Wild Apples & Caveman

Sunday Caveman went to the mountains motorcycle riding with his brother and other motorcycle friends. He came home with these wild apples.

Caveman is a hunter and a gatherer. Caveman is also my husband. He is my best friend, life partner, and the father to my beautiful girls. I met Caveman in the Fall of 1975, at the tender age of 16. I married him in December of 1976,  I was 17 years old. This December will be our 35th wedding anniversary (give or take). We've shared good times, bad times, and all the times in between. As weird as this sounds we were even divorced from each other for 5 years. From early 2000 until we remarried again in June of 2005. Even through the years spent apart, we still never left each others lives completely. We've spent most of our lives together, grew up together, and are getting old with each other.

Some things are just meant to be-forever.

I'm going to bake Caveman a pie today.

The Girasole Lady

Hello

This week has been busy.

I gave the front porch a Fall face lift.

On Sunday I went to Williams-Sonoma for the stew cooking class. It was informative, fun and relaxing to get out of the country for a day. Beth and I drove the 1 hour drive to the Galleria Mall in Roseville. We shopped and shopped, then enjoyed a yummy lunch at the Cheese Cake Factory when we were done shopping.

Of course, I got a cookbook at Williams-Sonoma:

See that chicken pot pie on the cover? I made them for dinner on Monday. It rained all day Monday so it was the perfect weather for doing such a thing. My pot pies were not as perfect looking as this one from the cover, but yummy none the less.

Did I forget to mention that I got new bowls at Williams-Sonoma too?

Then I baked a chocolate cake: 

I've used the same recipe for decades. It is on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa can:

After Monday's rain the weather was beautiful. I planted the plants I got at the Butte College annual Fall plant sale.

HEUCHERA

BUGLEWEED

Earlier this year I planted a bed of Nastursuims

A very sweet Sweet Pea bush:

All in all this has been a good week. Wonderful weather. Lots done outside. I have a green house I bought during the Summer and will be working on getting that assembled and up for the colder months ahead.

I'm itchin to start an indoor project.

Aprons, maybe a new quilt or two.

I'm hosting a Stampin Up party in November. I bought stamps years ago from this company. The demonstrator, Alex, is charming. I just met her and it felt like we were just old friends.  My oh my...they have amazing things now. I am really excited and think I have found yet another craft to occupy my time, and invade my already filled project "to-do" list. I'll just rename the list "Do What I Want To Do" list.

The real evidence of growing old, is that things level off in importance-Gladys Taber

The Girasole Lady

Cookbook Obsession

I'm just a wee bit obsessed with cookbooks, ok maybe more than just a bit.  

Recently, I added a few new cookbooks, to my already bulging cabinet.

With these...

and this...

and this...

 I'm very particular about the books I choose. Great food pictures are a must. I like them to contain stories about family and food.

I really do actually use them, and read the stories.

On Saturday

I made Flat Apple Pie from the Pioneer Woman Cookbook:

p.s. I also made the PW Perfect Pot Roast for dinner.

MY SPECIAL HELPER ♥ for the crust.

Mixing up the apples.

Yummy!

Sunday we made Lemon Meringue Pie:

Cud'n Ferland's Lemon Meringue Pie

(from the Sweet's Book)

I love the stories in this book.

Yummy too!

On Sunday I will be heading to Williams-Sonoma for a cooking class on stews.

Maybe I'll even bring home a new cookbook!

*Mia is doing wonderful at 2 months old. Click on her name for her 2 month update*

The Girasole Lady