Sugar and Spice

 

*photo by Corynn*

I had big plans for this weekend.  Apple cider making, applesauce canning, apple slice drying...and apple cider donut making (as requested by Matt).

But then my allergies hit and I was a mess instead.  I couldn't forgo the donuts because, really, I get so few actual requests from Matt that I want to jump on them when they come.  And, of course, the kids knew of the plan and would have been tremendously let down.  Not so, of course, for the canning of applesauce.  ;-)  And because....DONUTS.

 So we made donuts.  Delicious, spicy, apple cider donuts.  

Matt had seen the recipe in this book which I borrowed from the library and absolutely love.  (There is nothing that irks me more than a cookbook that includes ridiculously expensive and foreign ingredients and then calls themselves a simple meal.  Give me the normal ingredients please and make me drool.  That is all I ask.)   

Matt's dad was coming to help with a new papa project that day and when he heard it would be donut day, well, Linda decided to come too.  The recipe said the yield was a 'bakers dozen' and I thought- "Well, considering that there would be 8 bodies- and people would likely want more than one..." I convinced myself I ought to make a batch of yeast donuts too.  

We ended up with trays and trays of apple cider cake and yeast donuts!  Topped with apple cider vinegar glaze (from the book), regular glaze and cinnamon sugar.  Oh.my.word.  So many donuts. I managed to get them all fried up in the lard I rendered myself (thankyouverymuch) and as I fried (and sneezed and sniffled), everyone ate.  Afterward I sent the children with plates of fresh donuts to all the neighbors...five plates full and Corynn met the mailman at the box with a tray for him to pick from and we STILL had enough leftover for two donuts for all at breakfast the next day!

We never made it to a real fair this summer and I was sad for lots of reasons- but one big reason for my disappointment was that I would be missing the funnel cake.  So I decided to buy the cheapest  fryer ($19.00) at Walmart so we could EACH have a funnel cake instead of all sharing a single one as we do at the fair.  This was a great (and not-so-great!) idea.  We had our funnel cake this summer.  We made mozzerella sticks (pretty much my favorite thing ever).  And now we've made donuts.  This fryer is a dangerous, dangerous thing.

The rest of the weekend was beautiful, though I was feeling so crummy... I pushed ahead any other apple plans and decided instead to just lay in the sunshine of the flower circle.  There are so few days left to do that.  And it was glorious.  Even surrounded by the dead seedheads and stalks of flowers past instead of the vibrant glory of flowers in their prime, the flower circle holds a sort of magic for me.  

We've been soaking up these glorious fall days as much as we can, knowing that they can't be here forever.  Indeed, first frost seems to be looming ahead this very week!  We've got some serious harvesting to do before then.  And still, garlic to plant.  And the next few days look chilly, gray and rainy.  Perfect for canning apples.  It all works itself out in the end.

I have been trying to use up some of my yarn stash this year (you remember the don't buy a skein in 2015?) and I didn't make as big a dent as I had hoped but I have been chugging along alright.  It has been particularly tempting to go out and buy yarn for projects for Tiddle but I have stayed strong in my resolve!  It has been exciting, overall, to be reintroduced to my stash and to be forced to find creative ways to accomplish what I want to do using what I have.  Occasionally it is annoying, but for the most part, I have found yarn to use that works perfectly for what I need it for.  (See how perfect the orange color of the above photographed fox hat matched the little outfit I bought for a friends' baby?  I didn't even remember HAVING an orange and I had two different shades...one the perfect fit!  Fox hat pattern.)  

I had hoped to use up a lot more stash yarn than I have but, while some women can turn out impressive yarn projects almost weekly...it is pretty clear I am not one of them.  Even still,   I figure if I get a few smallish projects done now that the weather is practically demanding it (cool weather = yarny crafts.  It just does.) I will be satisfied.  I made the turquoise hat (in the woods pictures) last week using this pattern and think I may have done something wrong because it doesn't have the same brow lines as hers.  Visitors had stopped by and were chatting with us at the time when I was finishing up the hat so I'll say I got distracted and missed the last few lines of instructions.  ;-)  The kids' like the hat though and can't seem to decide who it shall belong to.  

That's good enough for me.