Thanksgiving Menu

Can you believe Thanksgiving is in a few days?? MAN! I'm headed down to NJ today for a big bash with the family. I think there will be 20-25 people at the house, yikes! I told mom I wanted to do most of the cooking (I'm leaving the bird and stuffing to her), but I'm taking care of the rest. Here's the current menu:

Appetizers
Fiesta Dip with tortilla chips
Cheese platter and crackers
Olives, pickles, celery
Rye bread

Soup
Butternut squash

Main dishes
Turkey
Ham

Side dishes
Cranberry sauce (home made and canned since people like both)
Sweet potato casserole
Baked potatoes and yams
Corn with onion saute
Stuffing (in and out of the bird versions)
String beans
Apple sauce
Roasted brussel sprouts

Desserts
Pumpkin pie – make 2
Chocolate-Almond Saltine Toffee
Luscious Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake
Amaretto Apple crisp with ice cream

I'll let you know how it all goes and I'll be posting the recipes for you all once I'm back... possibly while I'm there if the internet is working correctly! See you all back next week!

Pumpkin cinnamon rolls with hazelnut cream cheese

So I made these pumpkin cinnamon rolls a little while back and everyone went nuts over them, they are one of my most visited recipe pages! (I need to add it to the readers favorites list in the right column) Anyway I had wanted to make them again except roll the dough out thinner and double the filling... so I did, and then we spread hazelnut cream cheese on top.... AMAZING!!!

Here's the new fangled version of the recipe!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Servings: 8

These cinnamon rolls are an adaptation/abstraction based on a recipe from the cook book Quick Recipes which was put together by the people at Cook's Illustrated.

Filling
1/2 c packed splenda blend brown sugar (1 c packed dark brown sugar)
3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 c pumpkin puree

Dough
2-1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 T splenda baking blend (2 T granulated sugar)
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1-1/4 c buttermilk
2 T melted butter
1 T melted butter (to drizzle on top)

Icing
I used hazelnut cream cheese from Panera... YUM!


Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray a 9-inch round non stick cake pan (I used a silicon cake pan and it worked great, no spray needed)

Make filling
Combine sugars, spices and salt. Add pumpkin puree and stir until combined, set aside

Make dough
Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. whisk buttermilk and 2 Tbs melted butter in measuring cup or small bowl. Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir until liquid is absorbed (dough will look very shaggy). Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth and no longer shaggy.

Pat dough with hands into 12 x 12- inch square. Sprinkle evenly with filling, leaving 1/2 inch boarder of plain dough around edges. Press filling firmly into dough.

Using bench scraper (i used a plastic spackle spatula that we bought at home depot and never used... I claimed it for the kitchen... John wasn't too pleased hahahaha), loosed dough from work surface. Starting at a long side, roll dough, pressing lightly, to form a tight log. Pinch seam to seal.

Roll log seam side down and cut evenly into eight pieces. With hand, slightly flatten each piece of dough to seal open edges and keep filling in place.

Place one roll in center of pan, then place remaining seven rolls around perimeter of pan. They should touch, but not be crammed. Drizzle with 1 Tbs of melted butter.

Bake until edges are golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes. Loosen with a spatula. without separating, slide buns out of pan onto greased cooling rack. Cool about 5 minutes before icing.

CHOW!

More venison

Monday night for dinner I had a delicious venison steak. I didn't add anything to the meat just cooked it for 7 minutes on the george forman grill. You really don't want to overcook venison, it's a very lean meat and can get very tough if it's overcooked. I paired it with some nice crunchy string beans and was good to go!

Chow!

Pumpkin Butter

I like making Christmas presents... there I said it, you can make fun of me now... or get very excited since you do it to. There seem to be two groups of thought; those who laugh at you when you say you're "making" your gifts, and those who want to know all about what you are making so they can make it to :) Well I can't give all my secrets away since my extended family does read this blog but here's a spoiler... extended Snow family stop reading if you don't want to spoil a surprise... oh wait I made the title of this blog the spoiler didn't I... hahaha


I'm giving people pumpkin butter as part of their gifts this year!! YUM!!! The recipe was super easy to make, and a quick trip in the canning jars and a quick boil seals them all up and are ready to go! You can also make this in a smaller batch whenever you are craving some and keep it in the freezer or refrigerator. The original recipe called for 2 tsp ginger... I did that and it was WAY to strong for my taste, so added a bunch more cinnamon to balance it out. Next time I'll only do 1 tsp ginger like I wrote up here. I also didn't cook this so it was super thick, I wanted a slightly fluffier consistency which I think tastes great on toast or a nice bagel. YUM

Pumpkin Butter
adapted from Polka dot Moon

1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree
3/4 cup apple cider
1 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups white sugar (i bet using maple syrup instead of white sugar would taste amazing too! not sure how much you'd need though, you'll have to experiment and let me know!)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
swig of Amaretto

DIRECTIONS
Combine pumpkin, apple cider, spices, and sugar in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently.
Place in jars and boil process and cool to seal them. Or just stick it in some plastic containers in your refrigerator or freezer.

Chow!

Venison for dinner

So although the following pictures may lead you to believe otherwise... I am NOT a hunter!

at a pals camp in VT having fun target practice with his hunting riffle

practicing my aim for states with my awesome camo bow... (this would be very funny for those of you who know me well... ) "seriously you have a camo bow... didn't you grow up in NJ??"

I know I know... it sure looks like I am a hunter. Can't a girl be a wicked good shot and cloverleaf with an old school muzzle loader, AND place second at the NY State competition in the category Adult Female Bow Hunter Freestyle A Class, and NOT be a hunter? Hmmmm yes yes it is possible.

I know it may be hard to believe but it's true! I love shooting at targets, paper targets or even the big foam animals (they are just too funny, ooo a panther *thump*) (seriously the range I go to has big foam panthers, bears, skunks, and about 20 other varieties of random animals... AND you can shoot from a tree stand for the real deal experience, wind and rain included some days haha) There is something about an arrow hitting dead center and making that wonderful *thump* sound that gets me every time :)

John is also not a hunter, but he grew up in a family of them and his dad and cousins still go deer hunting every year (bow and gun season). I really have respect for bow hunters, it's not an easy thing and add in the elements of wind, a moving target, and guessing yardage, it really is a skill that requires a lot of practice. Don't get me wrong I could never do it, I was joking with John the other night about it... His mom knows I love shooting bows and such and keeps saying I should go out hunting with his dad... I can just see me, draw back, in site, thump... OMG what did I just do *bawling crying*. Yeah that's pretty much how it would go down. hahah that or his dad would have the deer all in site and I'd start screaming "run dear!! run for your life!!!" hahaha

This all being said I'm a total hypocrite because... gasp... I really like venison. Thankfully John came with a yearly venison bonus package (all boyfriends really should come with add on bonuses don't you think?) So I get my fill without any of the badness :) John cooked up an awesome sauce with ground venison for dinner which we had over pasta...


I asked him what was in it so I could blog about it... but he's not talking... so you just get a picture. It was soooo good and even better the next day after it had all marinated all night... mmmmm

PS. my parents didn't even let me have water guns as a kid... yeahhhhh wooops! sorry mom and dad :)

Ok one more really funny picture...

why do people always make you pose like this with a gun??? yup i'm a dork

Splenda... my thoughts... and yours :)

I've had multiple people tell me they don't eat splenda and ask for the conversion in my recipes to white sugar, I've been trying to update and add them in for you all! On my last post, my year without "sugar" asked a good question about splenda, and by the way welcome and nice to meet you!

I've read a lot about cooking with honey/ maple syrup and such (the frosting recipe here uses honey!) but haven't totally committed to it partly due to the cost :( honey and maple syrup are $$$$!! As for splenda, it's hard to know what to believe, and I don't fault anyone for not wanting to use it/ trust it. However, there are some splenda bashing sites that have blatant lies throughout them that they call truths, unfortunately with the internet any idiot (me included haha) can have a voice. The problem with this is people will happily rant about what they "believe" and not about facts... Truthfully this really annoys me...

But where do I find the facts!?! Good questions... and I'm still searching that one out. First off, NOT the internet (at least not most of the sites anyway), you have to go to the library and look at accredited medical sources. The problem here though is even medical sources can be swayed to show what you want. Think of all the studies that prove the exact opposite of each other. I mean look back at when Dr's said smoking was good for you... uggggg.

I use splenda for a few reasons, it's nice to cut calories easily without a weird aftertaste (again some say they taste it so this is a personal opinion), diabetes runs in my family so I try to limit my sugars, and I have a boyfriend who wont eat white sugar but will eat things I make with splenda :)

It seems like everything has been good then bad for you at one point. Coffee is bad for you! Now it's good. Don't eat red meat... oh wait you can now it's ok... and the list goes on!
This is why my favorite saying is from my Nana, "Everything in moderation".

Anything no matter how "good" for you isn't the best idea is mass quantity. I think diets that cut out entire groups of things may be a good option for a short term if it helps a person start to learn to eat healthier... but forever... not so much (again my opinion).

I say eat everything in moderation and you'll end up ok :) As for splenda, the FDA says it's ok for now and I'll believe them (stupid of me... perhaps... but you can only worry about so much before you go crazy), I'm not ingesting crazy amounts of the stuff anyway so my guess is the exhaust from passing by cars I breath when I go for a walk is doing more damage to me then splenda is.

So my theory... listen to Nana, she lived to a healthy 95 and knows what she's talking about. Nana rocks! :)

Feel free to comment with your thoughts/opinions/ whatever :)

Chocolate cake... mmmmm chocolate cake

Have you noticed that stores are going out of business like crazy? I was over in Old Navy looking for christmas gifts for my little cousins walked out and noticed Pfaltzgraff was closing next door. I've been in need of a good 9" square pan so in I went. Everything in the store was 50-80% off, that's my kind of sale :) Anyway I left with an adorable stoneware baking dish, totally retro in style (it's orange!) and I LOVE it!

Now that I had the new pan I needed to bake something! While at Blueberry Hill Fran managed to get the self saucing cake recipe out of Tim and it called for a square pan... however when I described this cake to John he wasn't sounding like much of a fan... needless to say I made something else instead and will be making the self saucing cake at my house :)

I decided to make a chocolate cake batter that I normally use for cupcakes. I finally found whole wheat pastry flour at the store so I used that this time! It came out delicious!!!

As for the frosting... it comes with a story. I had an exciting Friday night, John was at the gym playing basketball after work and I had gone for a run in the morning so I was alone to cause mischief! So what do I do you may ask??... walk over to the library. How exciting am I!?

I wanted to pick up "The Food You Crave" There is a new group who cooks from it every week and their recipes look amazing!! Clara over at I heart Food 4 Thought is in the group and I love love love reading about all the yummy things she's been cooking up! I haven't made anything yet but oh I'm going to don't you worry!

Back to the frosting... of course I forgot the piece of paper with the call number of the book on it... so I decide to just look through the cook book section and find it... Yeahhhhh the cook book section is much MUCH larger then I ever expected, seriously thousands of books WOW, and this is just the library by John's house not the big downtown library!!! While searching for said book I came across three others that I decided to check out as well. One that caught my eye was Baking without fat. As you know I use things like prune purees and apple sauce to cut out fat... so I was totally excited to see what this book had to offer. This book also doesn't use white sugar they use honey and maple syrup so anyone who wants to cut out refined sugar go check out this book! Ok I'm babbling now... anyway the book has a frosting recipe... frosting without fat or white sugar... seriously?? Oh yes, and it was good! Next time I'll use milk chocolate cocoa instead of dark chocolate to cut on the boldness in taste, other then that... bring it on!



Fudgy Chocolate Cake
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup splenda blend for baking (or 1/2 cup white sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup Hershey's 100% Cocoa Special Dark
2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips (i used semi-sweet chips)

Preheat over to 350 F
Mix apple sauce, splenda, vanilla, beat in egg
In a separate bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon.
Add flour mixture to wet mixture a little at a time, stir in chocolate chips.
Spoon batter into 9x9" pan
Bake for about 25-28 minutes or until top is firm to touch.

Fat free Chocolate Frosting
1/4 cup fat free dry milk solids (found them above the cans of evaporated milk in the baking aisle)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs honey
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a medium sauce pan dissolve dry milk solids into water. Turn heat to medium and add cocoa and honey, stir until thickened (about 15-20 minutes). Take off heat and stir in vanilla, let set for 10 minutes, spread onto cake or cupcakes, makes enough for one 9" cake.

Chow!

Jewish Bagels are the best

I grew up in NJ right outside of "the city" aka NYC. When people think bagels they think NYC... I think of Sonny's, a small locally owned Jewish water bagel places. The best bagels in the world come from Sonny's on South Orange Avenue. It's an institution, and I have to go whenever I'm home to get some amazingly perfect bagels, they are not bread in the shape of a bagel that some try to pass off around other places, they are the real deal :)

So in my head you have to be Jewish to make a good bagel... I am not Jewish... although I did go to around 10 bar and bat mitzvahs! This must give me a little street cred to make bagels right??? Hmmm maybe not. I gave it a good try but these are no where close to the ones at Sonny's. I mean they aren't horrible and taste great toasted up with a little cream cheese and a little honey drizzled on top... mmmmm YUM But they didn't pass the "eat it hot out of the oven with nothing on them" test. If you can eat a bagel straight up plain with no toppings on it to help the flavor, then you have a winner. Mine... not so much a winner, but not last place for sure! They sure did look pretty though!

Unfortunately they looked better then they tasted. bummer.

If anyone has a recipe they swear by let me know! If it has some whole wheat flour in it that would be great :)

Water Bagels
from Pastrywiz
Yield: 12 Servings

2 c Warm water
2 pk Active dry yeast
3 tb Sugar
3 ts Salt
2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup wheat germ, and about 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 qt Water
1 tb Sugar
Cornmeal to sprinkle baking sheet
1 Egg yolk
1 tb Water
poppy seeds sesame seeds sea salt to top

Combine warm water, yeast and sugar. Let stand 5 minutes, stir in salt. Gradually mix in 4 cups of flour, beat at medium speed for 5 minutes. With spoon add 1 1/4 cups more flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out on a floured board and knead until smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky (about 15 minutes), adding more flour as needed. Dough should be firmer than for most yeast breads. Place in a greased bowl, cover, let rise until almost doubled (about 40 minutes). Knead dough lightly and divide into 12 equal pieces. To shape, knead each piece, forming it into a smooth ball. Holding ball with both hands, poke your thumbs through the center. With one thumb in hole, work around perimeter, shaping bagel like a doughnut 3 to 3 1/2 inches across. Place shaped bagels on lightly floured board, cover lightly and let stand in a warm place for 20 minutes. Bring the 3 quarts of water and 1 tbls sugar to boiling in large kettle. Adjust heat to keep it boiling gently. Lightly grease baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Gently lift one bagel at a time and drop into water, boil about 4 at a time, turning often, for 5 minutes. Lift out with slotted spatula, drain briefly on a towel and place on baking sheet. Brush with glaze made with 1 egg yolk and 1 tbls water. Bake 35 - 40 minutes, or until well browned and crusty. Cool on rack.

Chow!

JamFrakas - a review

So Megan over at Megans Munchies somehow got all of her readers free JamFrakas bars (made by LARA bar). I love reading Megan's blog and you should go read it too! She's a great girl and has such great energy about her, so go read up and I'm sure you'll fall in love with her and her recipes too!

Back to the bars. I was super excited when a package showed up in my mailbox earlier this week. I was thinking LARA would send us 1 bar to try... scratch that! they sent 5! I can't find these bars online... so I'm thinking the bloggers are the test market maybe?

The bars are being marketed as a "crispy chewy food bar for KIDS" They are the perfect snack size for adults though, around 90-120 calories 1- 5.5 g fat with 0-2.5 (or was it 2... I tossed the wrapper already whoops) being saturated. I have to say the fat and saturated fat had me a little worried, the only one with 0 saturated was the apple flavor. The bars are 28 grams in weight with as high as 15 g coming from sugar... I know it's natural sugar from the fruit and honey... but it still seems a bit high, I mean that's over 50% of the bar is sugar in the apple one! The fiber and protein count isn't that great either. 2 grams protein at the highest, and 1 or 2 grams fiber...

The bars were pretty good (my favorite was the peanut butter one-very tasty!), but nutrition wise... just because it says it's organic and a whole grain doesn't make it good for you. I'm not trying to bash LARA bars at all (I mean it was tasty), but it just goes to show you that you really need to look at the nutritional facts on products. I work in marketing and let me tell you when we design things... we want you to buy them... organic, healthy, whole grain, they are all big buzz words right now and people are slapping them all over packaging. It's important to really look at what goes into a product and what the breakdown of the nutrition label is. These bars are all natural and have great ingredients in them... but that doesn't mean they are healthy great things for you.

There are a lot of products out there not that market themselves as being healthy and good for you when in reality they aren't nutritionally better then a candy bar. So keep on the look out and read the nutritional labels :)

OK I'll get off my soap box now haha. Sorry for the rant!

UPDATE: Megan made a good point in her comment, it's true they will be better then most kids eat and any step in the right direction is a good one :) I normally snack on fresh fruit, popcorn, oatmeal, yogurt and nuts but I know not all kids like those thing haha. As for specific bars that I eat, fiber one bars are decent sugar wise and fantastic fiber wise (fiber = keeps you full), and I have to say they taste crazy good!

Another bar that I really like are Zone bars, (not really for kids though) they have a good combination of fats to carbs to protein and will definitely satisfy. These taste and look like a candy bar, but are much better for you then grabbing a Snickers :) I use these as a mid afternoon snack some days. The caramel ones are my favorite! They have 200 calories, 14 g protein, since it's peanut butter the fat is kinda high at 6 grams, 1 gram of fat = 9 calories so about 50 calories is from fat, that's 25% fat. The combo of fat and protein in this bar is very satisfying.

Now I'm no nutritionist but I do a lot of nutrition reading on the side, so check with your doctor or whatever hahaha. Add disclaimer here so no one can sue me :) Protein has 4 calories a gram so you can eat more grams of protein for less calories plus it takes longer for your body to process them. As you've probably heard fiber takes longer to digest then other things, so eating whole grains and food high in fiber will keep you full longer, also making sure you have enough protein in your diet is important. I try to eat bars that have a decent amount of protein and fiber in them, otherwise I mean what are you really eating... pretty much sugar.

Another bar that I love are pure protein, these taste a bit more dense / chewy so some people may not love them. They are crazy good nutrition wise, 20 grams of protein 190 calories and only 2 grams of sugar. Again the fat is a little high since they are peanut butter 6 grams, but overall these things are a powerhouse of protein, love um!

For a smaller bar Pria by powerbar is also a good choice, 110 calories, 5 grams protein, 9 grams sugar, with all bars it seems the fat/ saturated fat is a bit high for what it is... all the flavors of these are tasty and like the jamfrakas they fit nice in your purse for emergency chow :) OK am I the only one who carries emergency chow??

Hope that helped! Jamfrakas are a good choice for organic and convenience! And it's true if it's processed it's not going to be as good as straight up fruit but it is convenient and there are far worse things out there for you! Just keep an eye out and look at what is really going on with the numbers!

OOOO or you can just make your kids these. YUM! If you don't do the jam centers they are much more portable without the mess :)


UPDATE 2:

I don't know how I forgot about these! Kashi TLC granola bars (and really all of their TLC line) is amazing and totally healthy for you! 120 calories, 5 grams protein, 4 grams fiber, 8 sugars. AND DELICIOUS!

Blueberry Hill Inn - Part 4

Ok I swear this is the last post about Blueberry Hill :) although I know you've been loving and drooling over all the pictures!

Sunday morning breakfast was a huge bowl of fresh cut fruit, cinnamon bun type things, blueberry cake, and muffins. I filled my plate up high and sat down with a glass of orange juice...


I then looked over to the right and noticed the other full table with the rest of breakfast.. whoops! The main course of breakfast was eggs and sausages wrapped in phyllo dough... I think I needed a larger pair of pants by the end of the trip haha


Lunch was quick so people who traveled far could get on the road and head home, Matt and I had a 6 hour drive ahead of us, Kendra a 5 hour, we decided to stick around a bit longer for one last hike though :)

final hike before we have to hit the road

Lunch was build your own sandwich style with lots of other goodies floating around. Dessert was more self saucing cake (for those of you who where wondering, it's a hybrid between cake and pudding, super moist and amazing) blueberry crisp, blueberry cake, rice crispy treats... Oh and did I mention Matt bought a sleeve of cookies for the road trip home... he ate a total of 7 cookies that day. CHOW MATT CHOW!!

Check out that huge wheel of cheese, mmmmmm cheese.

This Inn is so like home it's unreal. It just makes you want to curl up with a good book and never leave.

closed in greenhouse, it's feels like a nice summer day all winter long

Blueberry Hill Inn - Part 3

So you're back for more chow pictures are you! Saturday lunch was juicy meaty ribs, accompanied by a beautiful salad.


Everyone enjoyed the chow... :)


Dessert was a self saucing chocolate cake. It's almost a cross between a cake and a pudding, it was delicious and I definitely went back for seconds! And yes you read this correctly, we had dessert at both lunch AND dinner every day... now this is how to live :)


After an afternoon playing in the gardens and getting dirty it was time for a little shower and a nap. Then it was off to the cookie jar to hold us over until dinner. Dinner started with another wonderful cheese platter, then it was onto the appetizers. The crab stuffed mushrooms were my favorite!


For the main course there was beef stew with biscuits on top, steamed veggies, fresh rolls, and a veggie lasagna for the beef adverse. Yum!


Dessert was a lemon custard, very light and refreshing. Fran talked to Tim and managed to get the basics out of him, boil milk and sugar, add fresh lemon juice, refrigerate.... I'll have to play around to try and make this one!


See you back here tomorrow for Sunday's breakfast and lunch! :)

Blueberry Hill Inn - Part 2

Now I know you all came back to see all the glorious food pictures from our weekend in Vermont at Blueberry Hill Inn. Tim is an amazing chef and I guarantee these pictures will leave you drooling... so you probably should cover your keyboard in plastic wrap!

We arrived Friday right on time for dinner. We started with a glorious cheese platter that was demolished before I could get a good picture. We all hunkered down with our various wines and awaited for dinner while munching on a wonderful assortment of sharp cheddar, brie, blue, and other cheeses. Soon after we found ourselves with beautiful bowlfuls of butternut squash soup with hot fresh rolls from the oven.

warm soup and crusty bread on a cold night... nothing better

Next came a chicken pot pie with the flakiest buttery crust accompanied by broccoli and baked potatoes.

For dessert blueberry crisp made from none other than blueberry hill blueberries. MMMMM

blueberry crisp, ice cream, a glass of red wine... it's a good end to a day!

We spent the night chatting with the other people staying at the Inn, some faces were familiar from last year, others were new. It was great to catch up with old friends and to learn about some new interesting people. After all the wine was gone everyone headed to their rooms for a peaceful nights sleep.


Matthew Kendra and I woke up early to get a hike in before the day began, we arrived back to the Inn with the smell of apple wood smoked bacon wafting up the trail... our pace quickened a bit to make it in time for breakfast!


Awaiting us was a glorious spread of fresh fruit, hot croissants, french toast with a fresh blueberry compote, bacon, and hot coffee.

Kendra's spread of chow... she should have taken more bacon it was delicious!

Come back tomorrow to hear about Saturday's lunch and dinner!

Blueberry Hill Inn - Part 1

Blueberry Hill Inn, taken from the sauna, looking across the pond.

Hey guys! Matthew Kendra and I had a great time at Blueberry Hill Inn this weekend. Blueberry Hill is a bed and breakfast tucked in the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area in Goshen Vermont (a little north of Rutland). The views are breathtaking, surrounded by mountains and miles of hiking trails, cross country ski trails, and peace and quiet... this place is pure relaxation. The air is so fresh and crisp and you will always smell something delicious wafting invitingly from the kitchen. Tim is the chef of the house and is a transplant from England, his style of food always has a unique flare and never disappoints.

The Inn is known for its chocolate chip cookies, you can order them here. As a guest of the Inn you have full access to the bottomless cookie jar, located conveniently next to the never ending coffee pot and the drawer fulls of every type of tea you could imagine. I found myself visiting this spot many times over the weekend. Although the best time to visit it, is as the cookies are coming out of the oven, there's nothing better then a big warm melty cookie!

If you live in Vermont or want to go on a wonderful vacation you should 100% go to Blueberry Hill. Tony the owner is fantastic and has a wonderful sense of humor. Paige the inn keeper is always around to help and enjoy in a good story over a glass of wine or cup of coffee.

There are rooms of all types and sizes. Paige put us in the little cabin to the side of the house which has a little sitting area, a loft with 2 twin beds upstairs, and a queen downstairs. Lots of room! There are loft style rooms (great for a family with kids) in the house as well, along with rooms for couples and rooms with two twin beds, perfect for friends traveling together.

Matthew doing his best Vanna White impression :)

The house also has a great watch dog Griffin (not sure if that's spelled correctly) He is the biggest teddy bear!

Kendra giving Griff a little bit of love

There were lots of good hikes and shananigans going on about the weekend, here is a sampling of some of the pictures. Stories of all the amazing food to come later in the week!

Kendra and myself out on the trails for a morning walk

Kendra asked Matthew nicely to move out of the way... he didn't listen...so sad

Breakfast sunday morning

More of the weekend crew!

I don't know what you are talking about... I definitely didn't push Matthew off the bridge...

Well once Matthew was off the bridge we had to take a picture... yeah a 10 second timer isn't enough for me to click it and then run off the bridge down the embankment and then pose with Matthew... I'm the red blur to the left hahahaha.

More stories, chow and pictures to come tomorrow!!

Have you tried Oikos greek yogurt with honey? You seriously need to go try some. It's packed with protein and is crazy thick and filling. I wish it wasn't so expensive because I want to eat this stuff every day! I wonder if they have it at BJ's so I can buy it in bulk.. hmm I'll have to look into that. The yogurt plain is a bit too bitter for me, but with the mix in honey... it's divine! I may try buying the plain next time and mixing in my own honey.. mmmmm


Well I'm off to Vermont for the weekend!! I'm sooo excited!! I'm going with my friends Matthew and Kendra for a work weekend at Blueberry Hill! I can't wait! Lots of pictures and stories once I'm back! Have a great weekend!

:D

A scary cupcake tale

Ahh cupcake contests how I love you. Clara over at I heart cuppycakes obviously has an affinity for cupcakes hehe. She is constantly churning out amazing cupcakes and has a seriously awesome sense of humor! (ok it totally sounds like I'm sucking up to bribe her... hahahaha... wa-wah i'd never do that *bribe bribe bribe*) Plus I hear she prefers small unmarked bills ;)

Anyway she rocks and is hosting a Halloween decorating cupcake contest!!! After seeing her amazing bat over a moon cupcake I was going to throw in the towel... I mean seriously how cool is this!! Clara convinced me that I should still submit something so off I went brainstorming...

Later in the week I went home and started making some chocolate cupcakes, knowing for sure they would be the base for my creation. After taking them out of the oven to cool I turned around to see a SPIDER crawling across the plate I was about to use...

GAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Why why must spiders always sneak up on you!?!? And it doesn't end there!! That little thing kept crawling towards me forcing me to run away from my cooling cupcakes and hide upstairs in my room!

After some time I decided to venture back downstairs (baseball bat in hand) to save my wonderful chocolate cupcakes from the big scary spider... alas what I found was even more horrifying!!!

spider eggs!!!!! BLEHHH!!!!!!

Why oh why mister spider did you have to come and torment me tonight! So Clara with a sad heart I must say this is my scary creepy creation made not by me but by mr spider...

Chow!

So you're probably wonder what those "eggs" are huh... or maybe you are a super smarty pants and already know :) Tapioca pearls!! You can buy them dry at an Asian Market. Normally they go in things like bubble tea but they were too gross and eyeball/egg looking not to use for halloween! They are super easy to make

Tapioca Pearls (for use in bubble tea or to gross someone out!)
1/3 cup dry pearls
3 cups water
simple syrup (aka sugar water)

Bring 3 cups of water to boil. Add the tapioca pearls then turn down the heat to medium and cover. Cook for 25 minutes.

After the 25 minutes is up, remove from heat and let sit for an additional 25 minutes.
After that, drain and rinse. They are going to be slimy so don't let them sit in the colander for too long.

Put the tapioca into a jar and fill with sugar syrup until they are covered.

Simple syrup is two parts sugar to one part water, heat the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved. (I totally remember learning about super saturating in science class, i loved science class!!)

Once pearls are cool and have soaked awhile add them into tea to make bubble tea or use in all types of places to creep people out!!

Chow!