Pancakes and Maple Syrup

 Stacy said if I needed an adventure this month, to let her know. I definitely did and tossed out a couple dates to her. She confirmed which one worked best for her. I tossed some ideas her way and we never really settled on anything specific. Then I saw a post for a Pancake Breakfast at Riveredge Nature Center in Newburg. Stacy was game. I bought tickets.

Riveredge Nature Center is in Newburg. It is open every day dawn until dusk. The Visitor Center is open Monday-Saturday 8:30-4:30. It is $5/person for a trail fee. 

We both remember going there in elementary school for maple syrup and pancake breakfast. Stacy distinctly remembers it raining and eating outside so was a bit concerned about the weather forecast (cold and rainy). I was like no worries there's a shuttle. I didn't realize we could have to eat outside. 

The Pancake Breakfast was $15/person. We checked in at the visitor center and got our tickets. Then we walked to the Sugarbush House for breakfast. The walk was about 1/2 mile along a very well maintained path. Or you could have taken a shuttle. The weather held so it was not a bad walk. 

We got to see the maple trees tapped for syrup. Blue bags are the new buckets apparently. 

For breakfast you got 2 pancakes, a piece of ham, and some pickles. Apparently in Southeast WI, pickles and maple syrup are a thing. I remember getting pickle spear as a kid with my maple syrup. These were just pickle chips. Either way they are good. Plus they pour fresh maple syrup over your pancakes.

We went out side to eat in the covered picnic area. They came around with fresh off the griddle pancakes and we each had one more. Overall it was a very good breakfast.

On the way back to the car, we checked out one of the play areas.. briefly.. I attempted to climb up the rope net and it was an epic fail. I only made it only rung and fell face first. Getting down was an adventure. Turns out scooting down on my butt worked best. It was not my brightest idea.

We wanted to check out a bridge but the trail was closed because of sugar dragon nesting area. I guess I will have to come back and explore at a future date when the sugar dragons are all hatched. 

It was a fun morning and only just the beginning of our adventure. More adventure fun coming soon. 

25 in 2025 -- Explore At Least One New Park or Trail -- Lowes Creek

I am always on the look out for new trails or parks to explore. I've done most of the ones around here. So when I'm at baseball or having adventures, I am on the lookout for a new park or trail or even a random path to explore. I got lucky when I found out our friends lived within walking distance of a county park. 

Since it was a beautiful day and I had some time to kill, I decided to go check out the county park. The hubby even came with me. 

Lowes Creek is part of the Eau Claire County Park System. If you actually park, like a state park, you need to pay an entrance fee. It is $6/day or $35/year and gains you access to all the county parks. 

Because of spring thaw many of the more challenging trails were closed due to muddy conditions. This made me sad as I'm always up for a good hike. The hubby was probably secretly glad as he is not a hiker and prefers much easier terrain. 

Since our options were limited we walk the snowshoe/cross county ski trail. It is a giant grassy loop that is fairly flat. To me it was pretty boring probably because of everything still being brown from winter. Hopefully we can explore when it's lush and green and fully of critters. 

I am glad Eau Claire County Park System has well maintained parks. I may have to explore other parks (and pay the $6 fee) on future visits.. or at least explore some of the other trails at Lowes Creek. 

I wonder what other trails and parks I will explore this year. Stay tuned to find out if I stumble across any other ones. 

25 in 2025 -- Try One New Pizza Place -- Tony Capony Pizza

 When our friends invited us up for St. Patrick's Dinner, they invited us up a day early and said we could have a pizza and pajama party. They also said their friends brought pizza from a new place so we will order from there. We are always up for good pizza.

Tony Capony has been serving up pizza for more than 20 years in Eau Claire. We just found out about them. They are open daily from 11-9. I surprised we've not heard of them before. 

We ordered 3 large pizzas. 

The Five Meat Combo Classic which was Pepperoni, Canadian Bacon, Beef Sausage, Italian Sausage, and Bacon

The Humble Pie Classic which was Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Onions, and Green Peppers -- no onions. 

Sausage and Pepperoni.

We wanted thin crust but ended up with hand tossed. 

The pizza was very good. We definitely would order again especially if we can get thin crust. On the Five Meat Combo it said bacon bits it was chunks of bacon. The 5 meat was definitely my favorite. The hubby favored the pepperoni and sausage. 

Tony Capony is definitely worth the price. I know this may be our new pizza place when we go to Eau Claire or at least on the south side. 

7453. Make gnocchi

 When I saw that the Little Chute Library was having a gnocchi making class, I immediately signed up. Danielle offered to come with me. 

Local Chef Spencer Webster volunteered to teach us how to make gnocchi. I thought we were making regular gnocchi but we were making goat cheese gnocchi with tomato fig sauce. I was intrigued to say the least. 

Gnocchi is an Italian Potato dumpling but instead of potato we were going to use goat cheese. Apparently the fig sauce was going to compliment the goat cheese. Okay... we shall see. 

We were given the ingredients for the gnocchi. Flour, Eggs, Goat Cheese, Nutmeg, Pepper. It was a pretty simple recipe.

First we mixed the goat cheese and flour together and got it crumbly.

Then we added the eggs and kneaded well.

We wanted to make sure it sprung back when poked. This takes longer than you think. This is why I don't make putzy things. I am too impatient.

We added the spices and continued to knead until it sprung back.

Then we got a lesson in shaping the gnocchi. This step works best when the dough has been chilled for several hours. Spencer showed how to make snakes with the dough.

Then he cut it into pieces and showed us how to roll the gnocchi using a fork to get the grooves. There is a such a thing as a gnocchi board which has built in grooves for this purpose. But if you don't want to spend $10 on Amazon the back of fork works too. The grooves are only there to hold sauce.. so be lazy and just cut off pieces.

I did try rolling a gnocchi. It was harder than it looked.

Since process was going to take a while, Danielle and I headed out with our dough. I had way to much going on to wait around to try tomato fig sauce.

A few days later, I busted out the dough and rolled my dough into gnocchi snakes and chopped them into pieces which I then rolled on the back of a fork.

I boiled my gnocchi for about 2-3 minutes until tender.

Since I didn't have fig sauce, I just used olive oil and pepperoni. It was pretty dang tasty. If I didn't know there was goat cheese in it, I wouldn't have known. Nutmeg was the dominate flavor but I think that was because we had too much nutmeg and pepper. 

I definitely enjoyed the culinary experience. Now to convince the hubby that we need to have proper potato gnocchi sometime.