Hiking into Fall

My husband, Mike, and I took a trek north to Marshall, Indiana, this past weekend in honor of a new family tradition. This is the second year that we've met up with all of my siblings and their significant others to go hiking at Turkey Run State Park.

For me and my siblings, Turkey Run holds a lot of sentimental memories. My parents used to takes us there when we were kids and we just loved it. Looking back, I have no idea how they managed to take four small children there and bring them all out alive, but it made for some fond memories.

If you've never been to Turkey Run, you must go. I'm not a real outdoorsy girl, but even I love it. It's heavily wooded and you hike through creek beds and gorges, climb stairs (natural and manmade) and generally get lost in the middle of nowhere. It's especially wonderful in the fall -- it isn't too hot and the crunchy, colorful leaves make you feel like your hanging out on Walden Pond.

We hiked the hardest trails, worked up a sweat and then parked at a picnic table to enjoy some pumpkin bread (which turned out beautifully and is a total keeper) and apple cider. All around, it was a perfect fall day.

The only downside to the whole thing was that it made me realize how out of shape I've gotten. Granted, my triathlete brother was leading us all along at a pretty quick pace, but I was definitely having a harder time than everyone else. And two days later, I'm still sore.

So two good things came of hiking: I got a great day with my brothers and sister and it gave me incentive to get back in shape (starting next week -- I swear).

10 Reasons to Love Autumn

In no particular order...

• Pumpkins! (as discussed previously, I have an unnatural obsession)
• Mums -- they're gorgeous and colorful and all around smile-inducing
• Football games and tailgating and all that that entails
• Apples! (right up there with pumpkins in my book)
• Crunchy leaves -- I will never get tired of trudging through a big pile of fall leaves and stomping like a 5-year-old
• Sunsets that make the whole world look like it's glowing
• Crisp mornings that make dog-walking less of a chore
• Cozy rainy days -- you can't feel guilty about staying in and curling up with a book instead of being social
• Crafts -- OK, maybe it's just me, but fall makes me want to launch into hands-on projects (maybe its the residual effect of childhood handprint turkeys)
• Sweater season -- there's something about a chunky knit, a pair of jeans and some boots that's too American and autumnal for words

It's the Great Pumpkin!

Among the many reasons I love fall is the fact that it miraculously becomes socially acceptable to integrate pumpkin (or any squash, for that matter), into every meal and baking adventure. I LOVE pumpkin in a really unreasonable way, so the falling of the leaves signal at least a couple of months of squash-laden meals in my house.

Fall took a long time to get to Indiana this year. Until just this week, we were still having days in the 90s, so it didn't feel very pumpkin-y outside. When the weather took a turn for the cool this week, I knew it would finally be time.

I decided to start the season with some pumpkin bread. I found a recipe online, and though I don't usually trust random recipes, this one had some signs that it would be worth a shot. First of all, it came from Epicurious and is out of an issue of Bon Appetite. That's some pretty good cred right there. But to top it off, the recipe was submitted by someone named Vern who lives in West Frankfort, Illinois. I mean, come on. How can you not trust Vern? Plus, it includes walnuts. Sold.

It came together really quickly and made the house smell like Thanksgiving. It has cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, so the spice smells heavenly.

We're heading to Turkey Run tomorrow with my siblings to do some hiking, and I'm going to pack the pumpkin bread and a gallon of apple cider to help us recover. It should be the perfect fall day. I'll let you know if the recipe ends up being a total failure, but if the bread tastes anything like it smells, it'll become a seasonal staple.

Welcome to Blogtober!

It's so depressing to log into my blog and see that my last post was August 19.

Pathetic.

I knew it had been a long time, but that's just sad. That's why I hereby deem this month to be known as Blogtober!

The goal? To blog every single day for the entire month.

I know that sounds crazy and even unreasonable, especially since I didn't post yesterday. But in my defense, I wrote a blog post (while I was drunk) and had the foresight not to actually hit "Post." After reading the post this morning, I realize what a good decision it was. So you can expect two posts today.

But back to my original point. Will it be a challenge? Absolutely. But as library school becomes increasingly demanding and I'm finding myself with every minute of my life scheduled, I realized I need to take more time just for me. This blog will be a way for me to take a moment, take a deep breath, and reflect on my life a little. I'm hoping it will force me to reflect a little more and make my life seem a lot less like Groundhog's Day.

So, with that in mind, I launch into a month of daily posts. I don't know what will come of it, but I hope you enjoy it.

A happy little gift

My husband never ceases to amaze me in his ability to pay attention to the little things. Case and point:

A few weeks before my birthday, we were watching "Giada at Home." I know some people hate her, but I credit that woman for teaching me how to cook for an Italian husband. She's a godsend for those of us from Middle America with no discernible cultural heritage.

Anyway, she had the most adorable little kitchen accessory: a porcelain egg crate that was too cute for words. I casually mentioned how adorable it was to Mike, not really thinking anything of it.

A few weeks later my dreaded 27th birthday rolled around. And what do you know? My husband had managed to track down that little egg crate from Anthropologie, which is even more impressive considering he didn't even know Anthropolgie existed.

Is that not the cutest? It comes in blue or white, but the blue looks great with white eggs (which is normally what we buy).

It such a simple thing, but it makes me smile so I wanted to share it with you.

22 hours in Madison

If you've never been to Madison, WI, put it on your "must visit" list. It's a great weekend trip and there's tons to do. Earlier this summer my husband and I drove up with some friends for a quick getaway. We were only there for 22 hours, but we managed to pack quite a bit in.

We drove into town Saturday morning and went straight to the Dane County Farmer's Market -- it's unbelievable. Take your mental image of a farmer's market. Now multiply that by 20. We're talking BIG. There are all kind of local growers and producers set up in booths surrounding the courthouse.

Oh, and that whole Wisconsin loves cheese thing -- totally NOT a cliche. Everywhere you go people are serving cheese curds -- cold, fried, tempura, you name it.

A few shots from the market:

At the farmer's market we picked up some bread, meat, fruit and cheese (of course). We had brought along a cooler so we could pack everything up for a picnic.

We headed out to Prairie du Sac to Wollersheim Winery. It's only about a 20 minute drive, but it's completely worth it. The wine is great, and the people who work there are incredible.

We took a tour of the winery, bought a couple of bottles of wine and had a simple lunch sitting out on the winery grounds. It was kind of yuppie, but really fun (and pretty cheap too). It was a great afternoon, and we were allowed to just sit and chat as long as we wanted.

After the winery, we went back to Madison and got cleaned up before heading out for the night.

We went to the Great Dane Pub, which brews it own beers. I'm not a big beer fan, but even I liked it. They have a pretty overwhelming menu, but the staff is more than happy to make recommendations. After that we headed to a great little bar called The Old Fashioned. I highly recommend the Jack Horner Martini -- delicious.

The next morning we took the advice of several people and hit up Marigold Kitchen for breakfast. And seriously, doesn't this make you hungry:

All in all, it was a great weekend. Madison is such a welcoming city and the vibe is just very laid back and relaxed. The whole city is very into local ingredients and locally owned shops and restaurants. It's a great escape for anyone.

My happy place

I know, I know. It's been a while since I posted. I've been really busy between school and work and have let a few thing slides. Don't worry. I've adequately punished myself. But this week, I'm going to catch up (and keep it up).

That's because this week I'm in my true happy place: Sanibel Island, Florida. My in-laws own and place down here and it's where we go to escape. If you aren't familiar with Sanibel, it's just off the coast of Fort Myers and is quite the oasis. If you're into going out to the bars and cruising the beaches, this is NOT the place for you. It's a slower pace of life here. There are not stoplights on the island, you can bike almost anywhere, and the only chain stores are Dairy Queen and a CVS. It's awesome.

It's even better because my husband and I are here by ourselves. Usually we have friends or family with us, but not this time! Don't get me wrong, I love our friends and family, but it's nice to be able to have time to just focus on each other. This is only our second vacation alone in all the years we've been together (the first being our honeymoon) and it's wonderful.

So anticipate seeing some posts this week about thing I did much earlier this summer, but I just want to share. In the meantime, I'll leave you with just a few photos from the island.

When we took off from Indianapolis, the weather was overcast and just plain gloomy. But when we broke through the clouds we were greeted with a beautiful morning sky. Just a little reminder to myself that it's always sunny on the other side of the clouds.

These adorable birds keep hanging out by the pond near our pool. Unfortunately it seems they are illiterate and unaware their lives are at risk. That's natural selection, I suppose.

Sanibel has some of the best shelling in the world (or so I'm told). And no matter how hard I try to resist the urge, I always end up picking up these tiny aquatic homes off the beach. This is just a small selection of what we found today. So cute!

Source: www.wildflordia.com

Something not so cute. These ugly things. Florida's lovely 4-inch grasshoppers are everywhere this time of year, and a particularly giant one landed on me today. Gross. I love Florida, but the bugs are almost too much to handle.