My New Hampshire adventure with Mom started simply enough. Fly in, rent car, proceed on with plan. The weather had different ideas, but it ended up being pretty fun, and a whole different type of adventure!

We left Manchester first thing in the morning, making our way north towards the White Mountains where we were to spend the evening. Driving through a little rain, we didn’t think much of it, and were greeted by our host, James Fadden, where we started our schooling in all things maple syrup.

I’ll get into more thorough details next time (and share a recipe or two!), but the main point about this part of the story is that it was raining- it wasn’t supposed to snow! But, snow was on it’s way.

As we approached our next stop, the mountain snow was piling up, perhaps 3-5 inches at this point. Our rental car, some wind-up variety (or so it seemed) could not handle it, and we burned the engined/burned the tires/did something else dreadful as we were attempting to inch up an unplowed, hilly drive.  As smoke billowed up before our eyes, we decided to scrap the rest of that day’s plan and head to our lodgings for the night where we could regroup, rest up and figure out how to get ourselves a new car.

The Adair Country Inn. A vision right out of our New England dreams.

I’ll admit that when I first pulled up the site before we left home, I was a bit disappointed that we’d be seeing it not in its winter or fall splendor, but rather what I assumed would be muddy spring attire. Be careful what you wish for, they say, and so I guess in some ways, I asked for this.

After the warmest greeting from our lovely hosts Tom and Cindy, and with our driving situation settled and with nothing else to do or where to go for the day, I thought the best thing to do was to go out an explore the area.

Snow shoes, necessary.

I can’t say that I was mad that I got my wish. It was beautiful. Breathtaking. Each shot prettier than the next.

And the whole scene put me in the mood for mischief.

Chilled (for lack of proper winter attire), I ducked inside for quintessential coziness.

A little tea, a little wine, a little maple martini capped off the evening.

And with that, we tucked in for the night, but not before peeking outside to catch a final glimpse of the night’s snowfall.

We woke up the next day, after one of the best nights’ sleep in a while (down pillow tops!) ready for breakfast, snow-side coffee…

and our next sweet adventure.

Since I got to see this fully cloaked in winter, I can’t wait to plan a trip back to see it dressed up for fall!

A day late for #TacoTuesday with these roasted cauliflower tinga tacos. Taco Wednesday? I don’t know. In any case, sorry, but these are so good that you’ll forgive me soon enough. And now they’re ready for next Tuesday and every one after that.

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Hey spring. Yeah, I see you there.  But I know that since it’s still hovering around 30F outside that you’re not really, really there yet. So, before you are, and stews make way for salads, I’m sneaking in this recipe for Irish lamb stew.

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