Cool Weather Cooking

Hello!

The weather is cooler, and for me, that means more time in the kitchen. I enjoy cooking, but in cool weather, I like it even more so.

I am very  honored to be in the current Where Women Cook, not once, but twice! 

I did the Ingredients of the Season feature (my ingredients were apples and pecans) and Where Women Cook also featured my Christmas Stollen.

I was extra surprised, as I shot the stollen feature more than a year ago, but I think the publication knew the perfect time to present it. If you aren't familiar with Where Women Cook, I sure wish you would  take a moment and click on the link and get a little familiar with it. They feature just ordinary cooks like me, famous cooks like Ree Drummand (Pioneer Woman), while offering tons of great tips, recipes, and ideas for entertaining. You can also order back issues for those of you who may be new to the publication. 

I thought you might enjoy a few images from the publication as well as some that didn't get published.  

This is an apple/carrot soup with apple peel rose as a garnish.

Spicy lime and chipotle pecans.  

Praline Apple bread and pecan honey butter.

Baked spicy apple slices and salted caramel dip.

Surprise spice caramel core apple:

And some Christmas Stollen images....old fashion German sweet bread in an old fashion setting: 

I love this time of year. It is a season of spectacular, or simplicity. Either way, it is scrumptious. The recipes are in Where Women Cook and as well as many, many more!

I would like to thank Jo Packham (editor) for allowing simple cooks, as myself, to grace the pages of her fab magazine. I love to learn from those who are so much more experienced than me, but also knowing that the publication also recognizes those of us who just enjoy the art of cooking, well, inspires me because I can point at the recipe and think, I can do that too!

Until next time, may your ovens be warm, your rolling pin floured-covered, and your hands sticky with something scrumptious.

from my house to your house,

The Apple of my Eye

They say carrots are good for the eyes, but I think apples have a way of making the heart see what the eyes may missed...

My barber husband and I went apple picking a few weeks ago. We visited a Missouri orchard that is 200 years old, and we were there the first day of apple picking season. We had the entire orchard to ourselves, and just when I thought I couldn't love my special one a single ounce more...

...my heart for my beloved grew a bit more by just watching him enjoy himself so much. So I thought I would write about my thoughts of that day. I don't always write a lot about my barber husband. 

Maybe I should. 

He is great writing material in many ways.

While there are millions of fab husbands out there, I only know mine. 

And he is fab. 

And that is the real reason I should write about him more - his fabulousness. Fabulous mainly because God made him perfect for me. HE isn't perfect, but he is perfect for ME.

Big difference :-)

It was really nice to have the whole orchard to ourselves. The day was a spur of the moment. I found the orchard the night before, online, and asked if he would like to drive out and pick apples. To my surprise, he had never picked apples before...funny how one can live with another, and still find out something new about them without even really trying.

I so enjoyed watching him get excited by the apples and there were tree-fulls from which to choose! Several times, he would call over his shoulder, looking for me, "Aren't you going to pick some apples, baby doll?" He didn't realize that I was enjoying myself more watching him from a distance and snapping a pic here and there. 

It felt like Christmas in a way, walking between the trees, filled with apple ornaments. The color of the apples are what you see...so bright, almost seemed like a movie set.

But, I really had my eye on my beloved, not the apples. He was the brightest thing in the orchard - to me.

It's funny the things we love about our spouses...things that maybe others would never see, and that is okay. 

I love when he wears he overalls and hat. There is a certain masculinity about it that he doesn't see. He is only after comfort and to keep his little round head from frying in the sun.

I see it differently. 

Where he may see comfort and practicality, I see a man who enjoys life, on his terms. And I find that very attractive.

Even more attractive? A man who finds interests in other people. He can talk to anyone, and I mean anyone, without even caring where they live, what they do, how much they make, where they come from, or what they believe. 

He knows everyone has a story. After all, he is a barber. For 27 years he has heard snippets of stories from behind the barber chair. And over the years, those snippets become full-blown real life novels of those who shared their hopes, losses, grief, and joys with him. Between sounds of scissors and buzzing clippers, a story usually unfolds with time. 

And I think that is what I have learned the most from my beloved. Things take time. And taking time out is even more important, while waiting, working, hoping, and wanting time to speed up when wanting something.

Like I said, this apple orchard farm is 200 years old. That is a long time to work at something. And yet, here we are, 200 years after it began, spending the afternoon picking at something that took so long to create, nurture, and grow.

But I feel very blessed that it was no time at all, before I realized that I wanted to spend the rest of my time here on earth next to my overall-wearing man.

This pic is how I really see him. He fills my world with color and happiness. And I guess I just wanted to share a little of  his fabulousness with you all. 

He had no idea I took this photo. Why? 

He was taking time out to stroll the orchard and appreciate all that went into it, and I stood back to appreciate him.

May your part of the world be a place where you find contentment and take time out to appreciate all that is around you. 

Especially your loved ones.

from my house to your house,

The Perfect Gardener

Hello!

I recently was at a friend's house and had the privilege of picking small apples off her apple tree. It was her first "crop" and while the apples were small, I was excited to pluck them  off, one by one, and put them in my very old European potato harvest basket. (I am sure apples will work just as well in it as potatoes.)

The apples aren't quite sweet enough on their own (some are, but only a few), so I will most likely cut them up and either sugar them and freeze them or maybe make several apple pies. I will let you know.

But having spent some time last week with my two friends, Anne and Debra, and having a day with my camera at the classic car show, I was inspired by my time spent with Anne and I shooting together and just wasn't ready to put my camera away. When I got home after my apple picking, I put them on my table, as it was late in the day with just a little sun left. I got out my camera and played with all sorts of settings on my camera and thought I would share with you my images. No tripod, just faded light, and playing with around with some camera settings. 

Nothing says summer than a really fresh apple. As I set up the apples on the table and admired the natural light on them, as the sun was leaving the sky for the day... I was lost in my thoughts, as I turned an apple this way and then that way in the light...

I realized after a bit, I was absent-mindlingly looking for the "unique" apples. Something a little quirky. Digging in my wire basket, happily, I found a "runt" stuck in the between two grown apples. I hadn't noticed it when I plucked out of the tree.

I looked up the word "runt" on the computer dictionary and it basically says, in addition to the smallest animal in a litter, it is also: "A derogatory term, weak person."

I didn't think that term fitted this beautiful little apple, nor many circumstances in which we may refer to as a "runt." 

At times in my life, I have felt like the "runt." Weak. Not important. Maybe "plucked" too soon to really do any good. I think most have felt this way at one time or another.

But as I turn each apple into the light and "pose" it for the photo, I realize something...

I personally hand-picked these myself. So how could any of these little apples be but anything but perfect? No runts in this batch, if I had any say about it. 

And if little ole me can do a good job and hand-pick perfect apples, then just think what a perfect job our creator, Christ, did when he hand-picked you (us). 

Then it stands to reason that if a perfect Christ does a perfect job in handpicking us...then that can only mean one thing...

...we are perfect just the way we are. 

And in His eyes we are because we belong to Him, and that is good enough for Him.

May you always know you are important and loved. May you know that you were hand-selected because you are one-of-a-kind and never let anyone make you feel any different. 

If you doubt me, let me ask you this...have you ever seen a flower garden in full bloom? Are there two flowers exactly alike in that beautiful garden? And as you walk by to admire that beautiful flower garden, are you more likely bend down and pluck a flower and enjoy the wonderful fragrance? Or would you ignore the beauty and just point at a flower and criticize its petals?

Exactly.

And God is the perfect gardener...

I hope you enjoyed the images as much as I enjoyed taking them. 

From my house to your house,