FALL! FaLL! fAll! FAll! faLL!

I get very excited by fall. I actually get a buzz off of the air, no really I do! I love it more than any season. I was on the phone with my friend Kate and I said "Hi Kate Happy Fall! (Sept 3rd) "Its not Fall yet!" she said. Well I don't care Kate's of the world I want Fall as many days as I can have it.

We are planning a big fundraiser at work called Apple Fest, which is a lot of work and is pretty stressful yet all of the events surrounding Apple Fest are Fall related and sometimes in the meetings I get secretly excited, not so much for standing around at the kiddie carnival all day but all the talk of apple desserts and pumpkins makes me a bit elated that summer is over.

So on one of my Fall obsessed days I was taking a "small short break" (term brother Alan coined at age 6 or so to avoid homework) from my work and I was thinking about all the things I like to cook in the fall and throughout the winter. Pumpkin curry soup, stuffed acorn squash, sweet potato tacos, beef stew with kale....apple pie.........and I dawned on me.....BREAD. I have never made bread before. It has always seemed a bit mistifiying. The yeast, the rising, the certain # of minutes you have to mix it and knead it....it seemed out of reach. But I decided after looking up some recipes that I was ready to undertake bread. In honor of fall.

Here are some highlights of my FIRST bread making.

I was a bit worried at first that I had just made a vat of glue....

But at last it was working out....

Here are my 3 risen loaves....

and finally my 3 finished loaves!

They looked good and tasted good.

I will never eat at Denny's again.

Well I have dry socket. 

Bucket. 

It is not that bad, it's getting better but I still have to go into the dentist to get my "packs" changed. So this morning very early (8am and it's Saturday!) Linda and I went to the dentist. My dentist has a very soothing voice so soothing that it borders on condescending. There was one other patient in that early and the dentist saw her first. You can pretty much hear everything everyone says. So I could hear the dentist use his soothing voice to explain everything. And the other patient was screeching and and wailing, but had I not been in the dentist office and heard that I would have immediately assumed that this woman was having very loud sex with someone with a very soothing voice. 

As a reward for basically nothing after my appointment we went to Starbucks which on the west side of town is across the street from Denny's. On  whim I was like, "Linda hows about I take you out to breakfast??"

Linda had the Heartland scramble (Heart attack scramble) and I had the "Build your own Grand Slam" which consisted of pancakes, hashbrowns, and 4 sausages. I got about 1/3 of a bite down and I immediately knew I was coming down with a case of "traveler's complaint" ... big time.  The only thing that kept me holdin' on til the end was the elderly couple behind us The husband basically didn't say anything, but the wife was remarking on everyone they knew. Here is an actual quote...

"Agnes has not aged well, but Betty...Betty Pendleton has...real good"

and 

"Dorothy...she's a WIDOW...she has a son though."

Oh Denny's, I really don't have the stomach for you anymore.