whirlwind weeks

Wow - the past few weeks have flown by! One convention in Seattle followed by another the next week at home - both were excellent, but definitely wiped me out with all the go-go-go. Somehow, I thought it would be a great idea to end 7 straight days of 'always-on' work and travel by getting up early the next day and going apple picking with friends.

Turns out I was right - it was an awesome way to decompress and have some fun with cool people. (Check out my friend Shannon's post too :)

and spend the day with my cutie.

I ended up bringing home about 13lbs of apples (mostly golden delicious)... 

a few pumpkins for eating/baking...

and one pumpkin that will become the boyfriend's "Domo kun Pumpkin" carving masterpiece. :D

So, what to do with all those apples? Apple crumb pie!
I'm so glad I hung on to this goodie from my grandmother:

It clamps to the counter and very quickly peels & cores the apples beautifully! Now that I've actually used it, it won't be relegated to the unreachable pantry shelf anymore.

Because I only take a once a week 'anything goes day' with my diet, I decided individual mini pies would be better than a giant one that went to waste/waist. ;)

So, yeah, that used about 6 apples. I still have about 10lbs of them to go. (and I questioned whether or not I'd picked enough as we left Eckert's. haha! uhm, I think I'm covered.)

The remaining apples are destined for

• apple rings in the dehydrator
• alice waters' apple tart
• applesauce