Life Through the Lens: October 2010

Friday, October 29, 2010

Autumnal Week: Spooky Halloween Edition

Photo (c) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

How fitting that for my last Autumnal Week post, we have our visit to a cave!

More cool than spooky, Luray Caverns is well worth the two hour drive from D.C.! We spent an hour and a half going through the huge cavern system. Sorry Harrison's Cave, this is way better! Good thing there's no competition between the two since they're so far apart that Google Maps cannot calculate the distance between the two.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Autumnal Week: and then we picked pumpkins

While out in the Shenandoah a few weekends ago, we decided that we simply must stop at a pumpkin patch to do some pumpkin picking. So we happened upon Valley Star Farm & had a good ol' time. The farmers chuckled at us "city folk," especially when I made Brad practically beg them to take us on a hay ride.

They had more varieties of pumpkins than I even knew existed! See that bumpy one six photos down? A "peanut pumpkin" - who knew? In the end, though, I think the white ones were my favorites. Oh, the fall decorating possibilities!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Autumnal Week: Fall on the Farm

As we meandered our way back from the Shenandoah a few weekends ago, I was determined to stay off the interstate & take the back roads. There are always so many pleasant surprises when you take the road less traveled (literally). A great find we stumbled upon in Upperville, Virginia was Ayrshire Farm, which just happened to be having their annual fall festival. What great timing!

We wandered around the farm, playing with the many animals (including more turkeys than I have ever seen in my life), enjoying apple cider doughnuts & taking in the autumn-ness of it all. They even had a hay ride* to take you from the parking area up to the farm.

Photo (c) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

clearly the leader of the group... he hopped right up there onto the bucket, asserting his superiority over the other turkeys

*There may or may not have been an incident in the hay covered parking area where there were hundreds of grasshoppers hopping around. I may or may not have screamed repeatedly & refused to walk to the car. Once finally arriving at the car, a grasshopper may or may not have jumped into the car with me/on me, resulting in more screaming, resulting in the grasshopper hiding under the passenger seat. Which may or may not have resulted in me refusing to sit in said passenger seat & insisting on driving. All this may or may not have resulted in Brad repeatedly saying "You can take the girl out of the city, but..." Hope the grasshopper likes his new home in Alexandria.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Autumnal Week & Recipe Tuesday... all rolled into one!

What a great blog day! Day 2 of "Autumnal Week" & Recipe Tuesday, all rolled into one post!

Today, I give you this:

Corn Chowder*

This became a favorite of ours during last year's snowpocalypse, round I (not to be confused with this year's snow pocalypse, round I I).

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 Minutes
Ready In: 45 Minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:
6 bacon strips, diced
3/4 cup diced celery**
1 small onion, diced
1 cup diced potato
1 cup water
1 (14.75 ounce) can cream-style corn
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
In a saucepan, cook bacon, celery and onion over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until bacon is cooked; drain. Add potato and water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until potato is tender. Stir in remaining ingredients; heat through (do not boil). Refrigerate or freeze leftovers.

* There is nothing healthy about this recipe.
** I leave out the celery since Brad doesn't like it.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Autumnal Week: Oh Shenandoah...

To celebrate our wedding anniversary (and, honestly, to get the heck out of the city), we ventured out to Shenandoah National Park a few weekends ago. A highlight of the trip was a Sunday morning drive along Skyline Drive, which offered beautiful views of both the Shenandoah mountains to the west and the rolling Piedmont to the east. The fall leaves were spectacular - more muted than the colors in New England, but still pretty none the less.

The Shenandoah area of Virginia is just beautiful. This place was on my (embarrassingly long) list of places I haven't been to in the area, despite living here for over five years. I'm glad I finally made it out there.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Three years ago...

On October 20, 2007...

I walked up the aisle with this guy...

got some new jewelery...

walked down the aisle with this guy...

and lived happily ever after!

Ode to my previous years of marriage:
2009
2008

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Recipe Tuesday: Bishop's Bread

Last weekend, Brad & I went to a little B&B out in the country for an anniversary/get-of-out-of-the-city getaway. Sunday morning for breakfast, the owner made the most delicious Bishop's Bread (along with some other extremely yummy breakfast items).

I thought I would share this recipe I found, which I can't wait to try.

Bishops bread
Cook Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Ingredients:
* 1 egg
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans
* 1/2 cup chopped well drained maraschino cherries
* 1/2 cup raisins or chopped dates
* 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation:
In mixing bowl, beat egg with electric mixer until light, about 1 minute. Add sugar, oil, and vanilla. Beat well. Blend in the buttermilk. In another bowl sift together the flour, soda, and salt. Add pecans, cherries, raisins or dates, and chocolate chips; blend well. Add to the first mixture and stir until just combined. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9x5-inch loaf pan. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 1 hour, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Makes 1 loaf of Bishop's Bread.

Monday, October 18, 2010

One last glimpse of Boston

as we sailed out of the harbor...

Bah-ston

Actually, we did not hear a single person with a true Boston accent the entire time we were there. Disappointing really.

My expectations were really low for our visit to Boston. I have no idea why, for the city has never given me a reason to doubt it. The good thing about low expectations is that they are easily exceeded. And boy where they. What a great place! The history! The architecture! The green public spaces! The cannoli! Ohhh... the cannoli in the Italian district was to die for.

So bravo to you Boston. I've now added you to my list of places I would like to spend a little bit more time in.

Beautiful Beacon Hill windows