taste of fall

My favorite time to bake is when the leaves are turning colors... it is just slightly chilly outside, and you want something warm and homey to put inside of yourself. Baking pumpkin and apple things of course is only natural. So, today, after going to the market with Dar and buying some apples, I decided to make some bread with them. I decided to make the bread kind of like a cinnamon roll, but with the focus on apples. I highly recommend it, it was so tasty! I kind of made up the recipe, so... some of it wasn't really measured. Its worth the try though!


Ingredients:
1 package Active Dry Yeast
1 cup of warm milk (110 degrees)
5 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
2 room temperature eggs

Filling:
Alot of cinnamon
chunky applesauce
sliced and peeled apples (two apples)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter

1. Mix the milk and the yeast together and let the yeast dissolve in the milk for about 10 minutes. (It should get nice and frothy).

2. Mix the yeast and milk with the rest of the ingredients for the dough (flour, sugar, salt, eggs, butter). You may not need all five cups, so just mix in the flour until you have a nice dough that is not sticky.

3. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it sit someplace warm and cozy for awhile until it gets twice its size. (if it doesn't rise that much don't worry, it will probably still work out ok)

4. While the dough is rising, peel and slice the apples and mix about a half cup of chunky applesauce, melted butter, the brown sugar, and alot of cinnamon (by a lot I mean probably 3 tbsp. or more) I also added a little bit of honey and nutmeg to mine.

5. Take the dough and divide it in two. Roll it out (a rolling pin is a wonderful thing) so that it is the width of your bread pan, and however long you can get it. Spread the cinnamon mixture over the dough and then place the sliced apples over the cinnamon mixture. I then sprinkled cinnamon over that... you want cinnamon to all of the edges. Roll the dough and apples together, and then place in a bread pan.

6. Bake at 300 degrees for about 45 minutes, take it out when it is light brown, or doesn't look doughy any more.

Slice a piece off and enjoy a taste of fall... its great when its warm!

the punch bowl.

So, lately I have been pondering the punch bowl, which sits in our closet with the boxes and bins that are not used. That is where the punch bowl sits... and there are a few other items in there, my fondue pots keep the punch bowl company, as does the laundry detergent- which at this point is the only item in that closet that we have used.

A punch bowl is a pretty random item, when you start to think about it. I have been tempted to find it a new home many times, and today, that is what I have been pondering. Why do I keep this punch bowl that I have only used once? Do I know anyone that would want a punch bowl? Which led me to thinking... anyone I give this punch bowl to, would most likely use it about the same amount as me. A punch bowl, it seems unnecessary. The punch bowl is the type of item that if you get rid of, you know you will never find one again if you need to use one. A punch bowl is an elusive type of household object, not commonly called for in the everyday life. So how did I come to have a punch bowl in the first place?

A few years ago, I went "thrifting" with some of my friends. This happened to take place a few days before the Christmas party that me and my roommates were throwing in our little PBU apartment. So, as I wandered the aisles of the thrift store in search of some treasures (that's the thrill of thrift stores, its like a treasure hunt every time) I was drawn, as usual, to the household objects. As I perused the shelves of plates, glasses, bowls, vases, and the odd mugs, I found it. The punch bowl was sitting on the bottom shelf of the aisle, with eight matching cups and a ladle. It was cheap, in the forgotten corduroy bear way. It was cheap, and we were having a party in a few days, and at the party, we were having homemade punch (no alcohol in case you were wondering.) So, of course I bought it and brought it home, excited to show my roommates my prize. The punch bowl completed our party, what is a Christmas party, after all, without a punch bowl that draws the guests to think of the Christmas parties they attended when they were children with their parents? The punch bowl took center stage that night, its moment of glory. There was one casualty that night, in the massive dish washing task that ensued, one of the cups was broken.

So I am now the owner of one punch bowl, seven cups, and a ladle. I have used them once. I know  that I will not get rid of the punch bowl, not only am I afraid that if I do, there will come a day that I want a punch bowl and cannot find that elusive object, it is also an intriguing object. So I will keep it, and wonder what kind of life it had before me, maybe the owner obtained it, and only used it once before deciding that it took up too much space to keep something that you might use again.

Married...

I'm pretty bad at this blogging thing right now... I think that part of it is that I can never remember how to get to this page... and also that I keep waiting until I have some pictures that I can post of life here, but I haven't taken any of the apartment yet, so that will just have to wait.

So, me and Jesse are married now, its pretty fantastic. We have a lot of fun together, I feel very blessed to have married someone so perfect for me, God certainly must have orchestrated it. Jesse is working landscaping, and I- well- I am looking for a job (which means I have been cooking ALOT). I don't know what God has planned for me, but I am trusting Him with my future, He has brought me this far, I have no reason to doubt. So, what have I been doing with all my time? Well, two days ago I locked myself out of my apartment while doing laundry. I went downstairs to check the laundry, closed the door behind me, and did not see the inside of my apartment again for probably two hours. Since I was doing laundry, I was wearing Jesse's flip flops, and did not have my phone with me. Rather than wait seven hours for Jesse to get home, I decided to just walk to Jesse's parents' house (our landlords) and ask them to let me in. This walk is about an hour and half, which wouldn't be a big deal (I love walking) except that I was wearing flip-flops that were too big for me, and therefore gave me blisters fairly quickly. So, I decided to take them off. Which meant that for most of the time, I was walking barefoot on the road. This also proved to be a bad idea, because it then gave me blisters on the bottom of me feet (Ouch!) So eventually, my feet hurt so bad, that by the time I got to Jesse's parents' house, I was crying because of how bad my feet hurt. Then Joe gave me a ride back and let me into the apartment. My feet hurt so bad though, that I did nothing the rest of the day, I kneeled on a chair to do dishes because it hurt so bad to stand!

      So that is one little moment from my time here, another small moment happened this morning. We woke up a little later than normal, so we got up and I went in the kitchen to start rapidly making Jesse's lunch, but when I entered the kitchen, there was this huge moth that started flying around in a somewhat drunken-divebombing manner. Well... of course, it hit me. In case you didn't know... I am afraid of moths... weird I know. So, Jesse walks in the kitchen, and I am standing outside the kitchen, afraid to go in. So after some pursuading by Jesse, I still wouldn't go in. So, he tried to catch the little beast, except that it wasflying so crazy, one moment its on the floor, the next the ceiling, the next the wall... I'm telling you, this thing was nuts! So, Jesse had to go get the lunch stuff for me and bring it outside the kitchen... and that is where I made his lunch, at the table just at the outskirts of the kitchen.

This is from SimpleLifePortraits, they did such an amazing job! You can see some more at their website, if you go to their blog page. (http://www.simplelifeportraits.com/)

we actually had a Saturday free, so we made breakfast, went for a walk, bought bookshelves, categorized our books, and then went and watched the Phillies game at Joe and Barb's (Jesse's parents).

 mmm.... yummy :) waffles, sausage, coffee and orange juice... what more could you ask for?

this is a picture I took on our walk... I kinda love it.

and these are the roses, that my husband brought home to me for our one month anniversary of being married :) He is my favorite.