Fall Equinox

Hello, friends!

Yesterday, at 4:02 pm EDT, day and night balanced, and fall officially began! Which means it’s time for my seasonal giveaway! I’m offering a gift card for $15 to Amazon, B&N, or The Ripped Bodice. (Amazon only for International entrees.) To enter, leave me a comment here or on one of my last few blogs: The Sonic Egg that Saved My Sanity, Be The Happy Ruler of Your Pile of Scattered Poop, Oh, Darling, Worry About Your Heart. Not Your Butt, or Bring it on, Fall!

What should the topic of your comment be? How about the best thing you did, large or small, this summer? It’s the little things, people, it really is. Except when it’s the big things. Those are great, too.

My family visited Watkins Glen Farm Sanctuary for my daughter’s 13th birthday because she wanted to hug a pig. Then I made this graphic. I’m not very good at making graphics. That’s ok.

I saw a recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles by The Recipe Critic on FB and made them in class as a demo. They were damn good. One thing I changed to make my life easier: I rolled the dough into balls, jammed my thumb ALMOST all the way through the center, used a pastry bag to fill the center (leaving a little room), and pinched the dough shut over the ball. Then I flattened the ball. I would not have had the patience to do it any other way. Once you go pastry bag, you don’t go back.

What do you do with the pie scraps (you can’t re-roll) from a dozen students when you are ALL sick of eating pie? Make hand pies and fill them with the soup your kids won’t eat! I could’ve inhaled a dozen of those suckers. Note for next semester: Would’ve been better with a thicker filling. Beef stew?

I also revived my starter, Baby Mac, from his winter’s sleep and started baking again. Twenty years ago, I bought Nancy Silverton’s BREADS FROM THE LA BREA BAKERY cookbook, read it, and was like, holy crap, it takes two days to make bread? You have to WHAT? With what? HOW? Well, now that I’ve been teaching for almost a decade, I think I’ll give it another shot. I made this cinnamon apple bread from our textbook last week. Definitely room for improvement, but look, Ma! No commercial yeast! Baby Mac is aliiiiiive!