Apple crisp.

One of my favorite things about being back home is the season of Autumn. It is another beautiful rainy autumn day here. I know, I know, it sounds odd, but after living in the desert for almost eight years, I'm happy to see the rain. This morning I woke up to the sound of it pouring. What a wonderful sound!

A couple of weeks ago I went apple picking with my dear friend, Mary. It was a rainy day but that didn't stop us from grabbing a red wagon and heading out in to the orchard. I picked a half bushel and arrived home trying to decide what to do with all these baking apples (Cortland). I made slow cooker applesauce (only to find out my husband doesn't like applesauce). I made several apple crisp (because I found out my husband is crazy about apple crisp). Lastly, I made a cake (which will be the next blog post).

Pavlova!

I was watching Barefoot Contessa on Food Network the other day. She was making a mixed berry pavlova and it looked incredible and light. I made it yesterday. One word: divine.

I'm home!

We're finally settled in to our new east coast home, happily. I haven't started back to work yet, but I have an interview next week. T started his new job on Tuesday.

I used to say that I didn't think I could stay home all day. Even if I won the lottery, I would work, but after having been home all week, I've changed my mind. I've gotten so much done and am so relaxed. As soon as I get everything accomplished on my list: living room curtains hung, cleaning, dog walking and the gym; I'll get back to baking up a storm.

This weekend I'm throwing a birthday/welcome to the east coast party for T. I'll be making seven layer bars and his favorite birthday cake (yellow with chocolate icing). We'll be grilling hamburgers and hot dogs on T's birthday gift. Nothing fancy, but it should be fun!

It will be great to see my friends that I've been 2700 miles away from for the bast 7 1/2 years.

In other news... it never ceases to amaze me all the things you find you need when you move into a new place. I've been living in my own place (with or without roommates/family) since I was 17 and still, we didn't have things we needed. We have less cupboard space here than we anticipated. I have to say though, I would have missed out on this sweet pie safe if we'd had enough cupboards.

One last picture, of my pup, Dougal, on his cross country ride. He usually doesn't like car rides, which is a rarity in dogs. He did amazingly well! Look at him, so chill. Having him in my life has made all the difference. I can't imagine a day without his fuzzy face. Please check out the new page for adoptable pets!

Disappointment

Sometimes you try a recipe that looks and reads as if it will be amazing. You read the recipe several times, carefully select the best ingredients and  put in the effort to follow the recipe meticulously only to find that it's terrible.

This is one of those disappointing moments. This is that recipe. I'm not going to post the recipe. I want to work with it an improve it.

I hate and love summer.

Summer is wonderful for fresh produce and grilling and getting my skin to stop being quite so translucent. Unfortunately for B in AZ and, more surprisingly, for me in NY, summer is just too hot for baking. Every time I turn on the oven I find myself praying to be delivered from hell. I live in an attic apartment with my husband (who, during the summer, seems to run disappointingly hot) and if we don't have our one window AC running, I could practically cook a loaf of bread by simply mixing the dough and leaving it in a pan for a couple of hours. The midwest gave us a heat wave a few weeks ago and it's just now starting to cool enough to think about baking. I'm dying to do custard again; it just tasted so good and it's a great chilled dessert. But I've had peaches in the fridge and I've hidden the gingersnaps from the hubby and as much as I'm craving custard, I know what's next.

Peach pie with a gingersnap crust, only days away.

Stuff and nonsense.

I haven't been baking much. There is so much to do and to be honest, it's hotter than hell here. We're in the height of monsoon season and we had a haboob last week! It was massive! (I'm not explaining, you'll just have to Google that one!)

• I gave my notice at work on Monday. That felt amazing. Seriously amazing. Four more weeks of work and then I am done. 
• We have to go through our spare bedroom this weekend. It's time to sort through the things we own and determine what is really necessary. It's amazing how quickly we accumulate things. 
• I need to download some Neil Gaiman and Kurt Vonnegut books for my Kindle. It looks like we have five solid days of driving back east, so I'll be needing some entertainment. 
• We need some new tunes for the ol' iPods. (Recommendations welcome!)
• Packing. Oh holy crap. I hate this part. I hate having my life segregated in to label boxes and chucked all over the place. 
• Address changes, turning services off, turning services on. 
• Keeping the doggie calm. I have to make sure he's ok with the move. He's a sensitive boy. I have a feeling I'll be riding in the back seat with him most of the journey.

I guess that sums up the next six weeks or so. We are so excited... beyond excited really.

A new chapter and lots of adventure! 

More big news!

We've been approved on the place we put a deposit on! Woohoo, we have an address!!! I also had a brief preliminary interview this morning with a full phone interview on Friday. If I make it past the phone interview I may need to fly home for an in office interview on Tuesday. Eep, that will be pricey! The start date would be while we are driving cross country.

Fingers crossed that it all works out!