Designing in Life

Pear Chips – My New Favorite

Admittedly, this was not my idea.  My friend Martha (no, not that Martha, the other Martha) gave me a plate of these at Christmas, and I fell in love with them.  Trust me, they are very easy.

Ingredients:

Two pears: Your choice of variety, not ripe, nice and hard.
Optional: Sugar of your choice (I used palm sugar).  Salt of your choice. (I used Kosher, but think that sea salt is better)

Preparation:

On the thinnest setting, use a mandeline (you can cut them freehand, but getting them thin is hard) and cut the pears, removing the seeds after they're cut.

Baking:

2 Pears cover 2 trays.  Put parchment on trays.  Layout the pears as close together as you can without too much overlapping.  The pears will shrink considerably, but will dry out better if they don't overlap too much.  Sprinkle salt and sugar "lightly" on pears.
Bake at 200 degrees for about 2 hours, moving and rotating trays about every 20-25 minutes between oven racks.  This helps dry them evenly.  After 2 hours the pears may not seem crisp, but when they are removed from the oven and left to dry, they will crisp up.

Enjoy, and eat fast.  They don't last too long!

 

Happy Spring to All

It's spring on the calendar, but sure is summer outside.  82 degrees for the 20th of March in Vermont is more than a little odd.  I'm not complaining though, because I am taking full advantage of it.

We had visitors this weekend.  Beth, Jim, Chloe and Phoebe came on Saturday and were off for some spring skiing on Sunday.  A short and sweet visit, but we sure did have fun.

Chloe checked out the fossils embedded in the stone on our front pathway.

Phoebe had a ride on Pop Pop's shoulders.

We flew a kite.

And Chloe took many photos of our neighbors.

On Sunday, Nick and I hiked up Snake Mountain.  The bonus for this early spring hike was that there were no black flies.

A perfect day, and a perfect weekend.  Happy Spring!

Spring is in the Air

I say this as the remnants of snow are melting outside from Friday night's snowfall. 

The temperatures are ranging wildly from 20 degrees to (predicted for Wednesday of this week) 68, and the weather is just unpredictable.   What we do know in Vermont, is that March can bring some crazy windy days (today is an example) and that some of the largest snowfalls of the winter season can happen (although there are none in sight for at least the next 10 days).

Here are a few spring sightings.

Peacocks and a peahen crossing the road not covered in snow.

Irises starting to poke out of the ground in search of sun.

Our cat shadow basking in the warm sunshine.

Since the sun is out, and it will be in the 50s by 1:00, I will be working on a spring project today – washing the winter dirt off some of the windows, so that I can enjoy the increasing brightness and warmth of the almost-spring sunshine.

The Eagles Have Landed

The warmer than normal temperatures in our area have brought us some wonderful surprises.  Lakes, rivers and streams have not iced over this year, leaving open water and prime real estate for our large feathered friends.

I drove past these two for a couple of days while on my way to work.  The third day I remembered my camera, but figured they probably wouldn't be there because I had it with me.  I was pleasantly mistaken.