Chalkfest in Wausau

This weekend has been quiet eventful for Wausau residents. Our small town has suddenly became a hub for visitors all over the world, thanks to 2012 Junior Canoe Slalom World Championships. It was really unbelievable that a world championship is going on right behind my apartment, in the river whose shores have seen my walking shoes almost daily.

But, this post is about the artistic event going parallel over the weekend  in downtown Wausau. The event when a large number of artists gathered and gave form to magnificent creations of art, using just a bunch of colorful chalk.

Although, due to high heat, I could not go during the daytime when the artist were trying to create their best, I went in the evening to appreciate their hard day’s work. To  my delight, every artist’s work was brilliant, I don’t know how the judges chose the best. Here are a few which were awarded and few other which were equally amazing.

 

and plenty more. They all were great visual treat and a way to make us realize the immense talent hidden in people around us.

Banana + Oatmeal + Peanut Butter = Amazing Cookies!

Banana is one of the best thing for healthy baking recipes as it can substitute both butter and sugar, two fatty things we usually wish to minimize without affecting the flavor. So, here is another delicious cookie recipe. As I said, it has very less butter and sugar. I have also added crunchy peanut butter to give it an added savory peanut taste. In fact, these cookies have lots of different flavors which keep getting apparent with each bite.

The original recipe is here. I have modified it very little.

Ingredients:

1 Cup – All purpose flour

1 1/2 Cups – Oats, lightly powdered

1 tsp – Baking Powder

1/4 Cup – Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup – White Sugar

1/4 Cup – Butter, softened

1 Egg

(I used flax seeds as egg substitute; 1 tbsp Flax seeds + 3 tbsp water, blended for two minutes =  1 Egg)

2 – ripe Bananas

1/4 Cup Peanut Butter (You can use 1/2 Cup, I only had 1/4 cup left in the jar )

1 Cup – shredded Walnuts (optional)

1/4 tsp – Salt, if using unsalted butter

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350F. Grease a baking sheet and keep aside.

Whisk together  flour, oats, baking powder and walnuts.

Mash the bananas and make a smooth paste.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and whisk nicely to make a fluffy paste. Then incorporate mashed bananas and peanut butter.

Mix well the wet and dry ingredients.

Drop on the cookie baking sheet using a spoon and flatten slightly on top.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until you see brown edges.

Cool completely and enjoy.

These cookies are very moist and soft and taste best with Milk.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Movement

This pink fountain I clicked outside Art Museum, Milwaukee, depicts movement, which I found good to post for this week’s challenge. Hope you like it!

Fleeting Moments

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I have abundance of pictures for this week’s topic. It’s hard to select which one is best. Recently I went to Chicago and Michigan, so I am posting pictures from the trip.

A beautiful bridge on lake Michigan, Michigan.

Enjoy!

P.S> These pictures look good in enlarged version which can be seen by clicking on them.

Fun in the Woods – Camping and Grilling!

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My husband and I have camped several times earlier but just for the sake of getting a night sleep before heading forward on a road trip. This time it was different. This time we had plans to just enjoy a good camping with some good food preparation/grilling, in contrast to earlier times when we would just buy pasta salad from walmart, stuff it in our cooler and have it for dinner.

This impromptu ‘full-fledged’ camping idea struck on Friday, June 15 ’2012, so we decided to camp on saturday night at any place where we can get reservation for a camp site in such a short time-span. We googled nearest state park and found one around 17 miles, the Big Eau Pleine County park. All camp sites were already reserved , but few were walk-ins which could be occupied on first come first serve basis. Bingo! Planned to reach by 3:00 pm Saturday, the check-in time.

Saturday morning, we finished our lazy breakfast and started filling our bags with stuff for our camping trip. One look at the window- RAIN!! and the whole plan got canceled.

Sunday morning, the excitement to camp and grill struck again. Although, it is not wise to camp on Sunday night and wake early and rush home to get ready for Office, Our excitement was too much to prevent us from thinking all wise things.

We packed stuff and drove first to Walmart to buy some veggies to grill, marinade, charcoal and ice (for cooler). All geared up, we head to the state park. We reached  in around 30 minutes and Wow! such a nice, serene place in woods. Almost all campsites were empty, maybe because it was Sunday and all wise people were back home.

We found an amazing lake-side campsite, though not ideally beside the lake, but few feet away. The other camp sites were close, but since they were unoccupied, it was fine. I love the overall camp-site, as it felt not too dense mid-of-forest and not too open with no trees around, but perfect woods. Incredible!

Before starting with our grilling activities, we bought some woods for camp-fire. Then  had quick snack (i.e. apple) and chopped the vegetables and put them in marinade for an hour or so for marination. Since my husband was getting noisy and restless all this time to first go and see the lake, we hiked few feet and reached a beautiful, secluded lake. The entire view was breathtaking.

Totally in awe, we returned to the camp site, set-up the camp first and then while my husband started the fire for grilling, I started putting veggies on the skewers. We felt few rain drops and hoped it stay away for few hours. It did and we grilled pleasantly our dinner.

A very satisfied dinner with no rain, was all we wanted and we get that. Everything was looking like a dream, though the reality downed on us later.

So, after filling our stomach we head back to the lake again with our beer bottles. My husband had full plans to take a dip in the lake, but he dropped the idea as it had become cold at that time in the evening and the lake was too shallow for several feet (not even knee-deep) and going further was not safe. Moreover, there was no shower facility in the park. He was OK with this, but I strongly oppose the idea of taking dip in the lake with no shower afterwards.

I enjoyed the relaxed moments just gazing at the lake and having my beer while my husband can’t stop himself going in the water. His way of relaxing.

I took a few pictures of the various things lying nearby.

It started getting a little dark. We came back to our tent-site. My husband put more wood in the flickering fire. We sat by the fire for some time and toasted marshmallows.

The mosquitoes started buzzing in our ears and the night had engulfed us, so we went inside our tent, tired, yet relaxed with the great time spent. It started raining during the night, so we had to wrap up stuff and rush back home early in the morning. The Reality finally dawned on us and the dream was over!

It was a memorable camping and grilling trip. We grilled for the first time and the experience was awesome. Looking forward to more grilling.

Farm fresh – Strawberries picking!

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Picking fruits from the farm is always fun and the difference between freshly picked and brought from store is easily identifiable. Like in case of strawberries I picked this weekend, they are so perfectly ripe and sweet, they melt in the mouth. Somebody with no teeth can eat them easily!

I hadn’t seen the strawberries plants before, so their shortness gave me a big surprise. I never expected to pick the berries crawling on my knees. I was looking for big plants with big berries hanging down but this (see the below picture) is what I got when I reached the picking spot.

Can you see the hanging strawberries below the leaves? if not, click on the image and see in enlarged version.

The juicy freshness and perfect red color and texture is hard to describe. The best strawberries I have eaten in my life!

Today I relished them by making smoothie and dessert (covering them with chocolate).

Here is the recipe. I altered it somewhat that I chopped and melted dove dark chocolate squares (count 10) in  microwave for around 30 seconds and covered around 17 berries. Then melted 1 cup Hershey’s milk chocolate chips and covered another 24 berries. Keep them all at room temperature for around half an hour and then placed in refrigerator.

A truly amazing experience of strawberry picking! Wish to do it again but chances are slim as the season has almost come to an end. Enjoy!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Create

Creative activity for today: Chocolate covered strawberries. These are freshly picked strawberries from a local farm.

Here’s the recipe.

I dipped few in dark chocolate and the rest in milk chocolate. They taste delicious and are super easy to make.

Classic American Dessert – Pineapple Up-side down Cake

Pineapple is one of my favorite fruit. The sweet tropical aroma and flavor, the crisp texture give this cake dessert the perfect taste. The rich caramelized fruit just melts in the mouth and awaken all the senses.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe slightly modified from this one.

Ingredients:

1/2 Pineapple, cut into thin slices

1/4 cup melted butter (add pinch of salt if unsalted)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs (I used flax seeds as egg substitute; 1 egg = 1tbsp flax seeds + 3tbsp water blended well in a paste)

1/2 cup milk

Directions: (watch this video for better understanding)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix brown sugar in the melted butter, warm a bit more to make a smooth paste. Transfer this paste to the baking dish and spread evenly. Now, place the pineapple pieces evenly over the butter-sugar paste.

Cream butter and sugar in another bowl. Add eggs and whisk to make a light fluffy  paste. Take one more bowl and mix the dry ingredients and whisk them properly to remove any cluster. Combine dry and wet ingredients. Add milk to make a smooth paste. Spread it evenly over the pineapple.

Place the dish in oven and bake for around 50 mins or until the knife comes out clean. Cool for 10 mins before flipping the cake up-side down on a plate/serving dish.

Flip it.

This cake is both very moist and crisp. Enjoy it with a scoop of ice-cream and indulge in the rich caramel flavor.

Happy Baking!

Banana Magic to the Oatmeal

Over the course of my baking expedition, I have realized that oatmeal and banana baked combination somewhat taste better than any other flavor added to the oatmeal or just oatmeal alone. This conclusion has come after many hits and trials in my kitchen with the oatmeal.

Next is the desire to bake a bread this time, something different from all the cookies and bars I have baked every time. Still it is not a typical yeast bread, but kind of pound cake. May be I’ll bake typical bread next time.

So, this weekend I googled banana oatmeal bread and landed on this one. I have modified it a bit. You can try whichever you find suitable.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup – Oats (I used old-fashion oats)

1 cup – all-purpose flour

1/4 cup – brown sugar

1/4 cup – white sugar

1/2 cup – butter (I used salted one; if you use unsalted then mix some salt)

2 – eggs (I used flax seeds as egg substitute)

1 tsp – baking powder

1/2 tsp – ground cinnamon

1/2 cup – crushed walnuts

1/2 cup – chocolate chips (I used Hershey’s milk chocolate chips)

1/4 cup – milk

3 – bananas

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix all-purpose flour, oats (I powdered the oats a little before mixing), baking powder, cinnamon, walnuts and chocolate chips. Whisk a little to mix everything well.

Mash the 3 ripe bananas and make a smooth paste.

In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar, then add eggs and whisk sufficiently to make a light and fluffy mixture. Add the mashed banana paste and milk.

Now combine wet and dry ingredients. Pour in the loaf pan and bake for 50 mins or till a knife pricked in it comes out clean.

This bread is very moist and scrumptious. Enjoy it with a warm cup of tea or coffee.

Friends for Life

aha! here comes my most favorite topic. Friends have special place in my heart and life and I know it is not gonna change ever. So, here’s one for my closest friend. In this picture, she is with her husband on their engagement ceremony.

She and I are friends for almost 8 years now. I first met her in my post-graduation course and at that time I had no idea we’ll become such close ‘confiding-in’ friends. I remember spending great buddy time with her during these years, sharing all our day-to-day sorrows and joys. There has always been such great understanding between us that none of us has ever given any explanation about anything to each other. There are times when we didn’t get to talk or communicate in any form with each other for several months, but our friendship bond never get weaken and on the contrary, it looks like the bond is getting stronger each day.

I love you, my friend and thank you for your presence in my life. I wish you life long happiness and blessings.