The Boy and I celebrated by going on a bike ride this morning. It ended up being around 6.5 miles, I think more than I’ve ever ridden in my life. There were a few determined trees whose leaves had changed color albeit it a bit too quickly. For the most part the trees were all green and those that weren’t had bypassed the lovely colors and went straight to the shriveled, brown dying stage. So very sad.I saw a couple of boys standing on their balcony this morning holding their hands out as if to catch rain. I hope that’s what they were hoping to catch, anyway. It was sweet in its juxtaposition to the bright, sunny, warm day.
Speaking of bike rides, I’ve never seen so many people riding bikes in one place before (not counting watching bike races on TV or anything like that). Seriously, apparently if you live in Irvine and are middle-aged or older, suiting up in spandex and riding a bike in huge packs of people is THE thing to do. I had suspected as much before. On a few occasions last year when we would go to our favorite bagel shop on Saturday or Sunday mornings, it would be crawling with spandex-clad sweaty men, but I had no idea the magnitude of it all. Way to go middle-aged+ Irvine residents! Way to be active and healthy.
On a side note, on our exploratory expedition this morning, we came across “The Incredible Edible Park” which is, quite literally, a little park full of edible plants—tomatoes, strawberries, that sort of thing. For some reason, I found this very amusing. The park is a fairly narrow strip of land between the solid concrete fence surrounding identical neighborhoods and either the train tracks or a road. Today there was a very skillful tractor driver tilling one such section. He looked hilariously out of place amidst the Stepford suburbia homes, expensive cars zooming by, and spandex-clad packs. I’m curious what it is that people do at this park. Is one allowed to pick the fruits/vegetables/berries? I’m not entirely certain. Either way, it’s funny that what is such a familiar and common sight in certain parts of the country is labeled “incredible, edible” down here.
Earlier this week I completely failed in making pumpkin spice latte-inspired muffins. There was one degree of uncertainty in the recipe and I completely missed the mark. Can’t win ‘em all, I guess. I definitely made up for my failure today, though. This morning, after the aforementioned bike ride, I made some “healthy”—or at least healthier—pumpkin bread.
Essentially I used my tried and true pumpkin bread recipe, but replaced the 1/3 cup shortening/butter with 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce. It produces a slightly denser texture I think, but doesn’t diminish enjoyment significantly.
At the same time, I attempted to make a pumpkin-spice syrup in my eternal quest to create my very own pumpkin spice latte at home. I love the holiday drink, but not the price tag or the calorie count. Last fall, the internet was swarming with recipes for how to make similar warm, toasty beverages at home (whereas this fall, thus far, the internet is swarming with dessert recipes inspired by said beverage). I’m not sure I succeeded in achieving a syrup, but it was taking a long time and I had more important things to do. I’ve yet to try it with coffee, but I’m thinking it’s going to be pumpkin fail #2 for 2011. Maybe I’ll test it out tomorrow…
College football Saturdays are becoming more and more heartbreaking, what with UCLA’s continued inability to get their act together for at least MOST of a game. Perhaps, however, it is getting less heartbreaking since I no longer have to stand on my aching feet and watch us lose, I can just turn off the TV and get back to the books instead. That’s ok, I have faith that at some point in the future there will once again be enough competent football players with enough brains to make it at UCLA to have another winning team.
To help alleviate some of the heartache, I fortunately pulled off a surprisingly successful and delicious dinner! That’s two in one week. Earlier in the week I made some steak sandwiches which took me by surprise (given my general aversion and apprehension to cooking meat of any sort) and turned out really well. This was a warm and light pasta e fagioli (or beans for the non-Italianish speakers out there) soup courtesy of the blog, the little kimchi pierogi.
I used fresh rosemary from our teeny little herbs you met a couple weeks ago. It definitely took the soup from “meh” to “hey…now that ain’t bad!”
Maxwell thought so, too. Maxwell is our adopted guinea pig we found in Hawaii.
Happy October 1st/Early Fall Caturday!*
~PTB
* I want to add that I didn’t make up Caturday myself. I got the idea from Cute Overload and I’ve no idea if it’s original to them or to someone else. Just wanted to give credit where credit is due.
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