Today has been a gray and dreary sort of day. When we woke up and looked outside the ground was wet (a point that induced a wee bit of eye rolling on my part because it was just yesterday I finally broke down and watered the yard since we’d had several weeks of clear and dry). So as we both sat at the table and ate Chocolate Multigrain Muffins for breakfast (they are extremely filling, so one batch lasts a long time for two people), Richard noted that he was going to pass on going to the writer’s group meeting normally scheduled for today and I pondered what I might get done today, and then we both remembered that hey, we haven’t been up to Apple Hill yet this year.

So Richard poked at his Nanowrimo novel for an hour or so and I poked at my computer and also at the cats, and then, just about the time we were both starting to feel ready for lunch, we hopped into the car and drove up Highway 50 to Apple Hill. Because there is nothing quite like having fresh-from-the-oven apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream and cider sauce for lunch.

Except it turns out the place we normally get our pie (it’s an individual pie they call a Walkin’ Pie, and it’s basically this sphere of dough-wrapped pie filling and it is awesome) had run out of the already baked pies and were in the process of making more, but it was going to be a while before they were cooked. So…there is nothing quite like having a sample plate of apple cheesecake, apple crisp, and french apple pie topped with ice cream and cider sauce for lunch! Which is exactly what we did (and we were very glad we decided to split just one because it was more than enough). It was drizzling and the pie place was crowded so we sat in the car and each held onto one edge of the plate and ate very awkwardly so as to minimize the spilling of sticky cider sauce and apple goo down our shirts. This was mostly successful. Ah well. As for those Walkin’ Pies, it turns out they sell them frozen, with instructions for how to thaw and bake one for yourself. They also sell their incredible cider sauce. So it’s entirely possible that there are now four overstuffed spheres of pie in our freezer and a jar of dark, rich cider sauce in the pantry, for later. Yum.

We headed back home after stopping at another farm to pick up caramel apples and cinnamon apple jelly and a small bag of fresh picked apples for later snacking. And that’s about it for the day. By the time we made it back home it has started to pour, so we slipped and slid back in the door and Richard returned to his writing while I sat down on the couch with an afghan and several cats and read the afternoon and evening away. We ate the caramel apples after dinner, for dessert, and now I am pleasantly full of apples and caramel and cinnamon and dough, and listening to the rain outside and very happy with the day.

Posted for NaBloPoMo.