Beautiful Openings

You may have noticed I’m drawn to beautiful doors and windows. Especially when they look like this. . . .

twenty-three

red door w/ gingerbread

dark wood

Coleus

Great weekend, everyone!

{carole}

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Lemon-Blueberry Goodness

Now that the weather’s turning cooler, I’ve started baking again. Found this recipe for Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Loaf the other day and wow, is it good!

Lemon-blueberry Loaf

Kind of a sticky, gooey mess, but worth it. The only change I made was to use skim milk yogurt. Here’s the recipe courtesy of sweetpeaskitchen.com:

Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Loaf

For the Loaf:

1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed

For the Lemon Syrup:

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

For the Lemon Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of one 9 x 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out excess.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing loaf to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.

While the loaf is cooling, make the lemon syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir together the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, continue to cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat; set aside.

Use a toothpick to poke holes in the tops and sides of the warm loaf. Brush the top and sides of the loaf with the lemon syrup. Let the syrup soak into the cake and brush again. Let the cake cool completely.

To make the lemon glaze, in a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of the lemon juice. The mixture should be thick but pourable. Add up to another tablespoon of lemon juice if the mixture is too stiff. Pour the lemon glaze over the top of each loaf and let it drip down the sides. Let the lemon glaze harden, about 15 minutes, before serving.

Yields: 1-9×5 loaf

Note:

This recipe will also yield about 12 standard muffins or 36 miniature muffins, baking time adjusted.
It could be doubled and baked in a well-greased and floured bundt pan, baking time adjusted.
This recipe could also be baked in an 8-inch square or 9-inch round, to create a thin cake (approx. 1 1/2 inches tall), baking time adjusted.

Printed From: http://www.sweetpeaskitchen.com

Hope your week’s going well so far. . . .

{carole}

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Some Changes

A couple of you discovered that I changed my avatar and header over the weekend. I’ve been wanting to change them for a while, but wasn’t sure what I wanted. When I uploaded this shot of pearls on Flickr recently, someone suggested using it as an avatar and I liked the way it turned out. Hope you do too.

Here’s the photo in entirety:

blog header

I’ve also added a search box at the bottom of the page. If you want to see all the posts on Cape May, for example, just enter that in the box and the appropriate posts should come up.

Have a brilliant Monday, everyone. . . .

{carole}

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In Remembrance

On this Veterans Day of 2011

In Remembrance

Great weekend, everyone. . . .

{carole}

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The Hamptons and Montauk

We actually went to New York before Saint Michaels, but I wanted to get those Halloween shots in by October 31. My mother-in-law is in New York, and friends had invited us to a photo expo at the Javits Center.

The photo expo was fantastic and best of all, it was free. Nikon and Canon had huge displays, naturally, and I got to see vendors I’d only read about on line. They were giving out canvas tote bags and samples I’ll be using in the future. And on the way there, our friends showed us the B&H photography store. I was in photo heaven! If you ever get a chance, go there. Everything you could ever want or need photography-wise.

We drove out to the Hamptons the next day. Couldn’t see many houses because there are tall hedges around most of them, but I did manage to snap this:

houses on water

The water actually looked like that. Strange, beautiful color. It was really cold and windy that day. Shades of things to come.

Found a great farm stand complete with vintage pickup truck,

pink pickup

ornamental kale,

ornamental kale

pumpkins

pumpkins

and some of the most colorful produce. . . .

tomatoes

turnips

Turnips in the grocery store never look this good.

yellow cauliflower

Maybe yellow cauliflower makes you feel like you’re having cheese sauce too?
These colors made me think of a quote by Rainer Maria Rilke:

”Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.”

We made it all the way out to Montauk, the easternmost tip of New York. Montauk was purchased from the Montaukett Indians in the 1600s.
Montauk Point Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in the state, was authorized by the Second Congress under President George Washington in 1792. It was completed in 1796.

Montauk Point Lighthouse

You can see Connecticut from there:

view from Montauk Point

The next morning, we got up and heard that snow was predicted for that afternoon. Snow in October? Seriously? We left New York around 10:15 and it started snowing before we got to New Jersey. We went from autumn to this:

zero visibility

and this:

snow

(Taken from a moving car with a cell phone.)

Fortunately, the snow turned to rain by the time we got to Maryland, but it was kind of scary on the New Jersey turnpike. Places like Connecticut and Pennsylvania really got hammered. Some parts of Conn. still don’t have power!

I don’t know about you, but I’m just not ready for the white stuff.

Hope your week’s going well so far. . . .

{carole}

Posted in photography, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Yellow

Oh, we are having a beautiful autumn in the D.C. area. When I looked up and saw how the sun was hitting this yellow maple, I wished it could stay like this all year.

"How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun." --Vincent Van Gogh

“How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun.”
~Vincent Van Gogh

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St. Michaels, Part II

Hello again. Saint Michaels, Maryland is located on a thin strip of land along the Miles River and there are all kinds of boats. . . .

sailboat

sailboat

There’s even a replica of Captain John Smith’s small craft, or “shallop” used for the first detailed European exploration of the Chesapeake Bay in 1608.

Capt. John Smith boat replica

You’ll also find an interesting lighthouse that’s part of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. The Hooper Strait Lighthouse was condemned by the U.S. government and nearly demolished. The museum purchased it from the demolition contractor for $1,000(!) and had it towed to its new home in St. Michaels in 1966.

Hooper Strait lighthouse

The interior is pretty sparse, but I got a closeup of a light inside:

lighthouse light

Since we were on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, we had to have crabcakes. St. Michaels Crab and Steak House has some very good ones, and this beautiful stained glass:

stained glass crab

While reviewing all my photos, I was struck by how photogenic St. Michaels is. Whether it be brightly-colored doors,

red church door

green door

red door + gingerbread

gingerbread,

gingerbread

lovely porches,

wicker chair

beautiful storefronts decorated for the season

pumpkin storefront

or sunlit yellows with the stars and bars,

sun flare

This is one lovely little town.

Thanks so much for joining me.

{carole}

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Saint Michaels, Part I

Situated on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the town of Saint Michaels was a trading post for tobacco farmers and trappers in the mid-1600s.
I think the best way to describe St. Michaels is to call it historical and tasteful, with a touch of whimsy.

Candy Co.

Justine's

colors + flag

These aren’t exactly colonial colors, but I love them. Here’s the rest of the store:

color block

South by Southwest

The gingerbread reminds me of Cape May, New Jersey.

Grace St.

Even the street signs are beautiful.

yellow door

I really like the soft yellow and green on this porch. Unfortunately, the house was being painted white as we passed by. I had to resist an urge to talk the guy out of it.

yellow & green

Gotta’ love this glass doorknob.

glass knob

blue

After seeing the Halloween decorations, I’m wondering what Christmas is like in St. Michaels.

It was too late in the year to see what the gardens look like, but these hydrangeas were still looking good.

hydrangeas

Random facts from Wikipedia:

Frederick Douglass lived part of his life as a slave at the Mount Misery farm (working for the poor farmer and notorious “slave-breaker” Edward Covey) and later returned as a county marshal during Reconstruction.
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld purchased the Mount Misery property.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney owns a home in Saint Michaels.

Part II on Friday.

{carole}

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Halloween already. . . can you believe it?

I want to thank you for the wonderful comments you left while I was away. So nice to read on my little iPhone! Sorry I couldn’t respond–it was a very hectic five days and we didn’t have WiFi.

Yesterday we were in Saint Michaels, Maryland, and the town was decorated for Halloween. I’ll leave you with a few images since today is the day. I have more photos, so will share those in another post (or two). Enjoy. . . .

wish called wanda

jack-o-lantern

pumpkin planter

ruby slippers

witch on telephone pole

Maryland crab

pumpkinheads

mummy

cat on adirondack

spider

Have a safe Halloween, everyone. 🙂

{carole}

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Yelloworange

Yelloworange maple

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Great weekend, everyone! I’ll be back on Monday.

{carole}

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