Fun with apples

[bironic]

Pretty good weekend, on the border of summer and fall. Remembering how the weather was like this last year, too, when I was moving: 90 degrees one day and 50 the next.

Sampled tasty dumplings yesterday with thedeadparrot and azephirin. We were planning to go apple picking today but A. couldn't make it. However, those still standing were still able to make apples happen. Thus, an afternoon's cooking:



Skillet apple chicken; apple crumble with a cup of blueberries I had in the freezer; and mini apple pies.

The crumble is to take to work, with the excuse of my anniversary. (I like to do that from time to time, although I've been more thoughtful about it since an older colleague said she stopped doing the same a long time ago when she realized the men she worked with never brought in food, even when they came back from traveling.)

I'd never made pastry dough before, so I tried a simple recipe. It turned out fine. Next time I'd pile more chopped apple in the little pies, though. They cooked down more than estimated.

Now to decide what to do with the other half of the apples!

Besides being out in the beautiful weather, I learned some functions in Excel to make some budget spreadsheets. Woo, exciting life. Also watched the latest installments of Project Runway and Doctor Who, and the rerun of Cake Boss just now featured cakes in an Isaac Mizrahi show, so that's nice and full circle.

Oh, and got around to watching the Tom Hardy vehicle (ha ha) Locke. That was interesting enough as an experiment in stripped-down, theater-like cinema, but the ending didn't work for me, and the more I listened to the director's commentary, the more irritated I got that the character was supposed to be an Everyman. Village Voice was the only review I found that came close to how I felt about it.

Comments

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Looks delicious!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hooray for impending autumn.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

'i'm glad we didn't go see _Locke_: that sounds plumb boring.

Yay apples! when I make apple pies I sautee them first, to deal with the shrinkage and to take advantage of the Maillard reaction.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

One of the other shortlisted recipes involved just such a saute. With three other recipes to make in the same few-hour window, though, I went for the simpler one. Lessons learned for next time! Also that I don't need to drain the cinnamon-sugar juice that accumulates in the diced apples while the rest of the recipe comes together. I'd worried the bottom crust would get soggy, but instead it's on the dry side.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I contemplated Locke for a while, but decided I didn't like Tom Hardy enough to watch him for 90 straight minutes. Of course, we then saw Lucy instead. In hindsight, it's possible *anything* would have been better than that...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ha. Yeah, it's been disappointing to hear people rip into Lucy. I'd had higher hopes of Luc Besson.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I know! He was on the 'plus' side of the equation, too, since I loved The Fifth Element. Unironically, even *g*. FWIW, I did think the car chase through Paris was visually spectacular. Stupid, and with total disregard for innocent life, since apparently the very *first* thing that goes when you upgrade your brain is basic decency, humanity and compassion (by all means, let's shoot people for not speaking English!). But it was... spectacular?

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Seems these days regard for human life is the first thing to go in a summer blockbuster, too. Like superhero movies are now about how many unnecessary bystander casualties you can rack up in the name of fighting evil.

I'll probably still watch it when it comes out on video, though. (Yes, apparently I still say "comes out on video.")

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing these lovely glimpses of your life. Yay apples and little pies and Doctor Who.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading. I am grateful to have internet friends who are interested in these daily life updates once in a while. ♥