This is the calm weekend. No plans. But we're also sick, which is no fun. Mostly we've been addicted to watching The Sopranos, now my favorite television show. The good thing is that since we're almost a decade behind the times we have many seasons to watch. The show is amazing. Great acting, great story, great filming, and fascinating character development.
Friday night we had Paul's classmate over, who is also our neighbor, and her 8th grade daughter. We carved pumpkins, drank cider, and had a wonderful dinner. Then we played Rummikub, our new favorite game. I think I'm going to plan a Game Night for sometime soon....I am in a board game mood.
The past three weekends have been really fun. First, Aly & I went to Chicago and spent time in Hyde Park with Ruthie. It was sunny and wonderful. We spent some time in Millenium Park, went shopping on State Street, and hung out in Ruthie's awesome new apartment.
Then, the next weekend Ruthie came up to Madison for the weekend with K&E. We went apple picking at the Eplegaarden (my new favorite place) and on a bike ride around the Capitol City Trail.
Last weekend Paul & I hosted an autumn dinner party and pumpkin-carving for 10 people or so. We went to the Hilldale Farmer's Market and picked up some produce, and then went back to the Eplegaarden to buy 15 lbs of apples and some cider. We also went to the Eplegaarden pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins. That was quite an experience. First, it was about 90 degrees out and we were super sweaty. And 2nd, most of the pumpkins in the field were rotting...gross! A combination of rain in August and then high temps in Sept/October made for bad pumpkin growing. We only ended up buying three hand-picked and then went to the store to buy the rest.
Dinner was so yummy. The menu was:
*Roasted Autumn Vegetables with fresh thyme (turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, carrots, and beets)
*Chicken with apples (a combination of a few recipes we found online)
*Fresh bread, from our favorite and easiest recipe, with apple butter from the Eplegaarden
*Beet Salad with Plums and Goat Cheese -- via Ruthie
*Apple Crisp (Mom's recipe)
The dinner party went well, and somehow we ended up with 9 pumpkins because all but 1 didn't want to take their pumpkins with them due to living in apartments or east side pranksters. So now we have a very festive house! And, unfortunately, the squirrels have already gnawed their way into some of the pumpkins. The best pumpkin was a chicken pumpkin (yes, I was the judge, but others also agreed that it was impressive). I'll have to post photos at some point, it's great.
The highlight of last weekend was seeing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah perform Saturday night. I might be slightly biased since I know one of the band members, but their show was amazing! Elvis Perkins in Dearland opened, and they are fantastic. Then CYHSY came out and had a wonderful energetic set. I have to be honest and admit that when I first hear CYHSY a year or two ago I wasn't impressed....but as I listened more and more I grew to love their music. At the concert they would play a song and I'd think to myself "this is my favorite song", and then they'd play another and, oh wait, THAT would be my favorite song....I just think so many of their songs are incredible. Many of the live concerts I've been to in my life have not impressed me, but three stand out as fun amazing exciting live shows: 1.) Sufjan Stevens at Shuba's during my college days 2.) CYHSY last weekend and 3.) The National, a few months ago. All three of these bands had such great stage presence (even if shyness was part of that for Sufjan at the time), and had amazing quality-sounding songs. They sounded even better live than their taped music.
Last Thursday marked my most domestic evening ever. First I went to knit at Barriques, but no one else showed up so I left. Then I came home and cleaned the kitchen, which inspired me to bake. I had a huge ziplock bag of pumpkin seeds from the Sunday Pumpkin Fest, and spent about 2 hours roasting those in the oven using various techniques, I skinned and sliced 10 lbs of apple, half of which went into the crock pot with some spices to create chunky apple sauce, and half of which went into a homemade apple pie! I made the crust of the apple pie and left the rest to do the next evening so it would be nice and warm for dessert. Mmmmmm.
I love autumn.
Friday night we had Paul's classmate over, who is also our neighbor, and her 8th grade daughter. We carved pumpkins, drank cider, and had a wonderful dinner. Then we played Rummikub, our new favorite game. I think I'm going to plan a Game Night for sometime soon....I am in a board game mood.
The past three weekends have been really fun. First, Aly & I went to Chicago and spent time in Hyde Park with Ruthie. It was sunny and wonderful. We spent some time in Millenium Park, went shopping on State Street, and hung out in Ruthie's awesome new apartment.
Then, the next weekend Ruthie came up to Madison for the weekend with K&E. We went apple picking at the Eplegaarden (my new favorite place) and on a bike ride around the Capitol City Trail.
Last weekend Paul & I hosted an autumn dinner party and pumpkin-carving for 10 people or so. We went to the Hilldale Farmer's Market and picked up some produce, and then went back to the Eplegaarden to buy 15 lbs of apples and some cider. We also went to the Eplegaarden pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins. That was quite an experience. First, it was about 90 degrees out and we were super sweaty. And 2nd, most of the pumpkins in the field were rotting...gross! A combination of rain in August and then high temps in Sept/October made for bad pumpkin growing. We only ended up buying three hand-picked and then went to the store to buy the rest.
Dinner was so yummy. The menu was:
*Roasted Autumn Vegetables with fresh thyme (turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, carrots, and beets)
*Chicken with apples (a combination of a few recipes we found online)
*Fresh bread, from our favorite and easiest recipe, with apple butter from the Eplegaarden
*Beet Salad with Plums and Goat Cheese -- via Ruthie
*Apple Crisp (Mom's recipe)
The dinner party went well, and somehow we ended up with 9 pumpkins because all but 1 didn't want to take their pumpkins with them due to living in apartments or east side pranksters. So now we have a very festive house! And, unfortunately, the squirrels have already gnawed their way into some of the pumpkins. The best pumpkin was a chicken pumpkin (yes, I was the judge, but others also agreed that it was impressive). I'll have to post photos at some point, it's great.
The highlight of last weekend was seeing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah perform Saturday night. I might be slightly biased since I know one of the band members, but their show was amazing! Elvis Perkins in Dearland opened, and they are fantastic. Then CYHSY came out and had a wonderful energetic set. I have to be honest and admit that when I first hear CYHSY a year or two ago I wasn't impressed....but as I listened more and more I grew to love their music. At the concert they would play a song and I'd think to myself "this is my favorite song", and then they'd play another and, oh wait, THAT would be my favorite song....I just think so many of their songs are incredible. Many of the live concerts I've been to in my life have not impressed me, but three stand out as fun amazing exciting live shows: 1.) Sufjan Stevens at Shuba's during my college days 2.) CYHSY last weekend and 3.) The National, a few months ago. All three of these bands had such great stage presence (even if shyness was part of that for Sufjan at the time), and had amazing quality-sounding songs. They sounded even better live than their taped music.
Last Thursday marked my most domestic evening ever. First I went to knit at Barriques, but no one else showed up so I left. Then I came home and cleaned the kitchen, which inspired me to bake. I had a huge ziplock bag of pumpkin seeds from the Sunday Pumpkin Fest, and spent about 2 hours roasting those in the oven using various techniques, I skinned and sliced 10 lbs of apple, half of which went into the crock pot with some spices to create chunky apple sauce, and half of which went into a homemade apple pie! I made the crust of the apple pie and left the rest to do the next evening so it would be nice and warm for dessert. Mmmmmm.
I love autumn.
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