rhodyadventures

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east bay bike adventures

Today was a perfect day for a bike ride!  The East Bay bike path is a 14-mile path that connects East Providence to Bristol.  I rode the path part of the way today to Barrington, stopping for a picnic along the water.

From the beginning the path is breathtakingly beautiful, a mix of ocean, boats, and the rougher edges of Providence's industrial skyline, including some (not pictured) windmills:

About five miles into the ride you reach the Haines Memorial State Park. To our surprise there was a folk festival, the Fiddle n Folk fest to be exact. We stopped to listen to some music:    

And explore the state park: 

The bike path is a great place to bike, jog, walk your dog or rollerblade (why is it that I only ever see rollerbladers near oceans, like venice beach, miami, and Rhode Island?!?).  

Make sure to check out the East Bay bike path before it's covered in snow!  Did I mention it's a totally flat ride? 

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a stately adventure: Rhode Island's statehouse

Long time no blog! I was out of town this past weekend and thus didn't have any Rhode Island adventures to report on. 

Taking advantage of my two weeks off before work starts, I figured I'd be a tourist for the day and get a tour of the statehouse.  Tours are available monday-friday at 9am, 10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm (and maybe 3pm?).  While not required, it's best to call ahead to reserve a spot. 

We happened to arrive at the statehouse while an event to support research for childhood cancer was taking place; there were adorable kids running all over the place and Governor Chafee was there, handing out awards to the cancer survivors. 

Rhode Island's Statehouse is the fourth-largest self-supporting marble dome in the world, following St. Peter's Basilica, the Minnesota State Capitol, and the Taj Mahal.  Not bad, right?

It's also one of the first buildings that had electricity built into it (instead of having to retrofit it).  So, the lightbulbs may look tacky now but at the time they were pretty impressive! 

The Rhode Island seal was all over the Statehouse, including (my favorite) on the elevator doors.  The seal says "Hope" which is Rhode Island's motto and short for "hope we have as an anchor of the soul" from a Hebrew Verse 6:18-19: 

My favorite room in the statehouse was the library, which is open to the public.  While you can't check out books, you can read any of the book in the library as long as you remain the library.  You can also climb the spiral staircase to check out the books on the third tier.

A new feature in the Statehouse is the museum, which holds Rhode Island's original charter: 

I sadly didn't get a great photo but in the top left you can see half a portrait of King Charles the Second.  Instead of signing the charter he just drew a picture of himself (well, I'm sure someone else drew it for him).  I wish I could sign documents with a hand-drawn image of my face. 

And, one of my favorite facts from the tour was learning that this guy, who was the 30th Governor of Rhode Island invented the term "side burns": 

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After 4 days of rain the sun has come out! Beautiful day for a picnic in Prospect Park

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A great (rainy) day for woody allen at the Avon Cinema.

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quahog adventure: clamming at fogland

Despite the rainy labor day weekend weather, I decided to venture south to Tiverton, RI to spend the morning at  Fogland Beach with a few friends to dig for quahogs. 

photo taken by David Greenky

We quickly learned, thanks to a RI Environmental Police officer, that one measures a quahog not by the width, but the hinge width.  It's pretty handy to have one of these to make sure you're measuring the quahog correctly.  If the quahog falls through the hole, it's too small (and it's a $50 fine per quahog if you take the small ones).  If it doesn't fall through, well then it's yours to keep! 

If you are a RI resident, then you don't need a license to dig for clams.  If you are not a RI resident, then you can apply for a license here.  It's $11 and good for 14 days. 

We ended up with five and a half dozen clams and some muddy hands:

photo taken by David Greenky

We took the clams home in a cooler filled with ocean water.  

When we got home we cleaned them with cold fresh water.  Our friends came over for a DIY dinner party! 

First, we made the pasta: 

and then a white wine sauce that the clams opened up in:

and last, but not least, a delicious meal to enjoy: 

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Late lunch at Geoff’s Superlative Sandwiches! Nom nom

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Our PVD local brew shop is closed for the month so we headed north to Blackstone Valley Brewing Company to pick up some ingredients for an all-grain IPA.

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blueberry boy bait

from the smitten kitchen blog: 

Ingredients 2 cups plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon table salt 16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 3 large eggs 1 cup whole milk (though buttermilk, which was all I had on hand, worked just great) 1.5 cups blueberries, fresh (**the original recipe calls for 1/2 cup but I tripled the amount of blueberries and was quite pleased with the result!)

Topping 1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not defrost) 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

Whisk two cups flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated and scraping down bowl. Reduce speed to medium and beat in one-third of flour mixture until incorporated; beat in half of milk. Beat in half of remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk, and finally remaining flour mixture. Toss blueberries with remaining one teaspoon flour. Using rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries. Spread batter into prepared pan.

Scatter blueberries over top of batter. Stir sugar and cinnamon together in small bowl and sprinkle over batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan 20 minutes, then serve and enjoy!

(Cake can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.)

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blueberry ice cream

Adapted from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop recipe for raspberry ice cream:

Ingredients 1 1/2 cups half-and-half 1 cup sugar 1 1/2 cups heavy cream 4 large egg yolks 1 1/2 cups strained blueberry puree 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

To make blueberry puree:  Puree 6 cups of blueberries in a food processor, then press them through a mesh strainer with a flexible rubber spatula, or use a food mill.

Warm the half-and-half and sugar in a medium saucepan. Pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Mix in the blueberry puree and lemon juice, then stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, but to preserve the fresh blueberry taste, churn the ice cream within 4 hours after making the mixture.

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blueberry mint soda

adapted from Anton Nocito's Make Your Own Soda recipe book

Ingredients 1.5 cups fresh blueberries 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice fresh mint, to taste seltzer  ice cubes

Directions In a small saucepan set over medium heat, combine the blueberries, sugar and lemon juice.  Bring to a simmer slowly until all of the berries have popped, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and chill in the fridge.

(the original recipe recommends that one strains the syrup, but i didn't and it tasted great, though there were blueberry skins in the drink)

to make one drink:  add 3 tablespoons of blueberry syrup to a glass add 4 mint leaves to the syrup and muddle fill the glass with ice cubes and then top off with seltzer mix gently and enjoy!   

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end of summer adventure: blueberry picking

I spent sunday AM picking about 3.5lb of late and jersey blues(berries) at Macomber's Blueberry Farm in Coventry.  Not only does John Macomber have a website, but he's got a nice facebook page too!  After spending his whole career teaching Economics and Marketing at Coventry high school, John clearly knows how to lure blueberry customers to his lovely farm.  His facebook page has tours of the farm, updates about the blueberries, and recipes.

I made sure to follow the advice (above) and stuck to a few blueberry bushes and ended up with over 3lb of blueberries! 

Not only will you get your far share of blueberries, but they're only $2.50 a pound!  There may still be a couple weeks left in the season....

Recipes for blueberry soda, blueberry ice cream and blueberry boy bait to come.

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first post

i left washington dc a year ago to move to providence, ri.  one of the things i loved about dc was not only was there an abundance of things to do, but there were tons of blogs about what to do. i haven't yet found a providence / rhode island adventure blog so i figured i'd start one. this is my first attempt at a blog, so please be patient with me.... and let's adventure together! 

p.s. i am obsessed with all things food, so i anticipate much of my adventuring will involve both eating and cooking.