Let's pretend it's Fall again

I am loathing winter at the moment.  I try not to be too negative about the brief (but oh so long!) few months when the cold sweeps in and steals my soul.  But today I am feeling it.  Winter I am over you and your incessant snow fall, frigid temperature with subzero windchill, potholes, ice patches, and lack of sunshine.

I know most are looking longingly toward Spring (not that I am not) which is a logical choice to keep away the winter blues.  But I keep finding myself wishing for Fall.  It's my favorite time of year and I just love spending every possible moment outdoors in the crisp air as I bust out my favorite jeans and watch my summer tan slowly fade.  We had a pretty jammed back Fall last year and I didn't seem to post much about it.  I think after a long summer of pregnancy sickness, I was finally feeling good and just wanted to enjoy the time rather than think about it.  Today I am thinking about it.....

Brunch in NYC

September was action packed with travel including: our annual Labor Day trip to Ohio where Riesling enjoyed my brothers excavation project to the fullest and managed to get dirty than I ever thought possible; a trip to NYC to visit friends complete with Riesling's first taxi ride (with no car seat, eek!); and a quick jaunt to Brooklyn with Riesling in tow for the bridal shower of a dear friend.  We also jammed in a few good hikes, a trip to our enjoy the festivities at our local Snipes frame, and introduced Riesling to her big girl bed. 

October brought a growing baby bump, a trip to the pumpkin patch with Grandma and Grandpa, two weddings, celebrating my 33rd birthday, and enjoying lots of Halloween fun.

 

November seemed to bring along a bit colder temperatures we busted out the flannel, sweatshirts, and carharts and still enjoyed a lot of fresh air and outdoor activities with a trip to Connecticut to meet the latest addition to the Levin family and lots of fun closing down the garden and playing in the leaves.  Jim and I also celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary with Riesling at our favorite vegetarian restaurant, The Blue Sage. 

 

 We actually ended November with a very snowy trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving but I will just try to forget that....

Photoshoot

I'm so glad that I was able to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather yesterday because today is gray, rainy, and chilly.  I took a intro to photography class over the weekend to learn how to actually use the manual settings on my DSLR (a wonderful gift from Jim for my birthday....2 years ago!).  Riesling was kind enough to be my model yesterday while I played around with the settings.

 1/60 f5.6 ISO 100

1/50 f5.6 ISO 100

1/125 f8.0 ISO 400

 1/100 f8.0 ISO 400

1/160 f8.0 ISO 400

Apple Picking

We ventured out to Styer's Orchard last weekend for a little family hayride action & apple picking.  It was a little chilly to start but turned out to be a beautiful sunny Fall day.  Riesling really loves being outdoors will stay pretty content in the Ergo for a long while.   I just love this picture of us together.  Doesn't she just look so content?

 Daddy snatched her away for a little while so she could experience some apple picking first hand...

She loved the few and enjoyed numerous "horsey" rides from Daddy...

We always come home from the orchard or strawberry picking with more than we know what to do with, but I make it a point not to let any of go to waste.  I decided on applesauce for our first round of apple treats.  I made a simple batch for Riesling by peeling & cubing a few apples, steaming until soft, than right into the food processor with water until it reached the right thickness.  

For the adults I decided to try crockpot applesauce.  I modified this recipe slightly (less sugar and a touch of vanilla) and it turned out really great!  We had it for dessert all week and a batch in the freezer for later.

Lists & Links

I made these "breakfast cookies" last night and they are completely gone already! Just sweet enough but not the guilty kind of sweet. Kind of like a bowl of oatmeal in cookie form. We've also really been enjoying a juicy tart morning grapefruit together.

I love this color combo with the soft peach peaking out of the bright yellow. I'm been checking out more fashiony blogs lately including here, here, and here. Maybe because I'm stuck in a a crappy, blah maternity wardrobe.

I also have really been into this blog. Lots of quick posts ranging from motherhood to fashion to NYC life.

I'm heading to Ohio tomorrow on a little solo road trip. To battle my loneliness I picked up 5 different audio books and about a dozen new CDs at the library. I've got everything from Fahrenheit 451, Barbara Walters, some David Sedaris, and a bit of little crappy girly fiction.

I'm hoping this beautiful fall weather lasts through my weekend roadtrip. Any fun plans before the frigid temps set in?

Me and the Sofee dog enjoying a crisp fall camping trip (2009)

Maine

A few weekends back we took a little road trip to Maine to spend the weekend with good friends.

We were offered a gorgeous fully equipped family cabin with gorgeous lakeside views to occupy for the weekend. Hiking, kayaks, fires, and good company....

Unfortunately it ended up rainy most of the time we were there so we had limited time to enjoy the great outdoors. I was really looking forward to a some nice long hikes in the crisp clean air but it just never happened. The men did venture out on kayaks for a little fishing only to come back drenched and freezing an hour later.

We kept ourselves busy with board game, pool, drinking (except me of course), lots of chatting a catching up, and cute dancing kiddos.

Squash Soup

Jim and I both loved this soup. It had great flavor and was hearty enough to eat as a meal in itself (with a little cornbread, YUM!) but not too much to add a smaller portion to a sandwich for lunch or a late afternoon snack. Plus, I was able to use a lot of ingredients from our garden, including the squash. It was a little time consuming but not necessarily difficult. I will definitely be making it again!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

2 medium butternut squash

1 batch of celery, diced

1 large apple, peeled and chunked

~1 C. carrots, diced ( I used what I had available from our garden, so probably a little less)

1 medium onion (I actually used ~6 small spring onion from our garden)

3-4 sprigs rosemary

8-10 C. vegetable stock

2 C. apple juice

1 C. half & half

nutmeg

cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the squash in half lengthwise (using a sharp knife and a little muscle) and remove seeds.

Place squash cut side down in roasting pan (s).

Spread carrots, onion, celery, apples, and rosemary around the squash.

Add 2 C. vegetable stock and 1 C. apple juice.

**Since I was using two smaller roasting pans I dividing the amount between the two pans. Basically you want a 2:1 of stock: juice enough to cover most of the veggies and keep the bottom of the squash moist. You can varying the amount depending on the size of squash & pan size you have**

Roast until tender (~1 hrs) and the skin begins to pull away easily.

**I have double oven and had one pan in each oven. If you're using a larger pan or double pans in the same oven you may need to lengthen the cooking time**

Remove from oven and let cool enough to handle (but not until cold).

Spoon roasted squash out of skin.

Blend squash pulp, roasted veggies, juice/broth from roasting and remaining vegetable stock and apple juice until you get your desired thickness.

**I have an immersion blender so I transferred directly to my soup pot then poured in the roasted veggies and juice directly from the roasting pan, removing only the rosemary. Without and immersion blender you'll need to transfer the squash and veggies into a blender or food processor**

Once the all the blended soup is transferred to a soup pot, add half & half, cinnamon, & nutmeg.

Simmer for at least 20 minutes, stirring as needed.

Enjoy!

An American Tail

Probably about a month ago, Jim informed me that we had a new friend. A new friend of the rodent type, seen jetting behind the fish tank stand in the basement. I honestly wasn't surprised. We had found 2 dead mice in the pool filter basket over the summer, so I had always assumed there were a few more around. I guess the cold temperatures finally brought them in. And to think, just a week before Jim and I were camped out in our temporary basement sleeping corridors while our hardwood floor were being refinished. It would've been an ugly scence if Mr. Mouse had appeared any earlier!!

But, for whatever reason, I was feeling really guilty about killing the little guy(s). I had seen absolutely no signs of mice upstairs in the kitchen or other living areas, we were no longer living in the basement, and I have to admit there is something kinda cute about mice. I surveyed some coworkers about types of traps and what my options were, but was really taking my good 'ole time putting any kind of plan into action. I decided on the old fashion traps (poison=dead, rotting mice in unknown places; sticky traps=trying to chew off legs and a slow paiful death) and pick up a batch at Home Depot but they remained in the bags for probably 2 weeks until....

Fast forward to October aka candy corn season. It is tradition (in my world at least) to consume mass quanties of candy corn + peanuts (seriously though if you aren't eating this stuff, you're not living life). So, two weekends ago I mixed up a fresh batch on Saturday to enjoy throughout the day while we working all day.

Sunday morning I made my way to the coffee pot in a sleepy daze, half noticing that Jim had picked out most of the peanuts from the remaining mix in the candy dish. That's wierd...why would he pick out the peanuts? The candy corn is obviously the better choice if you're going to pick through the mixture. And what's this? A few random candy corn on the opposite side of the kitchen. Boy, that husband of mine is a slob!

Many apologizes for my bad thoughts Jim. It wasn't you at all.

It was Mr. Mouse or perhaps Mr & Mrs. Mouse and all there neighborhood mice friends (there was seriously a large amount of peanuts missing!) Somehow I didn't know that peanuts (or peanut butter) are the preferred food of those damn rodents. Not only did they ruin my batch of candy corn, but they left a filthy trail of mouse poop all over my kitchen; resulting in rewashing the dishes that had been drying on the counter overnight,an wiping down EVERYTHING in the kitchen, twice. Naturally, I lost any sense of guilt about abolishing the bastards and set Jim on a mission to set up the traps and masacare anything that even resemebled a mouse.

The very next day, we successfully capture and killed (a fast, instant death I assure you) one. And the remaining traps have been untouched. Beware...

Fall

Is it really September already?! Where did the summer go? I think July got rolled up with our old gross carpet and who knows what happen to the entire month of August!

Due to my recent injury, I was away from the gym for two weeks. Somehow in just a mere fourteen days darkness completely took over the 5AM hour...and too much of the 6AM hour for my liking. It's just so much more difficult to get out of bed! And I know it's only a matter of time before it's dark when I leave for work and dark before I get home from work. and that's when I slipped away into a desolate land of winter blues. sigh.

In the meantime, I'm getting geared up for Fall, my all time favorite time of year!!!
Juicy, crisp apples.
Pumpkin picking & hayrides.
Hiking with the crunch of leaves beneath my boots.
Sweaters, jeans, light weight jackets.
Candy corn and someones big 30th birthday (wink, wink)

Fall 2006

Thursday's thoughts

I really need to change the songs on my iPod.

I have nothing planned for dinner.
I wonder what it's like to have a personal chef?

I think I am incapable of making a decision on new countertops for kitchen.

My hair is super duper frizzy today.
and I don't even care.
I wish I had been around for afros.

I want to go back to Vermont.
In the Fall
and go apple picking.

I just got a little surge of excitement just thinking about Fall
and candy corn.

Now I can't concentrate.

What was I thinking about?

Is it really only 2:30?

Dunkin Donuts ice coffee is the best.

Candy corn

Candy corn + peanuts = one more reason I love Fall.

Spaghetti Squash

My FAVORITE season is here!

I just love so many things about fall. The crisp air, warm smells, vibrant colors, my birthday, and lots of yummy foods involving pumpkins and squash. We celebrated last night with a festive dinner including one of my favorite dishes, spaghetti squash. This recipe is so easy and super delicious.


1 Spaghetti Squash
Olive oil, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese ( to taste)

Slice spaghetti squash length wise.
Remove seeds and scrap clean with large spoon.
Place on microwave safe dish (one half at a time) skin side up, cover with saran wrap.
Microwave 10-12 minutes. Remove from microwave and let cool for 10-12 minutes or until tolerable to touch. Repeat with second half.
Using a fork, gently scrap along the inside lengthwise producing strands like spaghetti.
Season with salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil to taste.