Vacation Loop

 

This weekend we set off on a 16 mile backpack loop. We were expecting beauty and mountains but we also ended up feeling relaxed and like we'd taken a long vacation. I love that about backpacking, that sometimes it makes time slow down and you have the time and energy to soak everything around you in without a pushing agenda.

 

Friday night we drove up to the Glacier Mountain area and camped at a free mini campsite. Early the next morning we drove the last few miles to the Little Wenatchee trailhead and started hiking. Mostly we bushwacked, very overgrown at the beginning so we waded through leaves and bushes until we popped out into some beautifully textured meadows spotted with dark pine trees. Winding our way up we started to discover the whole hillside was huckleberries and blueberries. Ripe, juicy amazingly delicious berries. Or pace was then stinted by shoveling them into our mouths every few feet.

 

Once we fan into the next trail we found a huddle of trees that created a perfect shady spot to hang our hammock and look over at Glacier Mountain. We napped, foraged berries, ate lunch, and lounged in the scrumptious cool shade. A few hours later we rallied and hiked a few more miles to Lake Sally Ann.

 

Here we set up a campsite looking at the pristine lake. The rocks around the lake were full of pikas that kept squeaking all day as they hopped around the rocks. I jumped into the lake and Joshua washed off which felt amazing. The lake was cold but not as bad as you'd expect. The day unfolded slowly and dropped into night slowly. We felt so relaxed and as we dried off from the lake making dinner we couldn't help but feel like we were on a long lazy vacation. While it fell into night we foraged in the shade for more berries to take home. Spent the rest of the night in our hammock cuddled with a sleeping bag sipping wine while we read Harry Potter.

 

The full moon was so bright it was casting its own shadows and when I woke up in the middle of the night I could still see all the way across the lake. It felt magical and special.

 

Next morning we woke up to squeaking pikas and had oatmeal full of fresh berries with coffee. Then hiked back out along the Caty Ridge which offered great views and amazing varied textures playing against one another.

Summer Pie Time

no cherry pitter- place cherry over a glass bottle and
push a chopstick through the back of the cherry,
 and pop the cherry out through where the stem
was into the bottle

Pies are not my thing, generally speaking. I'm a cake girl. I think they taste way better and isn't pie like a giant thick pop tart really!? But once a summer I do truly love creating a pie. The simplicity, the care, the flow of steps creates a happy rhythm that only pie making creates.

This year Joshua and I snagged a bunch of blackberries from his work parking lot. The act of giggling as we got pricked and stuck in the bushes, the rain trying to scare us off but not succeeding, the 2-handed method Joshua implements often (picking them and popping them straight into his mouth). The picking reminded me of the method and feelings of making a pie so I knew the blackberries were going into my once-a-summer pie.

lavender pistachio crust:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup pistachios; ground up in food processor into almond meal
1-2 tbs lavender buds
1 tbs sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup cold butter; cut into pieces
1 cup water with ice cubes in it
1 egg white; lightly beaten

filling:
2 cups blackberries
1 cup cherries;pitted
2 tbs coarse sugar
3-5 tbs agave
2 tbs butter; cut into pieces

1    mix flour, pistachio meal, lavender buds, sugar and salt in a bowl
2    using a pastry blender cut in the butter until only about pea size pieces
     are left
      (you want pieces because it makes the crust flaky)
3    once blended  mix in 1/2 cup cold water (no ice cubes)
4    if dough isn't quite able to come together add more water 1 tbs at a time
      (shouldn't need the full cup)
5    bring dough together into a ball and split in half
6    wrap each dough ball in plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least 1 hour
      and up to overnight
7    preheat oven to 425 degrees F, flour your rolling surface and bring 1 dough
      ball out of the fridge
8    roll it into about a 12" circle
9    then lightly fold in half, and then half again and transfer to pie tin and unfold
     (there should be about a 1/2" overhang of dough)
10  press into tin and roll our your other half of the dough
11  place blackberries and cherries inside bottom crust and sprinkle in sugar, drizzle in agave,
      and scatter the butter pieces
12  to make a lattice top use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into strips and then
      weave them together over the top of the pie
13  crimp the woven dough together with the bottom by pressing your thumb
      between you middle and index finger all the way around
14  brush egg white over top of pie crust and place pie in oven and bake for 25 minutes
15  then reduce temperature to 375 degrees F for about 30-35 minutes, filling should
      be bubbling and crust should be golden brown
16  let cool for 15 minutes before serving

Going to share it this week with our small group, pies (giant poptarts) are meant to be shared outside on blankets with great people I'm pretty sure!