Battling the heat- I am not winning.

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It is currently 98 degrees outside with a real feel of 109.  Guess what… our air conditioning went out yesterday afternoon- hello heat and welcome to my house, please don’t stay long.  While I can’t get an actual temperature reading in my house, you can imagine that it is a little on the uncomfortable side.  Fortunately, I did make that pink lemonade pie, and it is helping, but I need to be eating it in a freezer, not the oven, which is my existence at the moment.  I went to a hot yoga class the other morning at Charleston Power Yoga, and it was awesome.  I had never been to a hot yoga class before, and the best thing about it, besides how awesome I felt and what a great workout it was, when I walked out into the steam of the morning, because I had been in such a hot room, the 85-degree air felt so refreshing.  Seeing that it is hotter outside now than in the yoga class, I don’t think that will work.  Also, moving as little as possible seems like a better option at the moment.  I did Google recipes to “beat the heat” and came across a great blog called Gooseberry Patch.  Here are their ideas for recipes to beat the heat http://gooseberrypatch.typepad.com/blog/2012/07/rru-beat-the-heat.html.  When the AC is fixed hopefully this afternoon, maybe I will have the energy to try one, but for now, I will stay seated on the couch in front of the fan.

Pink Lemonade Pie

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We got back from our month in the mountains on Saturday evening.  When we left Twilight on Saturday morning at 6:30 am, it was 56 degrees.  When we arrived in Charleston 14 hours and 40 minutes later at just after 9 pm, it was 86 degrees.  We had only been gone for 30 days, but that heat and humidity hit me something fierce.  I know I should be more used to it, but holy smokes Batman- it is hot down here.  We had such fabulous weather in the Catskills that I am sure the atmosphere will cooperate, and cool fall weather is just around the corner 🙂 Fortunately, one of my best girlfriends has a place very close by with a pool, and she has invited a few of us over tomorrow night for some pool/girl time.  To show my wondrous appreciation for her very nice cold relaxing pool, I thought I should bring something special to eat.  But then I thought about standing in the kitchen with the oven on and cooking and chopping and sweating, and I got so upset at my friend for inviting me to her pool, but then I thought about the pool again and how nice it is, and realized how ridiculous I was being.  So instead of cooking, I found a super awesome, super easy recipe for Pink Lemonade Pie that should be a perfect pairing with a frosty cold beverage, wonderful friends, and a great pool.  By the way, I love my friend, and if she wanted me to slave away in the kitchen, I would, but I think she will be very happy with this instead!

Pink Lemonade Pie

Ingredients:

1  can sweetened condensed milk
1  can frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
1  container Cool Whip (thawed)
2 prepared graham cracker crusts

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix together sweetened condensed milk and lemonade concentrate. Fold in whipped topping. Pour into pie crusts. Refrigerate until completely chilled.

How easy is that!!

 

Please Shoo-Fly Pie

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I went for my last hike up High Peak yesterday.  High Peak is actually the 22nd highest peak in the Catskills but because of its profile or where it sits, it looks like the highest peak- hence the name.  Anyway, the great thing about the hike is that I can actually walk out the door and walk to the trail head, and it is a very tough but not too long great workout.  I was pretty excited to get out into the woods and enjoy the peace and quiet.  It was not quiet though.  You know why?  I will tell you- the flies were so excruciatingly bad it was almost unbearable.  It is deer fly and horse fly season up here, and because of the very mild winter, it is one of the worst fly seasons ever.  I would rather take my chances with the bear who has been coming onto our porch at least once a week than deal with the flies.  I wish the ferocious beast Nemo would scare the flies away as well as he scares the bear away, but he is too busy sleeping.  In my  anger-induced delirium, I started thinking about Shoo-Fly Pie and what a great name it is (and of course, how delicious), and then I started thinking that maybe the flies would leave me alone if I was just a little more polite, so here is a great recipe for “Please Shoo-Fly Pie”.  We will see if it works when we go on our hike today- we are actually climbing the highest peak called Slide Mountain- wish me luck!

Please Shoo Fly Pie

Ingredients:

1/2 cup molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, dissolve the soda in the molasses and stir until it foams. Sir in the boiling water and pinch of salt. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, brown sugar and butter into crumbs.

Pour 1/3 of the molasses mixture into the unbaked crust. Sprinkle 1/3 of the crumbs over the molasses mixture and continue alternating layers, finishing with the crumbs on top.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the crumbs and crust are golden.

Banana Pudding and BBQ

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This question may have been asked a million times, but it hadn’t occurred to me until recently- why is banana pudding always served as dessert at BBQ restaurants?  Not that I am complaining at all- I love banana pudding, it is one of my favorites.  It is such a staple at my favorite BBQ haunts that I have always taken it for granted, but we had a curious experience up in the Catskills pertaining to BBQ that got me interested in this question.  We were down in the small town of Phoenicia, at the bottom of the mountain, and we saw a BBQ stand.  Intrigued and thinking this might be a quick and easy thing to grab for dinner, we went to the stand to buy some BBQ to take home with us.  When Corby asked to buy 3 lbs of BBQ, the proprietor of the stand was incredibly confused and asked, “Do you want a 3 lb sandwich?”  “No, no- we just want to buy 3 lbs of BBQ- you know, in bulk.”  This did not actually help.  “In bulk? I don’t know what you mean,” our friendly salesman said.  When Corby then said, “You know- in bulk- so we can take it home… for dinner… later… We are from South Carolina,”  we just got completely blank stares.  “Well, do you at least have any banana pudding?” I asked- more stares.  Clearly, we were speaking different languages when it came to BBQ.  We laughed about this the whole way home, and I am sure they laughed about the crazies from South Carolina who wanted a 3lb BBQ sandwich for a long time, too.  So, needless to say, we will be waiting until we return south to get some BBQ- especially in bulk.  But I did start wondering why banana pudding is always served at BBQ.  After some googling, I haven’t found an answer.  It seems that bananas were imported (as they are not naturally found in the United States) from Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, etc, so it makes sense that they would be more abundant in the South.  Vanilla Wafers weren’t around until 1901-1902, and while they make banana pudding that much better, that is no explanation.  My explanation would be that some genius was eating BBQ and then had banana pudding for dessert and thought, “Now those are the two best things I have ever eaten and should always be together.”  I applaud that person and agree wholeheartedly.  Here is the original Nilla Wafer Banana Pudding recipe from Nabisco (http://www.nabiscoworld.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipe_id=55431), and if you have any other insights on this issue, please share!!

Banana Pudding

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/3 cup flour
 dash salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
45 NILLA Wafers, divided
5 bananas, sliced

Directions

MIX 1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in top of double boiler. Blend in 3 egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water 10 to 12 min. or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.
RESERVE 12 wafers for garnish. Spread small amount of custard onto bottom of 1-1/2-qt. baking dish. Cover with layers of 1/3 each of the remaining wafers, bananas and remaining custard. Repeat layers 2 times.
BEAT egg whites on high speed of mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread over custard, sealing well to edge of dish.
BAKE 15 to 20 min. or until lightly browned. Cool slightly. Top with reserved wafers just before serving.

Maggie’s Krooked Cafe

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When I moved back to Charleston after two years in the Catskills, I was hanging out with a group of people one night, and a friend of a friend asked from where had I just moved back.  Assuming that most people in South Carolina are not familiar with the tiny towns in the Catskill mountains, I said that I had been about two hours north of Manhattan up in the mountains.  She is a photographer and said that she had shot a wedding up in the Catskills the past summer.  She then went onto say that while she was up there, she had eaten breakfast at this little place and had the best pancakes.  It was obvious, she had been at Maggie’s Krooked Cafe.  I was right.  It was a very small world coincidence- the wedding she shot had been an acquaintance who grew up summering in a neighboring park to Twilight called Onteora.  These two parks are only about 10 miles away from each other on either side of a town called Tannersville, and all of this is one town over from Hunter Ski Mountain.  I remember the first time I went to Maggie’s and thinking how quirky the whole place was.  There is a reason the place is called Krooked Cafe- there is not a right angle in the whole restaurant.  Then the food came out.  We had ordered corned beef hash with a fried egg on top for the table, two people got the Ploughman’s breakfast, one person an omelet, and I got the blueberry pancakes.   First of all, corned beef hash is not something that I would think I would enjoy, and fried eggs are not my favorite (I have a thing against yolk- I don’t like it).  This stuff was amazing.  It had a lot of curry spice to it, and it was unbelievably flavorful.  Then I got to my pancakes.  When I tell you that these pancakes were unlike any pancake I have every eaten- its true, and you will only believe me if you actually taste them for yourself.  It might be the pound of butter of the entire sack of sugar that goes into each one, but there is something in those pancakes that is very special.  Since that day, whenever we have friends up on the mountain with us, going to Maggie’s for breakfast is a requirement.  So, if you happen to find yourself in Tannersville, NY- Maggie’s Krooked Cafe should be on your list of must do’s.  You can check out her website and all the accolades she has received here www.krookedcafe.com.

 

Maple Bacon and a 4th of July Parade

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We had some friends up to visit us in the Catskills last weekend with their three boys.  It was so great to see them, and I think they enjoyed escaping the heat that was attacking the rest of the country.  Our friends had never spent much time in the Catskills, and I think we made converts out of them.  We spent time between swimming at the pool, hiking and eating of course.  We introduced them to the best ice cream in the entire world- Perry’s Piece of Cake.  It, unfortunately for me, is a regional upstate New York ice cream company, and they have not expanded to South Carolina yet.  Hopefully, after I start a letter campaign, they will.

Anyway, this ice cream literally tastes like yellow cake batter and chocolate icing- which if you are like me, the batter and icing is the best part of a cake.  If you can find some- try it- it is something special.  The funniest part of the weekend was Sunday morning.  Corby was making his awesome cracked pepper and cheddar biscuits (https://thesouthwillrise.com/cracked-pepper-and-cheddar-cheese-biscuits/), and I was making scrambled eggs and maple bacon.  Maple bacon is again something I can not find readily in South Carolina, and it is so good.  It smells so good.  Denny, our friend’s 7-year-old son, ran down the stairs excitedly, wondering where the pancakes were.  The maple bacon filled the house with the smell of maple syrup, and Denny could not figure out why, when the smell of syrup was coming from the kitchen, we were not having pancakes.  It was so funny.  Fortunately, he loves scrambled eggs just as much as pancakes, so he was not too disappointed.  It was a great weekend!

We followed up the weekend with a super fun 4th of July.  The Twilight camp put on a great parade- the campers had spent the first part of the week making costumes.  We had eagles, bunnies, bears, and skunks- the costumes were awesome.  Walker was an eagle, and he made his mask with a fish coming out of his eagle’s mouth.  Then there was a park-wide BBQ down at the pool with a dive and jump competition (one picture is AJ winning the belly flop competition, and the other is Walker in the big jump competition), and the day was finished off with a carnival up at the playground with games and face painting.  The counselors and CITs outdid themselves, and the kids had so much fun- here are some pictures!  I hope everyone had a great and safe 4th- send in your favorite grilling recipe from the holiday if you have a chance!  We are looking for new ideas while we are up in the mountains- thanks!!