We were all set to have the BBQ on our outdoor terrace which was really the biggest selling point for us on this place, but just as we had the tables set and the candles lit and the BBQ fired up, it started to pour! Just our luck! We love entertaining outdoors, and we do it almost every night. We are getting good at working as a team (in tight quarters). Entertaining his family daily is also the perfect motivation to keep this place clean. There is always someone coming over here, and I never want to get caught with the place looking like too much of a hot mess.
My guy really let me go all out yesterday (I had him feeling bad after my last post. However, it's not him - he just can't fill the void for EVERYONE else!). He patiently took me to FIVE stores to get all the ingredients I needed. He didn't complain while I spent two hours making an apple pie thus forcing him to clean the bathroom and sweep the floors. He didn't mind when I spent some of the precious time I could have used cutting the potatoes for our now "famous" french fries to decorate my mason jars as I had seen here.
Sometimes I need to sit back and take a look at what I have. I need to be more accepting of this challenge. It is never going to be easy to be away from my loved ones, but I am fortunate to have shelter, a job, the chance to see the world, and people who love me right here. I have to remember that when I complain about being away from the people I love, there is someone right here who loves me that I am hurting. I can't always have everything I want right at my fingertips, and maybe the saying "it doesn't hurt to try" isn't always true. I am hurting myself and others by trying.
My last post saddened my family and friends that can't be here. And, it hurt my guy because it made him feel like he'll never be enough. Let me be clear when I say that I am happy, but sometimes life gets you down. Sometimes the only cure for me is a day playing dominoes, scrabble and yahtzee for hours on end with my Mom and Aunt or a day at the beach with my best friends. And vice versa, sometimes nothing comforts me more than a lazy day watching movies with my guy or watching him suck wind as I run circles around him (joking joking... maybe!!).
I will soon get used to all the changes and will adapt to life across two continents. As my friends work more and save more and when my father retires, there will be more visitors; and in time, I will make friends here, too. Maybe now I feel like my heart is being stretched in different directions, but I think I should consider myself lucky that my heart is so big and has the capacity to love so much.
Now that I got all the mushy stuff out of the way... here is a recipe for perhaps the most American thing you can think of... Apple Pie! I adapted this recipe from a whole bunch of recipes, and I promise, it was delicious! The hardest part of making this is sitting and peeling, slicing, and coring the apples as that was a bit tedious. I used apples that my guy picked himself when we were in Besancon.
Apple Pie
Ingredients:
- 2 - 9 inch pie crusts (store-bought or homemade)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (I, of course, used the vegan stuff)
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add syrup, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
- In a bowl, mix half of the sugary mixture with your apples.
- Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust (this is my favorite part!).
- Gently pour the remainder of the sugar mixture over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
- Bake for 1 hour.
- Let cool at least an hour before you eat. It allows the sugary mixture to form a gel rather than be too runny.
Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm back to more cleaning and more entertaining!
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