The Perfect First of Autumn

"The morns are meeker than they were, 

the nuts are getting brown; 

the berry's cheek is pumper,

the rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf, 

the field a scarlet gown."

- Emily Dickinson, "Leaves"

    One of the many known facts about me is that I absolutely, positively, LOVE fall. I've always been in love with sweaters, pumpkins, apples, leaves, hayrides and everything that deals with fall. I find such absolute beauty in it from the way the wind seems to blow differently, to the smell of all things pumpkin spice, the joy I see on my little sisters' faces when we carve pumpkins. I love taking walks just when the leaves are changing colors and falling on the sidewalks. I love the multiple fall festivals and I love the fellowship it seems to have about it. I just love fall so much!

     Now as many of you may know, the first day of Autumn was today, and what a perfect day is was for me! Although, I was caught it shorts and a t-shirt (no sweaters in this 82 degree weather), it was beautiful. The fog rolled across the hill of back campus like a picturesque movie and the wind gave a soft whisper in my ear as I and my friends and peers piled into the school van. We were headed to help out the Chester County Food Bank with apple picking. I couldn't have been more excited! It was the perfect day!!

     We pulled up and right away half of us were pinned as not having the proper attire. Oops, didn't get that memo. The only reason we were meant to have pants though is because of poison ivy. Most of us didn't care, so we picked apples anyway. It often seems that the best things are high up and out of reach. The same happened with the apple. The best and the brightest of the apples were at the tops of the highest trees. What the normal person would do would be grab a ladder to reach. What we did was climb on each other's shoulders to pick the highest apples. We actually got the job done faster that way!!

     After three hours of straight apple picking, three bee stings (or kisses, as I like to call them), lots of laughter, tons of pictures and bushels of good fun, we picked over 2800 pounds of apples that day!! It was more than they had picked all week!! I guess with 13 people, we can really get a job done!! It seemed like such a perfect day, picking apples. But my Fall Fun wasn't over yet. 

     When we got back to school, my dear friend and I decided to don our aprons and go on a baking spree. Inspired by the apples we picked, we decided on some fall flavored fun foods, like pumpkin spice cookies and banana bread. YUM! For two and a half hours we baked and baked and baked. There are so many pros to baking in our dorm building. Not only do we get to have fun with each other while baking, we also get to feed to the hungry friends and sisters and share the joy. Being domestic, we decided, is one of our favorite hobbies. I can honestly say that in less than 24 hours, almost all but few cookies are gone!

     While baking with my Aproned Queen Partner in Crime, we decided a few things. One: All of our recipes that we've made in the past year and the next few years HAVE to go in a recipe book, that we are going to make my hand!! Because you know, we never do anything NOT from scratch!! Two: if we could change the world by baking for people, we would bake all the time. Three: Sister Cathy always gets first dibs on tasting. Four: There should always be a plate of something homemade somewhere!!! There's a beauty in that! 

      And so, the perfect first day of fall ended not just with providing the hungry with 2800 pounds of apples for apple sauce, but baking a bundle of fun for some many!! Oh how I wish I could bake all day, every day!!! 

Innovative way to get those apples at the top.

These overly friendly, kissing friends.

Thumbs up for 2800 pounds of apples.

"Even Jesus picks apples."

My beautiful RA catching apples!!

Pumpkin Spice cookies!!!

The Two Beautifil Aproned Baking Queens

The taste-testers!!

How to Survive Convent Life - Lesson #1

"I believe that in order to survive convent life, one must learn how to cook and how to cook in bulk and make it delicious. Knowing how to bake for a lot of people helps, too."

- Lesson #1

      Maybe it's a small town USA thing. Or, maybe it's a Catholic thing. Or, maybe it's just a Gutherman thing. Regardless of what it is, it's a "tradition" I've grown up with and will continue for as long as I am able. I use the term "tradition" loosely because it does not happen on a specific date or during a specific time of the year every year. It just happens when it needs to happen. Ok, so WHAT am I talking about. I talking about cooking...in bulk. 

      Maybe you're thinking that this type of thing happens every Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter. But did any of those holidays pass recently enough to spark this blog? Nope. So, maybe you're thinking, that this type of thing happens every day when mom makes dinner for your large family of five. Not exactly what I was going for. 

      I grew up with the notion that whenever someone you knew got sick, you cooked for them, especially if it was the mom of the family. And it's not just one person who cooks for the family, it's a whole community that cooks for the one family of the person who is sick. It's not as if there's a schedule that goes out and people pick dates to cook, they just cook a huge meal (and by huge, I mean enough to last a few days or feed a small army) and drop it off. There are no questions asked, it's just done. And there is no repayment, except for words of gratitude and a promise to do the same if needed. I've grown up with my family cooking for people and having people cook for my family. It's not something out of the ordinary; it's actually quite normal. 

     Now, I always thought it was a Small Town , USA thing because I come from a small town that acts very small townish and can stereotypically do small town things, like cook for their new neighbors or near by families who have sick family members or even people who might be strapped for some cash lately. But then, as I was telling someone my story, she told me it was a very Catholic thing to do. She told me that people from her Parish used to do that all the time. Ironically, my small town is made up of mostly Parishioners, so it could go either way. But by this time, I now know it's no longer just a Gutherman thing as it used to be when I was younger...because I would hear story upon story about how my grandmother cooked so much for so many AND how she made all her food stretch for all eleven of her kids and then some. 

    So, yesterday I embarked on a milestone journey and that was making MY very own meal in bulk for my best friend's family whose mom is sick. Now, as many of you know, I already LOVE the kitchen and I love baking and I love cooking and I love eating. Many tell me you wouldn't be able to tell that when first meeting me because I'm so tiny, but it's the truth. And ironically after a few minutes of a person first meeting me, I'm usually offering that person food of some sort whether it's a snack from my purse or a pan of cookies/brownies/cupcakes/etc. or a meal. It's just natural for me to always be eating or cooking or baking (when I'm not singing, painting, making arts and crafts, walking, serving and all the other hobbies I love...).

     As I was walking through the food store yesterday, I was channeling my inner Bea (my grandmother) and trying to think of the best meal ever to make for this family. I decided that chicken casserole over rice and broccoli sounded great! Her family later agreed. I started my cooking at 10 and by 1, I didn't realize I had spent so much time in the kitchen. However, there was enough food there to feed a small army both dinner and dessert. I felt extremely accomplished!! 

     As I was cooking, however, I had a lot to think about and a lot of time to do it. I began laughing because just last week while in NOLA, I said, "Maybe I'll just pull a nun stunt and leave Mass right after Communion to make sure the coffee is ready for everyone." Good thing, my friend saved me from having to do that. This week, while cooking in bulk, I couldn't help but think about when it might be my morning or night to cook for all the nuns in the convent. I thought how it might be easy to cook for a small convent of maybe 6 or 7, because that's not much more than cooking a meal for all my friends at school. However, if I lived in a bigger convent, it might be a HUGE ordeal and an even bigger challenge. I had to laugh to myself when I thought, "They should right a book on how to survive convent life and cooking for large crowds should be one of the lessons." So, that's when I decided I could easily start that as a series on my blog!

     Now, since I am writing this said "blog series", I'll be the judge of how one passes the lesson. Since I successfully cooked a meal for a small army and it was not only edible but pretty delicious, I believe I passed lesson number one. In addition, I made rice crispy treats for dessert and I had a ton left over. So, what did I do with them? I sent them into school with my sister to give to the sisters! That was an easy one!!