Well I will tell you right now that fourteen candles on a cake is a lot of candles. Danny blew them all out in one breath which Doug said means good luck and Claire said means he breathed too hard on the frosting. They argued about it for ten minutes. That is just life with these two.
I made the pot roast Danny always asks for, the one with the carrots and the little pearl onions that take forever to peel. Doug said it was the best I have ever made and I think he says that every year but I will take it. Claire ate around every single onion and left them in a little pile at the edge of her plate like she always does.
The cake was supposed to be chocolate with cream cheese frosting. It came out of the oven looking perfect. I set it on the counter to cool and went to help Claire with her homework and came back and Doug had put it in the refrigerator while it was still warm because he thought that would speed things up. It did not speed things up. The middle sank. I frosted it anyway and Danny said it looked like a volcano cake and actually seemed to like it better that way. So I am calling it a success.
He is a good kid. They both are. I do not say that enough.
Every October I make this cake and every October I forget how good it is until I am eating it. It is one of those recipes where the house smells right for the whole rest of the day.
❥ Apple Walnut Cake ❥
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups peeled chopped apple (about 3 medium)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Mix oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Fold in apples and walnuts. Batter will be very thick. Pour into a greased bundt pan. Bake at 325 for about 75 minutes. Cool completely before removing from pan. Dust with powdered sugar or drizzle with a simple glaze.
I got this recipe from my mother and she got it from her neighbor Mrs. Fenwick who passed away in 1994. I think about her every time I make it. That is the thing about recipes. They carry people with them.
Pulled the last of the tomatoes yesterday. There were about a dozen that were still mostly green and I brought them in to ripen on the windowsill the way my grandmother used to do. Doug thinks this is nonsense and that they never taste right ripened inside. He is probably correct but I do it anyway.
The zucchini got completely out of hand this year. I left two of them on the vine too long and they grew to the size of something you would find in a fairy tale. I gave one to the Hendersons and one to the Parrish family down the street and felt like I was doing them a favor but I am not sure they saw it that way.
Next year I am going to try to do a proper raised bed along the south fence. Doug said he would build it over the winter. I will believe it when I see it but I appreciate the intention.
Just wanted to ask anyone reading this to keep the Hendersons in your thoughts. Ron had a procedure earlier this week and is home resting now. Carol has been running herself ragged taking care of everything and I have been trying to drop off dinner every other night so she does not have to cook. Last night was the chicken soup with the wide noodles and she called me afterward and said Ron had two bowls which I took as a good sign.
They have been our neighbors for eleven years and I honestly cannot imagine this street without them. Some people you just feel lucky to live near.
I have been meaning to write about this since it happened and keep putting it off because I am not sure what to say exactly.
I was coming back from picking Claire up from her Thursday practice, the one out at the Fairview facility, and I took Route 9 past the old Brackett service road the way I always do when I want to avoid the light at Connell. It was around quarter to ten at night. Dark out, no other cars driving by.
I noticed something going on near the loading area off the west side of the road. I slowed down because I saw fire, smoke and a crowd form around it. I didn't stop. Claire was in the car and it was late and honestly it did not seem like the kind of thing you pulled over for. But idk it did feel important.
I did not think much of it until the news a few days later. Then I thought about it quite a bit.
I mentioned it to Doug and he said I should call someone but I did not know who to call or what I would even say. What would I say. I saw something near the road and it did not match what they were describing on the news. That does not seem like enough to call anyone about.
Anyway. I do not know why I am writing this here. I suppose I just wanted to put it somewhere. You know, get this off my mind. Although my dad works near the Brackett facility, and I got this mail in the package. Im gonna take a pictures and send them here. They seem important so ima add them in. My friend has a blog too about this, but he is a litte bit more...forward with his assumption: https://myblogmd.neocities.org/conspiracy
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We drove forty minutes each way to watch Claire play exactly eleven minutes of the second half. She says she does not mind coming off the bench and I believe her because she genuinely does not seem to mind most things. She is not like that. But I minded a little on her behalf and I will admit that.
She played well in those eleven minutes. She set up a goal that the other girl scored and Claire was just as happy as if she had scored it herself. That is the kind of person she is and I do not take any credit for it. Some of it you just get handed to you when they are born.
We stopped at the Dairy Queen on Route 9 on the way home. Doug got the Blizzard with the Heath bar. I got a small vanilla cone. Claire got a large everything and finished it before we got back on the highway. Fourteen year olds are a different species from the rest of us.
The house gets quiet in a way I did not expect when they go back. All summer it is noise and mess and someone always wanting something and then suddenly it is eight fifteen in the morning and there is nobody here but me and the dog.
I spent the first morning of school last week just sitting at the kitchen table with my coffee going cold and I am not entirely sure what I was doing. Thinking, I suppose. The good kind where you are not thinking about anything in particular.
Danny is in ninth grade this year which still does not seem real to me. He is taller than Doug now. I keep catching myself looking at him trying to find the little boy and he is still in there somewhere but you have to look.