A Blustery Fall Weekend

Brrr.  It got quite chilly here in the Allegheny Mountains this fall weekend.  There were even spots that saw a mix of snow, sleet, and rain.  We spent most of our time warm and cozy indoors with good food, extended family, and fall treats.

To start the weekend, we baked, filled, and frosted these Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes from Duncan Hines.  Every now and then, I do break down and use a boxed mix.  The grocery stores are carrying so many interesting autumn treats, so I thought I'd give this a try.  They were quite tasty and are all gone by now, of course.  One problem: my oven quit working, so we mixed them up in our kitchen, then walked up to the cabin to bake the cupcakes, and then carried them back down to the house to frost.  Perhaps the little hike shaved off a few of the 225 calories in each cupcake.

Another fun find that my husband surprised me with that has no calories is this Pumpkin Body Butter found at Trader Joe's.  It's just as luxurious as the regular body butter but smells scrumptuous.

We spent Saturday afternoon around our long kitchen table playing card games with the grandparents.  The big people played Phase 10.

Then we played Uno Attack with the little people.

I was going to wait another month to break out my thick sweaters and boots, but it was so cold that I gave in and even broke out my long silk underwear... And I was still cold.

The grownups decided to dine at a new, unique, farm-to-table restaurant called Revival Kitchen.

Don't try to get in without reservations because chances are you'll be out of luck. 

 Fortunately, we did think to make reservations, and we had a table back by the wine bar where we sampled wines from Seven Mountains Winery, and then ordered a couple of bottles to drink with dinner.

For appetizers, we tried Smoked Trout Deviled Eggs and Miso Glazed Shitake Mushrooms.  My father-in-law is the truly adventurous eater though, and he ordered Bread and Bone, which is bone marrow served with grilled sourdough bread, short rib onion jam, and an herb salad.  There was no way I was touching that even though I was assured that it is delicious and healthy too.

My husband and I tried the Maple Cured Smoked Duck Breast with roasted brussels sprouts, crispy polenta, and those fancy rings of squash.  This was tasty, but I realized I'm not a polenta or duck lover.

The grandparents tried the Herb Marinated Chicken with risotto, goat cheese, and grilled broccolini...

...and the Gnocchi with ricotta, charred broccolini, garlic cream, and crispy Lacinato kale.  Everyone was in agreement that it was all superb, but I was stuffed.

However, we weren't too full for dessert.  We sampled the pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate brownie with peanut butter mousse, and a chocolate pudding cake filled with fruit and nuts with a toffee sauce underneath.  It was unanimous that the pudding cake was the most original and the winner of the evening.  Somehow, my husband and I awoke in the middle of the night with indigestion from eating so much, but the grandparents slept like babies.  Go figure.

On Sunday, after we attended Mass together and had lunch, we ventured over to the public library where they had all kinds of organized activities for children.  Our youngest was the only one willing to make paper bag puppets.

But they were all more than willing to decorate cookies with autumn decorations.  If it involves eating, they're in!

When we came home, I discovered why I have to recreate my porch display every morning because the pumpkins and Indian corn have been knocked off the hay bale.

And despite the cold, winds, snow and sleet, the weekend ended looking like this. 

I'm loving fall! 

Burning Calories Without Breaking a Sweat

The weight I'd love to be again, not the weight I actually am.  Photo editing is fantastic!

For many years I didn't have to think much about calories consumed or calories burned.  Throughout my twenties, I taught aerobics and yoga classes, hiked and played tennis, rollerbladed and rode my bike, lifted weights and played with my eldest daughter.  In my thirties, I was either nursing a baby or chasing after toddlers and preschoolers.  Even in my early forties, farm and homesteading tasks kept me constantly on the move, and I ate whatever I wanted without noticing a difference on the scale.  However, over the past few years as I have been inching closer and closer to the Big 50, that has changed.  The numbers on the scale have steadily climbed, as have the inches around my middle, and the size on the tags of my clothes.  I have had to face the difficult fact that I can no longer eat as many desserts as I like and spend hours a day on the sofa reading a book without consequences.  With the holidays coming soon---and typically with them a 4-5 pound weight gain for me---I have decided to make a conscious effort to not allow those numbers on the scale to creep up any higher.  I am a realist, though, and I know that I will probably never see the above numbers on my scale again without the use of photo editing on my laptop.

Climbing stairs: 95 cal./10 min.

Like most of you, I have to wear many different hats in the day, and I don't have time for a grueling hour-long workout, followed by a shower and a change of clothes and drying my hair and re-applying moisturizer, sunscreen, and makeup.  After doing some research, I was thrilled to see that much of what I do in a day burns quite a few calories without me even thinking about it or breaking a sweat.  For example, climbing stairs for 10 minutes burns 95 calories.  I have to climb a flight and a half just to use the bathroom in this old farmhouse.  Every time I do laundry, I climb 2.5 flights.  To put away most of our groceries, I have to go down and up a flight of stairs since our kitchen has so little storage space.

Laundry: 63 cal/30 min.

Speaking of laundry, I do two or three loads of it almost every single day, and our clothes hampers are still never, ever empty.  Doing laundry burns 63 calories in 30 minutes.  If you hang laundry on the clothesline or drying racks like I do, that burns 50 calories in 15 minutes.  There was a brief period of time several years ago when both of our washing machines broke, and I washed and rung out the laundry in our bathtub by hand for over two weeks.  I wonder how many calories that burns?

Scrubbing the tub: 85 cal./15 min.

This is the only time that I am glad to have just one full bathroom.  Scrubbing a bathtub is one of my least favorite chores, but it burns 85 calories in 15 minutes.  By the way, I found this shower curtain on clearance at Kohl's.  They also had the coolest rustic curtains with moose and pine trees that I'd like to get for our cabin once we finally get a new shower installed.

Vacuuming: 90 cal./30 min.

You wouldn't think I would have to do much vacuuming in a house with wood floors and no rugs or carpets, but that is not the case.  Nothing else sucks up the dust bunnies and crumbs stuck between the wide plank floor boards like a vacuum cleaner.  Each room in our house takes about 15 minutes to vacuum, and it burns 90 calories in 30 minutes.

Weeding: 115 cal./30 min.

We have weeds from May through October, so if I'm willing to deal with the pesky gnats and mosquitoes, I can burn 115 calories in 30 minutes when I'm out there weeding the gardens and flower beds.

Dusting: 50 cal./30 min.

I'm not sure if other old farmhouses are incredibly dusty or if our family just creates more of it than the average household, but we have more dust than I can keep up with.  I have used feather dusters, lambs wool dusters (like in the photo), dry swiffers, wet swiffers, microfiber cloths, old cloth diapers, and every other dust-fighting product I can find, and we still have dust everywhere.  Dusting burns 50 calories in 30 minutes, but it must burn more if you're having to climb up on ladders to reach the tops of cupboards, celing fans, and bookshelves.

Cooking: 150 cal./1 hour

I don't spend as much time in the kitchen preparing food as I used to, but I still spend a significant amount of time cooking, and it burns 150 calories in an hour.  You would think I'd be as svelte as Jennifer Aniston by now, but I apparently sample enough of the food to balance out any calories used while cooking and baking.  I've got to stop licking the cake beaters and tasting the raw cookie dough.

Washing dishes: 64 cal./30 min.

As I've mentioned before, there is no dishwasher in this old house other than the occupants.  Even with each child assigned a "dish night," I still have to wash breakfast and lunch dishes every day.  This chore burns 64 calories in 30 minutes.

Decorating: 54 cal./10 min.

Did you know that decorating burns 54 calories in 10 minutes?  How awesome is that?  This has got to be one of the better domestic activities I do.  Just think how much pumpkin pie we burn as we decorate our houses for Christmas!

Strength training: 63 cal./18 min.

So there are a few things I do that burn calories that are considered "real" exercise.  I try to get some strength training in two or three days a week, using elastic tubing, 5 pound dumbbells, and my own body weight.  I burn approximately 63 calories in 18 minutes, which is about how long it takes me to work every major muscle group doing 10 repetitions for each exercise and then repeating with another set.

Yoga: 26 cal./10 min.

The type of yoga I do now is very light yoga---stretching, really.  I can assure you that the more intense forms of yoga that I used to do in my twenties burn many more calories than this.  My body doesn't appreciate enduring those postures any more though, so for light yoga, we burn 26 calories in 10 minutes.  That's the equivalent of burning off one Hershey's Kiss, so I do this more for the stress release and increase in flexibility than for using up calories.  Even though it burns fewer calories, I'd still much rather do some yoga than scrub that bathtub!

Walking the dog: 125 cal./40 min.

For some of you, walking your dog probably means a great workout where you get your heart rate up and maybe even break a sweat.  This is not the case with beagles.  When I walk Tippy, we pause and run, pause and run---over and over again.  Her nose is to the ground practically the entire time.  We stop so she can sniff out an area, then we run to track it.  I haven't timed her, but I would say the stopping occurs every ten or twenty seconds.  This is a very frustrating workout for me, but I figure it still burns 125 calories in a 40 minute "walk."  Plus, it makes her very, very happy; although, she would be ecstatic if I just let her off her leash so she could chase a rabbit, squirrel, or deer all over the mountain for hours.

Hiking: 125 cal./21 min.

Hiking is probably the most strenuous activity I do unless I get out on the tennis courts (which happens about once every three years.)  If I hike up our mountain a mile or two in the middle of summer, I will actually perspire a bit.  Most of the time, I don't hike quite that far, and I am no longer able to hike straight up without stopping frequently to catch my breath and not feel like I am about to have a heart attack.  This is my favorite time of the year to hike in the woods, so I'll be doing more of it over the next few weeks before our weather turns too cold to enjoy.  Hiking burns 125 calories in 21 minutes.

A day teaching covered over 3 miles/6500 steps.

I purchased a pedometer a couple of years ago and wore it one day this week when I was substitute teaching in our children's old elementary school.  I was surprised to discover that I walked over 3 miles and 6500 steps during that day.  That's more than I often cover in a typical day at home, even with a mile walk to the mailbox and back!

It is my plan to engage in all of these activities on a weekly basis and not see the numbers on the scale ascend any higher.  I would love to see them descend, of course, but my husband says that if I hope to look like I did two decades ago, I need to seriously work out several hours a day and greatly change my diet.  Not wanting to do something so drastic, I think I'll see positive results as long as I ...

...Don't spend my days doing this!

Or...

...Eat too many things like this!  

Casual Autumn Dinner with Good Friends

Modified Szarlotka and Friends' Homemade Applesauce

Last weekend we had the privilege of spending time with some dear fellow homeschooling/homesteading friends as they spent the afternoon and evening here at our house.  The fall weather was incredibly beautiful since the leaves have really turned their brilliant autumn colors this past week.  I wanted to make some hardy, seasonal dishes for dinner, but I also wanted to enjoy spending time talking with my friend while sipping a modified Szarlotka (Polish Apple Pie Cocktail.)  The menu ended up being a hodgepodge of cooler-weather dishes that didn't take hours and hours to prepare.  For the drink above,  I simply used the Grey Goose vodka I had on hand and mixed it with apple cider over ice.  My friend was kind enough to bring along the freshly canned applesauce from her kitchen that we had along with dinner.

Our Casual Dinner Menu:

Pseudo-Polish Apple Pie Cocktails (aka Spiked Apple Cider)

Homemade Applesauce (made by our friends)

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Fall Garden Salad

Crescent Rolls (store bought, I'm sorry to say)

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Baked Pears

Fall Decorated Sugar Cookies

Broccoli Cheese Soup

This was a very laid-back affair, and there were eleven of us for dinner with most of them being children, so everything was put out on the countertop and stove at once in a buffet style.  This Broccoli Cheese Soup is fantastic in the fall and winter.  Thick and creamy and filled with fresh broccoli and onions, it is chocked full of vitamins and calcium, but also some fat and calories, I'm afraid.  A small bowl will go a long way.  I discovered that doubling the recipe was unnecessary, and we are still eating it three days later.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Saute 1 pound of chopped onions in 1 stick of butter until clear.  Add 2 pounds of chopped fresh broccoli and 1 quart of chicken stock.  Cook until tender.  Add and blend 1 quart of half & half cream and 1 pound of American cheese.  Thicken soup with approximately 4 teaspoons of corn starch dissolved in 1 cup of water.

Fall Garden Salad

We are still harvesting peppers and cherry tomatoes from our summer garden, and now we are in our second planting of radishes, Swiss chard, spinach, and arugula.  It's refreshing to have fresh greens amidst the typical heavier fall vegetables of squash, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins.  I cheated this weekend and used bottled honey mustard salad dressing.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

The main dish was this Easy Chicken Pot Pie.  I think it's easy because it doesn't require making and rolling out your own dough.  Packaged crescent roll dough is used instead, so it saves a lot of time and additional mess.  This is terrific as a leftover too.  I doubled the recipe below to fill a rectangular cake pan.  The normal recipe will fit in a casserole dish.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

For the filling, combine 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 2/3 cup of evaporated milk, 1 Tablespoon of dried parsley flakes, and 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary.  Pour into a casserole dish with 3 cups of cubed cooked chicken and 1 package of frozen mixed vegetables (succotash).  For the crust, unroll 1 package of Pillsbury crescent rolls and place over the top of the filling.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

Baked Pears

We have so many pears right now, and they are getting soft quickly, so this dish was a bit of a necessity.  We ate them without ice cream, so they could be eaten with dinner or as a dessert.  This recipe is from the book Homesteading, edited by Abigail Gehring.

Baked Pears

Slice 6 pears and cut out the core and seeds, making a small "bowl" in the center.  Place them in a greased baking dish.  Then mix together 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon cloves.  Gradually add 4 Tablespoons of melted butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Fill the hollows of the pears with the sugar mixture, and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if desired.

In addition to the above items, we also had more crescent rolls (again, I cheated and used store-bought) and frosted sugar cookies.  Our teen daughters cut out and decorated the cookies before dinner.  I found these cute little metal cookie cutters in fall shapes in my attic and thought they would make great sugar cookie "sandwiches."  However, they all baked together into big lumps of sugar cookies in the oven, so the girls just made orange frosting and decorated with fall sprinkles.  They were gobbled up before the end of the evening by all the kiddos, but they didn't look pretty, so no pictures were taken.  

This was a leisurely, stress-free dinner with good friends and a wonderful end to a busy, rather hectic week.  Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm not doing "real" entertaining when the dinner is a hodgepodge of foods served from the stove or countertop on everyday plates.  But while life is so full and busy with a farmhouse filled with children and so many chores to do, I remind myself that simply enjoying the rare treat of making and sharing a meal with the people we care about is more important than an impressive presentation.  The Pinterest-inspired centerpieces and formal table settings can wait another season or two.

Blue Ribbon Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

My family loves pumpkin, but I usually only cook or bake with it in the fall and early winter.  I know a lot of people turn their noses up at this wonderful vegetable, but these muffins have been known to change the minds of the most avid pumpkin haters.  This recipe was given to me from an old friend over twenty years ago, and I have been faithfully baking these muffins every October ever since.  They won the blue ribbon at our local fair several years ago, and I made a big batch for my son's fourth grade class this past week to celebrate their school-wide walk-a-thon.  Since most of them went to his class, and our family only got one a piece, my children have been begging me to bake another big batch next week just for us.  These are terrific even without the chocolate chips, but the chocoholics in this house wouldn't conceive of that option.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Mix 1 (16 oz.) can pumpkin, 3 cups of sugar (no wonder they taste so good), 1 cup vegetable oil, 4 eggs, and 2/3 cups of water together.  In another bowl, combine 3 1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir just until moistened.  This will be thick.  Add a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Fill paper-lined or greased muffin tins 2/3 full, and bake in 350 degree oven for 35 minutes.  This makes about 36 muffins.

ENJOY!

New Development Below our Farm

Last evening, our youngest son was stressed out about rushing from school to homework/dinner to judo to bed, and I did something I don't usually do...I let him skip out on judo.  Normally, if our children want to participate in a scheduled activity and they are signed up for it, then it is their responsibility to attend every lesson or practice unless they are sick.  He's been doing judo now for a year and a half.  It goes year-round with no breaks.  After a week of rain and cool temperatures here, the sun, blue skies, and near 70 degrees made all my children want to run around and play outside.  So I gave in.

I am so glad I did.  We all hiked/rode bikes down our mountain lane to check out the progress at the sportsman's club located just below us.  There used to be a great pond there used for fishing and ice skating, but it was drained a few years ago and had been dry ever since.  A few months ago, however, they excavated and dug it deeper, but it still sat as a dry hole.  The rain simply gave it little mud puddles that the frogs and salamanders enjoyed.  My boys were heartbroken because they desperately wanted to fish in it again.

We were thrilled to discover that all the rain we had last week filled that pond to the brim.  As the sun was setting, I was fortunate enough to capture these October moments with my tablet.

My little ones were super excited that the owners built a dock, and they were deliberating whether or not they could jump from the bank to the dock without getting wet.  I intervened and told them there would be no jumping allowed.

I'm not sure what the cement slabs will be used for, but our little girl stood on them so her blue sparkly Frozen sneakers wouldn't get muddy.  Don't you love her pink flannel shirt and her brother's camouflaged ball cap with the deer on the front?

Even Tippy was excited!

Now my boys just have to wait until the pond gets stocked with some fish.  Our teenage son already took a catalog to the owners and put in requests for his favorite species.  

It was a perfect October evening for a walk in the woods, and on our trek back up the mountain to our house, I discovered this leaf lying on the ground.  I think I'll press it and frame it to remind me that sometimes I need to let go of what I think we should do, and instead just let our hearts lead the way.