Shenandoah Valley Views

Although my boys might like the animals they can see along the route to the cabin, I love the scenary.



March in the Shenandoah Valley is beautiful.

Shendandoah Cows

Whenever we go to the cabin, my boys love to have "cow sightings" from the moment we leave the main highway. Of course, there are also lots of horses and even some goats who enjoy sitting in the bucket of their owner's back-hoe, but the cows are my boys' current favorite. The boys are lucky -- there are lots of cows in the area to look at!

Breakfast of Champions!

We've made my own bread for years but had never tackled cereal, until now. We don't think there's any going back -- it's good & easy!



Here's a very flexible recipe, adapted from the Nutty Granola Recipe from Ellie Krieger, Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger:



Cooking Spray
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped raw, unsalted walnuts (We don't measure, but use between 1/2 and 1 cup)
1/2 cup chopped unsalted pecans (again, something under 1 cup)
1/2 cup maple syrup (We've made it once w/ only maple syrup and another time with some syrup and some brown sugar after we ran out of syrup -- it worked fine both ways)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1 good handful of sweetened coconut (left over from holiday baking -- it's not in the original recipe)
1/2 cup raisins (or craisins, or both)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray. In a medium bowl combine everything. Spread the mixture onto the baking sheet and bake until golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Transfer the sheet to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

My family especially loves it served with yogurt (which we have yet to make ourselves).

We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Holiday Baking

Happy Holidays, everyone! The past weekend my family set up a "cookie factory" in our kitchen and produced lots of goodies which we carted around the neighborhood in my kids' wagon. Since I bake a lot, we made sure that the lodge has plenty of baking sheets, pans, etc... and I wanted to share one of our favorite recipes with you -- it tastes great, is easy to make, and works well my little "helpers." You can't get much better than that!

Chocolate Crumb Bars (a wonderful, easy recipe from Nestle)



Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, divided
1 can (14 oz.) Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional (I often use pecans instead of walnuts, depending on what I had on hand)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

Beat butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in flour, sugar and salt until crumbly.

Press 2 cups crumb mixture onto bottom of prepared baking pan; reserve remaining mixture. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Combine 1 cup morsels and sweetened condensed milk in a small, heavy-duty saucepan. Warm over low heat, stirring until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Spread over hot crust.

Stir nuts and remaining morsels into reserved crumb mixture; sprinkle over chocolate filling. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until center is set. Cool in pan on wire rack.

The Ski Slopes Are Open!

The recent cold weather has a benefit -- Bryce Resort opened its ski slopes today!

Happy skiing and snow-tubing, everyone!

A Busy Saturday with Something for Everyone

We enjoyed a whirlwind tour of our favorite attractions on Saturday.

We began with a "Introduction to Fly Fishing" class for my husband at Murray's Fly Shop in Edinburg. Now that the cabin is finished, he needs a new hobby! Luckily, Harry Murray is the best person to go to for fly fishing and we are blessed to have him nearby and eager to assist newbies! Jeff had a great time and is eager to sign up for future classes.

While Jeff enjoyed his introduction to fishing, the boys and I had fun at Edinburg's playground. If it was raining, we'd planned to go to the town's very nice library, but the sun was shining, so we spent a couple of hours swinging, sliding, and climbing.



After we picked Jeff up, we went to one of our favorite spots for lunch, Woodstock Cafe & Shoppes. The food is great & they love kids....what's not to love?!

We then headed to the cabin to take a walk by the lake and work off some of the wonderful pumpkin swirl cheesecake that we'd enjoyed at lunch. The trees were "naked" as my older son said, but it was still quite beautiful down by the water.




We then picked up some apples and cider from Paugh's Orchard and headed off to my favorite knitting store, Fibersmythe, in Woodstock before we drove home.

I happen to live near several knitting stores, but I am loyal to Fibersmythe. Not only do they have a wonderful selection, but the owner Elizabeth is a true gem, eager to help with patterns and yarn, and then show you how to actually knit the pattern! She even rescued me one day when my son's special blanket developed a hole and needed to be fixed before bedtime! Perhaps realizing that I was in way over my head to fix the problem quickly, Elizabeth went out of her way to fix his blanket herself. I don't go anywhere else.

So, with our apples, cider, yarn, and plans for future fishing trips....we had a great day.

Lake Laura in Fall