Spring Break in the Catskills (and lots of cooking)
Spring break is here, which means that it’s time for lots of cooking and adventures! A couple friends and I took a girl’s trip out to the Catskills for a weekend. It was the perfect opportunity to refresh after midterms and to enjoy the natural beauty of New York.
We arrived Friday to the quintessential New York property, complete with a beautiful old red barn and our own little cabin. Inside, it was delightfully minimalistic, the perfect sanctuary for a crunchy getaway.
To celebrate, we made a big meal for our first night. These sweet potato quesadillas were superb. I discovered the recipe a couple years ago on one of my favorite blogs, A Beautiful Mess. You can find the recipe here.
We had a ton of fun cooking up the vegetables and getting creative with our spices. The final product couldn’t have been better!
The views were stunning, and Saturday morning we woke and went for a run along the long, scenic roads.
After our run, it was time to whip up some delicious breakfast, which you know I was excited for! Since we were going on a hike later, I wanted something that would be filling and nutritious. I cooked a couple eggs and used some of our leftover kale and sweet potatoes to go with it. My aunt was the one who gave me the fantastic idea of adding blueberries to a breakfast scramble. We first made our sweet potato, blueberry and egg scramble back on our trip to California in 2018, and it’s been a go to for me ever since.
Our hike was an interesting outdoor adventure. None of us were very prepared, as we hadn’t planned on hiking. We were fooled by the warm weather the day before, and were significantly underdressed. Wearing cropped leggings and running sneakers, the hike was pretty chilly. One of my friends was even in shorts! When we pulled up to the Minnewaska State Park, the woman at the gate recommended that we all have spikes on our shoes because the trails were iced over. Of course, none of us had spikes, so we slid our way down the trail in our sneakers. As someone who leads outdoor trips, I was not exactly setting the best example, but we were careful and the trail was never very steep. We didn’t make it to the scenic view at the end of the hike, but we did find a mini waterfall with a cute bridge where we could take some photos.
Once we got back to the car, we were totally worn out, so we found a sweet town nearby to eat some lunch and warm up in a sunny window for a while. We spent a lot of time in the little café. Happy as cats lounging in the sun, we drank our chai teas and munched on some granola. When we finally left, we were revived again and ready to do some shopping. We explored the area and found quite a mix of different places: two adorable cafes, both with some great chai, an interesting hole in the wall bakery, a Tibetan souvenir shop where I bought some fantastic yellow silk pants, and a Co-Op grocery store where we stalked up on granola and homemade scones.
After some shopping, we headed back to the cabin to chill out a bit before dinner. Of course, we had equally as much fun cooking our second dinner of the trip, a gluten-free pasta primavera.
Overall, we spent lots of time chilling in our little bungalow, cooking and exploring the crunchy towns around us. Though it was a short trip, the girl’s getaway was much needed. Sometimes you just need to take a step back, spend some quality time with good people, and remind yourself of the simple pleasures in life (like farmers markets, chai teas, and morning runs!)