this week

I've been making soup and apple crisp.

Over and over.

Apple crisp is simple to make. And delicious.
I don't even tinker with the recipe except to sometimes include cranberries.

But the soup is freeform, and never the same from one kettle to the next.

I don't think I could duplicate a batch if I tried.

Sometimes I wish I could. The last batch was so good I started rationing it to make it last a bit longer.
~~~

Recent days have been cold, dark, raw...and occasionally sunny.

Sunny enough to melt some of the snow suspended above the ground, not insulated by the collective coldness of accumulated snowfalls and the thick ice layer covering the frozen ground.

You can see the snow melting into icy gems on this hyssop:

Still dazzling, long after the flowers and bees and butterflies of Summer have gone.

~~~

After rainy, snowy, gloomy days, I love to see the herd out in the sunshine.

The lateral light makes each goat glow around the edges.

This is Tsuga's daughter, Fern:

Fern, I am sorry to say, is a stubborn little imp.
But look at that face.

Butter wouldn't melt.

~~~

Are you resettled in Time after the holidays?

This week I spent all day Sunday thinking it was Monday,

then all day Monday thinking it was Sunday.

On Tuesday, I just stopped thinking about it.
Onward!

Winter sunrise after a mid-night snow, view to the West

~~~~~

brisk

Crikey, it was cold yesterday. I did evening chores at 4PM to get the goats fed and settled before the sun went down, as it was already below zero. The funny thing is, when I later checked the goat cam, most of the goats were taking turns chasing each other around the South Paddock. Around and around and around. It went on until after dark.

Perhaps this is why those of us who remember spending our childhoods mostly outdoors all year round don't recall being troubled by cold. Maybe we were just running around constantly? If any of you decide to experiment with this, please report back. I'll be over here, wrapped in a blanket and eating cornmeal pudding.

I baked this yesterday, timed so there'd be something coming out of the oven when I came in from chores. It was a treat. Have you ever made this? There are a lot of recipes out there, and most are very similar. I'm happy with my version, so I'll share it in case anyone would like to try it. You know, after you come in from running around and around for a couple of hours.

Please note: even though it's baked in a skillet, this is not cornbread. This one is a sweet treat that belongs in the "dessert for a group" file as it's best eaten warm from the oven. I rarely make it just for myself, though leftovers can be warmed in a microwave and it's still fairly good.
But right from the oven?
My, my.
Luscious.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups milk, soured by adding 1 tablespoon vinegar
2 or 3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white self-rising cornmeal
3/4 cup (or less) brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cream

Preheat oven to 325F for deep Pyrex skillet, 350F for metal.
Heat your skillet in the preheating oven, adding the butter a few minutes before the batter is ready. You want the butter heated but not scorched.

Mix dry ingredients together in a big bowl.
Whisk eggs in a separate bowl, then add the sour milk to the eggs and blend thoroughly. Whisk milk mixture into dry ingredients, making a very thin batter.

When butter is melted, carefully remove skillet from oven (seems obvious, but I always have to remind myself that the handle is HOT) and rotate slowly to cover bottom and lower sides of skillet with butter. Then set skillet down on stovetop or extended oven rack, and gently pour the batter into center of skillet. The melted butter will rise up and engulf the edges of the batter pool. (Don't worry.) Then, pour all the cream into the center. (Trust me.)

Slide this unlikely-looking concoction into oven slowly to prevent sloshing, and bake for 45 minutes or til top is lightly browned.

Serve warm; the center will be a soft, smooth pudding and the bottom and edges will be lightly crisp from the butter. Lovely contrasting textures. Adding a little drizzle of maple syrup is nice, but it would be easy to overdo; this is a sweet, rich dessert.

Let me know if you try it!

Oh, and here's the temperature this morning:

That's -27C.

It's nearly 8AM but I expect the goats will be staying tucked in for a good long while yet. I wonder if they'll start their day with another game of tag?

Have a perfect Sunday, everyone!

~~~~~

a smattering of snaps

In no particular order, a few snapshots of the past week.

Hay, more of.

Still plenty of room:

In other hay news:

 I installed four secondhand hay racks, purchased at a recent farm sale. Two are in the bigger barn and two in this little shelter built off the west wall of my workshop last autumn.

Violet, munching.

I thought you might enjoy this view, looking down through the window of my workshop. Lily on the left, Sambucus on the right:

The racks may need to be lined with mesh to slow the goats down, but I'm trying them as is, first. No need to go looking for more projects!

~~~

Enough about hay.

~~~

I did something this week I haven't done in, gosh, maybe 8 or 10 years. I bought eggs. Because the hens are in winter production mode, but I can't seem to stop doing this:

I keep baking cranberry-apple cakes.

Even when I just baked one a few hours earlier, and gave it to the good friend who brought my firewood.

Even when the springform pan is in the dishwasher and I have to experiment with one of my old Pyrex pans.

Even when I run out of cranberries when mixing the batter.

Yes, it has now been proven: 2 cups of cranberries is the minimum necessary for this recipe. I am slowly eating this cake, of course, because wasting food is a sin. Also, it's a pretty fair cake. But it needed another half-cup of cranberries to make it a really good cake.

This is how we learn ;)

~~~

We've had some remarkably balmy days lately.

And I've done an unusual amount of housecleaning this week.

It's not my strong suit, as you may know.

I'm not good at it, and I don't enjoy it.

And it's painful.

I won't pretend I have "become" a terrible housekeeper

as my joints have become increasingly painful.

No, I have never been a very good housekeeper,

and that shortcoming has always bothered me, quite a lot.

But now it is physically difficult to be even a poor housekeeper.

Last week, I decided to force myself to do something more than the minimum in the house, every single day that I was able to. So I did as much as I could, on 5 days of the seven. And it was truly exhausting. Nothing else that wasn't absolutely necessary got done. Piper had no walks in the woods, I am ashamed to say. I cancelled an appointment at short notice. I skipped a holiday fair. I haven't posted anything here for the entire week because I have been so completely wiped out.

I wanted to write here. A couple of times I started to choose images, and fell asleep with the laptop on my chest. Once also with a heating pad on my neck and icepacks on my hands. I didn't know a person could fall asleep holding icepacks.

The house is still mostly a shambles, and I don't know if I can keep up the every-day-possible housework efforts. But right now I'm going to share this little snapshot of my kitchen, looking toward the back door. Because having this much clear space in my little house is sort of a miracle.

~~~~~

housework can be sort of fun

One of the benefits of cleaning out and defrosting the chest freezer, is knowing that eight gallon jugs of cider will soon create a perfect new bottom layer.

Another benefit is the fun challenge of using up what's left in the freezer. Like baking and roasting and stewing the last of the organic chicken purchased when it was on sale. And those crazy frozen "pumpkin" waffles which I will never - ever - buy again, but which will be eaten this time and not wasted.

And this morning, the cranberries.

Question: how many cranberries can be added to one cake?

Answer: not sure yet!

Will let you know when the cake has cooled. If it turns out to be a mass of cranberries lightly held together with fragments of cake, I will know I have gone a bit too far.

Fun to experiment, anyway! And I wish you could walk through my kitchen right now - the aroma is wonderful. Like taffy? Fudge? Hard to say exactly, I can't identify it. Maybe it's just been too long since I used sugar in a recipe!

~~~

I rarely do this, but I'm coming back with an update.

Less than an hour after posting.

Because:

The cranberry ratio is Just Right!
What a lucky, happy bake :)

~~~~~

maintenance

Drama can be so boring.

In the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of breakdown here. I don't automatically replace or repair anything that breaks. My first response is to step back and consider whether or not I really need the item. Needs change.

Unfortunately, lately, some of the breakdown has been equipment I rely on. For example, in one day alone, the oven, the humidifier, and the goatcam went wonky.

Each of these malfunctions was a bit bizarre. In the middle of the night, I suddenly realized the oven cooling fan was running. First I thought I had left the oven on all night - which would have been bad enough! - but no, just the fan was running for no apparent reason. The only way I could stop it was to shut the power off at the breaker box. And then go back to bed.

I woke at daybreak with a splitting headache and gritty eyes.The humidifier, which is essential equipment here in the winter, was humming along as usual...but it wasn't actually putting any moisture into the air. Ugh. Groggy but determined, I investigated immediately, and somehow managed to pour a graceful arc of water directly onto the corner of my bed. The corner of the bed, mind...meaning I soaked as much inaccessible area of the bed as possible per ounce of water. I wasn't groggy for long, that's for sure!

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may recall when I bought the goatcam last year.

The camera sends live images to my laptop, and I have described it to many other livestock folk as "my best improvement of 2013." It took a little time to set it up initially, but it has been well worth the effort. A hugely valuable tool.

So when the screen suddenly went black - much like the control panel of the oven a few hours earlier - there was no question that I would have to get it working again, or replace it as soon as possible; certainly before kidding season.

It took a lot of downloading, uninstalling, reinstalling, and finally the assistance of the Best Technical Support Person EVER, but the goatcam is now working normally again - yay!

Let's focus on that success for a moment, shall we? 

Goatcam is working!!!  YAY!!! 

The humidifier is sort-of working, if I fuss with it every day. Good enough, til I can drive to the store and buy a new filter in hopes that will do the trick. And a new humidifier if it doesn't. Breathing is really important to me.

The oven...well. The repair estimate is almost $400, and replacement would be over $1100. My adventures in baking have just come to a halt.

Oh, well.

It was fun while it lasted.

Welcome back to the countertop, my dear old crockpot! And at least now I can stop thinking about getting a breadbox. My wall oven makes a very effective breadbox. Luxurious, even.

~~~

Beyond these examples of equipment failure, there is of course the weather-related stuff. I've been trying to focus only on the beauty of the snow and ice (and more snow, and more snow and more snow and ice). And the fact that I have running water, which I do not take for granted. And multiple bucket de-icers, which means I now only have to carry water once daily - a wonderful improvement, implemented just a couple of weeks ago! But there's no denying that everything has become physically more difficult, and some things are impossible. Routine chores are exhausting.

But that's okay, that's fine. A daily dose of exhaustion is probably good for me? It's the animals I feel sorry for. They all have adequate shelter and food, but they are bored. The snow has been so deep, for so long now. The toughest hens won't leave the Poultry Palace, and even the most intrepid goats won't venture out of their shelters for more than a few steps. I've waded into the paddock to break trail for the four girls several times, but even in my "path" the snow is still belly-deep on the adults, and chest-deep on the youngsters. Not fun. Not good. They won't do it, and I don't blame them one bit.

The older doe and both boys are in the little barn, and none of them - not even the bold Betula! - will go down the ramps and into their big paddock. They did it once, a few snowstorms ago, but turned right around and came back in and that's where they've been ever since. Three big healthy goats in one big stall, 24/7, for days on end. A lot of pent-up energy is gathering in Goat World, and I wish there was something I could do about it.

Speaking of goats (you'll see the connection in a second), the car has been buried for nine days now. I've tried three times to excavate and move it to a cleared space - because ironically, the long driveway has been ploughed repeatedly (ka-ching!) - but I can't shovel much these days, and some serious shoveling is required to free the Little Green Sportswagon. Hoping for the Big Thaw to help with that one, I'm afraid. And I wasn't worried about this until yesterday, when I opened my last bale of hay and discovered I don't like the look of it. Usually, this would mean a quick trip to a local fellow, just a couple of miles away, and cramming three bales into the back of my hardworking Hyundai wagon. Now I'm wondering if I could get one bale on my little plastic sled and pull it home. Sounds very jolly and little-house-on-the-prairie, but honestly? Not so much. And I don't think I could take Piper (which would probably be so much fun from her perspective that it would make the endeavor seem almost practical) because there are so many unpredictable and loose dogs along the way. I'll have to give it more thought in the morning, when I can take a better look at that last bale and decide whether or not to feed it out.

Of course, it's "morning" already - about 4am - but this is the comfortable part of morning, when I don't have to do anything but think. And blog  ;)

None of these little glitches is important in the grand scheme of things, it's more that the cumulative effect is a bit wearing. It's like the way my computer has become ominously sloooow. And the way Blogger suddenly started bouncing us all to the top of a post every time we try to "reply" at the bottom. (I've now switched to a separate page for comments, which eliminates the bounce but means I can't respond directly to a comment...which I miss.) Or the way Google Chrome is suddenly having a problem running Shockwave Flash, which means a banner across nearly every page I look at, and a lot of sidebar gadgets that are now frozen boxes. (When all else failed, I decided to try using Explorer for blogs now.) Unfortunately, in the midst of all these computer shenanigans, all the personalized font and view settings on my laptop have disappeared, and it is proving difficult to get everything back to read-able again...will carry on, though! Must have my blogs.

And if you, lovely readers and fellow bloggers, have persevered to the end of this post, I hope you have a perfect day with no glitches whatsoever!

~~~~~

puttery kitcheny day

It's a good day for tea.

And puttering in the kitchen.

When it was still quite dark this morning, I saw a little shadow swooping up to the birdfeeder. Then another. Two juncos were breakfasting unusually early. Then I noticed the fine, dense precipitation. It was falling straight down but it was too dark to tell if it was rain or the kind of teeny-tiny snowflakes that couldn't possibly add up to anything but generally do.

I checked the weather report: 1-3 inches accumulation predicted by the end of the day. Hmmm. Pretty sure there was already 3 inches atop the bird feeder, and the sun wasn't up yet.

Sure enough, by the time we went out to feed a couple of hours later, Piper and I stepped out the door into 8 inches of fresh snow. The air was pleasantly warm though: 24F, which feels very warm indeed these days as long as the wind isn't blowing.

At 10 AM, the snow was still falling. The weather report now predicted 3-5 inches total by the end of the day. Step it up, weatherfolk. The sky is way ahead of you.

~~~

While Piper lounged and thawed her iceball leggings by the heater, I baked another fruit-topped teacake.
This one with dates.

I like to think every experiment in the kitchen is an opportunity to learn something. Here's what I learned this morning:
don't bake this particular cake with dates.

Each of those harmless-looking nuggets had the consistency of a very chewy pebble. They reminded me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Pretty sure it wasn't something we think of as edible, though.

~~~

In another kitchen adventure, I tried to "zest" Meyer lemons.
I've never "zested" anything before, and to be honest, I'm not sure I've "zested" anything now. Does anyone know if I took too much of the rind along with the peel? I tried not to, but I just don't know. Please advise!

I also juiced the lemons with my Grammy's old glass juicer, thus justifying the allocation of cupboard space to this tool for another year. Maybe ten.

Some of the juice went straight into a peanut-ginger marinade for the tofu which is in the fridge at this moment, becoming wonderful. (Fingers crossed. This was definitely an experiment, and it is on tonight's menu.)

~~~

Oh, here's an actual Helpful Kitchen Tip!

Two, even. 

Gosh, maybe three!

First: I heard that a good way to cook a tougher piece of beef, is to put it in a pan with a can of peeled tomatoes, cover the pan, and bake (roast? poach?) it in the oven for two or three hours at 325F. Last week, I had a small slab of top round and I had a big can of Pomodoro tomatoes, so...I tried it. And I must say, after 2 hours, that chunk of meat fell apart before I could put a knife to it!

Second: as they worked to tenderize the beef, the tomatoes were reduced to nearly a paste, which soon became the base for a bonus pasta sauce. Very tasty! I've had "meat sauces" that tasted less rich and meaty than those tomatoes.

Third: when I decided to add some of the leftover cooked beef to a lentil stew, I wanted to chopped the pieces "across the grain" so there would be no long, stringy pieces dangling from a soup spoon. And as I was pondering the least-tedious way to orient all those small pieces of meat in order to chop them properly, I had a thought:

 

My super-deluxe kitchen shears! 

By which I mean, the pair of ordinary scissors I keep in the kitchen. One of my most useful kitchen tools, but this is the first time they were put to work smallifying chunks of cooked beef. Worked beautifully, and took next to no time. Snippety snip snip!

~~~

It's late afternoon, and still snowing. I just checked the weather report again, and can tell you with certainty that we are experiencing a 50% chance of light snow.

I hope you are enjoying the weather of your choice, wherever you are! And readers who are craving a good snowfall are very welcome to come on by!

I can offer a nice cup of tea, but - just between us? - 

you'd be wise to pass on the cake.

~~~~~

because it was there

Very strange to be bake something without an apple in it, I know. But here goes.

I hadn't planned to bake anything this morning, until I discovered several leftover Portuguese sweet rolls in my cupboard.

They were just slightly too dry to be used for sandwiches, and would probably make terribly sweet breadcrumbs.

So...a venture into bread pudding.

 Cut into little blocks...

...and placed in a buttered baking dish.

Not too tightly, but filling the dish.

Then doused in a mixture of 4 eggs, 2 c milk, 1.5 c sugar, 2 TBS vanilla extract, and 1 TBS cinnamon.
(The recipes I found called for 2 c sugar, but I just couldn't do it.)

Baked at 325F for an hour.
(Because I use Pyrex. In a metal pan: 350F.)

Here's what the pan looked like as I removed it from the oven...
Action shot! 
Drama!! 
Feel the heat!!!

I had a little taste while it was still hot.

And because I didn't make a sauce,

I added a little sliver of ice cream.

Not bad. Especially considering the absence of apples.

I've never made a bread pudding before and can only recall one cold, bland, raisin-studded serving, eaten in a cafeteria somewhere, sometime. 

(Now that I'm thinking about this, there may be a connection between the second part of that sentence and the first.)

This bread pudding tastes rather like French Toast, as one would expect from the ingredients. But the texture is different, with each individual chunk of bread saturated and baked through, and all the chunks forming one cohesive dish.

It would be nice for serving a group for breakfast: simple and quick to put together and pop in the oven, and - unlike French Toast - no one standing, plate in hand, waiting for the next slice to come out of the skillet.

What's your favorite way to use leftover bread?

And if you make bread pudding, what do you like for a sauce?

~~~~~

in a rut

In the past two weeks

I have baked this apple and cranberry tea cake

 three times.

Perhaps not every rut is a bad place to be?

~~~

The recipe is Marian Burros' Plum Torte, with minimal modification which varies every time I make it. This is a very simple and adjustable recipe.

The result when made with plums is what I would call a cobbler, with gooey pockets of fruitiness scattered in a plain cake. When made with apples, or with apples and cranberries as above (and above, and above), I would describe it as a fruited teacake. It is not overly sweet and has an even, dense texture. It's a nice take-along cake, and a good choice for a packed lunch that may be jostled a bit in a pocket or backpack.

My only advice is to watch the baking time toward the end, as a full hour may result in a slightly overdone edge. I check it at 45 minutes, and then every 5 minutes til a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

If you try it, please come back and share!

I'd love to hear more ways to play with this recipe.

~~~~~

zero pressure

I've been thinking about some things I might like to try in 2014.

No resolutions, no pressure.

Just things that seem both 

challenging and exciting to think about.

For example...

In the Baking Tent: making pie crust.

Old Reliable: a storebought frozen pieshell.
Can I do as well? Can I do better??

I haven't made my own piecrust (or rolled cookies) for decades. Mostly this is because I don't have a kitchen surface large enough to work easily with a rolling pin. This year I will try: either learning to feel comfortable working with a tiny rolling pin on a small surface, or coming up with a larger work surface, or perhaps even making good piecrust without rolling it out at all.

And if I can make a decent piecrust, it may be a short step to...fruit turnovers! Meat and veg pasties!!

~~~

In Goat World: building a better cashmere comb.

Betula says: "Lift out the cashmere, leave the topcoat...
and no pulling, please!"

Combing cashmere goats is a long process, both in terms of the time spent combing each individual goat and the weeks during which the goats continue to shed, thus inviting multiple combing sessions of each goat. A proper tool would make a big difference.

Each year, I've added at least one different type of dog or human comb to my collection, and (not surprisingly) none is ideal for combing goat undercoats. In fact, the most effective "comb" so far has been one that I cobbled together a couple of years ago using bits and pieces of things I had lying around; in fact, my usual method of addressing a design problem. But while the prototype showed promise, I did not tinker with it last year. Instead, I used three different combs every day, and although I got the job done (eventually), the process was far from ideal.

This year, before the harvest begins, I will at least give it a go and try again. It would be very rewarding to come up with something that would make the harvest easier for both the goats and myself.

~~~

In the Arts Department: linocut printing.

(Sorry, no illustration, because I've never, ever, done it before!)

I have always loved prints made from woodcuts, but have never tried making one. And as much as I love wood, and love working with wood, I think carving a block of linoleum for a linocut would be a more sensible and less dangerous way to experiment. A potato might be easier still, but I've decided to bypass that medium in favor of something less likely to rot.

So...linocut printing!

I don't even know if I'm using the correct term, so please feel free to correct and inform me in the comments. I have no experience or knowledge, but what I do have is endless inspiration all around. Also, a strong leaning toward a creative process that will encourage simplicity and - speaking as a person who can overthink to the point of immobility - may require getting out of my own way.

Could be fun. Could be great fun! Will almost certainly by messy, which, come to think of it, is often a byproduct of fun. I can handle messy for the sake of fun.

~~~

Now that I've begun putting these ideas into words, a great many projects are leaping into my head, all with the word "should" attached. But I don't want this to become a "to do" list, nor a "must do" list. So I'll stop here, with just three "might like to try" things: one a revisit, one an evolving creation, and one a completely new experience.

Onward, 2014!

Betula says, "Bring it!"

~~~~~

566

That's how many unread blog posts are waiting for me, 

now that I've got the laptop back!

My non-audio books are going back onto shelves and under plant pots, where they belong.

Lady Without A Laptop.
Add some (many) years and pounds, and this portrait looks amazingly like me. Including the crazy hairline.
Darn it.

Dear blog readers, thank you so much for checking in and leaving comments and sending messages during the Horrible Laptop Collapse of 2013. I've missed you and your blogs!!

The ancient Emergency Thinkpad allowed me to briefly check email and twitter, but at less than dial-up speed. And if I dared try to open tabs in a browser (which of course I did roughly 400 times), the OS would hold its breath til it turned purple, then shut down completely.

Good times.

But now I'm getting back to normal, and hardly know where to begin. Maybe just a few notes and snaps?

There's been some of this, and there's more falling right now:

~~~

It's been bitterly, truly, too-soon-for-this-cold.

Which has resulted in not only homemade stew, 

but homemade stew eaten in bed.

Apparently, when early February lands with a thud in mid-December, I become a wimp.

And I think maybe I'm okay with that.

~~~

When morning chores are done and Piper has been toweled off and all my work clothes are hanging by the heater to dry again, I sometimes turn on the oven and bake something - anything! - to make the house feel a bit cozier. Roasted chicken, turnip and cream casserole, baked sweet potato slices...whatever is on hand.

This morning it was baked eggs with gruyere cheese and portabello mushrooms:

Full disclosure: this dish was not as tasty as it looks.

Rather dry and bland, I'm sorry to say.

Seemed so promising...

I'll try to work on it.

~~~

Meanwhile, the snow has been coming down all day and it's time for another coffee-and-cocoa delivery to the goats.

It's not really coffee or cocoa.
It's just warm water. 

But if you don't tell them, they'll never know.

It was 2 degrees F this morning, and they had warm water and carrot pennies for a little "hey-look-we-all-survived-another-night-in-the-Yukon!" treat.

Really, they are fine and dandy.

Perhaps a bit bored with the snow, but after their breakfast buckets of grub they have an endless supply of nice hay and they all go back and forth between the shelters, in ones and twos and threes, bumping each other off the decks and checking to be sure no one else has:

better hay

or more hay

or different hay.

Goats are funny.

Oh, and we have a visitor:

Meet Paul.

I'm glad I took a picture before the first snow.
It's challenging to photograph solid black;
even more so when it's surrounded by solid white.
There may not be any Paul updates for quite a while.

~~~

Time to suit up again, whistle for Piper, and try to get us both out the door without Piper bumping into either me or the water buckets.
Somehow, the splashes only seem to land on one of us, and it's never, ever, Piper.

I'll be gradually catching up on blog-reading over the next few days, so I'll see you soon!

~~~~~

apples

Miss Ruth Kellogg demonstrating correct postures for various forms of housework. 1921-26.
Source: Div. Rare & MS Collections, Cornell U. Library

Since my first trip to the orchard, I've been doing a little bit of this nearly every day. Peeling and slicing a few apples.

Some of the slices have been going directly into the freezer, lined up neatly on a tray. The following day, those individually-frozen slices are popped into a labelled bag, and the tray is used to freeze the next batch.

Can you see traces of pink?
These are Macintosh.

Come Winter, I hope to do some very nice baking with these beautiful frozen apples. Won't that make Winter a warmer, friendlier place to be?

Well, that's my plan. Here's hoping.

I'll let you know.

~~~

Meanwhile, there's been some Autumn baking with fresh apples. Mostly, I've been tinkering with one simple recipe, changing up and experimenting. Remember the accidental apple-cranberry bisconey?

Last week I tried making it again: with apples, no cranberries, less sugar, and lots of cinnamon:

It came out with a dense, moist texture.

Not bad.

And yesterday, I tried another riff: making the batter a bit richer and more cake-like, mixing a whole cup of cranberries into the batter, and then adding sliced apples to the top.

Again, quite different in texture and flavor. Again, not bad.

Very surprising the way some of the cranberries migrated to the surface, right over the apple slices.

How did they do that?

~~~

For a person who doesn't really cook much, I am having a lot of fun in the kitchen lately. And it's all because of this:

A small, nearby orchard with a wonderful array of apple varieties. Such fun choosing! Hmmmm...certainly the old familiar Macs I grew up with, but also, well, I'll try a few of these Spitzenburgs (could Thomas Jefferson be wrong? about apples???) and I'll add a few Winesaps, and some Rhode Island Greenings, and oh, I almost missed the Golden Russets, and...excuse me for a second, I'll just carry these out to the car and then I'll be back in for the cider.

Oh. The. Cider.

The gloriously fragrant, snappy-sweet cider.

In the past two weeks, I have never been far from a glass of cider. I think this pressing may be the very best fresh cider I have ever tasted in my entire cider-loving life.

I wish I could pour you a glass right now.

Come on over.

Seriously.

~~~

I'll be going back to the orchard in a day or two, because I am out of apples (!) and about to open my last gallon of cider (!!). I'm waiting for a day that's warm enough to take Piper with me, for a walk along the stone walls.

It's a pretty place, this old orchard, where hard work - so often the backstory to "pretty" in a human-altered landscape - is evident everywhere you look.

The view also offers a nifty example of relativity!

I mean, look here:

Trees, right? An orchard full of big, fruitful trees.

But then you put those very trees next to a forest: 

Whoa! Quite a shift in perspective, no?

And then, you put that forest into a forested landscape as far as the eye can see:

Relativity: just something to think about while you're peeling Autumn apples and keeping an eye on Winter.

~~~~~