Sunday quote

"The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile".


From Flow:The Psychology of Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The Best Apple Pie

The cellar was starting to fill up with apples so Maura volunteered to bake an apple pie. She has taken my recipe (which is really Martha Stewart's recipe) and made it even better. The cinnamon-speckled apples are nicely cooked, the crust is nice and flaky, and less sugar means it's healthier and there is no juice spill in the oven to clean up.

Duck buns and a casserole

A walk around Mac Island to soak up some of the very warm October sunshine.

Did not have the right yeast but I made these Maple Butter Twists anyways. The dough was not airy and light but you don't even notice that because the filling of butter, sugar, maple syrup, and walnuts is so good!

Mr. Cowboy tried a new recipe (The Ultimate Chicken and Noodle Casserole) which was very labour-intensive so this is not a keeper. But it was good tasting and we used up the rest of the Thanksgiving turkey. It is a great mixture of noodles, peas, roasted red peppers, with Alfredo sauce, lots of cheese and the top is breadcrumbs and pecans.

A pig, some geese, and a turkey

Not a lot of kneading but three risings later we enjoyed Maura's homemade English Muffins in our eggs bennie with fake hollandaise sauce made with mayo, mustard, and lemon juice. Add lots of maple-flavoured bacon to the layers and you  have a great breakfast!

A walk in the sunshine along the river, stopping to watch all the geese gliding by or feeding under the oaks.

And after all that walking and sunshine and fresh air, we were very thankful to enjoy a wonderful turkey dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had so  much fun putting together a fall display at work. Picking chestnuts from a huge tree on 1st Ave. Cutting flax from my garden to fill an old pottery jug. Picking volunteer gourds from a friend's backyard. But the most fun was cutting old books into pumpkins. It took about two hours to cut each one ( I used an xacto knife but Mr. Cowboy had better luck with scissors) but it was time well spent considering the reactions. Big smiles from everyone.

Smitten Kitchen weekend

After the Market, we had our regular Cowboy breakfast at our regular spot with the regular gang.

It was a kind of Smitten Kitchen weekend as I tried three new recipes from this cookbook by Deb Perelman. The first was Sesame-Spiced Turkey Meatballs with roasted carrots and parsnip puree. And someone made cranberry sauce so the combination was just too yummy for words.

The second recipe I tried was Leek Fritters which are really Zucchini Fritters because I didn't buy any leeks at the market. Not a good switch up.

There are no pictures of the third recipe because I could not find a suitable brisket and used a sirloin roast instead to make Maya's Sweet and Sour Holiday Brisket which turned out a little dry but very tasty and a little too spicy which I thought was going to be a problem for a certain someone but he had the sauce on the side and everything was good.

Saturday quote

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."

                                                                      --Leonardo Da Vinci--

Apples and Lemons

Stopped at Robert's market on the way home and bought a case of apples; Maura made us a juicy apple pie which did not last long.

Lots of apples so I cooked up a pot full of apple pie filling and made fruit tarts. Had lots of dough so we made some lemon tarts; they are the perfect one-bite pies.