Fall is here in Portland. Those rainy, overcast days and chilly, dark evenings are upon us. Fortunately, even when it's rainy and dark, hiking in the gorge is still a beautiful experience. With the fall colors starting to burst from the trees, it was a perfect day to stroll along the trails and drink in the color.
Dobra Večer!
Happy weekend to you all! Though I returned from my trip on Monday, I'm still suffering some odd bouts of jet lag, which causes me to go to bed at 8:00 pm, wake up at 4:00 am, and crash in the afternoon from 2:00-5:00 pm. This, I feel, will be detrimental to my work schedule when I return.
But despite the 46 hours of flying required to get me to and from Croatia, and a nine hour time difference, the trip was totally worth it.
Here's round two of the lovely countryside, and a wonderful cache of memories to take home. I will see you all on Monday for our regularly scheduled programming!
Hvala!
Molim!
I'm back from Croatia! I had a wonderful time, and one that can't adequately be described. But here are some of the delightful moments we had:
Stopping every day at a local home for a garden-fresh lunch of goat cheese, tomatoes, and prosciutto; reveling in the crystal clear aqua waters of Plitvicka National Park; hiking through granite mountaintops in the middle of a torrential rain and lightning storm; paddling down a fifteen-foot-high waterfall (weee!); waking up to the view of the Adriatic from the porch; cycling through gorgeous sun-blasted countryside that reminded me of Tuscany; sleeping in a cozy home-stay village in the curve of a mountain valley; feeling like a local among the very friendly Croatians; hiking to a 400 year old alpine hut for a delicious homemade lunch and a song from Marijo; soaking in the thunderous waterfalls of Krka National Park; and making sixteen new best friends from around the country. Delightful, all around.
We also had two professionals accompany us on our trip: a photographer and a videographer. Watching them work everyday not only inspired my love for my own (amateur) photography, but reminded me how much I have yet to learn! I took over 1,000 photos in a week, but unfortunately was disappointed in a lot of them. Going from overcast Portland to bright, sunny Croatia made me negligent about constantly changing my iso and aperture settings, and a lot of my shots came out over-exposed. Still, I pared it down to about 50 so that you may fall in love with Croatia as much as I did. The first batch I'm posting today, and I'll put up the second half tomorrow.
Enjoy! Živjeli!
Peach Blueberry Cobbler
My CSA drop this week came with an assortment of delightful veggies (broccoli, rainbow chard, green beans, red peppers, yellow tomatoes, beets, celery, corn) as well as an array of yummy fruits such as pears, nectarines, blueberries, and peaches.
I decided to make dessert from my fruit assortment: cobbler!
This recipe comes from my dad, who makes it every year for Thanksgiving. It's super easy, incredibly delicious, and open to interpretation. He usually makes it with granny smith apples and cranberries, which is too tart for my taste, but one year swapped it for gala apples and blueberries, and I nearly licked the pan clean.
This time I made the dessert with nectarines, peaches and blueberries. Experiment for yourself... but don't say I didn't warn you... there won't be leftovers!
{peach blueberry cobbler}
Ingredients:
4 cups peeled, cored, sliced peaches and nectarines (or apples, or whatever fruit you'd like. I actually forgot the peeling step and just chopped the peaches up skin and all... still came out awesome)
2 cups blueberries (or cranberries, if you prefer)
1/2 cup sugar
In 2-3 quart greased casserole dish place peaches and nectarines. Place blueberries on top of peaches, and spread sugar evenly over everything.
Also, while chopping peaches, take care not to leave your entire stash of blueberries next to you, or you may have considerably fewer of them to put in the cobbler. Frozen blueberries taste like candy! Yum!
To make crumble topping:
1 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter, melted.
Prepare topping by mixing oatmeal, flour, and sugar together. Add melted butter and mix until crumbly. Spread topping on top of fruit.
Bake in preheated oven 350 degrees for 60-70 min. No need to cover while cooking, but you may want to place the dish on a cookie sheet in case it spills over. The fruit juices will be bubbling and the crumble will be a delicious golden color!
Let stand for 15 minutes. The dessert will shrink in size as it cools. Enjoy, and try not to eat it all in one sitting! As I discovered, this particular iteration of the recipe was so delicious that I served myself two heaping bowlfuls of it and then proceeded to fall into a fruit and butter coma for the rest of the evening. Totally worth it. :)
{Entire recipe here for copying}
4 cups peeled, cored, sliced peaches and nectarines
2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
Topping:
1 c oatmeal
1/4 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1 stick butter
In 2-3 quart greased casserole dish place peaches and nectarines. Place blueberries over peaches. Spread sugar evenly over blueberries.
Prepare topping by mixing oatmeal, flour, and sugar together. Add melted butter and mix until crumbly. Spread topping on fruit.
Bake in preheated oven 350 degrees for 60-70 min. Let stand for about 15 min. No need to cover while cooking but may place on cookie sheet in case it spills over.