Under the Weather

Here I sit. It's a really crappy day outside; rain, wind, just generally yucky and I feel about how the weather looks. I awoke this morning with a sore throat, headache and general malaise, so I plan on doing as little as possible. Right.

So far, I have put a chicken soup on the stove to simmer, cleaned out the bathroom sink drain, cleaned the litter boxes, almost finished the shawl I've been knitting and had a bit of play time with the kitties. Now, I'm really pooped.

So, I fixed myself a hot cup of tea and decided to sit here and blog about what? Can't think of a thing; I guess my Muse must be sick too, so I'll just post a few photos I've been taking in the last week.

Last Friday, H and I hiked up Brown Mountain in Acadia. The bridges and waterfalls are just spectacular.

Even the man made waterfalls were pretty

The Brown Mountain route on the park's carriage roads has three beautiful bridges. This one was built in 1925.

The detail and craftsmanship on these curved bridges is amazing.The pine needles caught my eye on this part of the bridge.

I wish I could have caught the beauty of this waterfall, however, pictures never seem to do them justice.

After a nice 4 mile hike, we headed for home to an aromatic feast of Italian sausage and onions in Mama's Homemade Marina Sauce. Yum!

First, I cut the sausage into coins and sauteed them in a bit of olive oil with sliced onion and garlic.

Next, I added some marinara sauce that I had made last month and frozen, plopped the whole thing on the wood stove to simmer.......

And voila! As Rachel Ray often says "How easy is that"?

Another fine dining experience at Giddy's!

This is my old standby recipe for marinara sauce:

Mama's Marinara

¼ Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 large onion, diced

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

5 or 6 garlic cloves

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

3 bay leaves

½ Cup chopped fresh Italian Parsley

1 TBSP dried basil or ½ Cup chopped fresh basil leaves

1 TBSP dried oregano or ½ Cup fresh

½ Cup brewed coffee

1 Cup dry red wine (Approximate measure only. Look away and keep pouring if you like!)

1 can chicken or vegetable broth

½ tsp red pepper flakes (add more if you like it spicier)

salt & pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, sautee onions and carrot in olive oil til glassy, but not brown. Add garlic and sautee for a couple more minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, turn heat to low and simmer for about 2-3 hours. Marinara will be very thick and chunky at this point. If you like a smoother sauce, blend with an immersion blender or chop in blender (take out the bay leaves first). If you like the sauce thinner, add more chicken or veggie broth. This recipe doubles easily.

Be sure you save plenty of the red wine for the chef!

This makes plenty of sauce and it freezes beautifully. Precook and freeze your meatballs and you’ve got supper on the stove in no time flat!

Enjoy!

What's for Suppah?

This time of year finds me settling into comfort; a crackling fire in the wood stove, savory soup bubbling in a heavy pot on the stove, soft, cuddly yarn for knitting, purring kitties and the aromas of something wonderful baking in the oven. Does life get any better?

Today was one of those days. I awoke with the need to bake something that would fill every crevice of the house with lingering, spicy aromas. After a brief internet search for a recipe, I decided on Pumpkin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies. Can we say "YUM"?


The recipe called for the addition of raisins, but hey, I was in a chocolate mood, so I substituted chocolate chips - great choice, I might add.

The results of the recipe were grand! Not only did the house smell WONDERFUL!, but the recipe itself was easy. I doubled the recipe, making enough to take in to the ladies at work, some to a next door neighbor and froze several batches more for a later date.

The recipe:

Oatmeal Pumpkin Pecan Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter — softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin (from can)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup pecans, chopped and toasted
1 cup raisins ( I used chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking sheets.
Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl.
Beat butter, brown sugar and sugar in large mixer bowl until light and
fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract. Mix well.
Add flour mixture. Mix well.
Stir in nuts and raisins.
Drop large tablespoons of dough onto greased baking sheet. Spread into
circle or oval. Repeat with remaining dough.
Bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until cookies are firm and lightly browned.
Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool
completely.
Makes about 32 cookies

While the cookies were baking, I turned my attention to the beautiful bunch of fresh kale H brought home from the grocery yesterday.

H spent 21 years in the Air Force as a Meteorologist and our favorite assignment was three years on the island of Terceira in the Azores, an island archipelago about 1000 miles off the coast of Portugal. We had lovely Portuguese neighbors who farmed the land and often invited us for dinner.

One of our favorites was a savory soup called Caldo Verde, or roughly translated "hot green". This lovely soup consists of onions, garlic, chopped fresh kale, potatoes, chicken broth and Linguica, a spicy smoked sausage.

This delightful suppah is bubbling away on the stove as I blog.

Oh my, but it's gonna be a lovely evening!

Oh, How the Winds Did Howl!

Last night gave us our first taste of what is yet to come. The first nor'easter of the season hit the coast with frightening ferocity. The house was buffeted with gusts up to 70 miles per hour and how she did creak and groan.

Early in the day, the weather was rainy and windy, so we stoked the wood stove and hunkered down for the long haul. I had the "cookies", so I spent much of the day in the kitchen baking 3 loaves of Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal bread and a cooking down a huge batch of my annual apple butter.
I started another knitting project since I had finally finished H's long awaited Aran sweater.


The cats spent the day watching the birds flit to and from the feeder, but they eventually tired of that sport and pooped out for the remainder of the day.

Sluggo loves laying on his back in my reading chair


Spike had taken over my recliner, so I was relegated to the love seat.

By 1:30 a.m., H and I were both awakened by the howling wind and rain pelting viciously against the window panes, our thoughts wandering to the nearby trees and praying they were holding on to their precarious ledges with all their might. The generator was going full blast, which meant the power was out (there's a surprise). It was a long night. There are some really strange infomercials on TV in the middle of the night, but we won't go there. We read our latest novels from the library, trying to distract our minds from the occasional really good blast of wind hitting the house, while waiting for the local news to come on TV so we could assess what damage there might have been in the region. Daylight could not come soon enough.

Upon first pass of the driveway after the long awaited first glimmer of dawn, we only noticed one dead spruce down. Gratefully, everything seems to be in order

In addition to everything else, we had the time change to deal with. It is now 8 a.m. and I'm ready to take my first nap of the day. It's gonna be a looonnnnnggggggg day.

5th Annual Trek Up Champlain Mountain

OK, can we say "sore"? Yesterday, we took our 5th annual trek up the mountain. Needless to say, we took a wee bit longer to get to the summit this year.

The skies were a beautiful blue and there was still lots of color on the trees, however, when we got out of the car at the base of the mountain, the wind was whipping about quite a bit. Nonetheless, we put on our windbreakers and with hoods up and a determined attitude, we headed up onto the trail.

The reds of the maples were all but gone, but many shrubs still held their color and lots of rock cairns marked the trail

We stopped frequently on the way up, not only to catch our breath, but to turn around and take in the beautiful vistas

No, Dear. It's still quite way up to the summit. H here, checking his GPS and realizing we still have about 500 feet to climb. Oh my.
Some of the rock formations were gorgeous


Yes, Dear, we have to climb that rock ledge and no, that's not the summit!


Yay!!!! We made it! 1058 feet elevation and the view is nothing short of spectacular!

Our house is way over there across the bay
And so another annual goal has been reached!

Life is good (and windy) up on Champlain Mountain

More Stuff

As promised yesterday, here are a few more photos from this past week.

Why bother with cute little kitty toys when Spike is so enthralled with a plain old paper bag?

A nice rain brings out the mushrooms for one last hurrah before frost and cold set in.



My Christmas Cactus has difficulty telling which month it is. I guess I should be calling it the Halloween Cactus as it is in full bloom right now.

Early morning light behind the maple tree just glows

One of our favorite photo spots in Sorrento. I think we could just sit there all day long if we weren't so intent on getting our 3.2 mile walk in.

Just Stuff

Giddy's Muse has departed for sunnier climes today, avoiding the chilly, gloomy day here. However, she doesn't know what she's missing - a luscious, lazy day sitting next to the wood stove with my feet on the ottoman knitting or reading. A day where I can feel absolutely not guilty for just sitting on my tush all the live long day. What a rare treat!

Soooo, no need for clever repartee today, just a few recent photos to share with my blogger friends. Enjoy.

The full moon day before yesterday was quite spetacular. I tried getting several shots, but this was the best I could do.
The "boys" have settled in nicely and are getting along quite splendidly. Watching them play brings smiles to our faces every day.

I put the autumn decorations on the front porch the other day. Not that anyone but us can see them, but then, hey, we're important too!
The sun gleaming through this golden poplar caught my eye.


I have more to share, but Blogger won't let me post them right now, so stay tuned.

A Tour of Acadia National Park

Yesterday was a beautiful day (they all are here in Maine!).

Our dear friend, who is the Superintendent of the Carriage Roads in Acadia National Park, took 8 of us on a tour of the Carriage Roads.

The day dawned with blue skies and only a wee bit of haze, but just enough to take the edge off the brilliance of the leaves which were in peak color. We rendezvoused at the Carriage Road on Eagle Lake, a serene sight in the early morning light.

We piled into the van to begin our adventure, criss crossing roads to take full advantage of the many lovely bridges, built by hand and hard work in the early 1900's by Mr. Rockefeller, who later donated this lovely bit of paradise to be enjoyed by all.The colors and vistas were beyond description and the ooh's and ahh's continued for the entire trip.


This gate house caught my eye.I spied this mushroom hiding among the rocks and grasses.

We spent about 4 hours touring, with a couple of breaks to take pictures and stopping for coffee to go along with the pumpkin pecan muffins I had baked to keep our hunger at bay until we could get into Bar Harbor for a fun lunch at Geddy's.

A wonderful time was had by all and we got home just in time to look out on an early autumn sunset.

Thanks so much to our friends who think enough of us to invite us to share and enjoy this wonderful gift. Oh yes, thanks also to Mr. Rockefeller for donating the land for the enjoyment of generations to come.

Road Trip to Grand Lake Stream

Our trip began at Pennemon Pond in Township 26 at the camp of our friends. (Mainer's call their lakeside cabins *camps*) It was a beautiful day - a bit warm for October. The foliage color was high, but not quite yet at peak.
We started out on the dirt logging roads that criss cross the entire state. Good thing we had the Maine Gazeteer with us or we would have been woefully lost! The Gazeteer is a very detailed road map showing all the major roads as well as the tiniest dirt roads all over the State. We were in some pretty remote back roads on our way up to Grand Lake Stream, a small village noted for its many Maine Guides and fly fishing.


Monday is the beginning of Moose hunting season, so we passed quite a few trucks full of hunters scouting out possible places to hunt come Monday. We had hoped to spy a few moose ourselves, but only with the intent of shooting them with a camera. Alas, we spotted nary a one, with the exception of this poor fella, who had obviously been there quite some time.


Our trip, however, was graced with such beautiful vistas and color that we really didn't miss not seeing much wildlife.



Along the way, in a really remote part of the drive, we came upon this sign. Mainers are ever enterprising and this bit of advertising caught our eye and gave us a chuckle or two.

These beverages are being kept cool by the constant drip of an ice cold spring. How clever is that?
Sodas are sold on the honor system - yep, that still works up here in the north woods.

I thought this was an ingenious way to keep the cookies out of the critters reach, however, I'm sure any really enterprising raccoon could figure out how to get them.

We came upon this huge field of asters and I couldn't stop taking pictures.


This bumblebee didn't have to travel far at all for his dinner.

Upon return to our friend's camp, we were treated to a late lunch of yummy pot roast with roasted root vegetables and salad, fresh from their garden and a lovely Chardonnay to toast the day.

And so ended a perfect day. Life is soooooo good.