On Saturday, Daniel and I made the drive out to Auburn to visit some friends who recently moved out there from San Francisco. Our plans were simple: see their new place and carve pumpkins for Halloween. Also, pick up some apples and bake Teddie's Apple Cake.
I have long cherished the dream of going apple picking but since we were a bit tight on timing, we ended up stopping at Machado Orchard to buy some already-picked apples. Pink Ladies, to be precise.
After picking up apples and pumpkins, we headed back to our friends' place to relax on their deck looking out through a canopy of oaks while drinking pumpkin beer. Joanna made a lovely stew with dumplings for dinner and afterwards, we carved our Halloween gourds. I carved a crescent moon and stars; Daniel made a tiny fisherman catching a huge fish. Joanna carved a dog's paw and Morgan carved a crab. We put the jack-'o-lanterns on the deck and turned off all the lights.
Afterwards, Joanna and I (but mostly Joanna) made Jess's version of Teddie's Apple Cake. I peeled and cored some of the apples we'd bought at Machado's and Joanna whizzed oil and sugar together in her brand new stand mixer. Morgan cracked a bunch of fresh walnuts. We baked it all up and before 11am the next morning, managed to take down the entire cake.
That there was the last piece. I liked it after dinner with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but I liked it even more the next day for breakfast with a cup of coffee.
It was a lovely, relaxing trip and neither Daniel nor I wanted to leave. We consoled ourselves by stopping at Ikeda's for hamburgers and pie on our way home.* It was such a good weekend.
*We are definitely going to need to fast for maybe the next month or so.
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