It seems my blog has become predictable – the last three posts have all named a season in their title. I suppose this means two things… first, I apparently only write one blog post a season, and second, the seasons here on the East Coast are dictating my weekend adventures and ever-present in my thoughts. At the moment I’m fine with that, because boy is Fall my favorite! Not only is the weather cooler, but the trees are so beautiful this time of year, the whole city gears up for the start of school and then a string of holidays, the flavors are delicious, and the anticipation in the air is tangible! It reminds me of Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail, when she’s enthusiastically describing the smell of sharpened pencils in the Fall, I have to say I sometimes feel the same way. Since it has been a while since I’ve posted, I have some pictures stored up of the recent events here in our apt in Astoria….
James and I tried our hand at canning after our annual apple picking trip this year. We made apple butter for three nights (it cooks for about 12-13 hrs) in the slow cooker, and then canned it all in cute 4 oz jars to give out at Christmas. We now have a grand total of 43 jars…and even after some suspicious noises while the jars were cooling it appears that their lids are all successfully “popped in.” The process was actually easier than we expected… hopefully the final product tastes good in a couple months!
On Sunday we went on our last bike ride of the season and enjoyed the beautiful red and orange of the trees on Randall’s Island and Central Park. We had to cut our ride a little short because it got too chilly, but it was fun nonetheless. Some months ago, James set up several sets of hooks so that we could store the bikes upside down from the ceiling of the guest bedroom. Unfortunately, most of the hooks have since come out of the ceiling and so we (and by “we” I really mean James) are devising a new reinforced system for the winter ceiling storage. Don’t worry if you plan to visit us – we will take the bikes down before setting up your airbed underneath the hooks and no middle-of-the-night accidents have happened so far! Good thing our landlord doesn’t visit very often though, because I’m not sure he would be as pleased with the efficiency of the ceiling hooks as I am!
Last but not least, here are a couple of the Fall recipes I have tried recently – pumpkin scones with pumpkin glaze and a potato/roasted red pepper soup with sausage. Yumm! I’m always on the lookout for new Fall recipes, so if you have a good one let me know! Now that it is November, my thoughts have also turned to the Grand Thanksgiving Menu and so I’m working on that as well.
Hope you all are having a wonderful month, and enjoying some Fall activities and treats before the weather gets too cold!
Manhattan-a-mania 