O, Tannenbaum

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we drove down to a cut-your-own Christmas Tree Farm and got ourselves a handsome Fraser fir.

In your face, Home Depot.

I am totally sold on the idea that a farm is where little boys are meant to play. Dirt, puddles, animals, tractors...I think my son hyperventilated with joy. The little M'Geezer stretched out his little paws to feed the farm animals and--my favorite--ruffled a few chicken feathers by chasing the two-legged brood in the barn. And the puddles? Although Huckster M'Gee was wearing puddle-jumping appropriate boots, he was crossly warned not to go tromping around the water and wade with the ducks. His mother didn't happen to be carrying a change of clothes for such activities. "And, the 'Bad Parent Award' goes to..."

We rode out to the Christmas trees on a little trolley pulled by an enormous tractor. Watching heavy duty machinery in action is like dazzling glitter to the eyes of my two-almost-three-year-old. He wouldn't take his baby blues off those muddy tractor wheels.

We left the farm with hot chocolate in our cups, a close encounter with Santa, muddy shoes, and a freshly cut Christmas tree.

And of course, I saved the best for last. There's nothing like the cuddly face of an alpaca that puts a little warm spot in my heart.

Santa, I want one.

King Arthur Flour Taught Me

Dear Mom,

I've made some new friends out here. Can you believe they invited me to take a pie-making class? I don't even need to bring along my kids in order for them to like me. I'm in good hands out here.

When you come visit New England, we're going to King Arthur Flour.
You. Me. Baking Class.
The men in our lives will be astounded at the mad skills we'll learn.

Dear King Arthur Flour,

I think I've finally got it. I can craft a perfect pie crust and I can't believe it's made WITH butter. After all these years, I'm no longer afraid to make pie. Blind-baking with beans? Genius. I'm never going to lay a fork on my pie crust ever again. I'll be singing your praises until the day I die.

Your new friend,
Britt

p.s. I was at first a little skeptical of the Lemon Chess pie, but since Thanksgiving, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. And the Fall Fruits Crostata? Best when served warm with vanilla bean ice cream. Whoa.

p.p.s. I'll be back. Conquering the perfect loaf of bread is next on my list.

[Have you seen the new Google Chrome commercial featuring King Arthur Flour? They are headquartered just down the road from my home. They freakin' rock. And have you flipped through a KAF catalogue? You can request one for free and I guarantee that you'll be drooling over it. ]

My Pumpkin Cheesecake is Better Than Yours

Three things   you should know right now...
One.  Everybody is sick and tired of canned pumpkin by now, so why do I bother gloating about cheesecake? And who really cares about Thanksgiving anymore? That was so last month.

Two.  I didn't plan on a month-long blogging absence, but I gained about 5 new readers because of it.  I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. But who cares? Score! I love new friends.
Three.  I didn't disappear because I ran out of things to blog about. Or because my life is so bland and uneventful. That would be a load of bull honky.

Life out here in the twin states has been filled with long days. I have a whole slew of excuses up my sleeve, but I won't even bother trying to elaborate because there's only two that are truly valid. The month of November deserves to be recognized, so I'll do my best to recapitulate. Here come the bullet points...

• Finally, at 15 months, Indy has teeth. Her first tooth appeared towards the end of October, and since then, more of those suckers have popped right in. She can now perform the monster face in its true character form. Fun fact: She likes to nibble and swallow the rinds of oranges. Yummo.

•  The Finner M'Gee puts all the women and Fabio to shame with his long luscious mane. Do you think I've gone a little too far when I can turn him into a mystical unicorn? How about an upgraded Astro Boy hair swoosh? I literally can't hold the scissors up to his head. I think a little piece of me might die if someone decides to buzz it all off. By the way, if that does happen, I will kill. 

• My cheesecake really is better that yours. I haven't found a pumpkin cheesecake recipe that is better-looking than mine. A layer of pumpkin...a layer of cheesecake...blobs of pumpkin swirled at the top...so perfect and so naughty. I have no qualms admitting that my heart gets a little puffed up when I serve this baby up. This Thanksgiving tradition started in 2001, and although I want to take credit for its mind-blowing deliciousness, this cheesecake is from a guy I used to know who attended culinary school. Want the recipe? Leave me some comment love. Otherwise, it's lock and key. 

• We signed up for a live turkey back in October. Our turkey was gobbling around on a Vermont farm until just a few days before Thanksgiving. It is said that free range turkeys have leaner meat, so maybe the 2nd and 3rd helpings of cheesecake were okay? Even better was that I didn't have to "really" cook my first turkey. Boy took charge and prepared the bird according to his grandmother's brown paper bag tradition. Not bad for a man who doesn't know how to bake a cake.

• Boy's parents were the perfect Thanksgiving company. In the name of Thanksgiving leftovers, card games, and Rummikub--we partied hard all weekend long. Huckleberry Finn cried when they boarded the Dartmouth Coach headed to the airport.  

• I made two lovely pies from scratch. Oh, yes, did I make pie. I've never made perfect pie in my life, and 2011 was the year. They smelled and looked deee-vine. ("No photos?" you ask? Hang tight.) 

December is here, Christmas is everywhere, and I'm still lagging behind in everything I can possibly thing of. Methinks I should wait until next month to write down all the highlights? Maybe I'll gain five more readers. 

Just kidding. More on the way.

VT Places: Sugarbush Farm

If you want to
visit a family-working farm
and sample old-fashioned cheese
and taste test all the maple syrup grades
and learn about how maple sap turns into syrup
and touch the velvet nose of a humongous draft horse
and to behold an idyllic view of Vermont's farming pastures and thickly-leaved mountains...

then, I guess Sugarbush Farm is the place to be.

[Source]

Providence

In my early teens, I visited Rhode Island for the first time. My family and I saw Newport's magnificent sailboats, Victorian mansions, and topiary gardens aplenty. We even toured through Hammersmith Farm--the summer White House of JFK. I remember first seeing the Atlantic Ocean and being disappointed. It was gloomy and gray, and as a 14-year-old still obsessed with bottle-nosed dolphins, I didn't see a single one jumping in its wide expanse. I was absolutely positive that dolphins frequented the Atlantic more than the Pacific. Oh, well. A career in marine biology wouldn't have worked for me anyway.

It wasn't until last Friday that I saw Rhode Island again. Providence didn't disappoint.

• We got to see a brother-in-law, who was in town for a conference presentation.
• We ate at the Cheesecake Factory...the fish tacos and the red velvet cheesecake were ALL MINE.
• We shopped at real stores again. As usual, the kids were the beneficiaries. The pretty teal coat on sale at H&M could have been mine if only they had my size in stock. 
• We walked the Providence Heritage Trail and saw the Oldest Baptist Church in America. 
• We passed by protesters of Occupy Providence living in their tents.
• We walked the outskirts of Brown University. (We were running out of time.) 
• We saw a cannon and U.S. flags from the Civil War inside the beautiful Providence Capitol building.

We topped off the trip with a visit to Trader Joe's on the road back home. My visit to TJ's could have been delightful if only their Christmas merchandise was available.  What? No Peppermint Joe Joe's yet? Shut up. Our year in Indianapolis truly spoiled me. It's gonna be a cold, long, hard winter.

We came home in time to get our first snow of the season. You better believe that our winter has officially begun.

Panic.

NH Places: White Mountain National Forest, Mount Washington State Park, and Franconia Notch

I grew up in a state that boasts five national parks. These places of red rock glory are our favorite playgrounds. If Boy could build our family a house on the top of Dead Horse Point, he would.

Here in the Northeast, there is only one National Park, in Maine, and it's a 6-hour drive according to Google. After our trip to the White Mountains, I don't see why New Hampshire doesn't have a National Park. As a place of such beauty with so many things to do and see, why not?

On our way up the mountain, the trees gradually became white. I love first snow. Our drive through the Kancamagus Pass felt like a Christmas tree wonderland. It would've been lovely if Bing Crosby was with us in the car.

We stopped at a place marked 'Scenic View'. With all the fog wrapped around the horizon, I felt like we were missing out. Our kids didn't seem to mind. Nor did they complain of cold little hands and noses.

We missed driving the Mount Washington Auto Road by a hair--it was a huge downer. Completed by 1861, the auto road to the summit is the oldest man-made tourist attraction in the U.S.  Can you believe that people traveled up the mountain with their horse and buggies? The road will reopen in May because traveling this road is too risky during the winter--did you know that Mount Washington is infamous for being the "Home of the World's Worst Weather"? You betcha. The WORLD. I didn't think that New Hampshire had it in her. We almost caved in to buy tickets for the Cog (a steam engine that climbs up to the summit), but the stiff ticket rates were too much for this trip. Next time.

Our last stop on our two-day trip was getting to see New Hampshire's state icon: The Old Man of the Mountain.

[Before the collapse. Source]

Old Man's face collapsed in 2003, so we only saw a little nubbin of his forehead. One unhappy little boy was greatly disappointed.

Although it was a colder-than-usual October afternoon, we loved the peaceful Profile Lake scene and its beautiful craggy mountainsides.

[Source]

Okay, so I lied. Franconia Notch wasn't our last stop. A friend of mine suggested making a visit to Littleton so we could grab some sweets. Chutters is the world-record holder for the longest candy counter in the world. Yeah, I said it again...the WORLD. There was a 112 foot-long stretch of large glass jars ready for the taking. Out of the four of us, I'm unsure who was most excited. I don't think any of us have seen candy like this.

They had gumballs in every color. Circus Peanuts (eww). Bubble Tape. Sour candies to your heart's content. Their fudge counter would put BYU Bookstore to shame. They even had Pop Rocks. We drove home on a sugar high.

I already can't wait for summer so we can do this trip all over again.