Green Monsters

I warned you that it was zucchini season, didn't I? We currently have 10 zucchinis hogging precious real estate in our fridge. Two of them are enormous enough that we could get a game of wiffle ball going out back and the person on deck could have their own zucchini bat to swing around too.

I'm not really amped about backyard baseball though. I'm excited about chocolate cake. Actually, at the moment, I'm mourning my empty plate...but my taste buds are still busy quivering with joy and forgiving me for cutting anything dessert-like out of my life for five months.

A Piece of Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Fun fact: this cake, which just pulled into the lead on my all-time-favorite-cakes list, has 3 cups of zucchini in it. I'll admit I was highly skeptical when my mom announced she was making a chocolate zucchini cake with homemade cream cheese frosting earlier today. The pillow of cream cheese sounded like a winner, but why would you want to add three cups worth of vegetable to an otherwise perfectly good recipe for chocolate cake? Don't get me wrong, I love vegetables...but I like them mixed up in a salad, shoved into a pita, dipped in hummus, or neatly arranged next to my protein and my carbohydrate on my dinner plate.

It didn't take long for my vehement oppositions to change into feeble protests...and when the smell of rich dark chocolate started drifting up the stairs, all pretenses were dropped. I followed my nose into the kitchen and turned on the oven light just to make sure the cake wasn't green or anything suspicious like that. Fun fact: zucchini cake masquerades as a regular chocolate cake (only better). Zucchini is something like 95% water, meaning when it's combined with all the standard baking ingredients it loses its flavor altogether and makes for an incredibly moist cake batter. This is the kind of cake that makes you want to reach back in to rescue the crumbs that cascaded down when you cut your piece. This is the kind of cake that makes you want to run your finger along the edge of the base and lick it clean when nobody is looking.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Minus Some Slices

Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe:
Serves 8 


Ingredients:
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted all-purpose unbleached flour
1/3 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk or sour cream
3 cups coarsely grated zucchini
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Instructions: 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt the chocolate and oil in a small saucepan over very low heat.
Cream the butter until light; add the sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
Beat well. Add the melted chocolate and mix well.
Sift together the dry ingredients and stir them into the batter with the buttermilk.
Mix the zucchini and nuts into the batter.
Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.
Divide the batter between pans.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Cool the cake completely before frosting with whipped cream or your favorite frosting.

Our Favorite Frosting Recipe: 


Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
4 cups confectioner's sugar

Instructions:
Cream together the butter and cream cheese until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Slowly add the confectioners' sugar until well-blended, using more sugar if necessary to get a spreading consistency.

As if chocolate cake wasn't exciting enough, today Mom and I also discovered a new kitchen appliance that isn't atrociously expensive (unlike the Breville toaster I'm itching to buy for my little condo back at school). A julienne peeler is such fun. It looks a lot like a vegetable peeler, only there's a sharp toothed blade that's ideal for cutting vegetables into skinny strips. Somehow, changing the appearance of even the most unexciting produce (i.e. the carrot) makes a world of difference when it comes to digging in.

Julienne Peeler, Source

With the Julienne peeler in hand, Mom found another easy but tasty recipe to add to my recipe book (only recipes that I can make with confidence and without 500 ingredients make the cut). Zucchini Slaw, from Sara Foster's Fresh Every Day: More Great Recipes from Foster's Market cookbook, is perfect picnic food. We ignored Foster's suggestions for dressings and piled grilled chicken strips (that had been marinated in Greek dressing) on top. This dish was wonderfully fresh, colorful, summery, and light. It also was awarded big points because the recipe itself didn't require any cooking and only took 10 minutes to pull together!

Zucchini Slaw Salad

Zucchini Slaw Recipe (doubles as instructions too):

Serves 4 to 6

2 medium zucchini, ends removed and cut into 2-inch julienne

2 yellow summer squash, ends removed and cut into 2-inch julienne

2 carrots, cut into 2-inch julienne

4 scallions, julienned (white and green parts)

1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and julienned (optional)

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Now...what to do with the other green monsters I can already see peeking out from under those comically large green leaves? Perhaps I'll make this zucchini and ricotta galette, this roasted zucchini pesto, this zucchini parmesan, this zucchini carrot cake, or these chocolate chip zucchini brownies. 

Maybe I should start keeping an eye out for cucumber recipes too...seeing as there's 15 of them cozying up to the bags of zucchini on the produce shelf. I'm a little worried I used up all my creativity on zucchini season...

One Bowl Dinner

Have I mentioned how much I love dinners at home?

Thinly sliced grilled pork tenderloin (pre-marinated in a mesquite barbeque sauce)
Rao's tri-colored and homemade farfalle (bow-tie) pasta
Stir-fried garlic scapes, mushrooms, eggplant, bok choy, snow peas, roasted red pepper (grilled outside first), broccoli, and zucchini
...all thrown into a big stir-fry pan and sprinkled with salt and pepper

This was hands down the best stir-fry I have ever had. The blend of fresh veggies, textured artisan pasta, and spicy circles of meat was to die for. All exaggeration aside - this dish was certainly worth risking a fork stab from Brother #3 in the sprint for seconds of pork tenderloin.

Mesquite BBQ Grilled Pork Tenderloin*

*Sad story sidenote: my photography skills aren't getting any better, even after three months of experimenting!

Last night involved a new food to add to my growing list: garlic scapes. A garlic scape is the light green curling stalk of a hardneck garlic plant. While the "real" garlic bulbs grow below, the tender stem (if cut early enough) offers a nice mellow garlic flavor to add a little something to any number of recipes. Mom harvested our garlic scapes right out of the the garden and let me play photographer for a minute before she sliced them up.

Quick Morning Harvest, with Garlic Scapes

Bicycle Garlic Scapes!

Tonight was what we call a "one bowl dinner." Much to my delight, the saucepan just got more and more full as the 6 o'clock hour drew nearer.

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

And as always, a side-by-side (except not really, because I can't figure out how to get Blogger to let me do this) view of Brother #3's plate and my bowl.

Brother #3's...Mess

My Bowl

Smelly Orange Stuff

When I think of butternut squash, I think of a steaming heap of the alarmingly orange side dish that I am always eager to pass on during our Thanksgiving meal. Growing up has its perks - I get to sit at the adult table and I get to just say "no thanks" to suspicious looking foods. Usually, even the slightest whiff of mashed butternut squash has me backing up my chair so fast that it leaves skid marks on the floor (although I'm careful to mask my aversion around whoever brought it to the table).

Butternut Squash, Peeled and Cut

But last week, my mom tricked me into eating roasted butternut squash. Prepared this way, the squash's offensive orange hue morphed into an appetizing golden color. Any traces of that pumpkin smell were effectively chased away by the comforting aroma of garam masala (an Indian spice blend). Prepared this way, the butternut squash was impossibly sweet and completely addicting.

Roasted and Spiced Butternut Squash and Shallots

Might I remind you that this is coming from the girl who used to sit at the kitchen table moving her squash around and around, stubbornly determined to just make it magically disappear. This is coming from the girl who used to stare glumly at her brothers as they moved on to dessert and left to go play outside. This is coming from the girl who used to finally force down the fleshy and pulpy orange stuff by holding her nose and chasing it with a glass of lukewarm milk.

Never mind the fact that this recipe belongs on an autumn menu...I loved this roasted and spice-coated butternut squash (with onions) so much that I begged my mom make it again so I could share it on the blog.

Source: Weightwatchers.com
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 25 minutes
Serves: 6

Ingredients:
2 1/4 lbs fresh butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (there's 13 minutes of your 15 minutes of prep)
1 medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced (we used shallots)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
3 Tbsp fresh, chopped cilantro (we omitted this)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place squash and onion on prepared baking sheet; drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat.
Sprinkle with garam masala, salt, and pepper; toss to coat.
Roast, tossing about halfway through cooking, until squash and onions are slightly browned (about 25 minutes).
Transfer vegetables to a serving platter or bowl and sprinkle with cilantro (if desired); toss to coat.
Yields about 3/4 cup per serving.

Nom Nom Nom

Try it! As an added bonus, preparing the squash is a great arm workout.

Starting from Scratch

A few days ago (see here), I listed chocolate chip cookie dough brownies as my current craving. Usually, my longings for specific sweet things are fleeting (although I'm never able to completely disable my sweet tooth). Every couple of days, I'll scroll through my bookmarked dessert recipes (found mostly through the world's most addicting website, TasteSpotting) and delete various cheesecakes, cookies, blondies, crumb bars, cupcakes, etc. Weeding out my favorites is a futile exercise since the websites on the chopping block are almost immediately replaced with links to new yearnings...but I have to fool myself into thinking that I'm keeping the volume down somehow.

You should see me in the bakery section at Whole Foods. I have the attention span of a goldfish - my eyes dart from the gelato to the flowery cupcakes and to the chocolate covered nuts, before scanning over the mini cheesecakes (how cute are those?) and briefly zooming in on the lemon bars. In less than five seconds, I bounce from having to have one thing to completely forgetting about it in favor of another.

But I couldn't get RecipeGirl's chocolate chip cookie dough brownies out of my favorites folder (or out of my mind). As I was lacing up my shoes for a tempo run, I thought about these brownies. In the middle of a bike workout, I thought about these brownies. At the end of a torturous introduction to the weighted jump rope, I thought about these brownies. Today I caved in, I decided to check my judgemental self at the kitchen door and bake these babies. To my pleasant surprise, these brownies were so good that they didn't just muffle the little voice that always says well there goes that workout...they stifled it altogether!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Today I hung up my sous-chef hat and actually learned how to cream butter, how to crack an egg, how to run the electric mixer, and how to spread batter with confidence (echoes of Brother #3's coaching). Mom and Brother #3 supervised the baking of these brownies, but I was the one who got my hands gooey, my camera sticky, and my clothes covered in flour. It should come as no surprise that I had a minor panic attack due to the mess all over the counter, but also that I loved the exactness and precision associated with baking.

My 1st Lesson (And 2nd Workout): Finely Chopped Unsweetened Chocolate

Melted Chocolate...Mmmm

Mixing Butter and Brown Sugar, Eggs and Vanilla Extract 

Mixing Melted Chocolate and Flour

Baked Brownie Layer (35 Minutes at 325 Degrees F)

Egg-less Cookie Dough with Mini Chocolate Chips

Before Spreading the Cookie Dough Layer

Ready for the Fridge

Semi-melted Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (for Drizzle)

Final Product (Looking Distinctly Homemade!)

I used a great recipe but I wished I had known two things beforehand:
-For neat brownie squares, it's a good idea to run the knife under hot water after cutting each column/row
-If you use butter instead of shortening to make the chocolate drizzle (as we did), the drizzle comes out a lot thicker and is significantly harder to squeeze out in a pretty zigzag pattern

Zigzag Chocolate Drizzle Fail (But Fudgy and Sweet Nonetheless) 





Calorie Police = Off Duty

While I was away last weekend, Brother #3 sent me a picture (and a caption) that made me laugh out loud.

"See how we eat when you aren't here?! I should start my own blog!"

While the cat's away the mice will play...

In 2006, Mom committed to baking all 50 of the cakes listed in the Country Living Great Cakes cookbook. At the rate she's going, it will take another 16.666667 years to check off all 50 recipes (but to be fair - this is because we keep asking for Maple Walnut Cake instead of encouraging her to try a new one and because I get grouchy when there are too many desserts around). Since the flourless chocolate cake (#15) was demolished by the time I got home, I had to rely on everyone else's reviews: adequate, good, acceptable, decent, fine...but not wonderful.

Around here, we like fabulous cakes. Cakes that become half a cake on the first night, and then a quarter of a cake, and then a crumbly single slice of cake just begging to be polished off. We like cakes that are made from scratch and have complementary sides (read: ice cream, fresh fruit, homemade hot fudge sauce, etc.). Amazing cake recipes (on batter-splattered, bookmarked, and falling-out pages) are covered with handwritten exclamations of success and are made again and again. They become staples (to borrow a word from Brother #3).

Torn and Tired Go-To Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe

Mom's Comments

More Comments

In the absence of the calorie police (read: me), Mom pulled out sticks of butter to soften, dusted off her favorite cookbooks, and donned her apron in the late afternoons. When I got home yesterday, I was greeted by the aromas of a second baking cake and a whirring timer. Like a warm blanket slipping over my shoulders, the comforting smells of butter and vanilla engulfed me in a hug and steered me towards the oven. I pressed on the oven light...and sighed with longing.

An Opened Cookbook = A Big Hint

Even my rigid diet doesn't stand a chance against homemade cheesecake. Admittedly, I "earned" (welcome to the world of Hannah) my slice by running 12.3 miles and by eating a dinner of fish, brussel sprouts, and dry salad...but I enjoyed every single last bite. No guilt. Not even a taunting whisper. This, my friends, is progress...especially since I typed up the recipe (two pounds of cream cheese) as I ate it.

Basic Cheesecake

Cheesecake, Cake Stand

Recipe for Tall and Creamy Cheesecake from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan (we served it with candied pecans, raspberries, and strawberries...but there are countless ways to dress up this dessert)

Candied Pecans, Just Roasted

For the crust:
1 3/4 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups combination of heavy cream and sour cream

To make the crust:
Butter a 9-inch springform pan and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil (to prevent water leakage).
Stir the crumbs, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl.
Pour over the melted butter and stir until all ingredients are uniformly moist.
Turn the ingredients over into the springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs over the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides.
Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Center a rack in the oven and place the springform on a baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake (reduce oven temp to 325 degrees F).

To make the cheesecake:
Put a kettle of water on to boil.
Working with a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until soft and creamy (about 4 minutes).
With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat until the cream cheese is light (about another 4 minutes).
Beat in the vanilla and add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the sour cream and heavy cream.
Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in a roasting pan that is large enough to hold the pan with some space around it.
Scrape the evenly-mixed batter into the springform pan (the batter will reach the rim of the pan).
Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into it to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top should be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan.
Turn off the oven and crack open the door to allow the cheesecake "to luxuriate in its water bath" for another hour.
After the 1 hour day at the spa is up, remove the setup from the oven.
Lift the springform pan out of the roaster and remove the foil.
Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.
When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and refrigerate overnight.
At serving time, remove the sides of the springform pan and set the cake on a serving platter.

I Wish My Plate Still Looked Like This

Only one other scent in the world rivals the smell of baking cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, and brownies all combined: Bath and Body Works True Blue Spa Shea Cashmere Body Lotion. This creamy concoction just smells like Mom to me...it offers a softer hint of the irresistible butter-and-vanilla fragrance that lingers in the air after an afternoon of baking. It's incredibly soothing and often makes me forgo my scented deodorant can act as a perfume all by itself. Buy a bottle for yourself - strangers will be leaning in alarmingly close and telling you that you smell good in no time.

Shea Cashmere Creams

Recipes and A Reunion

I've really missed cheese. Tonight we kissed and made up before I had some other yummy things too.

We had a big salad (standard for summer nights), 3 cheese focaccia garlic bread (noteworthy because this is one of my fear foods), fennel baked with tomatoes and onions (significant because fennel is a NEW vegetable!) and a chicken and sweet potato stir-fry (fun because it came from a forgotten cookbook).

I. The Salad

My Favorite Salad So Far

Green romaine lettuce, red lettuce, spinach, pea shoots, carrots, celery, cucumber, radishes, orange pepper, red pepper, green grapes, golden delicious apple, raw almonds, pomegranate craisins, sesame sticks, sesame seeds, basil, parsley, chives, and pepper...

This is the kind of salad that you can happily eat without salad dressing. The kind of salad that makes you wish that the clean-up man fills up on other things so there is some leftover for lunch tomorrow.

Worth mentioning: The green grapes (sliced in half) added just a touch of tartness and will be a welcome addition to our salad ingredient rotation from now on...And the irresistibly sweet and salty sesame sticks were a great substitute for traditional croutons.

Sesame Sticks

II. 3 Cheese Focaccia Garlic Bread

I'd love to tell you we spent all afternoon slaving over this focaccia - but we cheated and brought it home with us from the store...in a plastic bag since I forgot to grab our re-usable ones (oops). I may be in the doghouse, but after a piece of this bread (all melty and toasty after a few minutes in the oven) I don't really mind.

The King of Cheese & Garlic Bread

III. Fennel Baked with Tomatoes and Onions (and Cheese!)

Fennel = Unknown!

Serves 4
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
2 medium fennel bulbs (about 1 lb)
1 large onion (sliced)
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
A sprinkling of low-fat Mexican and low-fat Mozzeralla cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pour the oil into a 7x11-inch baking dish. Trim the base of the fennel bulbs. Cut across the top to remove the darker green portion of the stalks and the fernlike fronds. Discard the stalks and chop and reserve some of the fronds for a garnish if desired. Cut each fennel bulb in half lengthwise, then cut crosswise into slices about 3/4 inch wide.
2. Combine the fennel in the baking dish with the onion and tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to coat evenly with the oil.
3. Cover the pan with foil and bake, stirring once or twice, until the fennel is almost tender when pierced with a fork (about 35 minutes). Uncover, sprinkle on cheese, and continue to bake until the juices reduce and thicken slightly (about 10 minutes).
4. Before serving, season with additional salt and pepper to taste, and scatter the reserved fennel fronds on top if desired.

Worth mentioning: Apparently fennel tends to have a distinctively licorice "bite"...but when it's cooked this way (and disguised with a bit of tomato and cheese) it's not offensive at all. Not exactly a ringing endorsement - but it was good. Not to die for, but good. And I tried fennel.


IV. Chicken and Sweet Potato Stir-Fry

A Variation of Chicken Stir-Fry

Serves 4
Stir-fry 2 very thinly sliced sweet potatoes in 2 tbsp vegetable oil (3 minutes)
Add 1/4 lb (125 g) snap peas and 1/2 of a gigantic Vidalia onion (2 minutes)
Add 4 cooked chicken breasts (sliced into strips), 1/3 cup of orange juice, 1/4 tsp marjoram, and 5 fresh sage leaves 
Stir often until potatoes are tender-crisp (another 3 minutes) 

This was also good. It was a nice change from my usual chicken stir-fry dishes at school - which involve a measly piece of chicken (cut into bite size), a rainbow of veggies from an upended vegetable drawer, and a heavy-handed "sprinkle" from assorted spices all lumped together. These types of dinners often have an extra instruction tacked on to the recipe: Cross your fingers and hope for the best! 

And as always, here are the poorly presented and cringe-worthy photos of my plate and of Brother #3's jungle:

My Plate (Sans Salad Here)

Brother #3's Attempt At Organization

*Recipes III and IV were adapted from Chatelaine's Food Express Quickies: Ten Quick Ways With Everyday Foods by Monda Rosenberg

Wedding Woes

Here's the trouble with being the only girl: I never learned about hair.

For a very long time, I wore it slicked back in a ponytail as close to my scalp as possible. For an equally long time, my mom made me stand sideways in pictures so I wouldn't be mistaken for one of my three older brothers.

As far as I understand it now, I have four three options:
1). loose and down (read: perpetually in my face)
2). down but slightly tamed with bobby pins (never have any luck getting them to stay in...must be the thumbs)
3). semi pulled back with a clip in a halfway up/halfway down
4). all scooped up in a ponytail or a bun*

Blame It On the Thumbs

*Anyone I went to middle school or high school with knew this hairstyle as THE BUN - I went through a phase where I thought it was a great idea to use half a bottle of mousse to form a tight bun very nearly on the top of my head. I blame my tough time in high school on the fact that I had a headache 90% of the time.

Admission: I still wear THE BUN to bed sometimes (with just a quarter-sized dollop of mousse to keep the curly q's at bay)...and it hasn't frightened off Boyfriend yet! He must be a keeper.

My mom used to trim my hair for me until I turned about 8 (and actually started noticing that I had to keep my head constantly tilted a little to the left to make my hair fall evenly across my shoulders). A rotation of forgettable ladies at Supercuts used to cut it for me until I turned about 14...and started realizing that all my friends and their moms had hairstylists at salons and day spas. Now I get my hair washed, layered, and blown out by a sweet young mom at Cara & Co.

Cara & Co. Day Spa

And no matter what I do at home, it never comes out as good.

I've invested in outrageously priced hair dryers, flat irons, curling irons, and hair products. Yet even armed with all my tools, bottles, and mental notes, I just don't have the touch for manipulating my wavy (but thin) dark hair into something remotely chic. I know it can be twisted into soft banana curls with a little bit of encouragement and can be coaxed straight with a round brush because I've seen my hairdresser make it happen...But Humidity and Lack of Talent rob me of any hopes for a sleek and shiny look.

Sedu Pro Ionic Ceramic Tourmaline Flat Iron 1" Works Like A Champ

Tigi's Catwalk Curlesque Line Smells Like Apples

This is stress-inducing! because unless I rapidly develop some styling skills THE BUN might have to make a comeback for the wedding I'm attending this weekend. Poor Boyfriend. I don't think I'll be turning heads because of my yellow silk and chiffon dress, my royal purple shoes, my $5 bangles, my dangling gold earrings, or my French manicure (with purple tips instead of the classic white)...

Bringing Up the Rear

So.

Biking is hard.

A mountain bike weighs a ton. A bike seat is not as padded as it appears. A slight incline on foot feels like a serious hill on a bike. A quick downshift (or three or four) doesn't make stinging quads magically disappear. An open mouth catches bugs. A downhill coast inevitably ends too soon. A rented bike is the way to go (that way you can drop it off and happily never see it again).

Bar Harbor Bike Shop

I don't think I've ever felt so out of shape in my life. Now I have some idea of how terrible it feels to be consistently bringing up the rear, to be chasing moving targets ahead that seem just out of reach.

My Instrument of Torture

In order to preserve some of my pride, I had to really move on the declines. As you may have guessed, I am totally a break-on-the-downhills type of girl. When we reached the summit on our 12 mile around the mountain loop, I slowly experimented with letting my momentum lead me down the twisting carriage roads. By the end of the ride, I was pedaling downhill at full speed. What a rush (for me, surges of bubbly laughter, silent weeee's, and a healthy dose of this is kind of scary but I don't want it stop)!

Carriage Roads, Acadia National Park

After a quick lunch and lemonade break, we decided to embark on a short but reputably outrageously steep hike called the Bee Hive. Standing at the foot of the climb, we could just barely make out a pair of hikers clinging to what can only be described as the face of a cliff (that appeared to be impossibly far away). Feeling slightly daunted but also buoyed by curiosity and determination, we started up.

The View from Below, Distorted

Of course, we got off trail once again. For three decently intelligent adults, you'd think we'd be able to pick a trail on a map and actually stay on it...wrong. Because we were constantly on the lookout for those little spray painted blue dots and searching for sturdy hand and foot holes, I hardly had time to panic about the possibility of a quick slip and a painful death.

We climbed hand over hand, used iron rungs to assist in particularly hazardous areas, and scaled sections that rattled even the most diehard hikers (let alone Mom and I, who are somewhat afraid of heights). Don't look down became a popular refrain.

Iron "Bridge"

Looking Back (Oops!)

Iron Rungs, Bee Hive Trail

Our efforts were rewarded with views of the Atlantic Ocean that were second to none. We left Acadia National Park feeling quite proud of ourselves and rather humbled as athletes. I can't wait to wash away all of the accumulated grit and grime and lace up my running shoes at home again! Maybe it's time I gave some thought to trail running...

Sand Beach from Above, Zoomed In