Whirling Dervish

This is my baby, my first born, the one I used to call Pooh Bear before he told me at the ripe old age of 5 that 'Pooh Bear is a baby name' and to please stop calling him that.

The former Pooh Bear, known to my readers as Whirling Dervish, will be turning 16 in 2 weeks.  I've felt this birthday coming on like a runaway train.  Most of his friends have already turned 16, and many of them already have their licenses.

This impending first adult privilege has had me panicking and counting down the moments left before he flies the nest.  There are only 2 Halloweens, a handful of Christmases, 2 Mother's Days, etc. before he's living somewhere else.  And that, my online friends, is why I've been MIA.  I've tried to eke out every last moment of this summer, because we only have 2 left before part of this family unit might leave.  Lucky for me, summer in NY doesn't end until Labor Day.  We've spent this summer up at the cottage,

down in Georgia,

up at the 1000 Islands,

and camping in the Catskills.

This stage of teenage life has WD annoyed at being forced into family time,

and taking the first chance to go off on his own.

Museums that delight SB,

have WD asking if we're done yet.

But this summer of living out of our luggage has found that elusive WD smile every now and again.

This past weekend, WD and I ran the Warrior Dash at Windham Mountain.  It was the first time in a long time that I've seen WD smile all day long.

It didn't hurt that he kicked my tail.  The course goes 1 mile up a ski slope before zig zagging around and back down, with some walls, ropes, and barbed wire thrown in.

Let's not forget the mud pits,

 and fire jumps.

There are no pics of us running together.  It turns out that WD is part billy goat, because he darted up that mountain faster than anyone else in our flight.  My pride hurt a little watching his backside bound up that mountain while my lungs were burning, but I couldn't be prouder of him.  And I finished towards the top of my age group, so I can't be too disappointed in my own performance.

The little boy that I used to love reading to, when he'd sit still for a moment,

can now school me on a race course.

But that's ok, because he's announced that he'd like for us to try to run all of the Warrior Dashes(there are 49 in the US, Canada, and Australia,) then try a few Tough Mudders and Spartans, too.  He may be planning on widening the gap between our finish times, but all I here is that he's making a multi-year commitment to hang out with his mom.

Summer's almost over and I'll be back to regular posting once the boys are back in school.  Thanks for popping in and listening to me prattle.

S'mores Waffles

I love waffles.  I've shared several versions of waffles including Banana Maple, and Chocolate Chocolate Chip.  We're camping this weekend and nothing could start a camping weekend off better than S'mores Waffles.

I started with my basic waffle recipe that I shared here.  After folding in the egg whites,

I measured out 2/3 cup of mini marshmallows, 2/3 cup of crushed graham crackers(remember how I said I just bake the scraps instead of rerolling them in my graham cracker recipe post?) and 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.

Fold all of those into the batter, being careful not to deflate it.

I scoop about a cup into a hot belgian waffle iron for 4 minutes.  I like waffles with a classic drizzle of maple syrup, but WD likes to add chocolate syrup to these.

Thanks for popping in and cooking with me.  Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Homemade Graham Crackers

Every year, we kick off the summer with a weekend camping trip to Darien Lake Theme Park.  Camping means a lot of things to a lot of people(we're tent campers, not glam-pers,) but almost universally it means S'mores.

This s'more was made on my stove, not a campfire, specifically for this post.  Incidentally, in the oft argued gas vs induction debate, no one ever cites the perfectly roasted marshmallow as a reason to use gas, but how would you make indoor s'mores without flame?  I've never been one for the basic traditional s'more.  I bring the traditional Hershey bars, but I also like to bring peanut butter cups and Ghirardelli squares for a more decadent treat.  

Even before going gluten-free, I had a disdain for boxed graham crackers preferring to make s'mores with soft ginger cookies or almond thins.  And in that vein, I decided to make my own graham crackers to bring along this weekend.  I started by whirring together 1 cup light brown sugar, 2/3 cup sorghum flour, 2/3 cup arrowroot starch, 1/3 cup brown rice flour, 1/3 cup white rice flour, 1/3 cup millet flour, 2 tbsps potato starch, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp xanthan gum in my food processor.  I pulsed in a cubed stick of butter.

In a small mixing bowl, I whisked together 1/3 cup honey, 1/4 cup milk, 2 tbsps molasses, and 2 tbsps vanilla extract.

I like using local honey to help inoculate against pollen related allergies.

With the food processor on low, I mixed in the wet ingredients.  I turned the dough out onto a floured board and kneaded it into a ball, then patted it into a rectangle.  Wrap the dough and chill for a few hours in the refrigerator.

Roll out half the dough to 1/8" thickness, and using a pizza wheel, cut into squares.  Prick the dough all over with a fork.  You can gather up the scraps and re-roll them, but I just left them.  Those scraps will be great for s'more's milkshakes or crumbs for cheesecake bases.  Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through.  Immediately after pulling them out of the oven, rescore the lines.

Let cool completely before breaking apart.  Pack in an airtight container.  I had to make that above s'more for blog posting purposes, and it was perfect in it's ooey, gooey, deliciousness.  I can't wait to bust these out around the campfire this weekend.

Thanks for popping in and baking with me.  I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Something Swanky's Sweet Treats Thursdays.

Weekend Review - Chenango Valley State Park

We love to go camping, and this was an ideal weekend for it.  The oppressive heat that swept over the east coast definitely needed escaping.  It was still hot, but hiding out in the woods was so much cooler than hanging out in town.  Here's our campsite announced by the sign I made here.

Yes, those are golf clubs.  Chenango Valley State Park has a nice golf course, and the boys wanted to be prepared just in case.  CVSP also has a number of really nice hiking trails, but one of our favorites is the bog trail.  For those unfamiliar, a bog is a wetland that accumulates a layer of dead plant material(in our climate, mostly mosses) on top.  They're kind of spongy on top, and if you jump on them like a trampoline, you can watch the spongy ground move underneath and around you.

Trails through the bog are a good deal less groomed then typical hiking trails.

There's my daredevil Whirling Dervish climbing out on a dead tree over the stagnant water.

I eventually joined him, but my backpack kept shifting weight, so it was none too pretty.

He reminded me that last year, I abandoned the backpack before trying to walk out on dead trees.  I wasn't letting go this year.

After the morning hike, we packed a picnic lunch to eat by the little spillway waterfall.  It was nice listening to the sound of the water.

It's just a short walk over the bridge from the waterfall to the swimming area.  One of the lakes at CVSP has a swimming area complete with diving boards, changing rooms, and snack shop. 

It was nice to splash around in the water and cool off.

There was plenty of nature to be found.  The kids found a toad by our campsite, but let it go before I could find the camera.  They got to watch a gypsy moth lay her eggs, and found all manner of butterflies including this white admiral,

and this tiger moth.

You can't go camping without a campfire, and even when it's still hot out, a campfire is a must.  Yes it was still hot, and yes the girls are wearing fake fur.  I'll explain about that later this week.  It really deserves it's very own post.

You know it's a good camping trip when everyone sleeps this good.

Thanks for popping in and camping with us.  I'm linking this up to Decor To Adore's Wayfaring Wednesdays.