nathan a big container of iced coffee and it usually lasts the whole week. It's super easy and all you have to do is add water and cream in the mornings. Here is the simple recipe. I usually make it times 3 or 4.

Iced Coffee

1 cup grounds
4 cups water

Stir and let it sit 8-12 hours. Strain twice and pour into an airtight container.  Just add water and cream to your preference.

Nursery Furniture & Baby Clothes

We are slowly but surely getting things ready for the nursery. Nathans been working a lot lately and some of the baby projects he has to do so it's been hard to find time to work on them. Last week we got the bookcase painted. Originally it was going to be white and pale blue but the blue we had leftover from a previous project was dried up so we used some leftover grey that we had.

Before

 

After

 

It turned out really well and I love grey so the loss of the blue paint wasn't a huge disappointment. If we were able to paint I would have done a light grey on the walls but we can't :(

I bought these metal baskets/bins when we were in Iowa for almost nothing and they're going in the cubbies in the bookcase. Nathan is going to sandblast the rust off and we'll put a coat of clear paint on them to freshen them up a bit.

 

I've been doing a bit of sewing lately for the baby. Just simple things like bloomers and diaper shirts. The little yellow one is leftover from when I was a baby. 

 

I had to post a picture of this handmade snowsuit that I found at Goodwill for $1. It's actually a brighter yellow than it looks in the picture so our child will look like a giant banana.

 

Anyways, that's what we've been up to lately. I'm off to work on the baptismal gown.

Herbed Ricotta Tart

So just like everyone else I get stuck in ruts with my cooking. I get tired of cooking with the same ingredients that fit into our food budget and trying to come up with creative ways of cooking them. Eggs are a huge staple in our house because they're inexpensive and have a lot of protein.Quiche is usually a once a week meal around here but last week I wanted to do something a little different. I came across this recipe online and modified it a little.

Instead of using refrigerated pizza crust I made my own tart dough and used my tart pan. You can find a simple tart/pie crust recipe anywhere but mine is 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup butter, 1 tsp. salt. and enough milk to hold it together. Here is the recipe from cooking light. We love dill so it was automatically a new favorite. I made extra mini tarts to warm up for this weeks breakfast. 


1 (11-ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough
Cooking spray
2 cups thinly sliced green onions
1 1/3 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh chives
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Unroll dough, and press into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch round removable-bottom tart pan coated with cooking spray.
3. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add thinly sliced green onions to pan; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Combine cooked green onions, ricotta cheese, sliced fresh chives, minced fresh dill, salt, freshly ground black pepper, eggs, and egg white. Pour onion mixture into prepared crust; sprinkle mixture with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until center is set. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 6 wedges.

Joanne Weir, Cooking Light

JUNE 2010

25 Weeks

Nathan took this on Sunday while we were on our walk. The weather has been rainy and in the 40's and low 50's for the last week. We had Sunday and yesterday of warm sunny weather but it's back to rain until Friday. We're very thankful that it's in the 60's though!

NYC In A Flash

 

Last weekend we headed down to NYC for the weekend. I still can't believe we only 5 hours away.  We had a blast eating, seeing the sights and hanging out with friends. 

We arrived at our hotel around 6:30 and dumped our stuff and headed to a hole in the wall pizza place that served amazing NY style pizza. Thankfully when we asked at the hotel it was less than a block away.

Saturday morning we slept in late...7:30. We left the hotel and walked down to a restaurant for breakfast. A few pictures along the way. 

 

Nathan wanted blintzes while we were in NY so I found this great Ukrainian restaurant. Jonathan and Liz met us for brunch. The food was amazing! I had lox, cream cheese and dill perogies and  Nathan ordered a savory blintz with a wild mushroom sauce.

Because my family are huge Theodore Roosevelt fans we had to take a tour of his birthplace.

 

On our way to dinner Saturday night we stumbled upon this great fabric warehouse. It was a little piece of heaven. So much fabric!

 

We ate dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Freemans. Our friends Houston and Brandy's brother and sister-in-law are executive chefs there and at Peels where we brunch on Sunday.

Nathan had a Freeman Cocktail which had Rye, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, orange bitters. I had a sip and it was delicious.

Nathan had Seared Scallops with sautéed enoki mushrooms, tokyo turnips
mushroom broth & mint salsa verde

For our main course I had the special which consisted of Grilled beef short rib nestled on roasted garlic and shallot on top of grilled sourdough bread with grilled onions. We shared a side of the best corn pudding we've ever had.

We weren't planning on eating dessert but Preston sent us out a lemon cheesecake with rhubarb sauce and a lovely strawberry shortcake.

After our amazing meal we headed to Rockefeller Center and Times Square

Along our walk we happened by Magnolia Bakery. I've read a few articles on this bakery so we had to try a cupcake. We were not disappointed. They were the best cupcakes we've had so far.

Making sure we took the right subway back to the hotel

Sunday morning we got up and slowly walked to Peels to meet Jonathan and Liz for brunch. We walked past the harbor and through China town.

I really wanted to stay and work here!

Usually Nathan orders something but ends up liking what I ordered more...this time I wished I had ordered his eggs benedict. The biscuits were perfect and the eggs and hollindaise were so divine. 

 Peels shrimp and grits was delicious. Preston has had his recipe published in Bon Appetit. I tried it out last summer when the magazine came out. It was good but I think Peels was better.

 This picture didn't turn out too well but we had a blast and hanging out with the Marshall's. It was a quick weekend but it was fantastic. We're thankful we had the opportunity to go before baby House arrives.