The Grand Canyon of… Vermont?

Posted in Hikes, Trips by

We spent our Memorial Day weekend in Quechee, Vermont with Matt’s family.  Quechee is a tiny town nestled on the banks of the Ottauquechee River. It took us about 7 1/2 hours to drive to Quechee but once we got there the lush green mountains and river views made the long drive worth every minute.

The town is home to the Quechee Gorge – “Vermont’s Grand Canyon.”  Here are some photos from our trip, enjoy!

View of Quechee Gorge from Route 4 Bridge (aka from the “top.” We walked all the way to the bottom!)


Route 4 Bridge over Quechee Gorge… beautiful!

At the bottom of the gorge the river widened into this vast “delta” of crystal clear water. Dozens of people were scattered around enjoying the water and sunny 80° weather.

A view looking back up the gorge – gotta love that perfect blue water!

Quechee Covered Bridge: The Quechee Covered Bridge crosses the Ottauquechee River in the heart of the village of Quechee. Sadly this bridge and a few of the surrounding buildings were badly damaged during Hurricane Irene in August 2011.

Another casualty of Hurricane Irene – the Taftsville Covered Bridge. We took a gravel road to get from Quechee to Woodstock, VT and passed right by the closed entrance of this beautiful old bridge.

Here we are at the bottom of the Quechee Gorge… what a fun trip!

Our Four-Legged House Guest

Posted in Adventures at Home, Bailey by

This weekend we had a furry, four-legged guest in our house – Hershey the chocolate lab!  Hershey is my mom’s dog and we occasionally take care of her when my mom is out of town.

Hershey and Bailey spent hours outside playing tug-of-war with their favorite rope toy, cooling off in our shallow “kiddie” pool, and resting in the shade under our viburnum bush.

By the way… see that embroidered green collar that Hershey is wearing?  That’s a gift from Bailey!  Bailey actually won this collar at the Care-A-Lot Dockdogs event in April.  Since Bailey usually wears a plasticized orange collar we had the green prize collar embroidered with Hershey’s name instead.

We dropped Hershey back off at my mom’s house a few hours ago.  She and Bailey will both sleep well tonight after their busy weekend!

Does your dog have a “best” canine friend?  What do they do together all day?

June Is Bustin’ Out All Over – Garden Update!

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My vegetables and herbs are growing like crazy!  We’ve had streaks of unusually hot weather (80-90°) punctuated by periods of relatively cooler weather (60-70°) here in Southeastern PA and it appears that my plants enjoy this every-changing variety of temperatures.  All of them have at least doubled in size in the last few weeks and several are already flowering or growing vegetables.

As of today the following plants are growing in my garden:

  • Jalapeño Pepper (planted in Spring 2011 and moved to a container for winter; several peppers ripening)
  • Garlic (planted last fall; scapes appearing)
  • Spinach (March; harvested)
  • Beans (March; transplanted and currently growing “real” green beans!)
  • Chives (April; in mixed container)
  • Marjoram (April; in mixed container)
  • Mint (April; 2 varieties in container)
  • Cherry Tomatoes (May; 2 staked in containers and flowering)
  • Tomatoes (May; 2 varieties in upside-down hanging containers and flowering)
  • Parsley (May; planted in one hanging tomato container)
  • Thyme (May; planted in the other hanging tomato container)
  • Strawberries (May; currently growing multiple unripe strawberries)
  • Serrano Pepper (May; in container and flowering)
  • Bush Belle Peppers (May; 2 varieties – one is already growing multiple green peppers)
  • Jalapeño Pepper (May)
  • Basil (9 plants) (May)
  • Pumpkins (“spontaneous” pumpkin patch from last Halloween’s pumpkins!)

With the exception of our whitefly infestation, we’ve had a pleasant, easy time with our garden so far.  We mulched all of our plants with either shredded leaves or mostly-composted leaves from our spin bin and we have lots of little fences in place that have successfully kept Bailey away from the plants.  I’m just starting to be able to use my thyme, parsley, and basil for cooking and soon we will have strawberries, jalapeño peppers, and green beans to eat!

Here are a few pictures of my garden:

Last year’s jalapeño plant that I saved over the winter has a handful of peppers growing on it.

What a difference 3 weeks makes! Hanging tomato plants with thyme and parsley from 5/13 and 6/4.

Green beans are finally growing on my “St. Patrick’s Day” bean plants!

This spider guards my garlic plants – I think he probably set up shop here to catch a few whiteflies.

This is my latest discovery in the garden and one of my most exciting so far… a tiny pumpkin patch!! We left a few pumpkins here after Halloween last fall because they were too heavy for the spin bin composter and Voila! We have pumpkin plants! I contemplated moving the rocks back but then realized that the plants were actually rooted in/around the rocks so I just put a little compost over top and we’ll see what happens…

This day lily is potted in the same container with my chives, marjoram, and marigolds. True it its name, we’ve had at least one new bloom every day for several weeks now.

Yup, that’s a strawberry!! Looks like I’ll be eating it soon…

Matt’s mom gave us several garlic cloves last Fall and we had our first “scape sighting” this morning.  Woohoo! We’ll cut them off soon and think of something yummy to make with them.

We grew this zinnia plant from seed! I jumped the gun back in February and started lots of seeds indoors (waaaay too early in the season but hey, I’m learning!) and after a few weeks of struggling outdoors in April nearly all of the zinnia, cosmos, gallardia, and painted daisy plants that we grew are starting to bud. This plant was the first to flower.

Last but not least, our potted Oleander plant is flowering again! We bought it last year in late June when it was in full flower so it’s nice to see that it made it through the winter and is flowering once again. I love the big, white flowers.

How is your garden doing at the start of June?  Please share!  🙂

Related posts:
Vegetable Gardening Season has Arrived! 5.7.12
Gardening Update – One Month Later 4.17.12
Gardening… On St. Patrick’s Day! 3.17.12

I’m a Chicken Cutlet Convert!

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For some reason I’ve never been a big fan of chicken.  Maybe I’ll eat a chicken tender here or there, but usually I’ll always pick a vegetarian option over a chicken sandwich or chicken cutlet.  All of that changed last Friday night when I tasted Matt’s version of these perfect, amazing, tender, and flavorful chicken cutlets.  These cutlets were melt-in-your-mouth delicious and I could have eaten every one of them except that I was going out of town the next day and Matt insisted on saving some for his lunch and dinner while I was gone.  🙂

I think what I liked most about these cutlets was that they were extremely tender, moist, and thin.  We ate our cutlets sandwich-style with melted Havarti cheese and roasted red peppers and to me the chicken seemed as delicate and delectable as the soft bun and juicy peppers.  These cutlets are DEFINITELY going into our standard dinner rotation!

Breaded Chicken Cutlets

You will need…
1 1/4 pounds Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast (approx. 3 half breasts)
5 egg whites, whisked together in a large bowl (discard the yolks)
1 1/2 cups Breadcrumbs with Italian Seasoning
Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder to Taste
Olive Oil
1/2 Lemon

Directions:
Cut the chicken breasts into thirds so that you have 8-9 square-ish pieces of chicken.  One at a time, cover each piece of chicken with plastic wrap and flatten by hammering it with the smooth side of a meat tenderizer.  Repeat for all chicken cutlets and set aside.

Combine the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and garlic in a large bowl and mix together.  Dip one chicken cutlet in the egg white mixture and make sure it gets completely coated (this is a messy, hands-on job!).  Allow the excess egg white to drip off then dredge the cutlet in your breadcrumb mixture, again making sure to coat all sides and edges.  Repeat the egg white dip and breadcrumb dredge a second time and then set that cutlet aside.  Repeat the entire double-dipping process with the rest of your chicken cutlets.

Heat a large flat-sided pan over medium high heat and add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of your pan).  The oil is hot enough when a drop of water sizzles and pops.  Carefully place four of your cutlets into the pan and allow them to cook undisturbed until the bottom is golden brown.  Flip the cutlets over and allow the other side to cook until golden brown.  Remove the cutlets from the pan and set aside on a clean plate.  (For peace of mind, you might want to cut open the fattest of the cutlets at this point to make sure it is cooked through!)  Repeat the cooking process with your remaining cutlets.

Once you are done cooking all of the cutlets, spread them out on a plate or (clean) cutting board and squeeze the lemon juice over them evenly.  This will give that garlicky breading a nice fresh “pop” of flavor.

How can you serve your cutlets?

  • The easy way – simply eat them plain with a knife and a fork (you probably won’t even need the knife because they are super tender!)
  • The sandwiched way – melt cheese on your cutlets in the oven and serve on a toasted bun with roasted red peppers (this is how we ate ours for dinner!)
  • The salad way – slice the cutlets into strips or cubes and serve warm over a mixed salad with baby greens, cucumber, red onion, roasted red peppers, and Caesar dressing (this is how Matt ate some of the leftovers)
  • The chicken parm way – we didn’t make these, but you could melt some mozzarella on the cutlets and serve with sauce, yum!

Shop Vacs and Ladybugs: Eliminating our Whitefly Infestation Organically!

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A few weekends ago when Matt, Bailey and I were at the Dock Daze event in Maryland I got a panicked phone call from my brother.  He had stopped by our house to pick up some boxes he’d been storing there and on his way to the basement’s bilco doors he was swarmed by clouds of tiny white flies.  Sure enough, when we returned home from the event we were dismayed to see that the miniscule flies were covering the undersides of the leaves on our boxwood bush, bean plants, tomatoes, peppers, and basil.  Ugh!

Whiteflies!  (Photo from sarracenia.com)

A quick google search of white flies on boxwood revealed that these tiny pests are in fact called “whiteflies” (how practical!) and they cause damage by sucking a plant’s sap.  There are all sorts of chemical “cures” for whiteflies on the internet but luckily we had the presence of mind to consult some organic gardening resources before spraying our vegetable garden with poisons.  🙂

Stop! You don’t need these chemicals to get rid of whiteflies!  (Image from arlnow.com)

We began our chemical-free whitefly offensive by thinning out the whitefly population a bit since there were literally thousands of them hovering around our garden.  Matt took a shop vac and spent 30-40 minutes gently shaking and brushing our giant boxwood bush and vacuuming up the flies as they flew out of the bush.  I don’t know how much the shop vac did to ultimately squash the whitefly population, but it was very satisfying to watch them get sucked into the vacuum!

Watch out whiteflies…. the ladybugs have arrived!

Next, we consulted our favorite organic gardening resource, Mike McGrath from “You Bet Your Garden.”  We searched the archived questions of the week from Mike’s radio shows on the Gardens Alive Web Site and found this very helpful article on white flies.  It turns out that you don’t need dangerous chemicals to fight whiteflies… all you need is some beneficial insects like ladybugs or lacewings!  We purchased 1500 live ladybugs on Amazon from Hirts Garden’s and they were waiting (in a mesh bag in a box) in our mailbox a few days later.

A ladybug hanging out on the boxwood bush (the original site of the whitefly outbreak).

Here’s what we learned about releasing ladybugs:

  • When you first receive your ladybugs, put them in the fridge to “calm them down” from their long journey.
  • Wait until dark to release them since ladybugs don’t fly at night (who knew?).
  • Before releasing them, water your garden (leaves, soil, everything) thoroughly since they like moisture.
  • Rather than dumping all 1500 ladybugs out at once, split up your ladybugs into several smaller releases over several days.
  • Sprinkle the ladybugs directly onto the foliage of the whitefly-infested plants.
  • Put your un-released ladybugs back in your fridge for storage – just make sure to carefully tape up the incision in the bag so you don’t end up with ladybugs all over your food!
  • Oh, and it goes without saying… if you already have chemicals all over your garden don’t bother releasing any ladybugs – the chemicals will just kill them!

It has now been about 3 weeks since the first whitefly sighting and I’m pleased to say that every last one of those swarming pests has vanished.  Our shop vac and ladybugs did their job and our garden is whitefly- and chemical-free!

Not a whitefly in sight!

Veggie Wraps with Feta, Hummus and Basil

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Matt and I live about five minutes from work which means that we are able to drive home in the middle of the day to visit Bailey and eat lunch together.  Usually we eat leftovers, lean cuisine pizzas, or lean pockets (my fav is the grilled chicken jalapeno cheddar!) but this week we decided to plan ahead and actually prep food on Monday that we could enjoy all week.  The minimal amount of prep work at the beginning of the week was well worth it and we happily assembled and ate our fresh veggie wraps with feta, hummus, and basil on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

These wraps were inspired by Cosi‘s Hummus and Veggie Sandwich and Panera‘s Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich.  We made a few changes including using soft, pliable flatbread from The Fresh Market and adding our favorite types of hummus.  (I prefer Trader Joe’s Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus and Matt likes TJ’s Mediterranean Hummus.)  The resulting sandwiches are flavorful, colorful, and just messy enough to give you an excuse to lick the excess hummus and melted feta off of your fingers when you’re done eating.  🙂

Veggie Wraps with Feta, Hummus and Basil (makes 6 sandwiches)

You will need…
6 pieces Flatbread or flexible, fresh pita bread
Approx. 1 cup reduced fat Feta Cheese, crumbled
Approx. 1 cup of your favorite hummus
1 Red Onion, thinly sliced into rounds and cut in half
1 Cucumber, thinly sliced on a diagonal and then cut into strips
1 Red Pepper, thinly sliced into long pieces
Handful of Basil Leaves, thinly sliced

Directions:
Place one flatbread on a microwave-safe plate and sprinkle with feta cheese.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds to warm up the bread and slightly melt the cheese.  Top the cheese with 2-3 spoonfuls of hummus and gently spread the hummus over the cheese with the back of the spoon.  Top with sliced onion, cucumber, pepper, basil and a spoonful of feta.  To eat your veggie wrap, fold up the edges of the flatbread taco-style and enjoy!

What do you eat for lunch during the work week?  Please share!  🙂

‘Dock Daze’ on the Nanticoke River

Posted in Bailey, Trips by

We’ve had a busy two weeks and I feel like I’ve been neglecting my blog a bit.  I hope to change that in the next few days because I have lots of fun topics to post about including our Memorial Day weekend trip to Quechee, VT, the sure-to-be-delicious chicken cutlet sandwiches with roasted red peppers and mozzarella that we’re going to make tonight for dinner, and all of the exciting developments in my little garden.  To kick things off, I’ll recap our second Dockdogs event of the season, “Dock Daze” on the Nanticoke River.

Continue reading →

Herbed Pizza with Spinach and Feta

Posted in Adventures at Home, Recipes by

We made these delicious pizzas for dinner a few weeks ago just when the spinach in our garden was at its peak.  I picked about 3 cups of baby spinach leaves (almost wiping out the whole crop but that’s ok… I was making room for pepper plants and basil!) and rinsed and dried them well before using them in this recipe.  Fresh spinach leaves from the garden are juicy and bright green – very different from the bagged stuff you buy in the store!  I’ll definitely be planting more spinach when the weather cools off in the Fall so we can continue to enjoy this delicious leafy green.

Herbed Pizza with Spinach and Feta

View the recipe

Bailey turns five!

Posted in Bailey by

Last Friday was Bailey’s fifth birthday so I thought that a post about my energetic four-legged friend might be in order.

Matt and I first met Bailey when she was four weeks old.  She had nine litter mates but choosing her was easy because, unlike her brothers and sisters who were only interested in eating and sleeping, Bailey was constantly bouncing around exploring her surroundings.  Bailey still continues to be an, ahem, “independent” dog (which is a nice way of saying that she’ll completely ignore us if she’s doing something that she deems more interesting) and that bounce in her four-week-old step has translated into a spring-loaded “pop” off the dock when she jumps at Dockdogs competitions.

Bailey at 7 weeks on her first day home with us.

How can you resist that puppy face? Click here to read more!

Smoky Pork Tinga Tacos

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I know that it’s already ocho de Mayo but I’ve been busy at work (and in the garden!) so I’m finally just getting around to posting about our yummy dinner from Saturday night.  Ever since we made BBQ Chicken Quesadillas back in March we’ve been obsessed with La Tortilla Factory’s Green Chile Corn Tortillas and, as a result, we decided to make a meal that utilized these delicious little disks for Cinco de Mayo.  We pulled out our trusty Mexican Everyday cookbook by Rick Bayless and Matt quickly declared that the Pork Tinga Taco recipe sounded like a winner.

After a quick mid-day trip to the grocery store we had the taco filling prepped and in the Crockpot.  Most of the work for this recipe is done during the initial prep stage (6 hours before you eat) which is nice because this means that your dinner is basically sitting their waiting for you once dinnertime rolls around.  In our case we were able to use our “free time” in the evening to enjoy homemade Salsa and Margaritas.  🙂

Smoky Pork Tinga Tacos with Avocado and Queso Fresco (from Mexican Everyday)
(serves an army in one sitting or serves two for dinner and provides 4-5 leftover lunches throughout the week)

You will need…
1 lb. Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 lbs. Boneless Pork Shoulder, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 – 15 oz. cans Fire-Roasted Diced Tomatoes, undrained
3 canned Chipotle Chiles en Adobo, sliced into 1/4 inch strips
1 tablespoon Adobo canning sauce from Chipotles
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
3 cloves Garlic, pressed through a garlic press
1 1/4 teaspoons Salt
1 Medium White Onion, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 Mexican Chorizo Sausage, casing removed
16 Corn Tortillas, warmed
1 cup Crumbled Queso Fresco Cheese (substitute feta if you can’t find QF)
2 large Avocados, pitted and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces

Directions:
Approximately 6 hours before you plan to eat dinner, line the bottom of your slow cooker with the potatoes and top with an even layer of the pork.  Combine the next seven ingredients (tomatoes thru salt) in a bowl and mix together.  Pour the tomato mixture over the pork and top with the sliced white onion.  Cook on “high” for 6 hours.

Pork Tinga mixture after slow-cooking for 6 hours. After this photo was taken we poured out the excess liquid, reduced it, and stirred it back into the pork to retain the intense flavor.

When your pork is done, brown and crumble the chorizo, drain the excess fat, and stir it into your pork mixture.  Break up the pork into smaller shredded pieces as you stir.  At this point check to see how much liquid is in your slow cooker.  If yours is anything like ours was, it will be way too watery to spoon onto a tortilla.  Rather than throwing away this excess liquid, pour it into a sauce pan and boil rapidly to reduce.  Stir the syrupy reduced liquid back into the meat for maximum flavor.

Warm your tortillas.  An easy shortcut is to sandwich a tortilla between two damp paper towels and microwave it on high for 30-45 seconds.  This makes the tortillas warm, moist and pliable without dirtying a frying pan.  🙂  To build your Smoky Pork Tinga Tacos, place a few spoonfuls of the pork mixture on the warm tortilla and top with queso fresco and avocado.  Enjoy!