Video Blogging!

So, in order to show you folks even more of the wonderful house and gardens, what goes on here and the great activities in the area, we have decided to add HD video to our blog. Here is our first test post, the Esopus Creek running through our garden as the snow begins to melt.

Esther and Jared

A wonderful group of people celebrated Valentine's Day weekend with us this morning. It was a chance to relax and enjoy good company, and an excuse to eat pecan waffles with chocolate ganache, and custards with fresh raspberries, and strawberries dipped in (even more) chocolate. Esther is a photographer who works for the NFL. We feel quite blessed by the people who visit this house, and we think you can see by the warmth and joy in Jared's and Esther's smiles just what we mean. Check out some of Esther's vibrant portraits here: www.esthernisanova.com/ .

Dutch Babies

For a delicious breakfast, 'Dutch Babies', or small Baked German Pancakes, never fail to impress. Made from an eggy batter baked in the oven in cast iron skillets, the mixture puffs up to great heights and becomes golden and crisp around the edges. Timing is everything as it has to be served immediately, invariably starting to collapse the instant it is whisked from the oven.

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup all-pupose flour

pinch salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

confectioners sugar

Preheat the oven to 400-450F.

Butter four small 6 inch skillets.

Beat the eggs thoroughly in a mixing bowl and blend in the milk. Slowly sift the flour and salt into the egg mixture while whisking continuously. Add the melted butter and mix briskly until the batter is smooth.

Pour the batter into the skillets and bake for 15 minutes.

While you're waiting, get the lemon juice and sugar ready - you don't want to lose a second once they're out of the oven!

Take the pancakes out of the skillets and sprinkle with lemon juice (not too much!) and dust with powdered sugar.

Serve immediately.

Pellegrino

We like to have a complimentary bottle of San Pellegrino sparkling natural mineral water in each room when guests arrive. As well as tasting really good it looks great!

Meet the Murrays

Meet the Murrays, from Philadelphia, who stayed with us this weekend. It was the first time the children had been cross country skiing, and they had a great time on the Saturday learning at Mountain Trails cross country ski center in Tannersville in the Catskills. This has all the equipment you'll need ready for hire. With 35 kilometers of patrolled and groomed trails, marked to their degree of difficulty, it's the perfect place to get to know this sport. Lessons are offered too.
On the Sunday, they went to the Mohonk Preserve in the Shawangunk mountains just south of us. The Visitor Center there has daily updated information on which trails have been groomed. For hiring equipment for the Shawangunks and local trails, Rock and Snow in New Paltz is definitely the place to go, but get there early, as they don't take reservations!
For experienced cross country skiers who can lay their own trails, the Hurley Rail Trail adjoins our property and offers 10 miles of a gently sloping gradient all the way to High Falls, with many parking options where roads intersect it, for exploring shorter sections only. High Falls offers great places to eat, and a range of gift and antique shops to reward the intrepid traveller.

Snow

Happy New Year !!

Happy New Year!! It's been a wonderful season and we'd like to wish all our friends and visitors a healthy, happy and prosperous 2011. In only our second full season, so many of you returned, and we're honored. This house certainly wouldn't be the same without you.......there's still a lot of heritage to uncover here and the renovation continues, albeit at a slower rate. There are also facts to gather, artifacts to catalogue, and books to be written. We hope to share more of the house's history with you this season on our blog!

Baked apples with cranberry coulis

This tastes of.......well, this time of year. It tastes of festive lights and frosty mornings and mulled wine. It's baked apples with a filling of raisins and craisins soaked in a little rum, processed briefly with nuts, and topped with streusel. And then you pour cranberry coulis around it, which is nothing more than a cup of fresh cranberries, another of orange juice, just a little sugar and some cinnamon, heated, and pressed through a sieve. Delicious!

The Plenty Of Hurley

Harold Donaldson Eberlein (1875 - 1942) was a prolific writer. This passage appears in Historic Houses of the Hudson Valley, published 1942, but likely published for the first time around 1915.

"Old Hurley is just as Dutch as Dutch can be......Hurley cheeses and Kingston refugees have given Hurley most of its renown in the outside world. So plentiful and so famous at one time were the former, that Hurley was popularly credited with having "cheese-mines." The "pot-cheeses" of Hurley were much esteemed by Kingston folk and there grew up a brisk trade in this toothsome commodity.......The following old Dutch verses, done into English by a local antiquary, tell of plenty at Hurley, not only of pot cheese but of many other kinds of foodstuffs as well;-

What shall we do with the wheat bread do?
Eat it with the cheese from Hurley.
What shall we with the pancakes do?
Dip them in the syrup of Hurley.
What shall we with the cornmeal do?
That comes from round about Hurley?
Johnnycake bake, both sweet and brown,
With green cream cheese from Hurley.

Does this not reflect the reign of peace, plenty and contentment? The old Dutch, indeed, is truly realistic as the question comes "Wat zullen wij met die pannekoeken doen?", and at the answer, "Doop het met die stroop van Horley," one involuntarily licks his chops over the dripping sweetness of "die stroop". "

Sinterklaas is coming to town

Rhinebeck has a Sinterklaas extravaganza on this Saturday 4th December which revives (amongst other things) some of the ways the 17th century Dutch would have celebrated St. Nicholas' Day, December 6th. This is a great cross-cultural community event that seeks to put creativity and authenticity before the commercialization of the holiday season.

Shows and other events take place all day and into the evening. The Starlight Parade draws on any and every tradition including ancient Winter Solstice celebrations. Who's in it this year? Well, there's Sinterclaas on his white horse, the Grumpuses (his wild sidekicks ), the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance (which dates back to the 11th century), St. George and the Dragon, and a Snow Goose, to name but a few. We'll be baking some authentic Dutch Spekulaas cookies for our guests this weekend to honor this time of year.

"If you have never experienced a town fully immersed in celebreation - that would be most of us - this would be something magnificent to observe and participate in..." The Huffington Post

Fall wedding.......

Our garden, perched high above the Esopus Creek, made a perfect spot for the wedding this October of Andrea and James, from Minnesota.

"Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.

Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.

Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you."

(Native American)

We wish both of them every happiness. Thank you for sharing this very special day with us!

An Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black Special Edition and a Hudson Valley photo shoot

Back in May, we looked out and saw the MOST beautiful car we'd ever seen parked on our drive. Nadia would admit that cars aren't her strong point, but there was no mistaking that this one was a cut above the rest. The style of it just blew her away....what was it??? Turns out it really was a 2010 Aston Martin, a DBS Carbon Black Special Edition no less, on loan to Stephen Walker, the Photo Director of Nylon mag. He stayed with us one weekend and took the DBS on a photoshoot in the Hudson Valley. This is a very, very special car.......thanks for letting us take the photos and have a closer look! You can feast your eyes on more at http://www.astonmartin.com/.

We thought we'd share this on the day that James Bond's 1964 DB5 sold for a cool $4 million (all proceeds going to charity) - here's the film clip where 007 gets the car. Just don't touch the red button.....

"Groote Kamer" (Great Room)

We have been working hard to restore what we are calling the "Groote Kamer" or Great Room. Located on the ground floor, with it's own drive, patio and entrance, the 22' x 17' room features the remains of an 18th Century Dutch "jambless" fireplace, glorious wide plank floors, a reproduction panelled board wall enclosing the bathroom, enormous beams and the original wide plank ceiling.

This is a room that's still evolving. Eventually the outside door will be a reproduction Dutch door (the kind that's cut in half horizontally), and the fireplace hood is being reconstructed as we speak......The beautiful hand crafted chandelier comes from Hurley Patentee Lighting, which is actually right next door to us! The Patentee Manor was the next house that the original Kool/Cole family went on to build after this one, so it's especially appropriate for our lighting to come from there, and wonderful that their designs are so authentic.

Meet Molly and Alex

Meet Molly and Alex, who stayed with us this week, just as the foliage was starting to turn. They had a great time exploring the area, and picked two pecks of apples! Molly Sawyer is a sculptor whose work you can see here. You can also see it if you happen to be in or near Jersey City the first weekend in October, for the 11th Annual Open Studio Tour Weekend. Thanks both of you for being great company.

Levon Helm Free Concert at Gills Farm

We just heard - Levon Helm and his band will once again be playing a Free Concert right here in Hurley, NY, at Gills Farm Stand on Route 209 on SUNDAY OCTOBER 17th. Come on over!
Last year:
http://stonehousebandb.blogspot.com/2009/10/hurley-fun.html
Great review and pictures and set list for the Mountain Jam appearance earlier this year:
http://mountainjamblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/levon-friends-review-pictures.html

11th Annual Hudson River Valley Ramble

The Hudson River Valley Ramble celebrates the history, culture and natural resources of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, as well as the amazing landscape, communities, and trails throughout the region. What began as a modest event that was held during one weekend in September, has grown in popularity and in numbers over the years. This year, the Ramble takes places over three weekends in September.

Guided walks on 9/18 include 'Birding for Late Risers' at Minnewaska Lake and looking at wildlife on the Esopus by Saugerties. There's also a 'Panther Mountain History Hike' in the Catskills, taking in Giant Ledge and the summit.

On 9/24 there's a 'Harvest Moonwalk' on the railtrail between New Paltz and Highland, and on 9/25 there's 'Exploring the railtrail in Rosendale' and 'The Rondout National Historic District Walking Tour' - the Rondout is now part of Kingston, but was once its own important port, with large paddle steamers and mountains of coal from the many barges that docked there.

All these are 15-30 minutes away from us. There are many more to choose from, and also several kayak trips. Let someone else plan your day for you and just relax into the landscape and the company!

For more details, visit http://www.hudsonrivervalleyramble.com/

Harvest

Basil, rhubarb, beans, elderberries, tomatoes, black walnuts, rainbow chard and gladioli.......

Cyclists extraordinaire

Meet Tim and Flavia, from Boston. They decided to explore the Shawangunk Ridge, cycling first to High Falls, then on to New Paltz over the ridge via Rosendale, with a well-earned rest at the Waterstreet Market. Having been told in the cycle shop there that there was no way they could go back up using the steep route with 3 gear bikes, they did it anyway! From the top of the ridge, they found a great way down through the Mohonk Preserve, taking in the 'Million Dollar View' at Spring Farm Trailhead, and then later using the railtrail that goes from High Falls right up to our house. They had a fantastic time and recommend this route to anyone with mountain or hybrid bikes......and maybe a few more than 3 gears!

New ways, old ways

What could be more traditional than freshly baked bread for breakfast? Most mornings we include this now, and it's making everyone very happy indeed ..... but this is not traditionally made bread.

It's a new way of baking that's been around a couple of years, that doesn't require kneading. A wet dough is mixed with enough ingredients for at least four pound loaves, and is then left a couple of hours to rise before being placed in the fridge, where it can be left for up to two weeks. Every time you want to bake, you scoop out a portion, shape it briefly, and leave it for a while before baking. That's it!

The recipes we're using right now come from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg MD. Zoe trained at our very own Culinary Institute of America, 30 minutes away in Hyde Park. Check out Zoe's website! Our favorites right now are Betsy's Seeded Oat Bread (above) and the 100% Whole Wheat and Flaxseed Bread. Certianly the tastiest way of getting your Omega-3s. Yum.

Sunset at Ashokan

Nothing much to add really... just wanted to share the view. The Ashokan reservoir with the Catskill Mountains, about 5 miles from here.