Foodie Friday

I love to bake and cook. As it starts getting cooler I begin to get the baking "bug". Last evening Stacy and I went blackberry picking so I decided to kick off the backing season today with an amazing blackberry apple pie. It was so good, right out of the oven with vanilla ice cream.

I also created a new pizza this evening. I started with a from scratch dough made with whole wheat flour, water, yeast, olive oil and salt. There is nothing like a deep dish pizza with homemade crust. I was brave with the toppings tonight and started with a honey BBQ sauce (which may be our new favorite), a half pound of bacon, a whole onion, a half can of black olives, 3 slices of 2 % milk cheese and 4 ounces of shredded mozzarella. One slice of this puppy and even my hubby was full. The picture really isn't that appetizing but trust me, try the BBQ sauce. It paired nicely with the bacon.

If anyone wants the blackberry apple pie recipe, just ask and I'll post it.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Taken in late October, dark but yet I thought pretty. These are from my office, over looking the track/football field. Burke Mountain is the mountain you can see.

Cars and Camping

Some of the street rods from our annual camping trip in Burlington (National Street Rod Association Northeast Show).

Camp Wildlife

Shots from the game camera at camp (Stannard Mtn.)

Rally Racing

Ok, this was one of the coolest racing events I've ever attended. When we learned the rally cars would be racing in Maine last month, we decided it was an opportunity to see something we've never seen before and it certainly was different. Below the drivers were waiting to start the final heat of the day.This is Travis Pastrana. He drives for Vermont Sportcars. You may know his name from motorbike racing (and he also stars on Nitro Circus).

Travis Pastrana talking to another driver. His co-driver can be seen getting into the passenger side of the car.

The course is on dirt roads, we were hiked out into the woods (for protection) to watch the races. We were able to watch from wherever we wanted as long as stayed in the designated areas. Here the car was going a little too fast and I missed it :)

I have no idea how fast they are going here. This is just past the finish line.

Muggy Monday

Wow is it humid today. I just got back from my evening walk and it is really muggy. The air is thick. So here I am, in the cool house surfing the web and I stumbled across a site/blog that I really like http://www.thesimpledollar.com/ Check it out. There is a lot of useful "stuff" on this site. I found one article on 100 things to do on a weekend without spending money...there were some neat ideas, some most of us already do but some things you wouldn't think of either. Below is quick shot of our patio. We were able to put it together last weekend. Its not huge but it really cleaned up the front of the house...the gardens were becoming really overgrown so the roses were moved out back of house earlier this summer. I'm happy with the result but now we need to go patio furniture shopping! I'd like to get a couple of rockers so we can watch the cars go by like the Gramma and Grampa we are :)

The Flume Gorge - Franconia State Park

The Flume Gorge - Franconia State Park

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take a half day off from work and do a little playing. I was fortunate in that Elizabeth had stayed home from summer school so I grabbed her and off to the mountains we went. She's becoming quite the little hiking companion...she does as well as most adults. We ended up going over to Franconia Notch and hiking the Flume Gorge. What an amazing sight. I had read online that it was particularly beautiful this year due to all the rains we had received and the information was correct. Elizabeth was even in aw. Unfortunately I didn't realize this opportunity would present itself when I left for work in the morning so I didn't have my camera with me, hence the link to the Flume's webpage(click on the second title line). The photos really don't do it justice. It is a sight to see. I'm thankful for the day with my niece and I treasure my memories of the day together.