Monday, October 18, 2010

lovely weekend

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” - john muir

lately we have really been making the most of our weekends.  our original plans to drive to keene for the annual pumpkin festival went bust,  but sunday we made a full day of being outside. hubby looked up a new trail for us to explore and found one right in our area.
ferry beach state park.  the leaves are peaking right now and the heavy storms on friday made the forest floor a gorgeous carpet of colorful leaves.  the kids ran off ahead of us,  our rule was if they could no longer see us they needed to stop and wait. this actually worked really well.
we came home and played in the yard and when we did turn indoors we planned a cozy meal to warm up over.   hubby and i both enjoy cooking and eating,   so lately we have been choosing a new recipe to attempt each weekend.  we make a trip for the ingredients together with the kids,  then come home and make it a joint effort in prepping and cooking.  it has been a great new activity we all seem to be enjoying and bonding over.   we love our america's test kitchen  family cookbook. this weekend we made their "all american beef chili"  and "southern skillet cornbread" recipes. while the chili simmered away in the dutch oven, the kids and i took a walk to the grocery store, seems we were almost out of dog food. we took the wagon to cart home the big bag of food.  when we got back and neared the house i could smell this great smell,  it then occurred to me that was MY house smelling so good!  yay! yum!   it was comfort in a bowl.   a great ending to a really nice fall weekend.  and today lunch will be leftovers.  another great perk of this recipe is it makes a heaping batch.   happy monday everyone.

8 comments:

Our Rural Life (aka Cornbread Fed) said...

That looks sooooooo good!!!
Is that sour cream and cheese I spot? My favorite!

beth said...

we have been soaking up every weekend lately, too....

how can anyone not love fall ?
it's beauty is overwhelming !!

Jen at Cabin Fever said...

I love the shot of the ground with your feet. The roots are awesome. Great point of view!

Cabin Fever in Vermont

jodi said...

sounds like a perfect autumn weekend. i'm itching to make chili and some pumpkin baked goods.

Marty said...

You describe your life in such beautiful detail! Of all of it what stood out the most was you and the kids walking to the grocery store together. Where I live in nw Florida there aren't any neighborhood grocery stores and I've always been enviable of people who are able to enjoy that experience. A simple thing to long for isn't it?

Kristina said...

The pictures of the trail are so pretty, I love the colours and textures!
Viele Grusse, Kristina

Leslie said...

I'm waiting for fall here but it hasn't arrived yet...we're expecting several days of rain starting tomorrow which may foil my plans to visit a pumpkin patch! That chili looks so good...I will have to check out that cookbook!

Anonymous said...

My daughter is going on a field trip to Ferry Beach next year. How cool is it that you mentioned it. It sounds like a fabulous place.