brewers fest

Just wanted to share a few scenes from the Vermont Brewers Festival with you.

The highlights:

Long Trail Brewing Co.'s Blackbeary Wheat, served with a blackberry in it!

Vermont Pub & Brewery's Forbidden Fruit (always a favorite for me)

A stunning, pink sunset

An oversized Adirondack chair perfect for photoshoots

Kettle corn

Hanging with my two favorite Vermont people, hands down

vegan brownies, with applesauce

Not too long ago, I made brownies, of sorts, with bananas. They were delicious. And according to this blog, I made those in April. I could've sworn it was two months ago, tops. Time has been flying this summer ... and I love it. It feels like every weekend brings a new daytrip, a new festival, a new restaurant — and, when I'm focused, a new baked treat.

I made these brownies for a book group that my friends and I recently began. It's pretty awesome. We read, we meet, and we discuss it over a yummy potluck dinner. I wanted to make a vegan dessert so my friend could join us, and that's where brownies made with applesauce came in. The recipe — made with simple ingredients I already had — sounded so good, I would have made them anyway.

Fudgy. Not cakey. This brownies are so super fudgy and moist, and very, very chocolatey. I loved the contrast of the melted chocolate chips against the smooth cocoa powder. You can't taste the applesauce, but it adds a surprisingly light finish to the brownie.

On another note, I'm hosting next month's book group. Anyone local want to join in? :)

Vegan Brownies, With Applesauce

Adapted from Food.com

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup unbleached flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

dash of salt

1/2 cup semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips

dash of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil an 8x8 baking pan with olive oil.

Mix together the applesauce, sugar and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Make a well in the ingredients, then add the applesauce mixture. Mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread evenly in baking pan and bake 25-30 minutes, until the center is firm and not sticky.

overlook park

There's this small park just off a road we frequently drive along. Overlook Park. With colorful beds of flowers, picnic tables and a gorgeous lake-and-mountains view, it finally tempted us to pull over and explore it on a recent hot day. I think it's going to be a new favorite picnicking and stargazing spot.

happy hour: mojitos

My at-home mojitos have become infinitely more delicious since I made my own mint simple syrup. It makes the mint flavor much smoother, and adds a subtler sweetness than muddling sugar and mint does.

I actually made the syrup for a mint julep recipe, and love that it fits with mojitos as well.

Mint Simple Syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup cold water

1 bunch fresh mint sprigs

In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Boil for 5 minutes without stirring.

Remove from the heat, and pour over the mint leaves in a bowl. Gently crush the mint leaves with a spoon.

Chill overnight in a closed jar. Remove the mint leaves and refrigerate until needed. This will keep for several weeks.

Basic Mojito

(makes 1)

1/2 lime, sliced into wedges

2 oz. rum

1 oz. mint simple syrup (see above recipe)

3 oz. seltzer

mint sprig

Muddle the lime in the bottom of a glass. Add the rum and simple syrup, and stir. Top with seltzer, and garnish with the mint. Serve with ice if desired.

montpeculiar

We spent Saturday morning in the capital city, Montpelier. It was broiling hot (or so we thought... now that the temp is even higher in the 90s, we know better), packed with Independence Day revelers, craft and food vendors, and very pretty.

watermelon-rhubarb soup

This weekend was quite the scorcher. In my mind, that translates into requiring some sort of chilled, fruity soup. My mom recently mentioned a soup that my grandmother would serve before dinner — a smooth strawberry soup made creamy with milk. I'm not sure about you, but that sounds like perfection to me! I'm waiting on the recipe for that one, but in the meantime, I raided my fridge and came up with watermelon and rhubarb.

Separately, the simmered rhubarb and the blended watermelon are a little icky; the first is overly sweet and the second, not sweet enough. Together, they chill and marry into something totally refreshing and delicious. The rhubarb adds that interesting little tang that makes it special. You could serve it before a fancy meal or as a light dessert... I sort of ended up drinking it here and there throughout the day to chill off.

Watermelon-Rhubarb Soup

Adapted from The Humble Gourmand

3 cups rhubarb, diced

2 cups sugar

4 cups cold water

6 cups watermelon, diced

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Add the water, rhubarb, sugar and vanilla in a pot and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let steep for another 15 minutes. Discard the rhubarb.

Puree the diced watermelon in a blender til smooth. Combine with the rhubarb-infused mixture in a large bowl, then put it through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any watermelon-seed bits.

Chill the soup in the fridge for at least six hours. Serve very cold; garnish with fruit or mint if desired.

alburgh dunes state park

When Laura visited last weekend, we trekked up to the Champlain Islands for the day to visit Alburgh Dunes State Park. Having never seen sand dunes in person before, I was super excited to find out there were some (little ones) right here in Vermont.

Still, it felt like false advertising to call them sand dunes. There was one tiny section of fenced-off sand on a small incline — and that was the dune. But we still had a fun time in the water, as well as on the beautifully scenic drive to the park, where we passed so many farms, vineyards and snack shacks. I may not visit the park again, but I'm definitely driving back to the islands this summer for some serious adventuring.

Oh — and happy Fourth of July!