Fall Fun List

Since summer is officially over, I thought it would be a good time to share some of our favorite fall places, crafts, and treats from last year. If you have any suggestions you'd like to share, from your own blog or around the web, please link in the comments! Also, if you do any of these, please write and let us know how you enjoyed it. :)

I'm cuddled up under a wool blanket as I type this and I love love it. Welcome, fall!

GO:

-Bergey's Breadbasket: Quite possibly the best petting zoo in the area, with a PYO pumpkin patch and a delectable bakery attached. Bergey's inspired our apple dumpling recipe (below).

-Hunt Club Farm: The photos at the bottom of this post is from our visit last October (look how small my Nou was!). Their fall harvest fair runs through Nov. 1 this year and you can bet we'll be there again.

-Apple Picking at Martin Vineyard & Orchard: A recent trip that's going to become a family tradition. Apple season ends in November, but I would call ahead to make sure they're still open (their website doesn't seem to be updated frequently).

-New Earth Farm: A beautiful farmer's market in Virginia Beach, with probably the most interesting and delicious organic and seasonal produce in the area.

-First Landing State Park: So gorgeous this time of year. Try the Bald Cypress Trail, an easy hike for little legs.

-Big Woods State Forest: Some "real wilderness" hiking just about an hour away in Sussex County.

-Bennett's Creek Farm Market: Bennett's Creek is a treat in any season but fall makes us hungry and when the weather turns cool, we crave their she-crab soup.


MAKE: 

-Pumpkin pie playdough: Adding pumpkin-pie spice makes everything feel more festive.

-Gravestone rubbing: A spooky craft to get older kids interested in family history.

-Pinecone prints: This is a great time of year for nature painting.


COOK:

-Maple cinnamon marshmallows: Dresses up hot cocoa; a lot easier than you'd think.

-Apple dumplings: A quick and easy version of the famous ones at Bergey's Breadbasket.

-Pumpkin quinoa: The perfect breakfast for fall mornings.

-Sugar cookies: Not our recipe, but one we use constantly. These cookies are tasty and don't spread!

Pumpkin Quinoa Porridge

• I like the idea of oatmeal but in all honesty, I'm not much of an oatmeal person. There's just something about the texture that I find kind of gloppy and unappealing. But curling up with a warm bowl on a cool morning is, and so I'm always on the lookout for breakfast cereal substitutions that will give that cozy effect. In the past, we've really enjoyed a hot cereal made from almond meal, but lately, our go-to is a kind of quinoa porridge that we adapted from this recipe. The texture is amazing, it doesn't get soggy or mushy, and it's packed with protein which is a nice start to your day. 

• Quinoa is also very adaptable to all different kinds of flavors, so we've been experimenting with peanut butter porridge and a version with apples, but with fall in the air, it's all about pumpkin so that's what we've been using most frequently. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 Tbsp butter

1.5 cups water

1/2 cup pumpkin (or up to 2/3 cup, if you want a little more oomph)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cups milk (we used soy)

• Directions: 

Soak the quinoa in a bowl of water for 5-10 minutes, rinse, and drain. Transfer the quinoa to a saucepan with 1.5 cups cold water. Bring to a boil for one minute, cover, reduce heat and simmer until the quinoa is done (about 10 minutes, or when a little "tail" appears on the quinoa). 

Remove from heat, add the butter, pumpkin, spices, vanilla, and sugar. Stir in milk until you reach your desired level of creaminess. Serve warm, with caramelized apples and more cinnamon on the top or a drizzle of maple syrup. Yum. 

When people have dinner at our house, they always wonder why there's no salt or pepper in our shakers. This is why. 

Happy Monday!

Naa's Bakery

There's a little place, tucked inside a nondescript shopping center off of Tidewater Drive in Norfolk, where you can get some of the best pastries in the area. It's called Naa's Bakery, and Anouk and I met Miss Molly and Little A. there last week to get ourselves sugared up before a park playdate.

Naa's has been around for the better part of a century, and as soon as you walk in you realize why it's earned its place as a Norfolk landmark, alongside places like Doumars and Charlie's Cafe. There's a sweetly (no pun intended) old fashioned charm that you just can't find anyplace else that makes you think it probably hasn't changed very much over the years. The long bakery case houses dozens of delicacies, from thick slices of homemade cake to feathery fluffed doughnuts to whimsically iced cupcakes and cookies. We had a hard time deciding what to order because everything looked so good (and a hard time meeting the $5 credit card minimum despite the half-dozen or so goodies we ordered -- seriously, the prices are so reasonable). As we sat at our table in the front of the bakery and sampled bites of each others' desserts, we chatted with the friendly staff behind the counter and it was a little bit like stepping back to a simpler time and place. The ladies behind the counter made us promise to come back -- they didn't have to twist our arms.

Have you been to Naa's? What were your favorites? In case you were wondering, our top picks were the plain glazed doughnuts and the thickly iced black-and-white cookies. Although everything we sampled was delicious. So much yum in one small place!

Naa's Bakery brings the love, for real. 

Tahini Halawa

Halawa, or halvah, is a traditional Middle Eastern sweetmeat, considered by some to be the first candy ever made in recorded history, with sesame seeds and honey. Nowadays, halawa is served in many cultures all over the world, using ingredients ranging from semolina flour to almonds to yams but the most traditional recipe calls for tahini (sesame paste), honey, and pistachios. My aunt says that she remembers my Lebanese great-grandmother cooking up big batches of this sweet, though nobody thought to save the recipe she used because halawa wasn't one of their favorites.

I can understand that. I do like halawa, but I admit that it is kind of an acquired taste. The texture not exactly fudgy, slightly flaky, slightly creamy. It's not super-sweet like most Western desserts, and the tahini gives it a faint smoky taste (I've heard some people substitute the tahini with almond butter which sounds intriguing though I've never tried it). But it's also incredibly addicting. I find myself craving it sometimes, and when a halawa craving hits, nothing else will do. There is literally nothing else like it in the world.

I've been making halawa a lot lately, to try and get Anouk in touch with her Lebanese roots (she didn't like it at first but seems to like it more and more every time she has it). Though I don't have my great-grandmother's specific recipe, it does make me feel a connection with her every time I make this and I love that.

Ingredients:

1 cup honey
3/4 cup roasted, unsalted pistachios
1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup tahini, stirred

Directions:

Over medium heat, cook the honey until it reaches 240 degrees F, or the "soft ball" stage (when dropped in water, the honey forms a round, flexible ball). Let cool slightly, then stir in the nuts and vanilla. Fold in the tahini, then stir well to combine. Pour mixture into a lightly greased dish (we find a standard bread loaf pan works well for this). Chill in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Cut into pieces and serve at room temperature. Makes about 1 pound.

Pork, Peanut, and Pine Festival

J., A., and I were out of town for the majority of the weekend for a wedding (in which A. fulfilled all of her flower girl duties with aplomb, we are so proud). On the way home Sunday, we decided to be crazy and take a pretty significant detour so that we could stop by the annual Pork, Peanut, and Pine Festival at Chippokes Plantation State Park in Surry. We just weren't ready for the fun to be over, I guess.

For 38 years, the festival has been put on to celebrate the Southeastern VA region's natural resources. When you first come across it, the combination of pork, peanut, and pine sounds a little strange but after a little while it starts to make perfect sense. It turns out there is nothing quite like eating a BBQ sandwich after a handful of freshly-roasted peanuts while the sun glints on the carved wood crafts in the nearby booths. It all works together.

Besides the three main attractions, we also visited blacksmith and turner demonstrations, examined some antique farm equipment, made friends at a petting zoo, and danced to the Hard Knox bluegrass band.  We toured the antebellum mansion that gives the park its name and found some handmade art to take home. And maybe the highlight of it all, we had our very first taste of peanut pie.

It was a really fun end to a special weekend. I think the PP&P festival might become a family tradition.

We ♥ Handsome Biscuit

Every now and again, Anne's work-at-home daddy comes downstairs and suggests that we take our lunch hour off premises. When that happens, we grab our things and rush out to one of our many, established favorite area restaurants, but sometimes the adventurous spirit strikes us and we seek out a new place. Last week, we hit up Handsome Biscuit on Colonial Avenue, and as soon as we had our first bites of our lunch, we knew it was going on the list.

Handsome Biscuit (which opened just a few weeks ago) is a quirky place -- and we love quirk. The menu features sandwiches made on fluffy homemade sweet potato biscuits, with a whole slew of inventive add-ons and sides (caviar! pickled veggies!) They also feature a selection of Dr. Brown's sodas and even biscuit bread pudding (to die for). So far each of us has already picked a favorite -- PB&J for A., barbecue with slaw for J., and eggs over easy with bacon and cheese for me.

Eating out with a picky toddler can get more than a little repetitive, so whenever we find a place that offers kid-friendly food and also something new and interesting for an adult palate, we can't resist telling the world about it, even if that might mean that we'll have an even harder time getting a table in the lunch rush! But in this case, the buzz is well-deserved.

I am head over heels with the restaurant renaissance that's been happening in Norfolk lately. Handsome Biscuit is a welcome addition to the roster. We love you, Handsome B.! We'll be back soon! (I promise).

Happy Friday! Where/what will you be eating this weekend?

Spiced Sugar Coated Peanuts

Anne and I made a great find at the Cape Hatteras lighthouse gift shop a few weeks ago -- a copy of 25 Secrets Revealed: A Culinary Tour by OBX local Kevin McCabe (we also got to meet the author!) McCabe grew up in the Outer Banks, but his travels have taken him all over the world, and his cookbook is a collection of his favorite recipes he's collected along the way along with the stories of how he encountered them.

So far we've only had the chance to try a couple of the recipes (though I plan to work through the rest of the book as soon as possible). But this recipe, for sugar spiced peanuts, is one we've made a few times. McCabe created it after he spent time in Indonesia, and it is delicious and addicting.
___________

Ingredients:

2 cups raw peanuts with the skins on
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of allspice

Directions:

In a heavy saucepan, dissolve the sugar and water over medium heat. Add the peanuts and stir very gently from time to time. After 8-9 minutes, the mixture will begin to look like rough sand and all the bubbling sugar will suddenly disappear. Quickly spread the nuts onto a nonstick cookie sheet and sprinkle on the cinnamon and allspice. Place them into a 275-degree oven for 25-30 minutes, stirring lightly every 5-6 minutes. Let cool and see how long they last.
___________

This is a quick recipe -- it goes fast, both the cooking and the eating of it. We made another batch with almonds, just because we could, but the peanuts were the real star. Something about how creamy they get when they're roasted...  Still, I think this recipe should be pretty easily adaptable for kids with peanut/tree nut allergies -- just substitute pumpkin seeds or even soybeans in place of the peanuts. (I would love to hear how this works if any of you decide to try it!)

You can get your copy of 25 Secrets Revealed here. 

Outer Banks, Part 2: Hatteras Island

After our stint on Bodie Island last week, James had to go home to work, but Anouk and I headed south to Hatteras Island to meet up with family. We stayed in Buxton -- about midway down the island, a good middle point right smack dab between Pea Island and Hatteras Village. It was only a little over an hour away from where we'd been staying in Kitty Hawk, but the feel of the place was totally different. The further south we drove, the more of a laid-back small country town vibe we encountered. But there were still tons of things to do and see.

We started each day of our trip with breakfast at the Orange Blossom Bakery & Cafe. I feel like this is notable, because when I'm on vacation, there's not a lot that can get me out of my PJs and on the road before 10 or so. However, if you want to get one of the Orange Blossom's apple uglies (giant, delicious apple fritters), you need to get there before they sell out. So we got up bright and early, and off we went.

^^ They call them apple uglies for a reason. And that reason is deception.

Another must-see is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which has the distinction of being the tallest lighthouse in the United States. In fact, it was so much fun that our group visited twice. The view from the top is supposed to be fantastic (the my cousins swore they could see for miles), but the climb is arduous, especially in hot weather -- akin to climbing a 12-story building with no air conditioning. Kids under 42" can't go to the top, children under 12 have to be accompanied by an adult, and during the height of the season, wait times to climb can be 30-60 minutes. Unfortunately, Anouk and I had to wait down below, but luckily there was enough to see around the grounds and in the museum that we didn't feel cheated (the exhibit on how the lighthouse was moved over a half-mile from its original location was truly fascinating.)

And of course, there was the beach. The beach! Just a few short steps from our front door -- we could hear the waves all night, even with the windows closed. It almost seems inaccurate to say that we went to the beach while we were in town because it didn't seem like we were ever very far away from it. Wherever we looked, there was golden sand and deep blue water. Anouk was still a little afraid of the water, but the big girls and I jumped right in. And we taught cousin D. to body surf -- her first time ever in the ocean. She took to it like a pro (and those aren't beginner-type waves).

A few more notes about places to go in the Buxton (and surrounding) area: Conner's Supermarket, which looks like a standard grocery store but actually has a great selection of organic and local foods; The Captain's Table, which has the best Hatteras-style clam chowder I've ever tasted; Uglie Mugs Coffee Shop and Haoles Sushi a few miles north in Avon; Buxton Village Books, which offers a great selection of books about the Outer Banks; Buxton Cemetery (make sure you have four-wheel drive). And I also highly suggest just turning down one of the many roads off of the sound side of Highway 12 around about sunset. Because you might just get a view like this:

And that's something definitely worth seeing.

Eat more flax

This blueberry flaxseed smoothie has been mine and Anouk's go-to breakfast pretty much every day for the past few weeks. If you had told me a while ago that one day soon my preferred breakfast would have included something like flax, I would have made this face at you. But it turns out flax is delicious! And also one of the best things you can eat, healthfully speaking.

Studies have shown that flaxseed can lower bad cholesterol levels, prevent heart disease and diabetes, and even inhibit tumor growth. Most things I've read recommend stirring it into things like oatmeal or yogurt, but A. doesn't eat either of those things, and while it's fun to bake with, I don't always have time to devote to baking on a regular basis. After some tinkering, we devised a smoothie recipe that gives us our daily dose of flax and is addictingly delicious to boot.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Smoothie

1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1 cup blueberries
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
1 scoop of vanilla whey protein (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a blender. Pour into glass. Serve with a straw (it's better that way).

This is a really dense smoothie, so you might want to add more water or coconut milk if you find it's too thick.

The taste really is a lot like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and who doesn't like that? We've subbed almond butter for the peanut, and while it's fine, it just doesn't have the same deliciousness. I'm not going to lie, this smoothie is so good that it gets me out of bed in the morning faster than the thought of a cup of coffee.

For Anouk's part, at first, she balked at the grittiness of the flaxseed, but then we upped the amount of berries, which helps mask it, and now it goes down fine. A whole smoothie is a lot for a little kid to drink at once, so I usually give Anouk just half, with a hardboiled egg or two, and then she's set until snacktime.

Happy Monday!

Lemonada (and other Greek Fest goodies)

The Norfolk Greek Festival holds a special place in mine and James's hearts -- during his first visit home with me at the end of freshman year of college, I took him to Greek Fest and plied him with food in hopes of creating a positive association with my hometown (I think it worked). Since then, we've done our best to hit it up every year that we can, and last weekend, we took Anouk for the very first time.

Anouk enjoyed her first Greek Fest very much, especially the eating part of it (which, honestly, is most of it). Every single thing she ate, she loved, from dolmades to gyros to calamari. In fact, she enjoyed everything so much that we spent the rest of the weekend looking up Greek recipes we could make for her at home. Most of what we found looked pretty labor intensive but this simple recipe for Greek lemonade was so intriguing (and turned out to be so delicious) that I knew from the first sip that it was a keeper.

Lemonada

5-6 lemons
1 cup sugar (or to taste)
2 cups water (or to taste)
1 tsp orange blossom water (we got ours at Azars, in Ghent, but it's also available online)
3-4 mint sprigs

The secret that makes this lemonade taste so good seems to be in the juicing technique, which incorporates more of the oils and the rind than normal juicing procedures. Cut 5-6 large lemons into the thinnest slices possible. Place in a bowl, and pour 1/2 cup of the sugar over top. Let sit for 5 minutes, then use your hands to squish and squeeze the lemon slices. Strain the juice through a sieve into a pitcher. Repeat this process, using the rest of the lemons and sugar, until you can't get any more juice out of the lemons. (For us, 5-6 large lemons yielded about 2 cups of juice). The lemon pulp and peels should look pretty shredded by the time you're done.

Add water and additional sugar to taste (we added about 2 cups of water, but didn't add any more sugar). Add the orange blossom water to the lemonade, stir well. Crush 2-3 mint leaves, add to a glass with ice, and pour the lemonade over it. Garnish with an additional sprig of mint and some lemon slices.

This is the best lemonade I've ever had -- the orange blossom water adds a nice floral note and the mint spices everything up and makes it even more refreshing, somehow. Next time I make it, I'm toying with the idea of adding sparkling water for fizz. I also think it would be just swell with a jot of vodka in it, too. But that is an entry for another blog entirely.

Some more pictures from our Greek Fest experience:

^^ The line for the loukoumades tent was so long (but they were worth the wait)

^^ Ecstatically enjoying some grape leave rolls

^^ Browsing the agora with mama

^^  Opa!

Strawberry Picking

Nothing says summertime is almost here! in Virginia Beach more than strawberry picking down in Pungo. I've been dreaming about it since the cold gray days of February and so when James asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day, that's what I picked (get it???). On Saturday, we (finally!) got our chance and drove down to Cullipher Farms to pick to our hearts' content.

We chose Cullipher Farm for a few reasons: first, they use organic growing practices, and with strawberries heading the list of fruits with high pesticide residues, that was a big deal for us. Second, they have two locations, one at the farm stand near Pungo Village and one a few miles away, which cuts down on crowds. We chose the farther-away berry patch, and as soon as we stepped out of the car we could smell the scent of berries warming in the sun.

We picked and picked and picked. In Anne's case, I should say we ate and ate and ate. By the time we finished, her white shirt looked like it had been dunked in a vat of red dye. I know some people were looking at us and thinking, who's the crazy mom who dresses her kid in white for berry picking? To which I say, there is a method to my madness. I dunked the whole shirt in a bucket of hydrogen peroxide as soon as we got home and today, it's good as new. (That's why they crowned me the Queen of Stain Removal. It's a glamorous job, being a mom.)

All in all, we picked two gallons of berries for $22, which is a great bargain considering that a pint of organic berries can go for as much as $4 or $5 in stores. We immediately put up one batch and saved the rest to eat this week -- and boy, have we been eating them as hard as we can. Even so, I'm still not sure we'll be able to work our way through them this week, so...let the baking commence!

This has been kind of a funky strawberry season so far -- the cool weather in April meant the berries set late and with the temperatures fluctuating, it's hard to say how long the season will last. Which means: go this weekend! Click here for Cullipher Farm's hours.

^^ My little strawberry girl, all tuckered out. I feel so lucky to be her mom, on Mother's Day and every other day of the year.