Ithaca IS Gorges- Buttermilk Falls

Good Morning! Aside from the Hurricane Earl Storm warnings and associated funky weather, this Labor Day weekend was beautiful in Central New York! Ralph and I had to head to Ithaca (to look for a car), but we also went on some cool excursions, like a trip to Moosewood Restaurant.

Had to document the best veggie burrito I've had in my life this burrito. It was soooo delicious with their homemade guacamole. I ate every little bit. Ralph got their lasagna, which I got last time and it was as amazing as I remembered it to be.

After lunch, Ralph and I put our game faces on and headed to Buttermilk Falls, a New York State Park showcasing some of the beautiful Gorges in and around Ithaca, NY. The state park has a few different trails, some connected by roads so you can take the 0.6-0.75 mile trails and connect them into a longer hike.

To give you an idea of what we hiked:

(Source)

Starting at the bottom of the map, we took the Gorge trail, the Bear trail and the Treman trail, and then doubled back on the Bear and Gorge trails.

Starting at the bottom of the Gorge trail, looking up:

First view of the falls

Looking down on the falls

A waterfall along the trail

Ralph standing next to Pinnacle Rock. This piece stands alone due to the erosion around either side over many many years.

To my left is one of many pools found along Buttermilk Creek

Once we got to the end of the Gorge trail and started on the Bear trail, the view was a lot less picturesque (no more falls up here and the Creek was a bit dry further up)

At the very top of the Treman trail/ Treman Lake

View above the lake. That curve right there, we realized very quickly, was what we would be walking on very shortly. I was thinking "Yikes!" but I was also distracted by the amazing view from here.

Apparently, this is what a really old damn looks like.

A view on our way back, on the Gorge trail.

On a side note, as we were backtracking, Ralph and I decided to take a short break, and sit on a wall just near the beginning of the Gorge trail. A second later, someone behind us yelled "You can't sit there!" and we jumped up only to realize it was our old Backpacking instructor, Josh! Josh was studying at Binghamton for his Master's while Ralph and I were undergrads. We talked for a few minutes and found out he worked at the state park and that he has an 18 month old daughter (Congrats!!!). It was really great to run into Josh, especially since he was one of the few people who knew Ralph and I before and while we began dating, and because we ran into him a lot in the past 3 years after we took his course.

All in all, we had a really fun day exploring Buttermilk Falls. I really want to go back in the future to check out more of Ithaca's gorges. For now, I have pictures and great memories of the day.

Edit: Chocolate Covered Katie is doing a Larabar giveaway, so I'm linking back to put in my entry. I also wanted to mention that, after making coconut butter, it dawned on me that Katie has lots cool recipes and she'll also be doing a coconut butter theme very soon. I can't wait to check it out and start creating awesome eats with coconut butter!

Coconut Love

Good afternoon! Happy Birthday to my sister, Melissa! (Although she probably won't be viewing this, but that's okay)

Let's step back to a couple months ago. I saw that Angela, from Oh She Glows, posted how she made coconut butter from scratch using a food processor and dried coconut. So began my yearning to make this coconut butter stuff I'd been hearing about all over the blog world. Most bloggers buy Artisana coconut butter, which was hard for me to find, and when I did find it, I also found that it was very expensive. However, making it at home sounded absolutely amazing and very cost effective. I pulled out my old but handy food processor and coconut flakes and began processing. Thirty minutes later and a cup of almond milk later (I was convinced that maybe it just needed some liquid?), I pretty much gave up on making coconut butter. My food processor was just not fast or powerful enough to pulverize the coconut into a butter.

Two months or so later, Ralph got me a 7 cup food processor for my birthday!

As much as I loved my old food processor, this one holds more food, is powerful enough to knead dough (!!!) and is surprisingly quiet compared to other kitchen appliances. On Sunday, when I received the processor, mom, dad, Ralph and I 'broke it in' by making a huge smoothie, which turned out very delicious and creamy.

Later in the week, I found myself having a coconut craving. I really wanted to try to make coconut butter again. Here's how it went:

2 3/4 cups shredded coconut + 1 Tbsp sugar

I blended the coconut for about 15 minutes, scraping down the sides when I felt the coconut was getting stuck on the sides a bit.

After about 15 minutes:

Relatively creamy, and warm from the food processor.

Put the butter in plastic, then popped it in the fridge.

I later took it out of the fridge, and I think I can store it out of the fridge because it's solid in or out of the fridge.

That was my journey with making coconut butter. Now all I can think of is this: what can I make with this stuff? Time for me to research and get creative!

Tree Hugger

Good afternoon! Happy September 1st!

I started my day bright and early at 7:30 (that's early for me these days, but I promise I can wake up very early when I have work an such), noshed on a piece of nut cake and then headed out for a run. I did a 10 minute warm up, then 40 minutes steady state. I'm not sure how far I went (I ran in a nearby park that had a nice walking path, but let's just say I off-roaded it now and then to stay in the shade haha!). When I concluded my run, I was quite hot since it was just after 9, and I was sure it was already in the 80s. Wrong! When I got back in my car, the temperature showed it was only 75*F. I guess it was a humid 75? Oh well, I was just happy to have done a total of 50 minutes running.

Came home and made a smoothie:

Used about 1 cup rice milk, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 1 banana, some bits of peach and apple and lastly some chia seeds to thicken it a bit. Yum!

I also had some toast with peanut butter and 2 dates to round out my breakfast.

Afternoon Activity:

So, I am a self proclaimed food and running enthusiast, but I may also have to add 'arborist' (not to mention semi-professional dog walker) to my resume. Let me get you caught up to speed.

My sister's cute little pine trees look like they're withering away, no? Well, they are kinda dying, but it's not due to the lack of rain. Take a closer look:

Those things hanging off the trees are little sacs of pus/yucky stuff/possible moths? Either way, these things are killing the tree, so Melissa asked me to cut them off and either drown the sacs or burn them.

I cut off a bunch of them and threw them in water, thinking that playing with fire, (especially on a hot day) was probably not a safe idea.

Now, I love trying to be hardcore hiking, biking and running, but like most girls, bugs kinda creep me out (she mentioned that they were filled with worms!!! Luckily, no worms crawled out). However, I'm always up for a challenge, so I tried to cut off as many of the ones as I could reach.

My cutting tools. I asked Dave for some gloves so I wouldn't have to touch the sacs.

New adventures- to be continued...