Sweet Sleepies

It's another beautiful fall day.  The rain blew through yesterday and brought sunshine and lovely leaves!  Fortunately, I didn't end up going food shopping yesterday...it was pouring.  Hubsters will help me with that today.  But, the best part of the day:

The crib is assembled!  Bopper will have a place to sleep.  Now all we need are some sheets.

But I think Hubster's favorite part of the day is this:

I made apple butter in the crock pot.  It made a lot.  It's yummy, and that's coming from someone who doesn't even really like apple butter.

Friday

 It's raining, the lights are flickering, and I have to go food shopping.

Fall is in the air!

Fall is FINALLY here, with temperatures in the 60s!  I am so excited.  Fall is my favorite season, and it reminds me of growing up in Maine.  But nothing will ever be as beautiful as the foliage of the Maine trees.  Nothing.  And I miss that so much.  And to honor those, I few pics I took a couple of years ago when I was visiting home.

But this being DC, we have to make do with what we have, and what we have are pick-your-own-apples apple orchards about an hour outside of the city!  Last weekend included Columbus Day on Monday, and that gave Hubsters a three day weekend.  Months ago I put "go apple picking" on the calendar so we would remember to go this year, and we went on Monday.

In my 8 years here in DC, I've been to a few different orchards and apple festivals, and one of my favorites is Stribling Orchards in Markham, VA.  So, after dropping a friend off at the airport early Monday morning, we headed out I-66 to Stribling.

It was a little cold, and drizzly, but we made it, and had a wonderful time!!

Apple picking is one of those things where you can really only pick so many, because, in reality, what are you going to do with all those apples?  Well, Hubsters and I really didn't think through this very well, because we picked a bushel and a half of apples, which translates to about 45 pounds.  Yes, 45 pounds.  When we had them in the car, it didn't look like much.

But when we got them home and put them on the counter, I went, "What am I going to do with all these apples???"  The gallon of milk is in the picture to help give you some perspective of size of the bags.

Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do with those apples.  I'm going to cook them.

I made a batch of apple sauce yesterday, and I've got another one simmering on the stove this afternoon.  It's my mom's super-secret recipe.  But not so secret that I wouldn't share it with you as I've already given it to my mother-in-law and the check-out lady at Stribling.

I have a recipe for apple butter in the crock pot that I'm going to try out this weekend after a friend from church loans me her apple peeler.

Other things I intend to make:

• More apple sauce - it freezes so well and we love it
• Apple bread
• Apple cake
• Apple cookies
• Apple pie for Hubsters
• Did I mention more apple sauce?

Another friend from church gave me a wonderful suggestion today, which is to slice up all the apples and freeze them so that you can make apple pie later in the season.  I'm going to try that one too.

It's fall, and that means apples, and pumpkins, and open windows and fresh air.  It's my favorite time of year!
 

A Clear Schedule and Banana Bread

Now that I'm officially in the third trimester, I am tired ALL the time.  And if you're curious, Bopper is about this size (but a little heavier as he was 2 lbs 6 oz last week at our last sonogram).  Hubsters was gracious last night and let me sleep for 11 hours.  Well, I was in bed for 11 hours though it wasn't all sleep, but it was all sweet.  Yay for pillows, a Kindle, and a great book!

Anyway, today is one of those rare days when there is nothing on the schedule until I go to my prenatal pilates class tonight.  I'm taking advantage of the opportunity with nothing on the schedule to do not much at all but putz around the house.  Especially when it looks like this outside:

(Which, if you can't tell, is drizzly, gray, and very muggy)

My husband likes to eat bananas with his cereal, and I like bananas in general, but sometimes I purchase too many and they get mushy.  It's a good thing that along with bananas, my husband likes banana bread, and my mother-in-law has a GREAT recipe for banana nut bread that she passed on to me.

A few banana loaves ago, when I ran out of nuts, I learned that Hubsters likes the bread better without the nuts.  Which is a win-win-win:  a win for the wallet as nuts are expensive, a win for me as I don't have to keep nuts on hand and it's one less step to do in making the bread, and a win for Hubsters as he gets bread that he likes!

I hope you enjoy my bread making journey as much as Hubsters and I like to eat the bread!

After 60 minutes in the oven you end up with this:

And of course, a sink that looks like this (with the exception of the large pot on the right which is still soaking after being used to make mashed potatoes for dinner last night), which makes me miss my sous chef very much:

I'd like to take a moment to showcase my favorite cabinet in the kitchen, my baking cabinet:

Now that the bread is done, it's time to start organizing Bopper's dresser and put away some clothes that were passed on to us by Grace after her son grew out of them.  Hubsters and I are so grateful for her generosity since we won't have to purchase many newborn clothing items at all.  And then I think I will work at rediscovering my enjoyment of embroidery, or maybe not.