FriendsGiving

On Thanksgiving morning Mac and I headed out of Princeton on our way to Baltimore to celebrate Thanksgiving with Regina, one of his friends from high school, and some of her friends. We planned on stopping by my parents' place to drop off a few things for dinner there on Friday and before we even made it to them we got a flat tire and had to change it on the side of the highway. When we got to my parents' house they insisted on us taking their car to Baltimore because they didn't want us driving all that way on a donut. So after a little bit of rearranging, we were on our way to Baltimore again!

We stopped at our hotel to check in and drop off our bags and then headed over to Regina's. She has an amazingly huge studio apartment and it had no trouble holding a table big enough to seat eight. When we arrived there were already appetizers on the table and the food just kept coming from there. We had a beautiful traditional Thanksgiving complete with turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing and so much more.

After dinner Mac made Turkish coffee and we had a fun time reading the coffee grounds to predict the future. We also played tons of fun games including Celebrity and Charades and just enjoyed the company for hours!

A few hours after dinner, Regina decided to whip up some brownies. We were in the midst of playing games and she said "Oh this will just take a minute". So of course, we timed her and she actually managed to get the batter in the pan within a minute. It was pretty amazing. And the brownies were delicious!

So after spending many hours having fun at Regina's, everyone was pretty tired and the guests staying at Regina's house had actually put on their PJ pants. So Mac and I finally decided to head out. It was a wonderful way to spend the holiday.

Final Harvest

The day before Thanksgiving this wonderful local organic farm decided to have a final harvest where people could volunteer to help in the fields picking arugula, beets, parsley, turnips, Brussels sprouts, and any number of other things that were still good enough to eat.

After the harvest, the people who helped were invited to take whatever they needed for their own Thanksgiving meal and the rest would be given to a local food bank. It's such a great idea and is truly a win-win-win situation for the volunteers, the farmers and the food bank. I showed up about an hour and half into the time they had allotted for harvesting and they were already finished (or nearly finished) in the field. They said I could still take whatever I needed and had a donation jar for money to go to the food bank, along with all of the produce. So for a $10 donation I got beets, arugula, head lettuce and Brussels sprouts that beautiful graced my family's Thanksgiving table.

And on top of all that - the farmers also had home made vegetarian soup, fresh bread, hot chocolate and cookies for anyone who stopped by the farm that day. I have to say, I'm kind of in love with this little farm and I look forward to them starting classes in their brand new building in the spring and of course, I'm looking forward to their wonderful produce!

Baby Monkey Jam Session

Last night Mac, Mike, Zeynep and I went out to dinner in honor of Zeynep's last night in Princeton. After dinner we headed up to my apartment for dessert and ended up bringing out the guitar and ukulele and playing a few tunes. And Mike got to debut his interpretation of Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig), caught here on video. Enjoy!

Pumpkin carving with Kiddos

Many of you know of my love for pumpkin carving and I love to share it with my nephews. On Friday night I drove up to John and Jill's to hang out and carve some pumpkins. It was really fun, as always, and we got some really creative pumpkins out of it. Emerson made a face to show us what he wanted his pumpkin to look like:

Nathaniel and Sebastian both drew their own designs for their pumpkins. I cut out what Sebastian had drawn (under his watchful eye to make sure everything was just right) and Nathaniel actually did some of the carving on his own this year (under my watchful eye to make sure no one got hurt).

The pumpkins turned out really great! Here they are lined up on the counter in the kitchen. Emerson's on the left, Sebastian's in the middle and Nathaniel's on the right.

I spent the night in Montclair and had a great time at Sebastian's school's pancake breakfast on Saturday morning. Then I headed home to get ready for my own pumpkin carving party.

Girls Night Out at Erin McKeown

On Sunday night I drove into Philly and met up with Kim to attend an Erin McKeown show at World Cafe Live. It was part of the Distillation 10th Anniversary tour and the first set was all of the songs from her album Distillation, played from last to first. She actually wore the dress that she wore on the cover of the album for the first set. It was great to hear all of these songs, some of which I'd never heard performed live before.

The second set was a few new tunes and then an all-request set. She also changed into more comfy (and less frumpy) clothes, as you can see in the above photo. It was fun to hear some of my favorites played live. Her shows never disappoint and this was no exception. It was also a great excuse to hang out with Kim! This fall has been busy for both of us and it was nice to know that we had this to look forward to.

Leaf-peeping from a canoe

This Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day and Mac and I decided to take the canoe out for possibly the last time this season. We spent a little bit of time on Lake Carnegie and then portaged over to the canal.

Mac is always a good captain, steering us through spaces that I never thought we could fit through. And for a good part of the trip I had this dragonfly keeping me company.

The day was beautiful and the foliage was outstanding! This fall has been particularly lovely.

As we approached Hibben, where the canoe is kept, all of these birds started flying across the lake. This photo doesn't even do it justice, and the noise was amazing. That's the Washington Street bridge and more great colors in the background.

It was a beautiful day to be out on the water. I'm so glad we could squeeze in one more paddle before the winter.

Soufflé!

On Saturday night, Mac and I ran a bunch of errands together and after getting home way later than anticipated, I still wanted to make soufflés for dinner. Ever since I got a copy of Judith Jones' book The Pleasures of Cooking for One, I've been wanting to attempt the soufflé that is so beautifully photographed on the cover, and when I was in Minneapolis I picked up a second souffle dish, so now I could make two (So much for "cooking for one")! So I doubled the recipe, and after Mac and I both made our arms hurt from whisking the egg whites so much to get them to "soft peaks", I finally put everything together, put it in the oven and hoped for the best.

Mine didn't quite puff up as nicely as the one on the cover of the book, but I realized later that my soufflé dish is much deeper, and I was still happy with how much they rose. And now that I've successfully made the basic egg and cheese recipe, I'm looking forward to trying to add some veggies and maybe even venture into the world of chocolate soufflés! Thankfully I have a taste-tester who's willing to try almost anything.