A year...and change...

When I jokingly said today's blog title to my friends Nathan and Andrea, I had no idea of the response I would get... 

Yesterday, Nathan and Andrea met up with Brian and I at the Harvest Fest at Stone Barns. There were so many people there. I think it's fantastic that so many people are supporting local farms. Lots of families out on the farm looking at the animals, taking hay-rides, gathering eggs at the hen-house and of course plenty of delicious treats from local vendors. We had some delicious grass-fed beef sloppy-joes and also a slow-smoked Berkshire pork sandwich.

There was also a pie baking competition that I may try to get in on next year, but I got a photo of one of the "honorable mention" winners. I guy named Nick (sorry, don't know the last name) made a pork pie! It's rather creepy and beautiful in sort of a Shining (weird people dressed as plushies in the hotel room) kind of way. I didn't get to taste it, but it's looks great.

Afterwards, we went back to Andrea and Nathan's house to have some year old cake!  Last year, in September, I had the privilege of making their wedding cake.  I remember the drive up to the Peak and Peak lodge (not far from Erie, PA), the fields covered in goldenrod, Mennonites in horse drawn carriages along the roads and the welcoming mountainy-lodge feeling of the resort where the wedding was held.  That day was frantic for my friends, of that I have no doubt, but was also hectic for me.  I had never done someone's wedding cake before and was entering into a kitchen I had no knowledge of.  I had baked the cakes the night before the journey, but had to assemble, make frosting and decorate on site in a smallish window of time.   Brian and I packed up the kitchen aid and hit the road!  Everything turned out beautifully and the wedding was truly one of the most fun I have ever attended.  As per tradition, we froze the top tier of the cake to be eaten on the couple's one year anniversary.

September came and went, and we were finally able to get together with them yesterday after the Harvest Fest and have the aforementioned cake.  Thus, as we went to cut the cake, I made the joke that it has been "a year and change" since their anniversary was actually in September, to which Andrea replied, "speaking of change".... Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when she said they were pregnant!!!  I really couldn't believe it and I am so happy and excited for them!  In this case, that wedding cake has just doubled it's memory content.  Not only is it from such a special day, a year and change later there is the excitement of a baby attached to that bite of carrot cake.  Baking can be intense!!!

As a wind-down (if you will) last night I made Sausage Apple hand-pies.  When we were at the Harvest Fest Brian bought some savory hand-pies for us to sample.  They were pretty good, but he suggested I make a savory tart or pie (I usually make sweets).  I had read a Martha Stewart recipe (shock) in the special Halloween '09 magazine which contained a recipe for the Sausage Apple hand-pies.  It was more time-consuming than I planned as we ended up eating dinner at 12:30 this morning, but it was worth it.  The dough is a traditional pate-brisee, and the filling is sweet Italian sausage, Granny-Smith apple, yellow onions and fresh thyme from the garden.  The flavor really has that cozy factor.  


It was quite a day yesterday and I have to tend to the garden and falling leaves today.  It's the perfect day to be outside while the weather is still warmish and the sun is shining.  The most baking I think I'll get done is toasting some French bread in the oven to go with a beef stew...and that's just fine.