Vermont

Satan’s Kingdom

February 7, 2011

There is a small group of people who know me personally enough to know that when they come across random, bizarre articles, link, or places that I am a good person to share them with. So, the fact that I received an email from my friend Emily with no text and just the wiki link to Satan’s Kingdom, MA is not that out of the ordinary .I could not believe that a place actually existed called Satan’s Kingdom, let alone driving distance from Boston. After the busy holidays we found that we would be able to go last Sunday (1/30). Plus, we felt it would be best to go as a way to celebrate my birthday. ha

The idea of driving 2+ hours one day to get to Satan’s Kingdom, “an unincorporated community in the town of Northfield, Massachusetts” (wiki), would be a ridiculous idea for some people, but this is just the kind of thing the Emily and I enjoy. We have driven to Maine for lobsters since it’s much more fun to get them right off the docks and to the Cape for no real reason at all aside from a trip just to end with boxed wine.

So we set out early to drive to Satan’s Kingdom. The ultimate goal was to get to the Satan’s Kingdom Wildlife Management Area, where there had to be a sign that we could take a photo with. Without real directions to there we drove around the town trying to reach the Wildlife Management Area, mind you this is the middle of no where so there is no consistent 3G reception telling us where to go. First we overshot it and ended up in Vermont. Then we circled back and stumbled upon W Rd, which according to google maps on the iphone is “closed winters”. I thought that this would not be true… hello, we are not in the Rocky’s here! I was wrong. Finally, we then found Veron Rd which brought us there, which also was closed further down.

I have no idea how my car made it on the hills. The two just kept cracking up in the car as my car made angry noises as it slowly made it up these little snow covered hills. But we made it through, even making it over the tiny causeway at Sawyer Ponds.

Once we made it there we took foolish photos with the sign. How can you miss the opportunity to make devil horns in front of that sign?!? And briefly wanted around Satan’s Kingdom, which was not spewing hot fire but was covered with a nice coating of snow. There were even older snowshoer’s who were also there, that I suspect not as (childish) amused by the sign as we were.

After the visit to the Satan’s Kingdom, we headed north to Brattleboro, Vermont. We enjoyed an amazing brunch and checked out at local yarn store before heading back to Boston. In all it was a long day of driving but it was totally worth it. I can’t even wait to scrapbook these pictures!

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Light Cheddar Broccoli Soup

January 29, 2011

While driving back from a recent trip to Montreal, we stopped for lunch at Park Row Cafe in Waterbury, VT. This place served amazing sandwiches on home made bread, hot sandwich specials, and homemade soup. Price got a cup of their cheddar broccoli soup to go with this 1/2 a BLT. I had never had cheddar broccoli soup before. Why? Because I hate the smell of steamed broccoli. Any time I hear of broccoli as a side dish I think of overcooked cafeteria broccoli. But I tried and anyway and I LOVED IT. It was creamy, thick, cheesy, hearty, and the broccoli was not a stinky mess.

So I had to have this soup again. However the drive to Waterbury VT from Boston is not every convenient so I had to create a homemade version that would satisfy my craving. But, to make this soup more figure friendly I made it in the lightest way that I could, without having it watered down or using some (gross) non-fat cheese.

Since this soup is on the lighter side I felt it was best to cook the broccoli in the milk, compared to just added steamed broccoli to the soup. Why? I did not want to loose any flavor, or nutrients, in the discarded water used for steaming. While I have found that blending a light soup is the easiest way to make it “richer”, I decided not to do that since I wanted to have a bit more texture to the soup, but there is no restriction about blending the soup.

Light Cheddar Broccoli Soup

*serves 4-6*

Ingredients

2 heads of broccoli
3 cups of skim milk
2 cups of chicken stock/vegetable broth
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
3 cups of skim milk
2 cups of chicken stock/vegetable broth
8oz of shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese (I prefer to use Cabot Creamery Brand)

Process

Finely chop 2 heads of broccoli, including steams. In a large pot, combine the milk broccoli and simmer until broccoli is tender.
In a small pot, saute the onions with 2 tablespoons butter. Once the onions are translucent, sprinkle the flour in and mix with a wooden spoon until the flour has evenly covered the onions. Add the broth slowly and mix until all lumps of flour are broken down.
Add the broth mixture into the large pot. Lastly, add in the cheese and mix until the cheese is melted and completely incorporated. Serve immediately.

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Montreal Day 4 and The Video Wrap Up

January 13, 2011

Monday 1.3.11

It’s quite astonishing to compare the first day our our trip with our last. Price and I realized that by the time we were leaving Montreal on Monday that we had already been to King Arthur Flour Cafe and Shop in VT and crossed into Canada on Friday.

We leasurly got up, had coffee, checked out and packed up the car before we headed back to Fairmont Bagels to get breakfast there. Even Brioche, my version of a traveling gnome, enjoyed in the fun of enjoying these crunchy, chewy bagels.

Beware of crashing road signs!!!

While in Vermont we stopped off at Park Row Cafe in Waterbury, Vermont for lunch. I highly recommend this place because the sandwiches, soup, and dessert we shared were fantastic. I had a turkey sandwich with provolone, mayo, lettuce, and sprouts. All of that on freshly baked whole wheat bread. Price had a BLT and a cup of cream of brocoli soup, which I tried for the first time ever and loved. Then we split a no bake chocolate peatnut butter oat cookie.

Price was amazing and drove the whole way back! I fell asleep after lunch and he did not wake me up where we had discussed switching. When I did wake up he told me not to worry about it and just to back to sleep. Amazing. 🙂

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Lastly, here is our weekend in less than 1 minute.