Baking vs. Blogging

This week, baking has won. Instead of coming home, completing a few housekeeping tasks, and then throwing some words together to put up on the Internets, I’ve come home, set out ingredients on the counter, and got to making something delicious.

On Tuesday night, I made an apple spice cake with a brown sugar glaze. I had a bunch of apples left over from half a peck I bought, from which I’d already made one pie, and I wanted to try something new. I ended up using this cake recipe and this glaze recipe. It was a pretty good cake, though it was a little dense for my liking and I wish it had been more “spicy”… and also that the glaze had been more of a glaze, because it was delicious but too fluid to be very substantial.

(This is not a picture of my cake, though mine looked just like this)

Last night, I made an apple pie. I had made one on Sunday, but it was gone already. Plus, I wanted to use up the very last of the apples before they got too soft.

I love baking. I’ve become slightly known for it at work. They’ll eat most anything, but I think they appreciate something made at home with a little love… though they may not know there’s love in it, I wouldn’t bake without it!

The End of Summer

Even though the last day of summer was actually Tuesday, the end of our summer season took place on Saturday when we attended the last concert on our Mega Ticket.  And although it was technically fall, the sunshine beating down in the afternoon, making us all melt into puddles, kept it feeling like summer for the last tailgating of the season.

The headliner for the show was Sugarland.  By the time their Incredible Machine went on, the evening had brought cooler air and a definite sense that fall was upon us.  Their stage set was super cool, Jennifer Nettles has an amazing voice, and it was a really great show.

We are so thankful to have the opportunity to purchase the Mega Ticket and enjoy seven amazing country shows throughout the summer.  Saturday night was an excellent finale and I’m glad I got to share all the awesomeness with Casey, the love of my life and badass cornhole partner.

Helping fall along…

Since the weather is not cooperating and it was another hot one here in Northern VA, I went ahead and urged fall along at our house by making a delicious pumpkin treat.

I first made this last year when trying to increase my pumpkin dessert repertoire.  I found the recipe HERE on Tasty Kitchen.  Gosh, that’s a great site!

The recipe is called Pumpkin Cobbler.  Essentially it’s pumpkin pie without the crust but instead with a cake crumble topping.  Probably sweeter than pumpkin pie, but I’d say equally delicious.

Mom has already requested it for Thanksgiving and I’m sure the gents at work will enjoy it tomorrow!

Um, this is not fall.

Today is the first day of fall.  Don’t be confused if your calendar says tomorrow is when autumn begins, because they’re just referring to the first FULL day of fall.

Of course, the calendar isn’t the only confusing thing about this first day of fall.  The other thing here in NoVa is that it was almost 90 degrees today.  That is NOT fall weather and it’s not expected to be in the next few days.

If I wasn’t so ready for cool fall weather, I wouldn’t complain about sunshine and eighty degrees.  But it’s late September, not mid-July, and I’m ready for sweaters and hot tea and pumpkin pie.

So, hopefully once this hot weekend is over, the weather will change and we can move into the awesomeness of autumn.

Good Craving

Often times, cravings are for junk food.  But for me on Sunday and yesterday, and a bit today, it was for something fairly healthy.

For dinner on Saturday night at the Fair, I opted for some not typical Fair food.  My cousin is a vegetarian and I introduced her to the tent I knew offered veggie options.  She didn’t realize the Fair offered such a thing and was glad to find something yummy to eat… as were my sister and I.

Both my sister and cousin ordered what is called The Benevolent Burrito.  I got the spinach quesadilla.  It was served with the company’s funky salsa (we’d never seen julienned carrots in salsa before!) and guacamole.  My quesadilla was absolutely delicious and I’m sure I felt way better the rest of the night than I would have if I’d eaten something more Fair-typical… not to mention the fact it made me feel better about scarfing down fried dough later in the night.

Something about it’s deliciousness stuck with me, and on Sunday on the way back to VA I was wanting another one.  And then yesterday I was craving it too.  Fortunately, it is a super simple thing to make so I got the ingredients when I went to the grocery last night.

And since it’s easy and delicious, of course I have to share, so here goes:

Start with a spinach wrap on the griddle (I used the griddle because a sauté pan is too small for the wraps I got):

Sprinkle the wrap with cheese (we use mozzarella because it melts nicely):

Top the cheese with baby spinach:

When the cheese is melted, fold the wrap in half:

Cut it into pieces and serve with your choice of accoutrement:

I used pico de guaco, which is guacamole layered with pico de gallo.  It is super fresh and will last longer than homemade guac.

If you try this, I hope you enjoy it.  I know I have… both last night and tonight for dinner!