The Flavor of Autumn

 

 

With crisp air and changing leaves outside, our apartment smells of cinnamon and cloves as we simmer down apples picked during our annual trip to the orchard.  Homemade apple butter tops my list of favorite autumn flavors.  But I'm no food snob: candy corn ranks right after the pumpkin trifecta (pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin bread). 

What food do you savor every autumn?

The Price of Freezer Real Estate

Unless you're lactose-intolerant or out of town, I'm not sure there's a valid excuse to skip a Make-Your-Own Ice Cream Sundae/Shake/Soda Party.  Yesterday Husband & I hosted such an event.  Guests brought their favorite toppings; everyone indulged.  Oh, to snub those ice cream trucks taunting their inane jingles that drive everyone even more batty on these days with triple-digit heat indexes.

The leftovers: 50% left in each tub.  A gap left for the one fully consumed tub of vanilla.

Our freezer, it seems, also feels some excess.  Whereas Husband, Sherbet (who entertained the company in hopes for free licks of ice cream or, preferably, whipped cream), & I would ordinarily find additional sharing venues for such frozen delights, time is not on our side.  In fact, we've been trying to stock the freezer with healthy, homemade meals for after Ramlet's birth.  To facilitate the transfer of chicken enchiladas, swiss cheese veggie quiche, and cheddar cheese with asparagus and sausage quiche from refrigerator to freezer, Husband took three cartons of ice cream to work.  I probably should feel guilty for hanging on to the Black Raspberry Chocolate and the Cookies & Cream, but right now I just wish I had a larger freezer.

Before the ice cream donation.

In the above picture, most of the plastic bags are filled with homemade pizzas courtesy of friends who are new parents and wanted to help stock us up for the first few days (weeks?) of parenthood.  Husband & I added enchiladas, quiches, beef and veggie roasts, carrot apple breakfast bread, and inside-out cabbage rolls to the collection.  If time permits, I'll contribute a bag of French Toast and a pan of eggplant parmesan to our menu options.


Any ideas on what else to freeze in preparation for the little bundle who's eating will take precedence over ours?

Waverly Farmer's Market

Saturday morning at Baltimore's Waverly Farmer's Market in pictures.

 

 

 

The bounty I brought home.  Fried zucchini blossoms for dinner.

What's your weekend's flavor?

Showered with Love

My shower contribution: Lemon Blueberry Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

Mom outdid herself hosting a baby shower for Ramlet and me this past weekend.  Platters of homemade finger sandwiches, salads bursting with summer's best produce, and enough carrots on the veggie platter so assure all attendees might get to eat one before I polished off the rest.  (Note: I told Husband the other day carrots had a better crunch and a more complex flavor than potato chips.  Conclusion: Definitely pregnant.  Concern: How many pounds of carrots does it take to turn Ramlet orange?)

Friends from all stages of my life attended or sent greetings.  Those present decorated onsies for Ramlet, guessed my belly's circumference (the shortest strings won!), and laughingly remembered nursery rhymes.  My three-year-old niece kept the gift unwrapping moving at a brisk pace.  The generosity of friends and family overwhelmed me as each package revealed something adorable or practical (or both) for this next part of life. 

When's the last time love overwhelmed you?

Blueberries on a Hot July Afternoon

To compensate for the lack of road trips this summer, I'm approaching the last few weeks of pregnancy as a quasi-staycation.  My planning notebook, brimming with lists of things to accomplish, contains one deceivingly short list.  The "Fun in Baltimore" list.  Restaurants, art museums, and a few other attractions to check out while I'm not counting down the days until I can take a deep breath again.  Dates with Husband; fun times with friends.  Enter blueberry picking.




Perhaps a few hours in the sun and heat isn't recommended for pregnancy, but I loved it.  Being outside, chatting with friends, and picking about 7 lbs of blueberries (Husband helped).

Staying pale courtesy of my sun hat and lots of sunscreen.

What to do with about 20 cups of blueberries?  Freeze 10 cups.  Eat a few cups over sliced fresh cantaloupe, plain yogurt, or vanilla ice cream.  Throw some pancakes on the griddle.  Bake muffins.  Dream up blueberry banana bread for tomorrow.  Perhaps a Blueberry Lemon Cake to debut over the weekend.  Snacking and baking like this, the blueberries may disappear!

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

Have you ever gone on a pick-you-own adventure?

Pie Break

Today's a too-long-to-do list kind of day.  This afternoon's healthy snack of carrots slices with dip followed by peanut butter on crackers didn't quell the late afternoon munchies revolt.  Willing a more harmonious solution, I stared into the refrigerator and then into the freezer.

To my delight, a Ziploc bag of apple pie filling stared confidently back.  Husband froze this mixture after last autumn's trip to the orchard, and the apple filling clearly wanted to be eaten sooner than later.  When an extra homemade pie crust (from the last time I made quiche) winked at me, I realized I shouldn't keep these two apart any longer.

As the pie bubbled in the oven, I lamented the lack of a top.  No time to make the usual lattice top crust; no oatmeal to make a sugary buttery crunchy crumble topping.  Then Husband reminded me of some extra whipping cream in the fridgerator from last week's cooking experiment.  Who can resist homemade whipped cream with a hint of almond extract?  Especially when Husband volunteers to make it.

Homemade apple pie with almond whipped cream washed down with milky chai tea made my afternoon a little sweeter.  What brightened your day?

Note: Finished sari dress pictures are "developing"--my digital camera works best with natural light and the sunshine's been shy lately.

The Art of Saying No

I'm not a fan of clutter.

Moving from one home to another simply gives me an excuse to continue cleaning things out.  I've already run by the thrift store with a drop-off of random items.  Also, while contemplating the power of the shredder, I annihilated the no-longer-important papers I thinned out of our files.

Eliminating "baggage" for moving day.

However, when I visited my parents' house the other weekend I complicated my life.  I noticed an entire paper grocery bag full of to-be-discarded cookbooks.  Now, husband and I have more than one shelf of cookbooks.  And, he's always bringing home ideas from his favorite food blogs.  Yet I couldn't help myself.  I needed to peruse those books.  I ended up taking home a few.

The suspects.  Which one hides the best-ever recipe?

Cookbooks allure me with the promise of the perfect recipe hidden just another page away.  I spent too many hours scouring the pages for tasty, unique recipes.  I settled on copying a few easy recipes and keeping only two books.  The "Wine and Wine Cooking" could be a new way to explore food preparation, one bottle at a time.  The "New Baking Book" made my tummy rumble with its mouth-watering pictures.  While I'm proud of myself for not keeping all of them, a part of me wonders why I needed to add even two more cookbooks to our collection.  More stuff is more stuff to pack up, and it doesn't necessarily translate into more living.

What do you have more than enough of, yet can't decline?

Gone ... Until Next Year!

Distinct flavors in vibrant colors.            

I've nibbled up all of the Starburst jelly beans already.  These little gems pack serious punch.  More sweet, more tang than the I-hope-it's-not-buttered-popcorn Jelly Bellies in my opinion.  The Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs hide in the freezer to delay their impending demise.

What's the first thing to disappear from your Easter basket?  Or, if Easter basket's aren't part of your tradition, what's your preferred candy of choice?

Simple, Yet Complex

It's funny how often simple things are covertly complex.  Here are two of my favorite more-than-meets-the-eye things:

1. Easy snacks.  What can beat fresh fruit at peak ripeness?  With a little prep you're munching a quick and easy snack.  With some extra peeling and chopping you're treating yourself to a scrumptious medley of tastes known as a fruit salad.  
2. Reusing things.  Here, specifically, transforming old college dorm sheets into kitchen curtains.  On the one hand it's simple--what else are you going to do with your extra-long twin sheet sets besides donate them to a thrift store?  On the other, I hate sewing.  Enter a ruler, an iron, and some staples (also leftovers from college).   After too much ironing and measuring, I discover by stapling from the back of the curtains the little metal teeth can barely be seen in front.  End result: mostly level curtains and no longer feeling like the entire city block can watch me wash dishes at night!  

What items in your house appear simple, but have a more complicated history or use?

Birthday Month

Some people begin to shun their birthdays as the years pass, but I'm the opposite.  I've convinced myself, and sometimes my husband, I deserve a full birthday month.  I'll find a bouquet on my bedroom dresser one day; I'll get a free pass on washing dirty dishes another.

Today we doubly celebrated: a Centerstage play of one of my favorite novels and front porch banana splits.   Nothing like contemplating redemption while nibbling my way through a bed of fresh banana slices covered with scoops of peach and cherry vanilla ice creams topped with chopped walnuts.

How do you commemorate your birthday?