Ten years later, she returns. Promising to write....

hello hello

Have you seen this quote before?  I love it:

On some hill of despair, the bonfire you kindle can light the great sky--though it's true, of course, to make it burn you have to throw yourself in. --Galway Kinnell

It reminds me of my favorite Hemingway quote, about how writing is easy, all you have to do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed....

I just thought I'd check in and share a few good books.  A good one can carry you through a lot.

Here are three of the best I've read so far this year:

Heft by Liz Moore

Faith by Jennifer Haigh

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I also would like to own this magnet.  It's me in a nutshell.

See you soon.

Holidays

 

A happy Thanksgiving.

Soon Christmas will be here.

Oh the colors of fall.  I have to admit my dreams have turned to turkey and mashed potatoes.

This year I've come to truly love three things that I used to hate: sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and sushi.  I didn't understand why one would choose the sweet potatoes when one could have the regular potatoes, tomatoes only excited my gag reflex, and sushi I was too closed-minded to even try.

But things have changed! 

Sweet potatoes diced up with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and oregano is my new go-to.

And roasted tomatoes basically taste like fresh ketchup.  Fancy! 

Here's a tasty recipe to put them in.  And while we're at it, a perfect crisp-fall-day soup recipe from the same blog.

(As for sushi, I leave that to the pros, but who knows, once Thanksgiving is over and those dreams have come true, my new dream might be sushi chef!)

But my favorite fall concoction is the Apple Yogurt cake.  It's best as a coffee cake, a morning cake, the thing you eat while you're still shivering from the cold night. 

And it has these craters in it--these beautiful sparkling brown craters of cinnamon and brown sugar, and a tiny bit of butter.  Those craters make life okay again.

So in this the season when things fall apart so they can rest awhile and then get bountifully back together again, strike a match to a candle and heat up the oven for a little light, a little warmth.

Scrabble!

Still fun.

Scenes

This is our first full autumn in Colorado, and I have to say it has made my love for this magical state grow deeper.  After living in Virginia where fall doesn't come till November 15th, I've really enjoyed the wild and unpredictable temperature swings here (snow one Saturday, 80s the next), and the leaves that while not as wildly colorful as back East, are striking in the brilliant and constant Colorado sunshine.

I know people really go on and on about the beauty and majesty of Colorado, but it's really true...as my mom says, there's something about the mountains and the vistas and the peaks that reminds you of how truly tiny you are in the scheme of things. 

This past week loved ones from the northeast came to visit and we traveled all around seeing beautiful scenes in every direction.

We also partook of the unbelievably tasty beers of Colorado (the Napa of beer!).

Echo Lake, snow & 46 degrees:

 

 

{Odell Brewing and Equinox Brewing in favorite city Fort Collins}

favorite at Odell's--Isolation Ale

{Equinox}

favorite, Autumnal Alt

{Great Divide in Denver}
favorite, Hibernation Ale

It feels like it's really fall (not just me pushing the seasons), so I give you permission to make this apple yogurt cake (I did last night) and buy a Yankee candle that smells like your mom's pumpkin pie (I did that too). 

Under the October twilight the water mirrors a still sky...*

Hope you have a little time to take notice.  

*Yeats

Can't beat the harvest

I may have jumped the gun on the fallishness, as the last week or so in Colorado has been kind of warm...actually really warm.  But I can ignore it.  I can still wear a sweater when it's 87...mmm no.  But this weekend is supposed to be cooler and I just turned on my pilot light in the fireplace--exciting moments in life!  And we've been doing fallish things anyway....

First of all.  The Buffalo Bills.  Corey's favorite team on Earth roared in with three wins right off the bat and despite the loss last week, we still have hope (dangerous but essential for Bills' fans).

 We think that hanging the jersey on the mantel helps their performance immeasurably. (Don't worry, I take it down during the week.)

I also made tomato soup from scratch for the first time.  Grilled cheese/tomato soup is one of our favorite fall combinations but the cans and boxes always leave me wanting--a party in my mouth, but a party of extremely boring uptight people who don't eat chocolate or listen to music.  So I turned to honey and jam's recipe and things were much better in there.

 Shallots also go in the soup.  My favorite foodie Anthony Bourdain says that shallots elevate the home kitchen to a restaurant kitchen!  So when I burn toast I go find a shallot and wave it around in the kitchen to destroy the evil spirits.

 

 I've also been making my dad's famous "Junk Salad."  This is when you take all the leftover vegetables (celery, red and green pepper, onion, tomato) in your refrigerator, chop them up, sprinkle them with dried herbs, some Parmesan cheese, and douse them in balsamic vinaigrette and it makes your day seem not so bad anymore because you're eating your veggies and they're oh so good.

And the best part of fall so far is my mom sent me Pryde's coffee, just to tide me over...

Pretty nice.