Hanukkah

Happy first night of Hanukkah!

Vanderbilt Mansion

The view outside my bedroom window the morning after it snowed

On Sunday, my parents and I visited the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park. It's a gilded age mansion belonging to Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt, of the New York Vanderbilts. It's a huge estate and the grounds alone are astounding, although we didn't walk around much because it was cold. We couldn't take pictures inside the house, which was decorated for Christmas, but I took some photos outside.

The inside of the visitors' center, which was the house the Vanderbilts stayed in while the mansion was being constructed, and later used as a bachelor pad for male visitors (female visitors stayed overnight in the main house).

Chandelier in the visitors' center

The view of the Hudson

Hudson River overlook - the Vanderbilts had a mile of riverfront property out of their 600+ total acres.

The First Snow

Happy First Snow! I tried to capture on film just how pretty the snow was this afternoon, even though that's never quite possible. I photographed out our living room window, which already has pretty paper snowflakes. It was very festive, watching the real snowflakes fall in back of the paper ones!

Oh the weather outside is frightful,

But the fire is so delightful,
(yes, that's right, we have a cardboard fireplace in our living room..)

and since we've no place to go,
let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Baby Hats!

I knitted these matching roll-brim baby hats for our family friends in Alabama, Kent and Leah, who are expecting twins (a boy and a girl) in January! They were super easy to knit, and I forgot to take a picture of the top of one, but they have a really cute 6-point star pattern on the top.


Here's the pattern, which has instructions for all sizes: http://knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/hats/rolled-brim.html

Pumpkin Penne

Continuing our trend of pumpkin-themed foods this fall, my housemates and I made pumpkin penne with spinach, chicken, and red pepper flakes for dinner last night. We got the inspiration from a recipe in my cookbook How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman for pumpkin penne, and then adjusted it a bit since we were using some leftover canned pumpkin instead of fresh pumpkin. We used whole wheat penne, and we also added some sauteed chicken and spinach, and tossed it all together. Last but not least was the parmesan cheese. It came out better than we expected; it was a great way to use pumpkin in something other than dessert!

This picture didn't turn out very well - it's zoomed in a little close - and I honestly can't tell if it makes the pasta look disgusting or appetizing. Hopefully the latter, since it was delicious!

Art on the Hudson

On Saturday I went on the Vassar art museum's trip to two art-related sites in the Hudson Valley: Olana, Frederic Church's home and studio, and Art Omi, and outdoor sculpture park.

Frederic Church designed his home after a trip to India and the Middle East, and it's referred to as being "Persian-style" architecture.

Frederic Church was Thomas Cole's first student, and a foremost artist of the Hudson River School style of painting in the 19th century. His house was up on a hill and had a breathtaking view of the river.

Art Omi was also really interesting. The grounds were very extensive so each piece had its own individual space and could really stand alone. These are some of my favorite pictures.

Pumpkin Pancakes

On Sunday night my housemates and I made breakfast for dinner. We had eggs with spinach and onions, but more importantly, we made pumpkin pancakes. We love almost anything with pumpkin, so we had to try pancakes. We ate them with real Vermont maple syrup and Maine blueberry syrup...they were amazing!

Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Pancakes

6 ServingsPrep/Total Time: 20 min.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1-1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons canola oil

In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In a small
bowl, combine the milk, pumpkin, egg white and oil; stir into dry
ingredients just until moistened.

Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a hot griddle coated with cooking
spray; turn when bubbles form on top. Cook until second side is
golden brown. Yield: 6 servings.

Our pancakes didn't photograph very well, but they were delicious!
This one has blueberry syrup on it.