October Already

I can hardly believe it's October already - it's scary how quickly this year has flown past.

Yesterday it had been a year since I was granted my Green Card, hard to believe it had been a year already, but in some ways it was also hard to believe it had ONLY been a year... a lot has happened in the past year.

To celebrate we made a 'full English breakfast' meal for dinner, and I made a Red Velvet Cake for desert - since it's our green card birthday, we had to have cake... right?

Oh my word, that cake was so good... now I'm not saying that to blow my own trumpet, especially since I got the recipe from a blog I read all the time, but I'm saying it because it was... the ganache topping was so chocolaty and so rich that it was perfect... I hate to imagine the amount of calories in the tiny sliver of cake I ate.

Since it was so rich and there was so much of it we figured there was no way we'd get it finished while it was still in it's prime, so we cut two large chunks and brought them to our neighbours.

September already!!!

Today is September first and I can hardly believe it. It seems like this year has just flown by and I feel like I'm still trying to play catch up.

The last two days of August were chilly and blustery. It really started to feel like Autumn was on the way, and I must admit I'm kind of excited for it to get here. I know we didn't have much of a summer and some people really like the heat but I'm not the kind of girl that likes it being much more than 80-85F regularly. Mid to upper 70's is much more my kind of thing ;)

I'm not really sure what this month will hold but I do know that the next couple of days will involve apples...

I've been trying to get my hands on apples at a really reasonable price and I even hit a produce stand this morning to see what kind of a deal I could score. I was pretty impressed at the price for a box really, considering you'd pay twice as much in the grocery store...

But, as I was having coffee with a friend of mine this morning my hubbie called to say that his Grampa was on route to our place with two types of apples for us. I couldn't believe it - I was stoked! There's really no better price than free... Only shame being that I wasn't home, but he said he'd leave them on the deck for us.

I got home to find that he'd brought us two big boxes of apples, each one almost full! I was so excited... It means I'll be having a double date with them and my canning supplies for the next couple days! (Yah, I'm weird and/or easily pleased)

Well, the other exciting thing that happened today was that I bought my very first hunting license and deer tag. Yup, this means I'm definitely going hunting this fall! It's kind of a weird thing for me, since I don't know if I'm actually going to have the guts to aim and shoot at the deer when the time comes, but I'm definitely up for the challenge and am starting to look forward to it.

Not so much of a city girl after all, eh?

Yah, I'm nutso

Well, those of you who know me will know how I love a good project... ideas bubbling over, sometimes I can't sleep at night because of ideas going round my head, or popping into my head in the middle of the night... my brain just keeps ticking over and over with ways in which to make it better and more exciting... and that in turn makes me more excited about the project... (Yeah, I'm nutso)

Some of you will also know (hopefully less of you) that I am just crazy about recipes... yep, you heard it. I'm a feeder. I love to cook, bake, create some kind of yummy edible goodies... and I love to also research these goodies, read about them, drool over them and they get my brain going in ways I just can't explain. I don't know why, except perhaps because I'm nutso.

So, imagine the insanity that would explain my excitement if a certain project also involved recipes and or cooking in some fashion, add that to the love I have for family and you have pure craziness. Well, that's exactly where I'm at right now!

I am working on a project that has all of those elements, and it's awesome. I am putting together a book... Yep, you heard it. Crazy, huh!?!?!

As you know Cory's Grandmother passed away in March, she was a wonderful woman and she loved to entertain, cook, bake and create... story has it that she was as crazy about recipes as I am and would often sit reading cook books for inspiration and ideas (YAY, I'm not the only person in the world who would happily take a recipe book to bed).

I wish I would have had some time to know her in the prime of her life, I have a feeling we would have gotten on like a house on fire.

Anyway, I have collected books and books and just tons of recipes from her and I am probably not even a third of the way through. I am sifting through the recipes and books and collecting ones that she loved to cook and some that stand out to people when they think of her.

My plan is to put these together in a book that people can have, and so not only will the memories of Paula Ann Fast live on, but her recipes will also.

It's working title is: After all, there's nothing quite like Grandmother's cooking!