apple time!

I love apple season. It signifies the coming of fall, and all the wonderful things that come with it: mainly, baseball playoffs, football, and baking. My weekends are now full of Jason's soccer games (exciting to watch) and high school football games (I am so glad Grace is a cheerleader because otherwise I would have no reason at all to go to those....) and my weekdays are full of Cal Poly students, driving kids around (mainly Jason, now that Grace can drive herself!), and trying to reap the bounty of our garden and orchard before it goes bad (also there is quite a squirrel war going on this year, but Max-the-dog and I are doing quite well, thanks to the new ammo my dad bought me, so I won't mention it, lest any of my hippie neighbors happen to read this). This year, it just so happens that the tomatoes are very late, and the apples are early, so they are all ripening right now. Our apple tree is only about 8 feet or so tall, but God bless it, it has produced about 100 or so apples (I'm not sure what variety....I was told golden delicious, but they start dropping when they are still green. As with many of the plants here, it may have been mislabeled when we moved in). I went out the other day to pick "a few" and came in with a full basket (it's like the miracle of the loaves and fishes). Fortunately for me, my sweet mother-in-law is visiting, so she stood at my kitchen counter this morning and peeled and cut apples while I put them into an apple crisp (which we will eat tonight) and two apple pies, which I am freezing for later (I might add that she is also fixing us linguine with clam sauce tonight for dinner. What a great visit this is turning out to be!). Then she escaped somehow and went shopping with my father-in-law. She doesn't know it yet, but I just went outside and picked a whole new basketful!! Ha! I see apple sauce, apple-cinnamon bread, apple dumplings, and apple butter in the future. This is a huge improvement over last year, when we got zero, thanks to those nasty squirrels, who, in one night, went out into the orchard and ate exactly half of every apple hanging on the tree. I think they did it to taunt me. Dirty buggers!

Anyway, apple prep is a relaxing, mindless task that can be done - while watching football! Maybe that's why I like apples so much....