use real butter

Recipe: spiced apple cider

Alas, Alack. Today, the last day of summer, is near an end. Such a bummer, eh? Maybe for you… I think the majority of the people I know will name summer as their favorite season. Not this girl. No way. I’m sure most folks would peg me for a winter lover, but my favorite season is autumn. Honestly. Truly.

it has begun

I quite enjoy all of the seasons, but autumn has always been my favorite. It’s not just the fall colors, the cooler temperatures, and that softer light. It meant the start of the academic year, women’s volleyball season, September birthdays, Halloween, apple picking, chili cook offs. Now it means switching to flannel sheets, getting in those final hikes before the big snow storms, tuning my tele skis, gearing up for the fall shoot (camera, not rifle), hearing elk bugle in the morning mist, Kaweah’s thicker winter coat, more baking, dusting off the crock pot, watching Orion rising earlier and earlier in the East.

mingling of seasons

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: sangria

On a recent post where I bagged on annoying blog characteristics I got a lot of comments and emails about why I hate Blogger. I’m sorry, I should have been more clear. There are a lot of people who blog on Blogger, and I love those people, I just HATE BLOGGER. Aside from the incredibly stupid and clumsy mechanics of Blogger, it is ass slow. I know this because when you try to visit over 1000 Daring Baker blogs in the course of a few days (where the majority are on Blogger) you start to pick up on how painfully stupid and poorly designed the commenting procedure is. I’m no authority on blogs, I just know what makes me crazy when I go to other blogs – although I do have professional experience on the design, programming, and implementation side (including some user testing).

my avocados ripened too late for the party, but not too late for us

Now I’m going to make a few observations about photography… I usually keep quiet, but every now and again I will let loose and rail. Here is more brain dump. And away we go!

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: citrus cordial

If you shop like me, you try to eat something before you hit the store(s) and you try to shop responsibly. That means picking up foods that are both delicious and good for you as well as economically unstupid (economically stupid = picking up two heirloom tomatoes at Whole Foods and watching your partner’s eyes pop out of their head when they ring up to $8). I generally try to buy a lot of produce because it’s good for you. Those bags or flats of fruit from Costco are a great deal, except when you can’t consume them quickly enough before they spoil.

I hate to let good food rot for no good reason, but now my citrus doesn’t have to – ever. My dear friend, Kell, shared this brilliant idea with me several months back. It sucks that she’s all the way in Australia, but I love that we keep in touch electronically with all sorts of food ideas and other snarky observations about people, life, and politics. She’s amazing, and so is this cordial. I suppose cordial is a nice fancy British Commonwealth term for what we uncultured Yanks would call syrup *grins and exposes gap tooth*

pour a little cordial into a glass or pitcher

**Jump for more butter**