Poconos Weekend

I love winter. Growing up in Vermont made me really appreciate a brisk snowy day - the crunch of  packed snow under my boots; the serenity of driving on a back road with the sun shining through the trees, hitting the intensely bright white hills; and the cozy feeling you get drinking coffee in your PJ's in a warm house with the snow gently falling outside. We haven't had much of a winter in Jersey this year, but we wanted to make the most of the few weekends we have left before spring is officially here, so Friday afternoon we packed up our gear and headed to the Poconos.

Matt's friends from work have a beautiful rustic cabin near Camelback Mountain, and usually once a year we spend a winter weekend with them and their two little girls. The cabin is super cozy and quiet, and there's no TV, so it forces us to just relax and and enjoy the simple pleasure of chatting over some good beer and card games. I love these weekends and look forward to them every year.

This year we did a little of everything. We had beers and handmade pierogies (very different from what I'm used to - these ones were made with puff pastry and stuffed with creamy potatoes and mozzarella cheese, so good!) at Pocono Brewing Company, did a little shopping at the American Candle Company, which is actually a little indoor village of shops (birthday present for Matt's mom + old fashioned candy for us), played card games at the cabin for a good part of the afternoon, and did some night skiing.

We usually eat out at a local brewpub once while we're there, which is always delicious, but the rest of the time we often make our own meals. Homemade cinnamon rolls, pizza, and rigatoni with garlic bread were on the menu this weekend - comfort food to the max! We made sure to get in some fruits and veggies too and not gorge on carbs and sugar, but we don't worry much about nutrition stats when we're away.

Beer grains cinnamon rolls with coffee stout glaze - we need to work on our rolling skills, but omg the flavor. Recipe coming soon! 

This is my kind of Saturday.