naners and mountains

s4 is here for a wedding so i dragged her out for hiking (i'm trying to get out as much as possible before school/rain/snow/craziness keeps me away!) but before i took her to see the view above, i made sure to feed her goodies:) 

trying out gluten-free goodies w/ no dairy (my nose is still causing problems) and gluten-free for s4. these are adapted from The Everything Cookbook (have i mentioned how much i love this book?). see below for the full recipe! it came out pretty awesome if i do say so myself. 

but back to the hike, we went to sugarloaf mountain out in dickerson, md which is about an hour from ec. it's privately owned so don't get thrown off by the sign to drive up the mountain to get parking (like catoctin mountain, coming earlier means better chances of getting parking- we got to sugarloaf around 9:30). we took a combination of orange, blue, red, and white to round out to 8 miles or so. we hit the top of the mountain on our first part and then hiked up and down on the second part, and at the speed we were going i was very happy we did the extreme uphill part on the first part! i only fell once, and just to warn you, this place is sandy and has lots of smaller loose rocks and rocks that jut out to trip you or play havoc with your ankles so i definitely wanted hiking boots here. we finished fast enough that we picnicked in the trunk of my car (i wish i had a pic of our asses stuck in the trunk as we ate our food) and then headed back out to get sidetracked a bit:D

an adorable farmer's market on the same road as the mountain. we grabbed some jonagold and mutsu apples. anybody heard of mutsu apples before? or know how to pronounce it? s4 and i think it sounds too much like the dog breed shitzu to be very appealing but they look and taste sort of like granny smith but not quite as tart. we also got a half gallon of apple cider (you can buy cups of cold cider, but it was starting to get really cold so we were craving some hot cider!) 

Gluten-free Banana Pancakes (aka instant delicious bfast)

(adapted from The Everything Cookbook Cornmeal Pancakes)

Makes about 8 cakes (for 3-4 people i would say)

1/2 c instant oats soaked overnight in 1/2 c plain soymilk

1/2 c corn meal

1/4 c instant oats (+about another 1/2 c)

1 T baking powder

~1/2 tsp salt, i was just using a salt grinder w/ sea salt

~1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 c soymilk (i think if this is decreased to just 1/2 c then additional oats don't have to be added, but i will have to test it out)

1 large egg

2 bananas, sliced

Combine the corn meal, 3/4 c dry instant oats, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and then make a well in the center. In another bowl, beat the egg and soymilk together and then combine with the dry ingredients, adding in the soaked oats as well. Batter should be runny but not overly so (if too runny, go ahead and add more oats or corn meal).

Preheat a buttered skillet over medium-high heat. Cook on the hot griddle, using about 1/4 cup batter per cake. Lightly press banana slices into the top of the poured batter into whatever shape you like. Cook about 1 or 2 minutes on each side; pancakes are ready to run when the tops have broken bubbles on the surface (or you lift an edge and it is golden brown on the underside).

*these are amazing if you like a bit of texture to your pancakes! not gritty, but still some more crunch to them, but still really soft from the soaked oats i think.

some adorable squash at the farmer's market!