Tag Archive for: Catskill Mountains

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 work out.  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.

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.  They 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 CIT’s out did 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!!

Recipes from the Mountains

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We arrived in the Catskill Mountains on Saturday to the most beautiful blue skies and 75 degree temperature.  The weekend was spectacular, and I woke up this morning to rain and 55 degrees, and that does not upset me at all.  I got a fire going and turned on Wimbledon, and I think this might be the greatest vacation ever.  We are up here for four weeks which is pretty awesome for so many reasons.  We get to be with friends that we only see in the summer, we get to avoid Charleston heat in July, and we get a change of scenery from the beach to the mountains.  We are in Twilight Park which is a tiny little summer community in Haines Falls, NY.  This place is a special little piece of heaven that I love so much.  Here is the view that we look at every day over the Hudson River Valley.  My day consists generally of getting Walker ready and off to camp for the day and then deciding which hike I am going to do, followed by swimming at the pool, maybe a nap, lots of reading, and fixing dinner which is usually cooked on the grill.  It is kind of like I am at summer camp too.  I love making burgers up here, and I change up my burger concoction pretty frequently, but here is one of my favorites.

Pepper Jack Burgers:

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Combine everthing in a mixing bowl and mix everything together (I use my hands) and then form patties.  Pretty straigh foreward, but I think adding the pepper jack cheese into the meat mixture adds great flavor and I love have cheese in the burger as well as on top.  Grill to your liking and enjoy!