Jlott: You gonna come drink martinis with me tonight?

me: Me?

Jlott: Yeah.

me: *questioning eyes*

Jlott: Benny’s like “Me? I don’t drink!”

Me: Exactly. [Mhill walks by] I never drink.

mhill: *grin* mmmmhummmmm.

Me: Well, except that one time.

jlott: yeah, that one time. When you were 19.

me: yeah. That was a crazy night.

mhill and jlott: *walk away in opposite directions shaking their heads*

I’ve been spending more time in the kitchen lately, and enjoying myself tremendously. I have an awesome teacher, and am learning a ton about cooking, all while remembering my love of baking. Every week at church we have a pot-luck lunch after the sermon, and this week I was supposed to bring dessert. I decided on an apple crisp. I’d made it once before recently. Relatively easy, and quite tasty.

Apple Crisp: the making of.

I gathered all the supplies, and started peeling the apples.

My mom let me use her apple peeler/corer/slicer, and it was absolutely essential.

Apple Crisp: the making of.

Apple Crisp: the making of.

I put all the bits together, layered the granny smith and golden delicious in alternating layers, baked it for 55 minutes and it smelled AMAZING. THEN I decided to run to Meijer to get the Naan to go with the Chicken Tikka Masala I was making (jarred sauce, sadly, since I didn’t read the recipe for the homemade sauce soon enough).

When I got back from the store, the dog immediately hit the floor and didn’t want to look at me. There was the smell of doom in the air.

What you get when you make amazing apple crisp, and then leave. With it in the reach of the dog.

She’d pulled it down off the stove, and eaten a very good portion of it. Read: nearly all. I decided to give in and just take the no-bake cookies that I was planning to make anyway to church.

NoBake cookies, cooling.

Maybe I’ll try again for next week. Tomorrow night I start these Cinnamon Rolls. My first adventure in anything bread-like, and definitely my first time with yeast. Good Times!

For those of you that haven’t been around before: Fall generally means all sorts of crazy for me. I get antsy, my impulsive nature is significantly harder to control, and I am just generally a person that normal people find annoying. It was during the fall that I once went for four days without sleep (ending in a fury of bad ideas and hallucinations), and in fall that I’ve generally failed classes and quit jobs.

The cycle was identified with the help of my mum around the same time I met my now ex-husband in 2002. Since then I’ve gotten steadily better about anticipating and curtailing the impulses. This year, as stress at work started to increase at the same time that fall was approaching I could feel myself nearing a critical breaking point and had a brilliant idea: plan a vacation. The plan was just to hang out at home and allow my impulses to run wild, but I haven’t really had to. A few random cleaning spurts, and a road trip later, I feel completely in control again and am more centered than I have ever experienced during the fall. The biggest impulse I’ve had to control was the impulse to work.

For the passed four years I’ve been increasingly attached to my job. The only time I’ve really removed myself was last fall when I took a vacation to Europe, and told everyone I’d be completely unavailable except the guy I’d promoted to help me run the team. Ten days without a responsibility to another person was pretty invigorating, and centering and … addicting.

This year there was no awesome deal to get me out of the country, but I still wanted a vacation. I took the time off work, and (save for a three day trip to Kentucky) I’ve spent almost all of my time in the Lansing area, doing random things that I normally don’t have time to do. I’ve cooked a bit, and seen some friends, and made a trip to Uncle John’s Cider Mill, and most days I’ve been in bed until well passed noon. It’s been absolutely spectacular.