The Bakery

Found a new place to take you if you come visit... The Bakery
Saturday morning I decided it was time to go get some paint for the kitchen (that will be another post later) and also to check out this place I kept reading about - The Bakery. That's what they call it for real. Creative - ha. Food - yum!
They make their own bagels - or at least make you think so - not sure which. Many flavors come in whole grain or white. I got a whole grain onion - they were out of "everything" at that point. Very good and I couldn't tell it was good for you either. With a dallop of cream cheese it was pretty close to perfect. To go with it I got a pommagrante white tea iced. Again very good. Not sweet, not over done either. I scored a table in the little courtyard and enjoyed the warm sunny weather on Saturday. For the take home portion - I couldn't resist the case of treats - I got a cheese stuffed pretzel with pesto, a chocolate chip cookie and a peanut butter brownie. I shared them all with Mark and they got two thumbs up. The deli case looked amazing - except for the unicorn filet. Anyone want to guess what that was? Even knowing what it really is there is no way I could try it - unicorn? Seriously folks - unicorn? Even had a rainbow on the sign. I think they were trying to be funny.
Seeing how it was so good I had to take Mark back today for breakfast - bagels again. Really that is how good they are - best I've had here outside of NYC that is and these are pretty much the same thing. Next time I'm going to check out the little stores in the area. It's pretty touristy, but The Bakery is sort of hidden and unless you've heard of it you might just walk by - pretty unassuming. Yummmmmy!

bathroom pretties and colors

ok I know you might not be excited about the knobs in my bathroom, but I am because I installed them and had fun picking them out! And no one has been to visit in ages - if ever ;~)This is the style in the master bath.

This is the inspiration for the colors - gotta love TJ Maxx!

This is the style in Mark's bathroom - also the guest bathroom should you ever come visit. It's very clean - never fear! His fixutres are satin nickel and the master bath are shiny nickel - if that is a finish? It's shiny.

Another master bath shot.

and finally the paint chips with the other coordinating towel I found at TJ Maxx. I think I like the 2nd and 4th chips the best. The blue makes it too blue and is better off as an accent and with all the natural light the dark brown is too brown?
So there you have it -my exciting weekend! I found the towels back in the fall and mom did give me some that match. The beads are part of this magnetic board that I got at an art show.

adding pretties

Here are a few pictures of my recent home project - adding pretties to the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Got a great deal from a great friend! Thanks Lisa!!!!!

Guest bath downstairs

Kitchen

trying to show detail on the knob - camera not cooperating

the pulls in the kitchen

I also installed them in the upstairs bathrooms, but Mark is sleeping and it's best not to interupt that Sunday nap!

We are waiting on spring - still no leaves here!

This is the backyard - lots of work to be done!

bowling, bad band, pancakes + 2 fire calls

= one busy weekend for Mark! We've been going non-stop all weekend or I guess I should say Mark has. Saturday night we went bowling with the crew from Chester - I will just say that playing Wii bowling has not improved my score at all! I got a 71! In my defense I got stuck with a 12 pound ball and slippery shoes - the 10 pounder made an appearance in the 2nd game and that didn't help much at that point. Busy night at the bowling alley! After bowling they had arranged for a dinner for us in the bar next door. We walked in to a band playing really awful music - and they had a following of groupies. It was so bad we couldn't hear each other and I had cotton ears in the end. We wrapped up the night in the kiddie party room at the bowling alley - you know the place with sticky fingered chairs and lots of fruit flies! It was a better alternative and hey fruit flies like beer so we made them real happy. All in all it was fun and definitely a different night out.
Sunday morning consisted of Mark rolling out at 5:45 am for his shift at the Firehouse pancake breakfast. This was after getting to bed after midnight. I barely noticed him leaving - I like my sleep. I showed up for my pancakes and sausage at around 10am - best pancakes around here so far. Mark got home at noon and crashed for a nap. Right before I went to roll him out his fire bell went off - brush fire on top of the mountain. He was then gone until 4:00 and came home looking like he fought with a bush and lost. Scratches and bloodies. Yuck! Right after dinner it went off again - no idea what this one was, but it was right down the road - MVA maybe?
I'll save my St. Patty's dinner for Tuesday - it was a hit and I have a feeling soda bread will be making our menu more often.

poison ivy - already?

Yep - it's not even really warm out yet and Mark has his first case of the itchy-scratchies. He got it last year too. How does he get? By trying to dig up a garden for his wife in the field next to our lot - we own a sliver of it and we thought it would be a good place to grow veggies this summer. Mind you I didn't tell him to go do that on Sunday - he was trying to surprise me. The real surprise was on him - not only do the vines grow on the trees they are in the field. I know how to kill the ones on the tree's and many are dead now, but in the field? It's just roots right now. ugh.
Now we could bring in railroad ties and a bunch of dirt to make a garden, but I've decided it's just as easy to support the local farming community and buy at the farmers market. Brilliant I know! Great selection and reasonable prices. Nothing to rot or draw in animals.
So back to the rash - it's all over and his hands are swelled up pretty bad today. He did get a steriod shot on Monday and is taking steriods through the weekend. The bowling party might be impacted tomorrow night and now he might not be able to help out at the fire department's pancake breakfast on Sunday - I will still go get my pancakes though!

Signs of Spring

The first flowers of spring. We found them on our walk today. We had snow last week and flowers this week? Cool.

Mark found a road that loops down to the Hudson River. It's good it's a loop because it's a long way back up the way we came. Not so bad if you just walk the loop one way.
It was still warm up here.

More waterfront - and much cooler!

Can you see the white stuff on the water behind the barge? That's ice.

It was very cold down on the river.

A small stream flows along our border if I could get up closer I would get the waterfall too.

It comes off an old fashioned holding pond on the neighbors property.

cheesecake bomb

the good - I got another piece in exchange for my piece that tasted like toothpaste. Do no get peppermint cheesecake ever! gross, gross, gross! I love mint chip ice cream and even peppermint ice cream. Nothing like that! The Chinese Chicken Salad was very good and the thing I love about the Cheesecake Factory is their lunch portions. Still way too much, but cheaper.
I did score at shopping and got a cute dress - pictures later!

the fire pager works!

Of course it was cranked up loud and luckily it was at 7:30 this morning and I was about to roll out anyway. The fire... burning toast at the Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa. LOL! Puts Mark at 4 of 14 calls this year. Click the link if you need to do some dreaming. They've been mentioned as a wonderful get-away in the New York Times and we have a fundraiser this summer there.
Off to shop!

almost done with probation!

as a volunteer firefighter that is - and it is Mark we are talking about here - not me who enjoys quiet Tuesday nights while he is at drill. He joined the local volunteer group back in November and his six months are almost up. woohoo! This week he got his uniform and he mentioned the word "dry cleaners" and not "will you iron this" - music to my ears. I am so not a fan of ironing! He needs the uniform for parades and official events - not going to a fire. For that he wears whatever he has when the buzzer goes off. I'd love to see what most of these guys run out of the house in. He also got another pager and we have to see if it works so until they both go off we will have tandem noises at night. No idea when - that would take away the fun of it. If you must know we've only had one 3am buzzer and that was for a public service call way back in the beginning. I'd have to say this is a sleepy village with no night life and the lack of calls at midnight proves that.
There are several big "fire" events this month and I will get to meet more people. First off we have the Fireman's Ball - that is what I am calling because I get to dress up and wear pantyhose (oh joy) and heel's (double joy). Really I do like to dress up and go out, but it's not a normal event so I will need to dig through my closet to figure out:
a. what fits
b. what is in season
c. is it in style
d. all of the above....
you got it D. is the answer! LOL! I'm not used to a spring party - Christmas yes, but I can't wear velvet for this thing!
It should be fun because it's at some fancy hotel in Poughkeepsie. I'm very curious to see how they do it up. If I'm good I'll take my camera.
Next weekend they are doing a pancake breakfast. Pancakes are sorely missed by me - they don't know how to make them big and fluffy here and no I have not mastered that fine technique either. I've tried and failed. Must have something to do with the water in NY. NY pizza has flat crust so there must be something not in the water here.

a little bit of basketball

Last night we went to West Point to see some men's basketball. Let's just say the gym wasn't much bigger than the one at Aquinas, BUT they have a really cool indoor hockey arena and a downhill ski slope! It's playoff time and they managed to beat out LeHigh, but not without getting everyone going. Tickets are general admission unless you want to sit in the front row on the court. Not sure how you snag those, but it appeared you had to be a older white male around 55. Probably boosters. So we got seats in the 3rd row right behind the Army bench - how cool is that! And they played pretty good ball. Several 3-pointers and some pretty good scrambles on the floor. And they WON! 53-50! The crowd went wild - really it was wild for the last 5 minutes on the clock. Definitely a different Wednesday night for us. They've never made the NCAA tournament and they might just do it this year. Maybe? probably not.

making use of cilantro

Cilantro was on sale when we went shopping this week so I had to buy some salmon and make a yummy marinade with it for dinner. Normally it comes in these tiny plastic boxes and it was triple that size and super fresh for even less than the usual $2.99. The marinade was one mom made when they visited. Here goes...
Chop about 1/4 cup cilantro, mix in 1/2 tsp of ground cumin and 2 tsp of chili powder and 1 tablespoon olive oil - very good! Put salmon in a dish and rub it on and let set in the fridge for 2 hours covered with plastic wrap. Grill on high until you think it's done. I like my well done. Since I was out of limes - you know they just grow on trees in NY in the blizzard - so I used a lemon and let another 1/4 of cilantro soak in it. I poured that on after it was done grilling. The recipe calls for a 1/4 of butter to go with it, but I like the marinade so well that I skipped it. Use a lime if you can - the lemon works, but the lime tastes better. While I loved it the cats did not like my leftovers. Too much chili for Mani? Wow! LOL!
Being that I do like cilantro and it comes in huge bunches I had to make use of the rest of it - can't be tossing it out! So I made chicken salad from the huge batch of chicken breasts I cut up mostly for chicken noodle soup. It came out very good so I will share. These are all things I like - you might not.
Katie's Chicken Salad:
2 - chicken breasts cut up after being boiled
1/3 to 1/2 cup low fat mayo
a blob of ranch dressing (probably about 2 tablespoons)
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp. of celery seed
1/2 cup of chopped celery
1/4 cup of pecans (or any type of nut)
sprinkles of salt and pepper to taste
Put in a covered bowl - like tupperware - and shake well.

And I still have lots of cilantro leftover so I feel a Mexican night coming on - got any good recipes that use it?