The love that we shared in September

Today is my mom's birthday -- so Roxy joins me in sending big birthday wishes up to the Leelanau. I miss my mom. I miss being in Leland at this time of year. September and October, or as I like to call them, "Octember" is my absolute favorite time of year. In Leelanau County, it always works out that the leaves aren't at the height of their color by my mom's birthday, but by my birthday at the end of October, it's all over. My mom and I have decided that the optimum "leaf-peeping" time in Leelanau is the weekend in between our two birthdays. That's when the sun is warm during the day and the air is crisp in the evenings -- and the long golden rays of afternoon sunshine are magical. Anything can happen! Anything! And usually, I'm eating my weight in candy corn. I like to go down to the Leland Dam and watch the fish jump. That's where I buy my candy corn -- at the Dam Candy Store. And then I watch the salmon try to swim upstream. After that I like to wander back home and make some applesauce and then maybe curl up with something good to read...or watch. It just doesn't get much better.

Better Than Michael Flatley

It's hot in Los Angeles. Way hot with no end expected in sight until some time next week. And the Santa Ana winds are blowing -- which means my allergies turn me into a zombie. I get blinding sinus headaches that make me want to draw the curtains and pull up the cover. Unfortunately, the other thing that the hot hot Santa Ana winds bring are wildfires. So that means instead of tucking in -- I'm working long hours. There are very few thing that I find entertaining right now. Perhaps, this is one of them.

I Dreamed A Dream That Came True

Just in the nick of time, Susan Boyle shows up to remind us to never give up on our dreams. No matter what. Mick Jagger's gotta love her version of this Rolling Stones song. She makes everything pretty. You go, girl!

Happiness is a Warm Puppy

Bo Obama is livin' the life. Hanging out on the front porch of the White House with his people, waiting for Dad to come home from work in Marine One so he can maybe steal a few tablescraps from dinner. Isn't that just what all dogs do? Maybe it's just because he always looks like he's dressed for a formal affair that I think he's so damn cute.

The Time Of My Life

Dirty dancing final Patrick Swayze
by laetitoumi
Is there a woman alive who didn't dream of dancing with Patrick Swayze after seeing "Dirty Dancing" (Insert me swooning here.) If there is, I'd like to meet her. He's just too cool for words.

Someone's In The Kitchen With Dinah

That would be Roxy. I think I should've named her Julia. She spent her weekend supervising my kitchen slavery. Actually, it wasn't slavery, so much. I was thrilled to be there. I downloaded Julia Child's recipe for boeuf bourguignon in her book Mastering The Art of French Cooking last week. After a thrilling visit to the butcher shop to purchase the meat, I spent the rest of Saturday shopping for a casserole to cook it in. I have always dreamed of owning a Le Creuset casserole dish, but judging the current prices, I don't think that's a dream that's going to come true in this lifetime. I'll get over it.

The Handsomest Man Alive and I went to a number of different stores and finally came home with a very suitable navy blue enamel casserole dish by Emeril. I began to brown the meat at 9:30p.m. Roxy spent most of her evening on the pass-through monitoring my progress. The Handsomest Man Alive could also be seen in and out of the kitchen throughout the evening. Things were finally coming together around 1:00am when we were running the gravy through a sieve and browning mushrooms and onions in two separate pans.

We were exhausted, but looking forward to a wonderful Sunday dinner -- when we suddenly realized we had double-booked Sunday dinner. We never even have plans for Sunday dinner -- and now here we were with two meals planned. Crazy! Fortunately, the lovely people we had been planning to break bread with were willing to drive out to the countryside and be human guinea pigs for my very first Julia Child-inspired creation. They even brought an expensive and tasy bottle of Central Coast wine to go with it. Yum! A good time was had by this cook. I'm going to assume everyone else had a good time too because there were no leftovers.

Make Way For Ducklings

A reminder today that being a hero means paying attention to the small things in life. I always hate it when people say, "don't sweat the small stuff." Don't they know that it's the small stuff that really matters? And by the way, if you've never read the book, you really should.