alisahuntsman

this one’s just for me

Published on October 11, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsman1 Comment

if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you have heard me mention my flood damaged home. we were finally able to secure the financing to make the needed repairs and have begun to do just that. today, i had the pleasure of spending my day off at home while a crew worked on reinforcing the block walls of the basement. after turning my basement into a maze of plastic wrapped pathways, they began working. as i write this, i am still listening to a symphony of hammering, grinding and garbled spanish…

since i knew that the crew would be here all day, i did all of my laundry and chores yesterday so i could have some time to play in the kitchen today and play i did. this is not a recipe from the book but i did use one and rework it to come up with something new. who knows, maybe i will put it in the next book-stay tuned!

i love fresh apples; crunchy, sweet and juicy, i take one with me to the gym and munch on it as i drive home. every now and then, i like to make a cake with them. today, i grabbed two from the fridge, in front a golden delicious apple-green is the way i like them, and in the rear is a cripps pink or a pink lady-another great apple to snack on.

i decided to make an upside down cake with apples in the caramel and pumpkin puree in the cake:

butter, brown sugar, honey and cinnamon were boiled a bit

the caramel syrup was poured into the bottom of a tube pan

the pink lady was peeled and sliced and then carefully layered into the caramel, i ate the golden delicious-i couldn’t help myself…

pumpkin puree, brown sugar, oil, vanilla and salt were whisked until smooth. some eggs were then whisked in too. the dry ingredients were sifted over the bowl.

man, i need a bigger work space. controlled chaos-i know where everything is…

all folded together with a little buttermilk and it is ready to go into the pan.

carefully pour it over the apples or they will move around and ruin the pattern.

baked and now it sits to let the caramel settle. then it is turned out.

pretty cake with caramel and apple slices over the top, mmmmmm……

shoo fly, don’t bother me…

Published on September 29, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

its that time of year again. the temperatures are beginning to drop and cane juice is being boiled down to make sorghum. that makes it time for shoo fly pie! yes, i know that it is a yankee thing-actually a pennsylvania dutch tradition, but it is a great way to showcase sorghum and it is on the menu today!

this is an interesting recipe. you whisk together sorghum and corn syrup with some spices, eggs and baking soda. it starts to get a little foamy and then you whisk in hot water and pour it into a partially baked pie shell. sprinkle struesal crumb topping over it and bake it. that is shoo fly pie-simple, easy, so tasty and sadly, not in the book…that means you need to stop by and get yourself a slice.

25 dates for 25 years

Published on September 25, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

asa & yehosafat, 2000 by boaz vaadia

hard to believe but it is true none the less, the husband and i have been married for 25 years. i simply cannot believe that i am old enough to have been married for that many years. at least i don’t feel that old, one look in the mirror and i can see the proof. we had planned on taking a long weekend to lounge on the beach but the flood and all of the repairs to the house put an end to that plan. we have moved on to plan b; over the next year (our anniversary was 9/14 to 9/13 of 2011) we plan to do 25 things that we normally wouldn’t do as a means of celebrating. a celebratory bucket list of sorts and today we went on our first date.

dale chihuly is an amazing glass artist and there are two exhibits running simultaneously in nashville right now. there is an outdoor exhibit at cheekwood that has the option of visiting it after dark because it is all illuminated and the frist museum also has an exhibit of his work. to start the celebration, we went to the frist museum today. did you know that today was museum day? the smithsonium has a program that provides free tickets to selected museums all around the country and the frist was on the list. we would never have known about it if it wasn’t for ms. cheap’s column in the tennessean.

we walked through the exhibit and admired all of the glass and paintings too. there was a video of mr. chihuly teaching a master class and it showed how some of the pieces were created and it was amazing to watch. since we were in a museum, i couldn’t take pictures so be sure to click on the links to get an idea of what we saw. we rounded out the afternoon with a trip down 12 south for a cup of coffee at portland brew. be sure to visit here and see what we do to celebrate this long incarceration i mean marriage…

just out for a hike with the dog, mill creek greenway

Published on September 8, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

we are trying to stick with our promise to walk more and explore the greenways and trails around us. however, this is soccer season and diva’s last season-she’s a senior. as a result, we have a little less free time to walk. we decided to go to the mill creek greenway since it is so close by for us. just a quick trip across harding place, less than ten minutes and just over 3 miles from home.

this greenway is a work in progress. this section is only a mile long and there is another section off blue hole road that is finished but a large section in between the two that is still on the drawing board. maybe if we are lucky, they will finish it sometime soon.

it starts off promising. the view from the trail is pretty even if the bridge for harding place runs right over it.

when you start the trail you walk towards the creek and if you follow the path that leads under the bridge, it dead ends very quickly onto old ezell road but it is worth a few minutes to admire the view of the creek and the wild flowers. it also adds a little distance to what amounts to a short walk.

tucked in between the evil tree of heaven plants are the tallest sunflowers (helianthus) i have ever seen and a lot of pokeweed loaded with blackberries.

passion flower, the state flower of tennessee with a large carpenter bee

unknown flower, tiny and pretty

jasmine, not sure if it is native or an escapee

darry and the bear on the main trail. it was hot and sunny with no shade and the view wasn’t what we hoped for. once we got out on the trail, the creek was no longer visible but the jail was. yes, jail. the trail borders on the prisoner re-entry facility and the county jail as well as soccer fields. not a pretty view at all.

our last view of the creek for most of the walk

along the trail at one point, you can cut through the trees and walk along the creek. it was dark and buggy and you really can’t get very far.

it was a short walk but it was interesting. the amount of trash strewn about was disappointing

well above our heads was evidence of may’s flooding. you may recall that mill creek flooded onto I24. it also closed this area since the water covered many roads

interesting roots on this tree.

canada geese on the creek

the walk back to the car

we will come back but only after they finish the middle section. that way, it will be a nice long walk and hopefully, the view will improve. unless you like looking at the jail…

and they’re off…taste the book with some steeplechase pie

Published on August 31, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

every spring, the steeplechase is held in warner park. it is nashville’s version of the kentucky derby but we like to think ours is more fun. since we risk a lawsuit by offering a true “derby” pie, i came up with our own signature pie-we call it steeplechase pie. its a pecan pie with chocolate chips and lots of whiskey. and it is on the menu this week.

chocolate chips and pecan pieces in the bottom of a partially baked pie shell.

whisk melted butter and sugar together. add the vanilla and the whiskey and mic the completely.

whisk in the eggs

add the corn syrup and whisk it again

pour it into the pie shell and into the oven it goes.

all done!

come on in and taste the book, we’ll save you a slice

8/24 is national peach pie day!

Published on August 24, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

ooooh it’s a holiday, let’s par-tay!!! we’ll bake a pie together, it’ll be such fun…

grated lemon zest, vanilla bean-scraped (save the pod for something else), cardamom and pumpkin pie spice…add some sugar and cornstarch and rub it all together.

add the peaches and toss them together

make thin strips of dough and lay 5 across the top, just like the photo…

5 more strips of dough, just like so…

into the oven she goes. golden brown and bubbly…who’s got the ice cream?

for more information, read all about it in my latest article for the examiner.com

another week, another hike: bell’s bend park

Published on August 2, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsman1 Comment

we truly are trying to keep up the routine of taking one hike per week. this week, we decided to go on sunday rather than monday because the forecast for the week includes heat advisories with tempertures and humidity levels extremely high and dangerous for outdoor activities.

we took a week off from the garden (demo garden work sessions are on sundays) and packed some water bottles into a cooler and headed over to bells bend. this is one of the newest parks in the metro park system. it was donated to the city by the beaman family and it is former farm land that is being allowed to return to its natural state. unfortunately, for us anyway, that meant there would be little if any shade on the walk. another caution to fellow hikers, this is not a walk for little kids, anyone with health issues or those with a complete lack of direction-there are absolutely no markers of any kind on the trails! you must download the map from the metro parks website and bring it with you-the copies available at the trail head are very poor quality and all one shade of grey making it difficult to see the different paths clearly. as for the trail condition, it is very good-mostly level with few if any inclines/declines but it is not paved and could be difficult for pushing strollers so leave the kids home and use this time to meditate. the other point, it is on the northwest outskirts of the city which made it a longer drive for us-22 miles each way.

we parked at the trail head which is located in a separate entrance from the beaman nature center. there is not a lot of parking available and that suggests to us that not many people come here. our car was the only one in the lot when we arrived and when we left. one interesting note, there are a group of students from UT and Uof arizona on an archealogical dig here and they have a campsite near the trailhead. as we wandered up the trail, this was the first view, looking towards the river.

what the trail looks like, it is grassy in some parts and gravel in others.

bikes are not allowed and skates cannot navigate here so it is best left to walkers and runners.

milkweed pods on the trail

yellow wild flowers

ironweed in full bloom, we saw lots of it along the trails

part of the trail runs alongside the cumberland river

lots of butterflies to watch. buckeye butterly having a drink

the view, similar from the start to the end

almost back to the start, the campground is located by the barn in this picture

native passion flowers

and their fruits

the last part of the trail as we head back out to the car. it was way too hot for this trail today! we may come back but definitely not in the summer unless it is cloudy and cool.

frost weed, butterflies love it and we saw many sipping nectar on them. no luck getting a good photo-they are just too quick!

elderberries at the nature center

on our way out, we drove to the nature center to see if it was open and to find a schedule of events. they have very limited hours, tuesday, thursday and saturday and not too many events. they do have a nice rest room though!

looky looky, the blog got props!

Published on July 24, 2010 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

i know i said i was taking a break but…i do check in to see if anyone leaves a comment, see what kind of traffic there has been and when i noticed a huge jump in hits, i was curious. looking further i noticed that besides the usual traffic from love and olive oil (a nashville food blog that has a link to my page) and other assorted visitors, there were also many hits from blogs.com. it seems that they have chosen easier than pie as one of the top 10 food blogs in nashville. today, the blog also received a little love from nashville bites, a food blog from the nashville scene. so i ask all of you to join me in a little raucous happy dance while i hoot and holler!!! thanks to everyone who visits and helped make this happen! look for me to be back in action next week, hopefully. we will close on our sba disaster loan in a few days and soon hope to start the repairs so it could get a little crazy around the house but i will try my best to keep it all together. thanks again nashville!

another monday, another hike in the city

Published on July 21, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

we are trying to make the monday night hike a regular event and this past monday, we went out to warner parks to hike on the warner woods trail, a 2.5 mile loop through percy warner park.

the trail system in the two parks is extensive. it goes from paved trails to bridle paths and primitive trails. there are also roads accessible by car allowing those unable to walk to see the sights and reach overlooks and picnic areas. the best part, we didn’t have to leave the city limits to do this. we traveled 11.75 miles over to the west side of town from our house for a total of 23.5 miles round trip. a little farther than last weeks trip but as i said earlier, still within the city limits.

we didn’t waste any time, we studied the map located in the deep well trailhead and we chose the warner woods trail. with water bottles in hand, we set off to get some much needed exercise and to explore a part of the park we had never been in before. we had been out here to this area of the park once for a guided wild flower walk and knew we would come back to explore some more. the start of the trail, the roots cut the path like a staircase and made descending the steep incline easy.

one of the many roads that go through the park. people also run and ride bikes on the paved roads.

it was a hot afternoon, at least 92 and humid. it was a little cooler in the park but not enough to prevent sweating.

just one of the many interesting trees we saw along the way

we also saw huge trees. darry stood in front of this one for scale but it still doesn’t look as big as it could. we saw a few that were larger too.

in the center of this photo-twin fawns, mom was off to the side watching us to make sure we didn’t get too close to her babies.

the only flower blooming in the park. there were a few of these around, but not many. summer is a time when the flowers tend to shut down and there aren’t many blooms to see.

we encountered several of these benches on the trail. it must have been quite a job to get them out on the trails.

wild grape vines are all over

more wild grapes

and still some more

another randomly placed bench on the trail.

a most intriguing root system.

good thing we don’t have bears around here!

the beginning of the incline out of buggy bottoms

darry spotted these mushrooms on an old persimmon tree.

they are shelf mushrooms and most likely inedible.

they have also released their spores-that whitish dust around them are the spores.

ain’t that just peachy? ttb 7/16

Published on July 16, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

i have spent my week looking at a large basket of peaches and many little baskets of blueberries. the peaches are starting to ripen-perfectly. slightly firm but bite into one and the juices run. they are also full of flavor and hard to resist even if they are a bit on the fuzzy side. earlier in the week i made a peach brown betty with biscuits but today, i made one of my favorite recipes from the book, blueberry peach cornbread buckle. the cake goes together like so: