Sunday, September 18, 2011

Four things about my weekend




1. Yesterday morning it was my turn to sleep in, so after nursing Shira at 5:40 I returned to bed and let Matt monitor the morning chaos. It was heaven. But even better was when Matt woke me up at 8:15 with my coffee, toast, and the computer in hand. Here, he said, I thought you might enjoy some breakfast and computer time without the children. That's right, he sneaked past The Children on his way upstairs, so not only did I get breakfast in bed, but I go breakfast in bed by myself. It was not Mother's Day or my birthday. I'm sorry, you can't have him. He's all mine.

2. After killing my body with a hot yoga class later in the day, Matt sent me upstairs for a nap. Enough said. No seriously, I slept in and had a nap.

3. This morning, with the help of my good friend Kaylie, I crossed yet another thing off my Life List. It's a small thing, but I've wanted to pick my own apples for years. I have such romantic notions of fall and the idea of picking my own apples sparked big dreams of making pies and applesauce. I have to tell you: picking our own apples was everything I dreamed it would be. Me and the girls met Kaylie at a local orchard between Cambridge and Toronto, grabbed a cart, and spent the next hour getting lost in the apple trees. The sun was brilliant and the apples numbered in the thousands, though we held ourselves back and picked only a bushel each (the internet tell me that a bushel equals around 42 pounds of apples!).

Now I have plans to make a few pies and a lot of applesauce. I will use the the recipe and canning instructions from Simple Bites (it never lets me down), and for the pie crust, I'll use Martha Stewart's recipe for pate brisee . It's been years since I made pie crust from scratch and I haven't tried Martha's recipe before, but some of of the people I trust most follow Martha's instructions on this, so I feel confident that it's the way to go--see here and here for some other pie crust inspiration. I'll return with some evidence of my apples later this week.

4. Alyce wore her princess gown while she picked apples. Of course she did.

How was your weekend? Did anyone attend an apple festival? The last time I attended one I was pregnant with Alyce. I can't even begin to comprehend how fast the time goes.

2 comments:

  1. We had glorious weather here in Sudz this weekend. Yesterday, Liam went to a friend's place and I got to nap in the hammock for awhile. And today I dragged Liam away from his video games and the 3 of us went to Onaping Falls for a hike. Onaping is amazing, especially in the fall:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/60326228@N05/5517031589/
    And it's a fun hike...not just following a path, but you have to clamber over rocks and stuff. Fun for 8-year-olds and grown ups. And on our way home we saw them pouring slag! First time since moving to Sudbury! And I now my tummy is full of the ultimate vegan feast -- tofu, kale, brown rice, roasted pecans, cilantro, and a yummy sweet and sour rhubarb sauce. And vegan chocolate pie with almonds. Aaaaah.

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  2. Picking apples is quintessentially fall in Ontario! Love it! Love the princess dress too. We went camping and I froze my a** off for two nights. No sleeping in as I got up so early to pee, then to start the fire. It was lovely but I"m leaning towards the never-again...

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