Monday Happy

Last day of summer and guess what, the mr and I woke up to ice all over our tent! Yup. 30 degrees the past few nights that we have been camping. Not exactly what we had in mind this early, but heck, I had the right mind to pack the wool blankets so we were all good.

The week. Well it’s now Monday but we camped Saturday night too so you know, no computer stuff. Anyway, the past week was great as far as I can remember. Camped at Emerald State Park and ddi our usually hiking and kayaking. We hung out with the littles, made cookies, and worked when work was needed doing. Dad Jeff came to Vt and we got to spend the weekend hanging with him. We camped outside, he stayed indoors because well, no one besides that mr and I are into freezing cold camping. We did a long ass rail trail family bike ride, chatting up the nieces and nephews, did a little road side apple picking, and I tried to eat as much hot food to keep my body warm. After Dad left, the mr and I did another solo day of adventure and camped again because that is what we do. We did all the good stuff. I would go into more detail but I am on the trashed side of a human right, my body is freezing and sore, and due to the mr’s ever increasing snoring regiment, I have barely slept in the past few nights so my brain can’t really comprehend much. But yeah, a dang good week.

And whoa it is Monday morning. Just got home from the long camping weekend and now I have gots to get on with the day. The goal is to post this, finish unpacking camping stuff, maybe shower, start laundry, go to grocery store, make phone calls…. The list of things to do keeps growing. But right now I am boiling water and am going to make a hot hot cup of tea and hold the cup , with both hand, until I can feel my finger again. I am still frozen to the bone. And I love it! Oh, and Happy Birthday Jackson!

Some internet that I looked at the past week.

-When I read the news screamed many profanities. I wish was was able to live long enough to see the crazy psychopath fucker out of office. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legacy, and the future of the Supreme Court, explained. Now lets all pray for sane politicians to do what is right and not appoint another fuckface to the courts…. AGH!

-I love the winter but I am not going to lie, I am a little nervous about this coming one. Fucking pandemic. Good thing I don’t spend time with very many humans.  How We Survive the Winter

-A Reusable Food Wrap You Can DIY in 5 Minutes. I have done this, it works.

-Judah asked mw why Earth is called Earth….I had no idea. Now I can tell him. How Did Earth Get Its Name?

-Have you had this tea? I know it is easy but I love holiday teas but I don’t want to order it unless I hear it tastes good. Christmas in Paris Herbal Tea Stash Tea

-Sure, I’ll live here forever

-I don’t know this existed and nowI want to watch it..eventually when I feel like watching tv. The Soothing 'Great Pottery Throw Down' Makes Great Isolation TV

-I Asked 14 Parents What School Lunch Looks Like for Them During This Weird Fall. Must be such a pain in the ass for some parents.

-Very cool. Bees Encase Raw-Material Embroideries with Honeycomb

-Oh heck yeah. Welcome to my high-fashion, trash shopping mall’

Pictures from the week

-C

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

Nothing validates a cookie more then a 13 year old girl (who knows her way around sweets) who eats a couple of the freshly baked cookies you made but doesn’t say much. Then asks to takes a couple home. Then texts you in the middle of the night to ask you to make more cookies because they are the best cookies that she has ever had. That is a true story and even though she woke me out of my well needed slumber, that girl is for sure going to get her own batch of these here, best cookies she has ever had. I guess I am a sucker for a baking complement.

These cookies, they are a chewy, cinnamon apple-y, oatmeal situation. Everything and more you could want out a cookie that just might taste a bit like apple pie. And who doesn’t want to eat apples right now? Especially if you are an apple picker (who isn’t?) Using fresh from the tree apples, they really are the perfect cookie for this time of year.

Ah, fall. It really is the best.

Now to the best cookies a 13 year old girl has ever had!

The stuff. White whole wheat flour, old fashion oats, brown sugar, baking soda and powder, salt, coconut oil, flax eggs, vanilla, a raw sugar and cinnamon mixture, and of course, apples.

Start by taking apples, cutting away seeds and core, and dicing into small little bits, like the size of a chocolate chip.

Now dough. Mix together the wet until combined then add in dry and mix until completely incorporated.

Fold in th apple chunks.

Scoop dough into balls and dip each ball into the raw sugar and cinnamon mixture. Place each cookie on baking sheet and smoosh down a little to help with the spreading. Once baking sheet is full with enough space for cookies to spread while they bake, place into oven.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until tops look baked and not gooey and bottoms are nice deep golden brown.

Lovey baked cookies.

Get them onto a wire rack to cool and to free up the baking sheet for the next batch.

And then cookies. To eat at your very leisure.

Enjoy your apples and Happy FALL!

-C

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Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

makes about 2 dozen

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour

• 2 cups old fashion rolled oats

• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon each baking soda and baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

• 3/4 cups coconut oil melted but not hot

• 2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax seeds and 6 tablespoons warm water)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/4 cup turbano (raw) or white sugar mixed with 2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 large or 2 small Macintosh apples (about 1 1/2 cups small diced)

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, oil, flax eggs, and vanilla until completely incorporated and there are no big chunks of sugar. Dump in flour, oats, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon and fold into wet until completely combined. Fold in apple chunks until evenly distributed.

Scoop dough into a ball and dip the top into the raw sugar and cinnamon mixture then place on a cookie sheet. Gently smoosh each dough ball down a bit. Once baking sheet is full, with enough room for spreading, place in the oven and bake for 15-17 minutes or until cookies look cooked on top and are golden brown on the bottoms. Once baked, remove from baking sheet (gently) and place on a wire rack to cool.

Then eat. And store left over cookies in a air tight container at room temp for up to a week (if they last that long). Also can be frozen.

Roasted Sweet Potato, Broccoli, and Kale Bowl

The other morning I woke up chilly, lke legit had to grab a sweater. It made me smile so hard. And when I left for my morning run through the woods, I spent the entire time in a long sleeve shirt, not stupid hot, thinking about all the food that I was suddenly craving. An hour of soups, casseroles, and basically everything hot and comforting running through my mind. Honestly, it’s what I think about during most of my runs. Anyway I was going through my food inventory I had at home and decided what I was going to make myself lunch on this fine cool day was this. Roasted sweet potato with broccoli, onion, and kale. Tahini too. And za’atar. I was drooling while running, again not out of the norm. Good times.

So I came home, did stuff, and made myself lunch. Exactly as I wanted, all for me, and it was everything that I thought it would be. Simple, fresh, hot but not heavy, and just the right amount of comfort to feel all the feels of soon to be fall. I grabbed my food, a book, and sat out on the porch, still in a long sleeved shirt, and ate my lunch. A fine lunch that was. A fine fine lunch.

You should have yourself a fine lunch (or any meal) too.

Now to the food!

The stuff. A sweet potato, a head of broccoli, 1/2 a large onion (or 1 small one), tahini, a lemon, a clove or garlic, za’atar, and salt and pepper.

Start by chopping up the sweet potato into mouth sized pieces, break apart the broccoli into smaller mouth sized pieces, and slice up the onion.

Toss it all onto a sheet pan and cover with the za’atar seasoning. You can toss around in a little oil if you want, but I actually just spray it wit ha little water and call it. I am over roasting with oil, it is to oily.

Put the seasoned goodness into hot hot oven.

Oh and place clove or garlic on pan too, just for a few minutes to get a little roasted and remove. It’s for the tahini dressing.

Chop up kale up.

Make the tahini dressing. Tahini, roasted garlic minced up, lemon juice, and a little hot water. Mix tighter until creamy smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Roasted and delicious.

Grab kale and toss it around with everything while it is still hot so the kale kind of wilts. You can also pop it into the oven for a few more minutes to really get that wilt on.

Dump it all into a big bowl.

Drizzle that tahini all over, grab a fork (or not),and make you teeth dance with all this goodness in the mouth.

-C

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Roasted Sweet Potato, Broccoli, and Kale Bowl

Serves 1 as a meal

• 1 sweet potato

• 1 head of broccoli

• a small onion (or half a big one)

• a few kale leaves

• 1 tablespoon za’atar seasoning

• 1 heaping tablespoon tahini

• a lemon

• a clove of garlic

• a few tablespoon hot water

• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Grab the sweet potato and cut into mouth sized chunks. Break apart the head of broccoli into florets And cut up stem into chunks, and slice onion into thick pieces. Place on a baking sheet, sprinkle on the za’atar, and toss around. Sprinkle or spray(with a spray bottle) with a little water. Also throw the garlic clove onto the pan too and place it into the oven.

After about 10 minutes, grab the garlic from the pan and keep everything else roasting.

In the meantime, make tahini dressing. Mince the roasted garlic and add to the tahini with the juice of half the lemon and a splash of hit water. Mix together until completely incorporated, adding in a little more hot water as needed to make the dressing into a thick, but drizz-able consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

And chop kale into smaller pieces.

After 20ish minutes, remove pan from oven and toss the veggies around and place back into oven and roasted for another 10ish minutes or until the sweet potato is soft and tender and the broccoli is looking all roasted. Remove and right away toss the kale with the hot veggies to get the kale to wilt a bit. Also can stick the pan back into oven for a minute to wilt it even more.

And then dump the contents of the pan into a big bowl, drizzle the tahini all over, and eat that shit.

Chocolate Pear Cake

I just love a pretty cake and this cake sure is pretty.

It is a chocolate cake with pears sunken into it. A cake made of necessity because I had (and still do) a giant bowl of pears on the counter that need to be eaten. I love the pears, they are delicious, but I can’t possible eat all of them before I end up having to just sauce them all. (I think most of the rest are gonna be sauce) Plus it is finally not stupid hot out and I am getting that cool weather, hang at home with a sweater on, all the apples and pumpkins, fall time feeling that included the itch to bake things. That feeling, it’s coming on strong and I’ll be honest here, I am soooo over summer. Bring on the fall!

Also, note about cake. Because each piece has half a pear sunken into it, I would there by think that this cake might actually be considered a health food. (hehehe) Yeeeah, no, but it is good. The mr already ate half.

Now to the cake!

The stuff. In the bowl there is flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and powder, salt, and cinnamon. Also need brewed coffee, sugar, oil, vanilla, apple cider vinegar, and some little pears.

Make cake bater. Whisk together all the dry until really really mixed and there are no clumps then add in all the wet.

Mixed and ready batter.

Now cut the pears in half and remove the stem and seeds. Slice each half into 1/4 inch thick pieces but keep each sliced pear together.

And sure, some people might say, should I peel the pears? And the answer is no, you should not, but you can if you want. But don’t. Unless you want to.

Place the sliced cut havles cake down into the batter. Make them look pretty.

Then into the hot oven it goes to bake.

Wow wow! So pretty! Now let it cool a bit.

When cooled off, cut into pieces. Each piece gets a pear.

Cake on plate, grab a fork, and eat.

-C

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Chocolate Pear Cake

• 4-5 small pears (like Forelle Pear or another smaller variety)

• 41 3/4 cups all purpose flour

• 1/3 cup cocoa powder

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/2 cup neutral flavored oil

• 1 1/4 cups hot coffee

• 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350

Start with cutting up the pear. Cut each pear in half, remove all seeds and the stem, then slice each half into 4-5 1/2 inch thin pieces, keeping the pieces of each half together.

Grab a big bowl and dump in the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, salt, cocoa powder, and sugar. Whisk well until completely combined and there are no clumps of cocoa of flour. Now add in the oil, vanilla, coffee, and vinegar and mix until just combined. Pour batter into a well greased pan. (use a 9x9 or 8 inch round)

Grab cut up pear halves and place halves, cut side down into the batter. 3 across and 3 down, or just any way that you think looks pretty. And once you got your pears in, place the pan into the oven. Bake for 28-32 minutes or until you get a clean fork when poked for doneness.

Remove from oven and let cool for a bit on a wire rack. Once cooled, cut it up and eat it

Left over cake is good covered at room temperature for a day or two but should be sorted in fridge, covered, for up to a week.

Sunday Happy

The idea of turning on the heat hasn’t really yet occurred to me. Sure I have been a little on the chilly side, but when I am cold my mind doesn’t think about turning on the house heat, it thinks I need more layers, a hot drink, and to bake a loaf of bread. That being said, after the littles came over and were complaining about how cold they were, I finally realized that yes, we don’t really need to be this cold. But I still didn't turn the heat on. (I know, I am so mean.) We have one more week until the end of the month and then maybe I will switch it on. To keep the plant alive I suppose, and so I don’t turn into a popsicle too I guess.

This week started as usual, with hiking and camping. We hiked to some waterfalls that were gorgeous but the area we went to was packed with smelly (Cologne and perfume.. gross) tourist so it was a little annoying. But then we made out way up to Belvidere and set up camp outside my families cabin in the woods . That was amazing and fresh and happy. There was no going inside (locked up for the year) but the land there is the most amazing place and we just soaked up the good, hiked around some more, the mr fished, we ate, watched the sunset, had a fire, then crawled into the tent. Woke up, packed up, drove back to life and that was that.

The rest of the week was the week. It involved another trip to the dentist. Not to get my permanent crown, but to replace the temporary crown that I accidentally swallowed. Yup. So new temp crown (which already has a chip in it. No I do not eat rocks but jeez, what the heck?) until my real one goes in sometime next week. Gotta say, I am pretty sick of going to the dentist. What else? Oh, there was farm share pick up, the last summer share of the year. A little sad, but not too sad because winter share starts in a two weeks and I have a freezer fulled to the brim with food so I will survive. Oh, and the dirt pile form the mr digging under the house that was in the middle of the back yard is gone thanks to my smartly pants self. Our neighbors needed dirt for a project that they are doing around their house and instead of buying it, I had the idea that they could just take our pile, and they did! They got free dirt and we got rid of the dirt for free (we were going to rent a u Haul this week to move it all). So success was had with that and I feel all sorts of smug about it.

Any who. Friday, after spending the day loading kilns at the studio, we had the littles over for a pumpkin carving party. It tuned mostly into a throwing pumpkin seeds and guts at each other party, but it was a party involving pumpkins no less. The thing with the pumpkins that we get from the farm is that they are supper heavy and hearty and thick. Like 3 inches thick and a bitch to cut into, making it hard for the littles to actually cut. The mr and I did what we could do for the young ones but we let Barb do her own because she is old enough to almost cut a hand off. All in all the pumpkins were cut up enough and turned out great. I got most of the guts wiped up and collected the seeds to roast. Then we all lit pumpkin, walked some of the marshmallow sugar off, and the mr and I sent them to watch movies in the nook while he did whatever he did and I passed the f out. Woke up, fed them, and sent them all home. I spent the rest of my day running errands and cleaning seeds and pumpkin guts off the walls. For real. All over the house. I don’t know why I still get surprised when the littles managed to do the impossible when it comes to messes. When will I learn?

And it’s Sunday. And yes, we are suppose to go camping. The last hurrah of the camping season. But here is the thing. It is suppose to rain all day. So the question is..do we go anyway? I say yes but I am not so sure the mr is sold. What I am thinking is I am going to go the gym, the library, and maybe stop at the coop this morning and be home by lunch. If it is pouring, well we might rethink our plans, but a little misty rain, we can take it. Because I need this. Our last camp. I am already sad that the season is over. What I am hoping for is the weather to be wrong and that maybe we will only get a sprinkle or two and today will be the best camp ever. Wish us luck.

Weekly internet stuff.

-Hocus Pocus Sequel. Maybe I am being skeptical, but is it going suck? Maybe it’s best they just leave a good thing alone…. yeah right

-What do you think about this? I am kind of intrigued to tell the truth. Anything for a tree I guess. Halloween Trees Are Having a Moment—Here's How to Pull Off the Decorating Trend at Home

-Dog People Live Longer. But Why? Dog people know why.

-What Happens to Your Body When You Take Naps Every Single Day? Naps for the win. Now I need actually start taking them more often.

-Cemeteries are always so pretty, even the ones that are tucked away, into the trees. I think I actually like those the best. Here are 7 cemeteries with views to die for.

-Science can do cool things.Artificial Leaf to Replace Petrol? Find Out How it Works!

-Brooklyn Townhouse in Pinks, Greens, and Grays. I am not usually one fore dark surroundings, but I am into this house for sure.

-Want to Reduce Your Waste? Do This First.  Reduce. Reduce REDUCE!!!!!

-How I Got My Job: Making Custom Ceramics for Restaurants. A potters life

-Weed over booze. What Does It Mean to Be ‘Cali Sober’?

Pictures from the week

-C