Putting Fall To Bed and A Recipe!!

(This post was written Saturday and published today while I was at Heath's ceremony in Boston - today was cold as late November should be and the leaves disappeared yesterday in the heavy rain and wind) -
I've got to blog about this fall before snow flies.  I've already told you that the color here has been long lasting and utterly incredible.  It's November 19th and the Norway maples, Japanese Maples and the Oaks are still loaded with leaves and color as are so many shrubs.  I emptied the last of my outdoor pots and cut down the perennials in all the borders today and sadly, I was pulling out and cutting down A LOT of live and blooming plants!  It had to been done though because next week will be very cold finally and I won't feel like doing it then.

Every year I pick and press colorful leaves and store between sheets of wax paper in heavy books for next year's fall decorating.

 Picking pretty things to enjoy before killing frosts arrive.

 The October Super Moon from our bedroom window

 I drove to my old house in Kingston to do yard work and look what greeted me on Rockrimmon Rd!

 Look at the nasturtiums in the pool yard here in Rye the beginning of November! It's amazing what a dozen seeds produces.

 Japanese Maple in our front border in Rye

 Here's a pretty picture of a pond in Connecticut in the Litchfield area on a little road trip we took the third week in October

 Look near the top of the picture - just where the trees meet the field you can make out hundreds of pumpkins in a patch - Connecticut

 Connecticut farm stand

 Another pond shot from further back.

 Harbor in Guilford CT.  By the way, if you want to see a real live Stars Hollow you Gilmore Girls fans, this town looks just like downtown Stars Hollow.  I was ready to move there!

 Guilford CT

 Lobster shack in York Maine on another road trip the first week in November.  Same pond below.

 The view from the third floor bathroom here in Rye the second week of November.

 Last week November 14.

 Color wheel perfection - opposites!  One of the most beautiful combos ever!

 Then the Harvest Moon last week - we took it while driving - there were so many cars at the coast we couldn't park!  Here is someone else's pic of the same moon at dusk, below.

photo credit - Debbie Smith

 I've been digging up dahlias - hundreds of dahlias!  They are now drying and preparing for winter storage.
 Below - four pics - I got up early one morning last week and ran to my car in my pajamas and bed hair and drove down the street to watch the sunrise.

 I doodled this old picture of me with a pen while these delicious pork chops (recipe!) were cooking and the potatoes were roasting the other night to pass a little time.  Those huge teeth!  I want those glasses back. I want to talk to that young girl and see who she was then (I can't remember!).

The pork chop recipe comes from Mimi Thorisson's new cookbook on the left and the lemon roasted potatoes from Ina's book on the right.  I also made the apple pie bars from Ina's book a few days ago and they were phenomenal - better than pie!  I am going to cook my way through both books this winter I just know it.   Recipe for pork chops below - I made some of my own tweeks such as substituting pure apple cider for hard cider since I didn't have any and sour cream for creme fraiche for the same reason:

Black Pig Pork Chops (you can use any pig you want!)

4 Bone in or boneless Pork chops (I used boneless because that's what I had)
2 T butter
four shallots or one small onion chopped (I've made the recipe 2 times and used either)
2 garlic cloves smashed

Heat a large saute pan over medium high heat and cook the shallots for 3 minutes.  Add the pork chops (score first and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides) and garlic, reduce heat to medium and cook pork 7 minutes each side (until juices run clear) - put these chops in an oven proof pan and place a sage leaf on each and sprinkle on some of the pan juices if any. Place these covered in a warm oven.  Increase the heat under the pan and pour in:
2/3 cup hard or fresh apple cider - boil for a few minutes to reduce.  Add 3 T of creme fraiche or sour cream and stir until thickened  Pour over the warm chops and serve.  The meat is tender and juicy; the sauce is so good you want to drink it!  Easy Peasy - great for company too.

Now for the autumn wrap up:

 Dan and Therese in Connecticut on that road trip  - we attended the open house for the Hartford LDS Temple.

While on that trip we went in to a little sandwich shop in Farmington CT for lunch and the wall next to the bathroom was covered in old silver trays - it was a pleasing sight.

Pizza in New Haven CT with my love!  Isn't he cute?  I just have to say that we went to this pizzeria intentionally because I have read for years and years that this joint makes the best pizza in New England.  We both emphatically agree that it does not!!  It was an expensive disappointment - expensive pizza (that one was over 30 bucks! and I ordered my own large as well ($75 dollars for pizza dinner).  We meant to take home lots of leftovers which we did but we ended up throwing them both out - yuck!  Tasteless sauce, thin crackery crust and underwhelming toppings flavors.  Dan had the loaded meat one and mine was - I can't even remember now but very different from Dan's so we could have variety.  The famous place?  And right down the street from the gorgeous Yale University campus?  -  Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana.  It even googles as the best. Sorry, it's not and we were so sad after making the trip there just for the experience.  Monday we are going to the best one, the real winner - Regina's Pizzeria in the North End of Boston.  My son Heath is being sworn in the day after tomorrow and taking the Massachusetts Attorney's Oath and we'll be attending and then eating really outstanding pizza afterward.

And to end this post - this is the last rose of autumn - the one I allowed to keep going when everything else has been cut down, pulled out or put to bed.  She smelled amazing in the warm sun today.  Good bye fall - now it's time to paint (I've got a new space to tell you about another time), do house projects, travel, bake a lot, make pretty things, enjoy coats and woolen hats and mittens, snow boots, snow shoeing, reading, fires, Netflix - Gilmore Girls next week - oh my gosh!!!
P.S. - I have been watching "The Crown" on Netflix a bit every night - it is fascinating and well done!

New York City and a Book Signing

Dan and I went to NYC on a spur of the moment trip yesterday and the day before.  Dan thought he would have a business meeting (it ended up not happening) and I found out the author and food blogger of a cookbook I recently bought (Mimi Thorisson of Manger) was in the City doing a book signing so we decided to take the C&J bus in from Portsmouth and just go.  First of all, I want to put the word out that taking the bus to NYC is a fabulous way to get there - $150 round trip, not your typical bus - very roomy, complimentary snack bar, free movies and free wifi, so comfortable (as in lots of leg room) and so convenient!  Free parking too at the park and ride lot.  And when the bus gets to the City, you go through a fun part of Harlem and then to midtown along great streets - I loved the whole experience.  We read and played on our iPads the whole time and brought our breakfast with us from home.  The bus drops you off right across from the NY Times building on 40th and 8th.  We had to take a cab to 21st and 5th for the book signing at the Strand Bookstore @Club Monaco.  I stood in line to meet Mimi while Dan hopped over to Starbucks for a hot chocolate and to wait for me.  Her husband and baby worked the room while she signed books for a long line of mainly youngish women.  Maille restaurant catered the affair with little savory cakelets.  Mimi's book is called A Kitchen in France and it is a cookbook I will really use  - down to earth authentic food the French eat using basic and wholesome ingredients.  I have made several dishes from her blog Manger and one so far from the book.

 Her husband is a professional photographer and the pictures are gorgeous, as are they and their children.  Mimi and Oddur are in their 30s, have 7 children (very unusual for the French, no?) and 14 dogs and live in the Medoc area of Bordeaux France in an ancient chateau and she cooks fabulous meals everyday and she is very beautiful as well.  In person she was just as lovely and very gracious. I also found it endearing that she was wearing a dress for the book signing that she wears in the cookbook as well in several pictures.  I would have run out and bought something new for the event but I have read that the French wear their clothes over and over and for years - smart!  What I found compelling about their story is that they left their exciting urban existence is Paris and moved to a very rural and unknown to them part of France so they could raise their large family of children and Fox Terriers in the peaceful country and live among forests, fields, vineyards, the seashore and village life.  I am always interested in and appreciate people who aren't afraid to take chances, risks, leave their comfort zones etc to follow dreams or improve their lives.  I identify with those kind.  Anyway, it was fun!

Her hubby and baby Aubrey

In line and getting closer

I focus in so I can see what she looks like from back in line

I'm next in line and wondering what I'll say to her

The tasting table

Dan shows up just in time to photograph me and I have no idea what I said to her with my hand

Afterwards, Dan and I headed 20 blocks on foot to get to our hotel in mid town but first we stopped at this place for lunch called Bread and Butter.  It had us at Bread.  And Butter.  It is incredible.  Huge - divided into areas where you choose what kind of food you want and self serve - vast quantities and varieties of prepared meats, prepared salads and salad bar, soups, pizza bar, fruits and vegetables (fresh or cooked), a sandwich bar, taco bar, panini bar, sushi and noodle bar, pastries and breads galore, smoothies, countless beverages, and so much more.  As we ate we decided that if we lived in that neighborhood we would eat there every day and never get tired of it because of the endless variety, choices and the ability to eat really healthy as well (or not).

This is the place we ate lunch - I highly recommend it especially if you are with a group of people who all want different things to eat.

When we are in NYC we always discuss where we would live, what we'd eat, what we'd do etc if we lived there. It's fun to do - playing "let's pretend".  I like to do that just about every where I travel.  Here's a building I chose for us to pretend move into.

Let's live on the top floor of that building on the right in the background; very european looking and on Amsterdam and 45th I think.  Bippity

So we checked into our hotel and then walked over to the New York Pubic Library, our first time in that building.  How gorgeous inside!

Getting ready to head up town after the book signing - I am across the street from Madison Square Park

The library lobby 

Following Dan up the stairs 

Sometimes purple/lavender is just perfect.  I love it here.  In the Yellow House I had a similar colored office/reading room.  I never tired of looking at the walls. 

After the library, we headed to Bryant Park where they had built a pop up skating rink over summer's grass and installed dozens of pop up stores.  It was all cheery and cheer.

For dinner that night we headed to a trip advisor recommended, not to be missed pizza place - it was crazy busy and the pizza choices were really creative and the service super quick in spite of the large crowd.

My pizza had a walnut cream sauce, freshly made ricotta, homemade mozzarella, and basil on a wood fired bake crust.  It was yummy!

I have one quarter of my pizza left in that bag in front of me and now we are headed to the theatre, as in movie theatre, to see "The Theory of Everything", the story of Stephen Hawking.  It was a really good film. And I never knew he was British! 

 The following morning, we had a couple hours to kill before getting back on the bus so we walked for blocks, about 40 minutes, to get to Sullivan Street Bakery, one I had read about in a food magazine for its hearty breads made from natural levain and sourdough starters.  We bought several items, took pictures of the goods and then headed a couple blocks to my favorite NYC bread bakery of all, Amy's Bread.  She also makes the best hot chocolate in the city in my opinion.  We had a second breakfast - actually, we brought many leftovers for the bus ride home.  Dan was noting as we were walking the miles to Sullivan St., that I always pick bakeries for us to visit that are very far from where we are staying and that we never just pick a place around the corner.  That's the point!  Exercise and then eat bread. :)

 Now to Amy's!

Back to the bus after and then safely home.  Delightful, delicious, quick trip.