Better than Ramuntos?

So this week on our cooking show (that's not an actual show) we made BBQ chicken pizza, fries, and salad. Unfortunately, my work kept me late so there was no biking this week... just food. :)

Naomi was in charge of shopping and found excellent ingredients including pizza crust made in New Hampshire. Seriously, check out the recipe, so good! I think you could call this a 30 minute meal.

Here Naomi is in her apron that her mother bought from a local seamstress at a community event.

Here I am putting the toppings on the pizza.

Our finished product!!!

Our future plans are to buy all locally grown and produced ingredients to make a delicious meal. Soon farmers' markets will be having more produce and it will be prime time for this project.

Here, There, and Everywhere

This past weekend was anything but local so I apologize if you are reading this hoping to find a great activity in your area. Starting on Friday I went to work then went shopping with the lovely Naomi in an effort to make her boyfriend, Dan, look just as gorgeous as she. He was not to keen on the idea but we got him looking pretty good with new pants and a belt.

Saturday then proved to be a very interesting, long day. It began at 8am driving to Cornish. From Cornish I followed Jill down to Manchester to drop a car off for her parents at the airport. Back to Claremont we came to pick up Naomi and Dan, in his new pants, to go to a wedding in Charlestown. After Charlestown we came back to Claremont, changed and back to Cornish to pick up a different car, then set off to Ticonderoga, NY.

I would not suggest this plan for anyone. A day in a car does horrible things to ones mind and body.

Sunday we returned home to find Jill's parents shooting a rabid raccoon in their yard. O how I love being from the sticks.

Final local thoughts from the weekend: 1. There is a beautiful place to send your kids to camp in Charlestown named Camp Good News (this was where the wedding was held).
2. You never know what kind of crazy you will find in Cornish.

Real Coffee

Sure you can get coffee from the supermarket and make it at home or you can even go to a Dunkin Donuts and the like but sometimes you just want real coffee. I mean, you order the coffee and the barista grinds and brews coffee specially for you and adds the fresh made foam all while you are standing there, real coffee. (Some may call me a coffee snob but I say I just have sophisticated taste buds.) This is what I wanted today. Real coffee. I was in Windsor, VT at the ungodly hour of 8am for a meeting and by the end I was craving real coffee. Nothing else would have worked at that point. (And no, this was not due to a hangover from the night before although some may not believe me considering yesterday was my 21st birthday.) In Windsor there is a relatively new coffee shop named Boston Dreams. It brings the best of two worlds together. Real coffee and Boston sports memorabilia. It's epic. I ordered a maple latte (The best part of Vermont: they put maple in everything!) and a blueberry muffin. I was a happy girl. Moral of the story: if you have sophisticated taste buds like myself and a love for New England sports you should check out this coffee shop. I have a feeling Naomi will love it as well and then we can add it to out list of local activities.



My other thought for the day was on aging. As I mentioned earlier, yesterday was my 21st birthday. Now you may, at this point, expect me to say something philosophical about the issue of ago or drinking but all I really wanted to say was... Happy Birthday to Me!!!!! ;)



Have a great day everyone!

The Plan

After living in the Upper Valley for 21 years my best friend, Naomi, and I have decided to discover our surroundings. Every summer we dream of taking trips to the beach or some place other than here but this summer we will find fun activities that anyone can do close to home. Indeed, this effort may be a result of the economic down turn and, lets face it, we are poor college students, but either way we will have an adventure. Along our journey I will post links so you can create your own "Discover Local" initiative.

Courtesy of Hyperterm:

Here is a list a 100 things you must see, do, or experience in the Upper Valley. This list created the inspiration for our "Discover Local" summer. See how many you can check off in the next few months.

Our first event was in a little town called Quechee located about a half hour from home. Quechee is popularly known for Quechee Gorge but this past weekend we discovered more to love about this small town. The Quechee Balloon Festival was in town. This, like any other small town fair, was complete with greasy food, live music, and craft tents. What made this fair special was the hot air balloons. The fair goes for three days and the balloons take off periodically throughtout the three days. Parking was $3 and addmission was $10 for adults. Not a bad price for a fun day of activities. My personal suggestions would be to get a henna tattoo and eat fried dough while listening to the live band before the balloons take off. If you are looking for something to do in June next year we would highly recommend this fun filled festival.

Another plan for our summer is to get healthy. This may have been forced on me from my fitness class but I am starting to like the idea more and more. Naomi and I have picked one day a week that we will get together to do some type of physical activity such as biking, hiking, or a work out video on the rainy days and after our exercise we will cook a healthy meal. So far we have done this once... today in fact. Hopefully, if her schedule permits, it will continue to be on Mondays. For our first outing we went for a bike ride on the bike path in Springfield, VT and then came home to make delicious chicken with peach salsa. I would also just like to note that today was my first bike ride since I was a little kid and that saying about never forgetting how to ride a bike is a lie. ;)

That's all for now folks. Look for the next post about our crazy adventures of the "Discover Local" summer.