Happy Halloween!!

I'm too lazy these days to dress up for Halloween. That's apparantly what being a working girl does to you. Maybe it'll change when I have little ones of my own to dress up, but for now, I just have my two adorable kitty cats, Heidi and Ben.

Ben, a docile, extremely laid back, accomodating kitty, allows me to dress him up and take photos of him, like the one below, where he is pretending to be a "Mountain man cat":

Isn't he such a cool cat in his hooded, zip-up fleece jacket?? (Unfortunately, I don't think he felt cool, more like humiliated...).

Heidi, an anxious, alert, and active cat, who would never keep any clothing on her long enough for me to take a photo, did not dress up for Halloween. Instead, here's a photo of her peeking out of her new favorite box:

She's such a princess! If only I had a small tiara for her to wear for Halloween.

Finally, here's another photo of Ben, posing with one of our decorative pumpkins. He doesn't seem all that interested, does he??

I think what he's trying to say is, "quit making me pose and give me my Halloween candy already!"

Unfortunately for Ben, he's on a diet (presumably, you can see why), so no candy for him! Just his always mmm-mmmm delicious Iams kitty food.

From Ben, Heidi, and myself, have a frighteningly fun Halloween!!

Trick or Treat...

The Fruit of our Labor

After apple picking a couple of weeks ago, my husband and I had a lot of apples to eat. I took a bag to work for co-workers to eat, I ate several for lunches, and still we had a lot left. So, of course, we had to get creative in how to make good use out of all of the delicious apples we picked. That's when we both thought....

APPLE PIE!

I have never made a pie of any kind, but I figured that it can't be too hard. So, I searched the web for easy recipes, as well as healthy recipes. I found the following, which was by far the easiest out there (courtesy of Epicurious.com):

Ingredients:

1/4 cup apple juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 tbsp light butter at room temperature

4 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 refridgerated ready-made pie crusts

1 tsp cinnamon

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine apple juice, sugar, and butter in a bowl. Add apples and cornstarch. Fill 1 of the ready-made pie crusts with the mixture. Slice the 2nd pie crust into 1/2 inch strips and drape over filled pie shell in a criss-cross pattern; pinch edges to fasten to bottom crust. Bake 55 mins or until golden brown. Sprinkle top with cinnamon.

Here's how the pie turned out!!

I'm not usually one to toot my own horn, but the pie is DELICIOUS!! My husband agrees (and he is not an easy one to please). I'm on my 2nd piece so far tonight. Yummmmm....

A Lovely Fall Afternoon in NJ

I surprised my hubby this weekend with a "day of fun", which is a little tradition we have for adding some new and fun activities to our routine lives. Since we are now car-owning folks with easy access to all the quaint NJ suburban towns, I decided to surprise him with an afternoon of apple and pumpkin picking at Riamede Farms in Chester, NJ. For more info on the farm, check out their website:

http://www.riamede.com/

It was a beautiful day for our day of fun. Sunny, warm but not hot, and not a cloud in the sky. Many other people (especially families) were also taking advantage of the gorgeous day. But, the apple orchards at Riamede Farms are so big that you can easily be surrounded by plenty of trees and not another person.

We got pretty excited about the varieties of apples available, even this late in the season. We picked about 12 pounds of apples, ranging from Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Gala, Macintosh, and some varieties that we had never heard of (and can't remember). We also got several great pumpkins and some Indian corn to decorate our little apartment hallway (check out the photo above). Here's a photo of my hubby wheeling our wagon full of pumpkins and apples. Surrounding him are apple trees galore!

On our way to and from Chester, we also enjoyed the amazing foliage along the large and small highways. I didn't have a chance to snap any photos, but believe me when I say it was amazing. All shades of yellow, red, orange, brown. If you happen to be driving around Morris County in NJ, you'll see what I mean.

Happy NJ Autumn!!