from last weekend

got a few things done over memorial day weekend last week.  i daily go through the mental struggle of loving this laid back domestic life i’ve had over the past two months (just learning how to be a mother and doing stuff around the house and garden) and the desire to rev things up a bit a lot.  for example, i’ve had the urge recently to literally bag up my entire closet, donate it to goodwill and then hit up every store in sight for a crazier, edgier wardrobe.  on top of that i want to walk into the nearest salon and say “have your way with me!” -  still considering both of those options.  but in the meantime i’m also very content with this slower paced mom-life (if only i could continue doing this and continue picking up my paycheck every 2 weeks. siiiigh.)

baked some chocolate chip scones that didn’t really turn out as expected but were edible enough

grabbed a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store for dinner one night last week and after finishing off the bird, dropped the whole thing in a stock pot with some veggies and herbs and cooked it down into chicken stock

the beginnings of chicken salad

it was a bright sunny day, so i laid out all the cloth dipes for a nice bleach in the sun

the front porch right now

coming back

i’ve been quiet lately, but i’m here.  fall is always such a busy time for us.  football games, traveling for work and for pleasure, and this year, an october wedding in the fam has kept ross and i on our toes for the last several weeks/months.  i’ve never been especially good at keeping up with the blog, but i think i’ve just needed a little break from it.  i hope to come back though, because i find that writing up posts is sometimes the best way to help me remember what’s going on in our lives.  here are a few things we’ve been up to lately:

- put up the first batch of  pear cardamom butter for the season

- celebrated our niece’s 2-year birthday with cake, breakfast out, and a canoe ride

- attended our first hokie game of the season

- visited a mom-to-be  bff and her hubs in their new place

- celebrated our 4 year anniversary – (although we won’t actually go anywhere until the beginning of november.)

- double dated with the sis and bro-in-law

- attempted to pick up jogging again, semi-successfully

this weekend i will also attempt to decorate the house for fall, which sounds lame, but i love decorating and i haven’t really touched a thing in our living room and dining room (the decoratable spaces) since early summer.  that’s sad.  especially since fall is my favorite month.  that is, until spring arrives and gardening takes over.

but the leaves are starting to turn here and we have no travel plans for the next month or so.  so that means getting outside more, taking more pictures, and maybe even doing some baking.  if one can have a “fall resolution,” those are mine.

you know what

Fig. restaurant where ross & i had the most amazing meal in charleston last year for our anniversary.  ross licked his plate. really. he did.

you know what? it’s been a long time since i’ve done anything resembling cooking on this site.  in real life, i’m cooking everyday, so why don’t i ever remember to write a recipe down, remembering all the tweaks i inevitably put on it, and snap a picture or two?  can’t be that hard.

which works out, since i’ve made

this recipe 3 times in the last two weeks and love it.

have been craving these brownies for several days.

and have an appointment at the cannery (our first trip ever!) to put up a few quarts of this on sunday

i’m on it.

cranberry creation

you know that bag of cranberries i had hanging around?  well i was procrastinating on using them because i just couldn’t decide what the perfect recipe would be.  but there’s no cure for procrastination like the spoiling of food – because the cranberries were starting to go south and i would’ve lost them all together if i didn’t find a recipe fast.

so i chose this one.

if you happened to click on it, you would notice that neither the title nor the ingredients list actually contained the word cranberries.  but that’s OK – because i put some in.  it’s one of those things i love to do and one of those things ross hates that i do – not that he doesn’t enjoy the finished product, of course – he just doesn’t like when i don’t follow the rules.  but really, with this recipe i followed all the rules but one:  the type of fruit i put in.  i’m sure figs are great and awesome, but i’ve never had one and i didn’t have a bag of figs in my fridge, i had a bag of cranberries.  and a few stray apples too.  so bada bing, bada boom, a recipe was born.

below are pictures of my fallish Cranberry Apple Crisp. for the recipe, click here.