Apple picking

Matt and I recently went apple picking with our friends at a farm up in Grafton, IL. As we've been told always happens with first-time apple pickers, we got a little over-zealous and wound up bringing home 35 pounds of apples, which, I can assure you, is a lot of apples. Thankfully, apples keep forever (which I'm pretty sure is about how long it's going to take for us to get through them all), but in an attempt to make use of them faster than just in our normal snacking capacity, we've been on an apple-cooking rampage. The tally in the last week: apple butter, apple coffee cake, applesauce, applesauce snack cake, and apple crisp. It's been a good week in the kitchen. Any ideas on other fun ways to use the apples (besides the obvious pie on our horizon)?

I love cupcakes

I've heard that there are people out there who don't love cupcakes, but I prefer to believe it's not true. That's got to be a sad existence — not loving cupcakes, that is — and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. They're such happy, delicious little things. As a lover of sweetened bread products generally, cupcakes certainly rank pretty high in my hierarchy of treats, and I've never had a cupcake that beats the strawberry one served at Crave Cupcakes in Houston. If you are ever in Houston, you must try this place. In addition to offering a whole host of the most amazing cupcakes you've ever tasted, they also serve ice cold milk in little glass milk bottles to go with them. How could you resist? And though I've often been irked by the recent turn-everything-into-a-cupcake fad that's been sweeping the country (let's just say tres leches does NOT work as a cupcake, and it doesn't NEED to be a cupcake), I have nothing but the highest praise for Crave. Oh, to be back in Houston. But tonight, I'll settle for my own homemade classic — yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Grab a fork.

I love a good blue sky

I'm from Texas, born and raised, and though I now call St. Louis home, I will always be a Texan. I miss a lot of things about that great state, not least of which is the amazingly big, blue skies that stretch, seemingly, to eternity. I hope for one of those beautiful, clear days every time I go home, and more often than not, I get one. And I try to just soak it in, hoping it will last me until the next time I'm back in what my husband, a Californian by birth, lovingly calls The Republic. This blog is dedicated to all the things I love — the things that make me smile, that get me up in the morning and distract me at work. I'm not sure where each post will lead, but I hope you enjoy following me on my journey. For mine is a blue sky kind of life.