Eve & Amanda's Rustic Pawpaw Cheesecake

What a weekend it was! Great weather and plenty of delightful activities. There is a lovely bike trail along the Little Miami River and it goes through Milford. We had to work at night on Friday, so we had to whole day free and I went on a nice little bike ride. The Nature Center had a big event Friday called Preparing for Night. There was a bluegrass band and families came to picnic and then visit multiple sites on the trails to learn about different subjects like astronomy, myths & fears, raptors and other nocturnal animals, etc. It was really fun.

This next one isn't for the faint of heart!!!

Right outside our house on Friday, Amanda and I heard a loud screeching noise. We looked high and low for a baby bird or something of the sort, but lo and behold, it was actually a gray tree frog. A gray tree frog in the mouth of a snake!!! Ahhhhhhhh! This poor frog had one leg in and one leg out! I think we startled the snake, and the frog made a jump for it. They both disappeared down the log and their fates are unknown by us to this day...

Amanda and Ric got me some Dandies!! Vegan marshmallows, that is!

We went to the Hofbräuhaus in Newport, KY on Saturday night and Stephanie & Phil met us there. Lots of good German food, a band playing German music with an accordian, and they brew their own beer. Most importantly, they had delicious fried pickles! :) A good time was had by all.




Now the moment you've all been waiting for... Remember all those pawpaws we got last Thursday? Well, we had a brilliant idea! Pawpaw cheesecake. You heard right, and it turned out wonderfully! We made the crust out of crushed-up pawpaw cookies and mixed the pawpaw fruit into the cheesecake mixture. Yum yum yum. We like to call the finished piece "Eve & Amanda's Rustic Pawpaw Cheesecake," perfect for fall!

Exploring nature's bounty

Exploring Nature's Bounty- the fall theme at the Cincinnati Nature Center. And you know what I say. "Don't mind if I do." Especially not when my boss calls Amanda and I as we have almost completed our walk home to tell us to turn around and come back. Why, you may ask? Because he discovered a treasure trove of pawpaws, ripe and ready to go! So explore nature's bounty we will, just as soon as we can find a recipe worthy of such a stash! We were thinking ice cream, pudding, or jam... Updates to come.

Roll on

This week's tasty treat from Amanda's baking class: rolls! Sprinkled with sesame seeds and poppy seeds, they were a delight!

Tonight Amanda, Ric & I went and caught frogs for an upcoming "night" program at CNC. Henceforth Amanda will be known as: Amanda, Frog Catcher Extraordinaire! She is a pro. We snagged a giant bullfrog and a green frog. As a reward for all of our hard work, we had ice cream sandwiches at United Dairy Farmers. You get to choose what kind of cookie and ice cream you want. Brilliant.

Our house is a very very very fine house

My new favorite night is officially Tuesday. Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Amanda made the brilliant decision to sign up for a baking class (held on Tuesday evenings) and I reap all the benefits. Last week she brought home these gourmet chocolate chip cookies. They were amazing! I will be sure to be sitting at the kitchen table tonight, waiting with a knife & fork & glass of milk!

Woowee! Finally got to try that pawpaw! I was worried that I might not like it, but it was delicious. Once it started to give off a delightful aroma, I sliced into it. It looks and feels kind of like a mango, and tastes sweet and slightly like melon, but not really. Very hard to describe. Huge seeds! I also got to try pawpaw cookies a few days later. :) Looking forward to having more of these tasty pawpaw delights in the weeks to come.

Feeding turtles in the pond at the Nature Center! Felt like a kid again. It was awesome.

Aurora came over to our house the other day and made us Rum Runners (did I mention she's also a bartender?)! Jealous?

Went to Timmy's for Labor Day weekend. We went to a place that had a bar in a pool. I'm sure I was sitting in pee water... but it was still fun. Felt like I was at Jersey Shore. Haha.

Putting up some pictures of the house finally. Behold, my room.

Hey look, it's my room some more. (Also note the "secret" door that goes between my room and Amanda's room!)






Yep, it's still my room. In this picture, note my fabulous new-to-me green chair from Goodwill! It smells a little like old people. I love it! I'm actually sitting in it right meow.

Exploring the house, found this sweet snake skin in the cellar. It looks suspiciously placed there, but I'm sure that even if someone did hang it there, they must've found it down there in the first place.

A view of the house from the outside. Isn't it lovely! Those windows right in the front are in Amanda's room. Mine is the one directly to the left! Home sweet home.

And so begins another internship...

Week 3 back in Ohio, week 2 at my new internship at the Cincinnati Nature Center as 1 of 3 education interns. I'm living at the Nature Center in a lovely house with one of my best friends and previous co-workers from Glen Helen, Amanda. (She is 1 of the other inters, but has been here for a term already, and is the reason I knew about this position in the first place.) Aurora, the 3rd intern, lives close by in Kentucky. So far work has been a completely new learning opportunity, as I have never worked for an organization this large and well-funded, but also with a pretty laid-back attitude. My boss, Jason, jokes a lot and seems to be an amazing educator. I think I will learn a lot from him.

So far we're just training and doing projects. We won't have any school groups until mid-September, and when we do they are just day field trips, not week-long programs like at the Glen. In the eight days I have worked so far we have: hiked and hiked some more, attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a Playscape that will open in fall 2011 (where kids can play and discover in nature without rules!), explored creeks, turned lots of compost for an educational display (and found a juicy grub in it and fed it to a black widow), built a wigea from start to finish (see pictures below), labeled grafted pawpaw trees (and looked for ripe fruit to eat), dismantled shelves in a dusty, dark barn, worked at a weekend Creek Romp and caught crayfish & salamanders & snakes & mussels & frogs, etc., attended a fish-shocking workshop by the ODNR, put up a rope "spider web" for kids to climb on, and planned and planned for upcoming events... And I assure you I am forgetting plenty of things! But that's what sticks out. Who knows what the rest of this week will bring!

In my spare time, I've been able to see many friends from the Glen, have some cooking and baking adventures, try to keep my room clean (haha), and experience some fun local activities. The Cincinnati area has so much to offer! The week before work started I got to hang with some 1st term Glen friends (Allie, Tim, Hong, Jesse, & Amanda) at Tim's house on Indian Lake in Russells Point, OH. Lots of swimming, jet-skiing, pontooning, bird-watching, & lounging! Then Amanda and I went to the Glen last week to help put on an example Evening Program (skits, songs, etc.) for the new naturalists. It was really fun and nice to meet everyone. Amanda and I also went canoeing last weekend on the Little Miami River with Glen friends Stephanie and Jesse, Hannah and Phil. Amanda, Eric (Amanda's boyfriend, also a previous Glen co-intern) and I hit up the Taste of Blue Ash last weekend and ate some delicious treats such as creme brulee cheesecake and berry crepes and vegetable samosas and cream puffs, just to name a few! Good music, too. Went to happy hour with some younger co-workers at a place called By Golly's. Hahaha! Anyway, now that my computer is working again (hard drive failed and it has been out of commission until today) I should be able to update this more frequently, or at least more coherently and less jumbled mess... Pictures below to go with the above jumbled mess. :)

At a pond at work. There were so many frogs in the water, on the banks, on the lily pads! There was a chorus of ker-plunks that preceded us as we walked, as the frogs jumped into the water to avoid us!

dragonfly

Pawpaw fruits in the trees! I can't wait to eat one!

Behind our house. Yes, I do live here. Yes, it's okay for you to be a little jealous. Just remember I don't get paid much, so they compensate with experience and fabulous views.

Found this hummingbird nest (I think?) while exploring at the Nature Center. If it's not a hummingbird nest, my next guess is Fairy Slipper.

O.M.GGGGGGG! If you look closely, you can see the wing on the inside! The golden parts looked like glitter. So beautiful!

Ah yes, the Wigea. Apparently it is a Native American shelter that would've been used in this area in the past. We started in the morning cutting down saplings and trimming off branches and leaves. Then we transported them to the above location (a play area for early childhood visitors), dug 12 deep holes in ground that has not been rained on in quite some time, and tied the trees together to form the skeleton of the wigea that you see above. Looks simple, but it took us a whole day to construct this thing! Our hard work paid off though, after we attached a canvas for our finished product! (See below.)

Me, Aurora & Amanda in our wigea!

Jesse & Amanda swimming in the Little Miami on our canoeing adventure.

Rest stop! Hannah, Stephanie & Phil on the Little Miami.

Stephanie, aka Badass McGee, jumped off this ginormous tree! My hero.

Fish shocking with the ODNR at the CNC. Their net is the only electric part, and it generally doesn't hurt the fish. Pretty cool. We saw ~15 different species of fish!












The white sucker! Our favorite! We touched its lips and they were so soft!







Baking adventures with Amanda! We tried to make strawberry banana muffins. They didn't turn out too well, but I think it's because I accidentally put in too much salt and baking powder. Oops! They look good though, don't they? :)






Ripe pawpaw that Jason found and brought in for us to eat! I am going to eat that so-and-so tomorrow!!! Report coming soon! Like, maybe tomorrow soon.

Update

I finally saw Dave Chappelle today. At the gas station. I thought everyone would want to know. :)
PS- I was at the gas station buying a soda on the way to see Slumdog Millionaire. It was excellent. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it!

PPS- We go to take a behind-the-scenes look at a Dayton area museum/discovery center. Good times. Here are some pictures of us exploring and monkeying around (per usual).









Look mom! I'm a turtle. And there's a Ric on my back.





Amanda pointing to a fossilized walrus baculum.






Amanda and Allie love fossils sooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!






Judging... Always judging...

Sorry Megan... Guess you should've recycled.

Lynn showing us their biology collections area. Lots of dead animals coated in arsenic. Yum.

This is their ginormous Burmese Python. As you can see from the picture, he is ginormous. He can eat up to 16 large rats at one time, and is about 16 feet long!

Play time!!! Two thumbs up from Aly!

Why is this giant stuffed head just sitting on the floor? Don't ask me. I think it's headed to a Boy Scout camp... It's missing an ear... Hmmmmm...

Playing in the tide pool! More and more thumbs up!!!!!!!!!!

Whoa, Where Did That Month Go?!

So I know it's been awhile since I posted something on here. My apologies. Things are always quite busy here, and there's not a lot of time for anything other than work and sleep. Don't worry- I've gotten in a few showers. :)



I guess the last time I wrote was right before our first group of kids got here. That seems like forever ago. The first week was good, but overwhelming. Theeeeeeeeen I had kitchen duty the second week. Boy was that a treat. And by treat I mean hell on earth. Cooking and especially cleaning for 100+ people is not my idea of a good time. I will spare the gory details, but I'm sure you can imagine how grumpy I was after working from 6:30am to 10pm with about two 15-minute breaks in there somewhere. Grumpfest 2009. Be glad you didn't buy tickets.



But then I was rewarded the next week when I was back on the trail with the most delighful group of 4th graders. We were warned that it was going to be a tough group because they were inner city kids, but I found the situation to be quite to the contrary. I had a blast with these kids, and it was just what I needed after my week in the kitchen to remind me why I love teaching environmental ed so much. These kids hadn't been around a lot of natural settings before so they were amazed and excited by just about everything we did and saw. It is times like these when I feel like I'm actually making a difference in kid's lives. I also lucked out with a great group of kids last week. If only I could tell myself their good behavior and interest were due to my superb teaching skills. Haha. But I think I am mostly getting lucky. We'll see what next week will bring. I'm excited because they will be 2nd graders- so cute!

Quote of the week (last week) that made my week: "Miss Eve is so nice and such a great naturalist. I want to grow up to be just like her." -6th grade boy, melting my heart :)
Ah yes kids, inflate my ego. Wonderful.

Other than that, things are good here, but always kind of strange. It is like living in a surreal world, always with the same 11 other people and really no one else. We live in our own little Glen Helen world... It's fun though. Besides the fact that pretty much everyone but me has spotted Dave Chappelle in town. Boooooo.

Well, sorry to cut this so short. Hope all is well with everyone! xoxo

Ric and Aly after a food coloring/shaving cream fight in the craft hut... Ric had a green face for about 3 days.

During our evening program for the kids... Although I wish we dressed like this every day. Sigh.
Amanda, me, Ric and Dia




More evening program business. Jesse, me and Allie

Out on a hike in the Glen.

Creating our own Glen Fun. Yes, those are nerf guns and drwn on mustaches. Don't ask.

Ric, Aly, Megan, Samuel, Lori, Amanda & me