The Greater Washington Tour

We gave my parents the Whirlwind Tour of the Greater Washington Area this past weekend! We had such a good time with them and we really enjoy it when they come to hang out with us. Jason and I took Friday off from work (the final version of my bill passed on Thursday, yay!), and we drove to Shenandoah National Park for a spin on Skyline Drive. Unfortunately, after a week of hard rain, the leaves were past their prime, but it was still a pretty fabulous view.

Saturday we went the other direction-- to Maryland and across the Bay Bridge for some crab. And boy, did we have crab! We ordered a dozen crabs AND the big seafood platter filled with mussels, shrimp, and disgusting-looking soft shelled clams with long necks sticking out of their shells. Crab eating is hard work, and after a couple hours of hammering away at the shells we were either too full or too exhausted to eat more and came home with lots of leftovers!

Mom and I dressed up as Mother-Daughter Bobsie Twins for Halloween and spent a little time helping out at our church's Trunk or Treat event. We loved having Mom and Dad come to church and Sunday school with us on Sunday morning. Jason recently started teaching a series on the spiritual disciplines, using Richard Foster's Celebration of Disciplines as the starting point, and it is awesome. It's exciting to watch our friends stretch themselves with us! Last night we also went to see Much Ado About Nothing at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Um, favorite Shakespeare play ever, and it was absolutely fabulous. I kind of want to go again. Or at least watch the movie a few times this week.

I love love love it when my parents come to play. Dad helped Jason with some woodworking, gave great gardening advice (as usual), and even sharpened our knives for us, and Mom and I had our long-anticipated chocolate molten cake at Chili's accompanied by long talks. And the best part is that we get to see them again in only a few weeks when we are in Idaho for Christmas!

The Dragon, the Cowboy, and Mr. Incredible

Courtesy of Mom's camera, here are a few pics of my favorite trick-or-treaters:

Team Redrum

I figured it was time for another ice hockey update. My team stepped up its image for the Fall/Winter season by picking up a local sponsorship. The Red team as we were known during the summer, is now The Frontpage Redrum, a combination of the name of the restaurant/bar across the street from the ice rink and an allusion to the Stephen King thriller "The Shining." The bartender at the restaurant apparently grew up with one of our captains.

Complete with brand new jerseys, Redrum swarms the ice each Friday night looking for its next prey. Since I had an "early" game this past Friday (at 10 pm - some games start as late at 11:30pm!), Missy and her parents (visiting from Idaho) came by to cheer on the team. We delivered with a 9-1 blowout of the poor Brewins. So the next time you are in Arlington on a Friday night, stop by and check out Redrum in action!

As Requested, Pumpkin Spice Lattes

I've had at least three requests for the pumpkin spice latte recipe, so I thought I'd post the link. Kaylyn tipped me off to the Crockpot Lady's blog, which I find extremely intriguing. This woman made a resolution to use her crockpot every day during 2008. Jason and I are huge crockpot fans (when we got married, we had six crockpots between the two of us and had to start giving them away), but even we have our limits. Still, I made the autumn sausage stew from her blog the other day, and it was delish. We are officially renaming it Fall in a Bowl.

Anyway, check here for the pumpkin spice latte in a crockpot recipe. Since I ended up having to cook it on the stove, I'm not quite sure how it turns out in the crockpot. Probably better--I think a long simmer would be ideal, but it was still quite good. And much freer than the $4.50 Starbucks special (mmm).

Leaf Peeping

Without question, the fall colors are my favorite thing about living here. (Well, that and the (relatively) close proximity of Europe, which I also like a lot.) After torrential downpours all post-run yesterday, we had amazingly perfect fall weather today. I was not going to make the same mistake I did two weeks ago, when we opted to watch the Redskins really suck instead of going outside, so we hopped on our bikes and took a ride. Well, well worth it, as you can see:

Fall Fun Run

We dragged ourselves out of bed early this morning to go run a 5K (well, I ran, Jason played encouraging husband/cheerleader). Seriously, triathlon? 5K? What is wrong with me?!?

Actually, the 5K was great fun (due in no small part to the fact that there was no swimming involved this time!). My coworker Kaylyn had convinced me to run by showing me pictures of how awesome the fall leaves looked the year before, and I used the same trick to get Tilly to do it with me. The run was at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, which is absolutely gorgeous, and the leaves did not disappoint. Neither did the weather, actually--the forecast said it would be chilly and rainy, but not a drop of rain fell until two minutes after we crossed the finish line!

I know you totally wish you were there, so check out this little video Master Jason spun out:

Tilly came home with us for breakfast--pumpkin waffles (courtesy of Trader Joe's, mmm, good) and pumpkin spice lattes (my new obsession) in the crockpot. Or, since I forgot to plug the crockpot in, pumpkin spice lattes on the stove. At least now I will make sure to remember to double check that I have plugged in/turned on the crockpot for the three more times we will use it this week... Mmmm, it's that time of year!

The Big Apple

To continue with our apple- and fall-themed posts here, I just have to say we had a fantastic time in the Big Apple this past weekend. We've been anxious to visit Telfer, Andrea, and Cate in NYC for a while, and the weekend did not disappoint--we are so happy to have good friends living "nearby"!

love new york in the fall

We did a poor job with the camera, so photos are random. Still, highlights of the weekend include:
1. Taking the train. I love the train--I could write a long essay about how I love the romance of trains (actually, come to think of it, I have written an op ed about this very subject...). It's just possible that, watching the autumn leaves pass by while I peacefully read my book and drank my pumpkin spice latte, I was as giddy as a schoolgirl.

don't mind the scary hair, it was drizzling. just look at the scenery flying by...

2. Bagels, cheese, and pizza. Mmm, I could eat my way through New York.

yes, that is me, bundled up to the nines and shopping for a pear

3. Walking around the city. It stayed unseasonably frigid and rainy on Saturday and Sunday, but Monday the sun came out. Andrea and I took Henry for a walk and discussed I Capture the Castle (consensus: how had we not read this book before?), then Jason and I traipsed through Central Park for an hour or so.

as we were leaving, when we realized we hadn't taken any pictures...

4. Listening to Atul Gawande at the New Yorker Festival. We really prefer to discuss healthcare reform outside of the Beltway, especially when the conversation is fueled by someone as intelligent and thoughtful as Gawande.

go go self-portrait. in the sun. in central park

5. Dovetail. Everything was perfect--the conversation, the company, the olive oil poached halibut, the take-home tin of peanut butter granola that I ferretted away for breakfast this morning. Probably my favorite meal of the year.

this, for the record, is not dovetail. it is just the seinfeld restaurant.

It was the perfect relaxed weekend--hanging out with friends we really like, getting away from our basement (arg), drinking copius amounts of various hot beverages, and being very, very happy.

Applesauce

It has been pouring and in the 40s most of the week, and right now it seems hard to remember that we had a weekend of almost perfect fall loveliness only five days ago. I say almost, because we should have gone biking in the sunshine on Sunday afternoon instead of watching the Redskins lose AGAIN. I am still regretting that.

Otherwise, the weekend was full of pumpkin pasta, apple pie, getting out the fall decorations, and finally getting the new carpet installed in our basement. Oh, and making applesauce. A few friends and I went apple picking last weekend specifically for this purpose. I do make applesauce every year, and I've had a few people ask for the recipe this fall. So I thought I'd share here.

Applesauce is near and dear to my heart. The other day I pulled the last jar of 2008 sauce out of the freezer for breakfast, and when I broke into it, it was still a bit icy on top. Instantly I was back at the Farm, finally arriving after a long drive from Boise and sitting down to Grandma's homemade mac and cheese and applesauce just out of the freezer. Nothing is better than my grandma's applesauce, and when we were there last month we looked at all the apples in the orchard (pic above) and reminisced about it for at least fifteen minutes.

My applesauce can't compare with this delicious masterpiece, in large part because I don't have Gravenstein apples growing in my backyard. Or pretty much anywhere on the east coast. If you have them, please make some applesauce. It's just not fair if you don't. That being said, it still turns out pretty tasty.

(Oh, and in case you are worried, making your own applesauce does not make you Martha Stewart. Baking your daily bread from scratch, that makes you Martha Stewart. Making your own applesauce just makes you cool.)

Applesauce has very few ingredients, which are listed below:

1. Apples

See what I mean? I used mostly Staymon apples, which are large and rather tart. I cut the apples, skins, cores, seeds and all, into large chunks and piled them into my dutch oven (or any large pot) until it was full. The only thing to cut out is the bottom part of the core (the part that used to be the flower), because sometimes that can go through the food mill. Then I added about a cup of water and set it on a slow simmer.

After about 30 minutes, the apples looked like this:

They were utterly falling apart, and they smelled like everything good about fall and childhood. Mmm. If only I could capture the smell of cooking apples on this blog, you would be salivating.

Once the apples were cooked, I got out the proper equipment. The items you need for applesauce making are:

1. A food mill.

2. A ladle.

It's very complicated stuff. I set the food mill over a bowl, then ladled some of the cooked apple, skins, seeds, and all, into the mill and started churning away until shortly, actual applesauce started coming out of the holes. (This always reminds me of playing with the Play-Doh barbershop thing, where you crank and play-doh starts coming out of the holes and creating hair. You remember, right? Anyway, moving on.) The skin, seeds, etc. stayed inside the food mill, the sauce came out. Brilliant, no?

Once I worked the sauce through the mill, I kept adding a few more ladles at a time, repeating until either the apples were gone or my arm had no more strength. (I ran out of apples first. That's right, I know where the gym is.)

And that's it. Applesauce. Tasty, delicious, amazing. I freeze mine and it lasts for months (mostly because Jason doesn't like applesauce (gasp!) and I get to eat it all myself), if I make enough. A few additional tips:

1. Okay, so sometimes applesauce has more than one ingredient--I just like the pure stuff, and I like to add my own sweetener at will. But if you want to add some brown sugar, cloves, cinnamon, etc. to the apples while they're cooking, that sounds really yummy too.

2. Please, please don't let your applesauce burn. It ruins pans. I completely destroyed one of Jason's pans making applesauce one time. This was before we were dating, and the fact that he still married me speaks volumes of his patience. Actually, I burned my applesauce this year too, we are both afraid my very expensive, very beloved le Creuset will never be quite the same. If you are going to, say, go and take a shower and forget that you have apples cooking (erm...), add another cup of water or more.

3. I love-with-hearts-around-it my food mill. When we got married, I actually purchased a Crate and Barrel food mill with a wedding gift card just to make applesauce. That first batch turned out chunky and with more than a few bits of peel in it. Even my mom couldn't really compliment it. So she found me an old-fashioned one at a second hand store--just like hers and my grandma's--which is a funky metal funnel shape and has a wooden pestle to press the food through the holes. It takes the arm-pain out of the process and cranks out lovely, smooth sauce. If your mom isn't as good at scouring second hand stores as my mom is (and, let's face it, she's probably not, because my mom could find actual buried treasure at Goodwill), just make sure you get a food mill with a fine screen.

The only other thing to watch with the food mill is that you don't fill it too full, at which time all that peel that you have been keeping inside may actually spill over the top and out into your applesauce. Very disappointing when that happens.

Okay! Go forth and make applesauce! And now, I, too, will know how to make applesauce when, next October, I forget both what type of apples I used the previous year AND how to do it (do I core the apples? How much water?), and then have to hope that my mom is not in Africa while I have apples coming out of my ears. Yay for all of us!

Back on the Ice

After eleven weeks of recovery for a broken ankle, including 3 weeks in a cast, 3 weeks in a walking boot, and six physical therapy sessions, I returned to the ice last night for my first game with my newly renamed (and sponsored) team, Front Page Redrum. Given the frequency that some of the players on my team visit the local bar/restaurant across from the rink, they decided to sponsor us this year. Jerseys are on order, and should be in by the end of the month.

While I'm still a bit tentative and need to get back into better physical condition, it felt good to have achieved my goal of playing again with my team this Fall/Winter season. Go Redrum!

Life-Long Friends

I was looking at some old pictures tonight and ran across this one. Since it is Shaanti's last official birthday (29 forever!), I thought it might be worth a post. Here's to one of my dearest and oldest friends in the world--happy birthday!

Grandad's Birthday: An Essay in Pictures

What we did on our trip to Oregon:

In spite of arriving 14 hours later than expected, we made it to my Grandad's 90th birthday party on time...which meant we were some of the first people there! We had a potluck in the park--and, my, can the Bunns throw a mean potluck! All of my usual Bunn Family Potluck favorites were there: tuna-noodle casserole, berry pie, and, of course, homemade apple sauce. Mm, mm, mmm!

We crammed a lot of catching up into a short amount of time. We have a large family, so there were a lot of people to talk to--and a few for Jason to meet for the first time! Jason has figured out the inlaw (affectionately known as "The Outlaws") art of finding one or two safe people and a good corner and then visiting for hours. Dad mastered this art 30-some years ago. Casey and Kim = safe people.

It was quite a crowd ready to sing "Happy Birthday." I think we had 70 some people there, almost all Bunns!

Last year Grandad blew out 89 candles, but that might be the limit for a cake. The big, fat 90 seemed much more reasonable!

Between conversations, Cole and I put together a nice collection of leaves and pinecones.

The Cousins (or, at least, many of them). I'm not sure if we've ever managed a picture with everyone looking at the camera. Poor Mason is a little unsure what to do with Grandad's beard!

Later that night we went over to the Beckwiths to eat African food and look at pictures from Auntie Fay and Mom's latest trip to Kenya. It was really neat to see what they have been doing there, especially after having been there ourselves.

On Sunday morning we went and hung out at the Farm with Grandad for a while. It was fun to watch Cole run around and play in the same places we'd played as kids...and Mom and her sibs had played as kids (she and Auntie Fay told us that they used to play in the hog shed where there was this big boiler that they used to cook up all the guts to feed the pigs, and Grandad warned them that if they played on the boiler and fell down the shaft with the pig food, he wouldn't be able to get them out. Yikes!).

It was beautiful at the Farm, as usual. Blackberries were growing along the road, the sun was shining bright, and the leaves were beginning to change. Jason had never been to the Farm, and I'm so glad I got to share this special place with him!We took Grandad to lunch, then headed to the beach for a day before catching a reeeeally early flight back to DC. Quick trip, but full of good times!

P is for Patience

...and Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Phoenix, all places we stopped on our reeeeally long trip to Portland. Seriously, I can't believe we weren't delayed in Providence! Patience was definitely what we needed, after our 21-minute flight to Philly was delayed 45 minutes--just long enough for us to miss the last direct flight to Portland for the night.

watching airplanes while we eat

We decided to make the best of our trip through the P's by eating at the fanciest (?!?) restaurant in the Philly airport and picking a hotel in Phoenix with really comfortable beds. It only slightly ruined our fun to realize that the woman who checked us out had been on the same shift when she checked us in a few hours earlier...

Three!

I called Cole today to tell him happy birthday, and he said, "Happy birthday to you!" He is such a smart, articulate, funny little three year old. When we were in McCall last month, he and I were playing with Legos and he wanted to build "two towers behind a river." So, of course, he got his own little set of Legos for his birthday.

I totally stole this picture from Shaanti's blog because I love it--and Cole--so much.

Also, a shout-out to my Grandad, who turned 90 today. I think he is amazing, and we are really looking forward to celebrating with him this weekend!

September

It has been a week of fall loveliness. In my head I know that it is way too early to get completely sucked in by autumn, that September is actually not the beginning of fall in DC (mmm, October), and that I will regret it if I, say, put away my shorts and start pulling out sweaters and long sleeves.

But oh, I want to.

For most of the past two weeks we've had perfect weather--first, the temp is hovering right around 75, and for days the sun has been shining in a brilliant blue sky; second, there have been a couple of nice blustery, rainy days that called for my psychadelic wellies and candles in the fireplace and, of course, afternoon tea.

Isn't it amazing how much we all love fall? In September I always look back to April with disbelief that the coming of spring could have been anywhere near as fantastic as the coming of fall. Even when it's been such a remarkably nice summer, too, broken foot and all. There are just so many things to love about autumn, like:

* watching You've Got Mail, which Dawn and I did, babies on laps, last weekend. Love of this movie is on my list of things that I look for in a friend. We ate oatmeal cookies and talked between bouts of quoting the movie to each other--"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies." Ah, for a bouquet of sharpened pencils.

* football season, which officially started Sunday with a sermon which leaned heavily on Redskins analogies and then a terrible (and probably all-to-common) loss by said Redskins. Erg. The basement remodel seems to be getting bigger every day (Jason spent the weekend putting in new light fixtures and I spent it trying to convince myself that I do not hate the paint color I picked), but we totally got the TV on the wall and the system set up in time for the afternoon game.

* squash, especially that amazing squash-and-sage pasta recipe from last fall. I've been waiting all summer to make it again, and it's finally on the menu for this week! Yay! Also, soup. And roasting things. Mmm... We bought squash and sugar pumpkins at the farmers' market on Saturday, even though there are still tomatoes and raspberries spilling out all over the place.

* running outside again. In spite of the fact that I frequently mention going running on this blog, I am by no means a Runner. It is not in my blood--the only Johnson who likes to run is my sister-in-law Kim. I can't run fast or far, and I hate every step I take. That said, I do go running a lot, and it is infinitely more tolerable when the humidity disappears and the amber colored leaves start rustling on the path by our house.

* looking forward to finding out if our next niece or nephew is a niece or a nephew. I can't believe I haven't linked to Jenny's annoucement yet, but Troy is going to be a big brother in March (which, by the way, is the absolute best time to be born, if I do say so myself). Obviously, we couldn't be more thrilled, seeing as we have sort of a soft spot for those nephews of ours. It simply amazes me how much I adore them.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Tomorrow is the last day of August recess. I know we are officially supposed to call it "August District Work Period" for all those morons out there who think Members of Congress are "taking a vacation" (and yes, if you think that, you ARE a moron), but "recess" sounds sooooooo much better. I honestly don't know how I am going to survive a whole 'nother 11 months until next August recess. Everyone (and by "everyone" I mean "all five congressional staffers who are not on vacation right now) is walking around in their jeans and flip-flips looking restful and suspiciously bag-less under their eyes. Going to work is absolutely fabulous during recess--it is seriously almost as good as going on vacation. Traffic is practically non-existent, and when I get there it's quiet and calm, my mail is caught up, my desk is so clean, and my coworker Nate and I have taken to having afternoon tea/coffee.

In the meantime, our district staffers are sounding more frazzled each day, and I think they are all ready to send the boss back to us. Poor Mike, he's the only one who doesn't actually get a recess.

So, apart from gliding around the office, talking about how much I love recess (seriously), in the past few weeks we have been:

• Obsessed with turning the blog into a book, thanks to http://www.blurb.com/. Okay, I have been obsessed, to the point where Jason recently told me I was not allowed to play the game "Civilization," because I would never be able to quit.
• Coaxing zucchinis to life. While the rest of the world is tying bags of unwanted zucchini on neighbors' doors and running, I am out in my garden every morning, assisting with some strange form of plant sex by transfering pollen from the male flowers to the female ones (I know, ew!). Apparently that whole "the world is running out of bees" thing is real--because our zucchini plant is not being pollinated adequately, the little buggers keep dying when they get about three inches long (same thing happened last year). I can't tell you how annoyed I am to be buying zucchini at the grocery store.
• Driving again. That would be Jason driving again, and we are both really happy about it. In fact, today he went to the doctor and can now get around with only an ankle brace on. Even though the first couple of weeks seemed to last forever, I really can't believe how quickly his ankle has healed. But seriously, I'd like to reiterate how great it is for him to be walking again!
• Not watching TV. It was a relatively TV-free summer, until we got back from Kenya and sitting in front of the TV was the only thing we could do to keep ourselves from going to bed at 7:30. But now that the family room remodel is definitely, definitely underway, we're having to come up with other ways to entertain ourselves in the evenings. Like blogging.

Unfortunately, in addition to recess coming to an end, school started tonight. Sigh. For the past three years, I've been carpooling with this fabulous girl, Becky, but she had to go and finish her class requirements, like, a year ahead of me, so tonight I had to head to GMU all alone for the first time. I missed her a lot. Plus, I felt really old. Not only were they celebrating the incoming class of 2013 (2013?!? that means I started college...12 years ago?!?), but my class is full of 23 year-olds. I'm probably ready to be done with school for a while again.

Basement Renovation, Part Three

My dad (George) came out last weekend to help finish the basement renovation project we started last summer. We moved heating pipes, hooked up a new baseboard heater in the family room, and prayed for no leaks (none so far!). We finished framing out the new wall, finished some electrical work, and put up drywall. We got it all ready for a professional drywall guy to come in to tape, mud, prime, and paint the walls. Thanks dad!

A completely renovated family room is right around the corner. Photos to come soon ....

The Loose Ends of Kenya

(Apparently this vacation warrants four separate posts before I can get back to writing about mundane and uninteresting tidbits of our lives.)

Africa has an unexpectedly surprising place in our hearts. I don't generally associate "Africa" with "us," but in spite of all the weird looks we got from people, it was pretty easy for us to decide to take our vacation this year in Kenya. Jason has spent weeks at a time in Kenya, and, as many of you know, he will go back to the Africa Bureau at the State Department in January. We sponsor a child through Compassion who lives in, surprise surprise, Kenya. And, after all, we have so many trinkets from all of Jason's and my mom's trips there that our entire basement is outfitted in African garb.

Overlooking the Rift Valley

It was a little enlightening to me to be in Africa with Jason, meeting his friends and watching him interact with the Kenyan people. One afternoon on safari I came back from the gift shop to find him deep in conversation with a staff member there about the political situation following the 2007 elections. At the market where we bought a few things to add to our collection, I found myself just laughing with enjoyment as I watched him barter with those selling things, claiming that he should get a discount for being disabled or claiming "Yes We Can" in Swahili when someone would tell him they couldn't sell for such a low price or declaring that some trinket he didn't want must have been made in Sudan. And he almost cajoled the Kenya Airways representatives into letting us take our slightly-overweight on as hand luggage.

This year he has come to better understand and appreciate what I do at work every day, and in the week we were there, I felt like I was better able to understand what he does. I learned more about work in the Sudan Programs Group in one week than I did in the six years he worked there, and I listened with interest while he and U.S. Ambassador Ranneberger, who is Jason's former boss, discussed the reforms that must be made in Kenyan government to avoid the kind of disaster that happened in 2007. For these things alone our trip was more than worthwhile.

Also, we got to stay at the Ambassador's Residence, which was unbelievably sweet. Not surprisingly, we fell in love with the Kenyan tradition of afternoon tea. When served with chocolate cake on ambassadorial china, pretty much everything was right with our little world.