Author: lizbeth

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Me and Other People’s Birthdays

Today I got an email from my grandfather telling me in a very nice way that I forgot his 79th birthday!! Doh! I am terrible. Grandpa, all I can say is don’t take it personally, it isn’t that I don’t love you and I will make sure 80 makes up for it. I forget everyone’s birthday. For years I have mixed up the dates of both my mother’s and my stepmother’s birthdays (not with each other, apparently I can’t get 8s and 9s straight in my head) and I have talked to my mother not once but at least twice on her actual birthday and did not say happy birthday. Somehow she still loves me. I am not a card person so I never get cards in the mail. If I do remember, I sing, I am not sure if that makes it better or worse. To be fair, I am not the type of person that will hold a grudge if you forget my birthday. As I get older and older (and older) I don’t tend to make a big deal. I hope that all of you that I have slighted can find it in your heart to forgive me and if not, then feel free to forget my birthday this year.

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A Cosy Apple

Last night I was feeling creative. I have been eating a lot of apples lately and decided that it would be the perfect time to knit myself an apple cosy. M didn’t quite get why I would need one, but I think it turned out well and now I can throw my apple in my purse and it is protected. I only had wool yarn because that is what I had. The leaf was a little too cute for my taste so I left it out.

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So Many Crisps

This weekend M & I decided to pack it in a little early and go apple picking! We have been working really hard on our shed and haven’t taken much time to enjoy what the Hudson Valley has to offer. This was my first time and it was so much fun. There are a whole lotta orchards in the area, but we chose Dressel Farms. We were given our bucket with the caution that it would hold 20 lbs of apples. Even at $.95 a pound, that is a lot of apples. We set out towards the macouns based on the advice of the women who gave us our bucket and started picking. I couldn’t resist picking a few romes and courtlands as well. These will probably all be made in the applesauce, apple crisp, apple tart or one of these other delicious looking apple recipes (thanks, Deb!) Why you ask? Because as we went in to get a cider doughnut we saw that they had bags of Honey Crisp apples! They are far and away my favorite type of apple. In fact when you ask me what I look for in an apple, I think about honey crisps. The crispy crunch, the not too sweetness, the wonderful texture. Yum. Sorry macoun, you just can’t compare. If you want to know what apples are ready for picking and what they are good for, Dressels has put together a handy chart.

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Floor Frame. Check!

This weekend was very productive. We finished the sill plate and floor frame for our ReadyMade shed! Yeah! This is really coming together. So far in order to stay on the property we have had to camp. I think I mentioned already that I am not much of a camper so I am super fantastically excited that our second building (the outhouse being the first) is coming along so well. This 10×10 room will have a futon, a small fridge and a bit of storage so that we don’t have to set up/take down our camping equipment every time we want to get away. We area also hoping that now we won’t have to eat every meal out. We have the plywood for the floor ready to go when we get up there again and we will be buying the lumber for the rest of the frame. We have also started planning what we will put on the exterior.

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Fika

In 1999 I went to Sweden to visit a friend for New Year’s. While wandering around the town of Malmö one day, she introduced me to the Swedish institution of fika (pronounced fee:ka). Fika is a break in your day to have coffee, something sweet and most importantly to socialize. Apparently a mid-morning fika is just about mandatory in most Swedish offices. What a wonderful idea. Getting together to share 15 minutes and talk get to know your coworker, catch up with a friend or meet your husband then head back to your desk refreshed and ready to tackle your work again. My friend in now in NJ and has 3 little ones so it is harder for us to get together (although once I finish this post I am going to call her) but I will never forget sitting down with her to have coffee and a sweet in her home town. Vilken trevlig fika!

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Green Chile!!

Thanks to my sister Michele, M&I have green chile to last us a good long while. Yeah! She bought, froze, packaged and overnighted three large bags of chile for us. They arrived today ready to roast. You need to remove the tough outer skin to get to the tender meat of the chile. Roasting also given them a nice smokey flavor. I have been researching the best ways and I think I am going to try a combination. Since I am pretty excited I am going to try some in the oven under the broiler tonight. This weekend I will try a few on the charcoal grill. Apparently the even heat of a gas grill would be better, but we have to work with what we got. Thanks again Michele!

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Green Chile

The web seems to be commanding me to visit to Santa Fe! Today via Tastespotting I saw this post talking about green chile cheese burgers from Bobcat Bite! In case you haven’t been to Santa Fe, pretty much anything can come with green chile and it tastes good on so many things. In eggs, on burgers, smothering enchiladas, in corn bread, in ice cream… ok, I never actually saw it in ice cream, but that is about the only thing. Here in NY, green means tomatilla and I am not a huge fan of tomatilla, so I am missing green chile. Especially now that it is roasting season. The smell in the air, the snapping and sizzling of your chilis as they are roasted while you wait. I won’t make it back in time to get my own bushel… Mom, I hope you are buying me a bushel and freezing them for me.