I spent the day doing a variety of kitchen-based activities. The thing I’m most delighted with? The ten pints of applesauce this pot yielded. Soon, a recipe (actually, more of a technique) will be up on Food in Jars, but for now, I’m just reveling in the satisfying abundance of it.

Last Friday at this time, I was racing around the apartment, tossing shoes, clothes and toiletries into a little black duffle bag and mentally running through my morning and evening routines, to ensure that I didn’t leave behind some essential cream or tube of lip balm. A few minutes before 12 noon, Thad and Angie called to say that they were moments from pulling up to the back of our building and that we should head down to meet them. By 12:03 pm, we were driving west, through University City and the Main Line, out to Lancaster County.

It was a lovely weekend, full of good food, sleep, books, jar shopping and time spent splayed out in thick, plush grass. My only regret was that it had to end, as I was just beginning to feel truly relaxed when it was time to turn around and return home.

Part of what made the trip so particularly idyllic was the B & B in which we stayed. Called Musser’s Bed and Breakfast, it is located in the original general store and post office of New Providence, PA. The Musser family has lived there for more than 20 years now and have lovingly restored the entire structure from top to bottom. Over the years, they ripped out all the indignities done to the house during the mid-century, including some particularly horrible green shag carpet. Barb Musser is the primary innkeeper, and she is friendly, warm, outgoing and a wonderful cook. She happily accommodated our food preferences, serving Scott quiche on the morning when the rest of us ate oatmeal (Scott is not a fan of hot cereals).

We stayed in the Shopkeeper’s Suite, which is essentially a beautifully furnished two-bedroom apartment. It was the perfect home away from home. Another nice thing about Musser’s was that our suite had a full kitchen (both suites do, actually). Food lover that I am, I appreciated having the opportunity cook once or twice instead of always eating out, particularly since we made the trek into Lancaster City to visit Central Market.

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation and I already am plotting ways to go back and explore more corners of Lancaster County. If you want to see the rest of the pictures from the trip, you can find the set here. If you want to see even more, Scott’s are here, Thad’s are here and Angie’s are here.

A man’s voice was on the other end of the line (decidedly not my sister). He identified himself as Barry, the man behind the Bear-Man barbecue sauces. I had met him briefly last summer at the Fancy Food Show and liked his sauces so much (particularly the Sap Happy variety as it’s sweetened with maple syrup) that I included them in my round-up of favorite products that ran on AOL Food. He was calling to say thanks, as that placement had generated a whole bunch of orders for him.

I was so touched that he took the time to call and thank me. As I head into my final days with Slashfood, it’s nice to know that I’ve had a positive impact on so many different people during the time I spent there.

This has been a whirlwind weekend, and now it’s just a few minutes before midnight on Sunday and I’m wishing for another day (however, I’d settle for another hour or two). My friend Cindy was in town, visiting from DC. Friday night, a collection of us drove to Wiggins Park in Camden for the second night of the XPN festival. I was there primarily to see Dar Williams (I am something of a fan), while Cindy and Shay were more excited about Beth Orton. While the sun was still high in the sky, it was fairly hot, but as soon as it dipped down a bit, the evening turned pleasant, with occasional breezes blowing off the Delaware River.

Saturday afternoon, I did my first solo cooking demonstration over at Foster’s Homewares (where we typically do Fork You Live). About a month ago, I was approached by a woman from The Food Trust, asking if Scott and I wouldn’t be interested in doing something with them in conjunction with Buy Fresh, Buy Local week (which started today). I said sure and we started the planning. Originally, Scott was going to be involved, but then realized that he had promised to visit his mom for her birthday (which is today) this weekend and so he left me on my own. I was a little nervous, because I’d never done a live cooking demonstration without someone up there with me, lending me energy and sharing the burden of talking. However, it turned out really well, I showed myself (and the 35 people who came to watch) that I can actually cook four dishes and talk at the same time. Adding to the challenge was the fact that I didn’t know what I was going to be cooking until I showed up at 12:30 and saw what was in the box from the market. But instead of being a burden, that kept things fresh and fun.

I think today was the best day out of the whole weekend. Cindy and I went to brunch at Day by Day and had arguably some of the best lox and bagel platters in Philly (they give you an abundance of toppings and they use amazing ingredients like ripe, local yellow tomatoes). She left to catch her train and I headed home to grab a market bag. I picked up Shay and we went down to Headhouse Square. I spent far more money on vegetables than I probably should have (we’ll be eating well all week long), took over 100 pictures of eggplants, peaches and heads of lettuce and sat on a curb with Shay, chatting and nursing an iced coffee for more than an hour in the breezy shade.

Sitting here, grabbing these few minutes to catch up, I have that tired feeling that comes from sun and pleasure (much like the one you get after a day at the beach). I’m ready to crawl into bed but I hate to let the day end because it’s been so delightful and full of mundane joys. Here’s to pulling that feeling of satisfaction into the rest of the week with me.

I always find the transition from Philly to New Jersey a little jarring, especially if I head off the main roads and into the neighborhoods. Much of the architecture reminds me of Portland, with the big old houses and tree-lined streets, that I spend a moment trying to figure out where I am and if it is possible for me to have traveled 3,000 miles in 15 minutes. However, just when I’m totally befuddled, I drive up to a deeply confounding roundabout and I know exactly where I am.

When I arrived at the park, I was actually hugely surprised to discover how easy it was to find parking and then the amphitheater (you know you’ve lived in the middle of a large city for far too long when you look suspiciously at stretches of curb that both unoccupied and without signage). Una and Juli were already there, saving some seats in the bleachers. I found them easily and settled in.

As we watched the opening act, I started thinking about the number of times I’ve seen Dar Williams in concert.  Somehow, I’ve managed to work it out so that I’ve seen her perform every year, nearly always in the spring or summer, since I first moved to Philly in 2002. In the beginning I always saw her with Cindy and Ingrid. Some years Una, Georgia, Shay and Jen came along as well.

Last year, she played the Upper Merion Concert Under the Stars on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. I went with Shay and the guy I was dating at the time. The weather was uncertain and kept threatening thunderstorms all evening, putting the concert in danger and eventually forcing us to run for the car and head home. It was sort of a tense evening, and I remember feeling like it has colored my experience of Dar and her summer concerts.

It was so very different Wednesday night. The weather was beautiful and there was no tension, just the pleasure of being with friends and getting a chance to be within literal spitting distance (not that I would do something like that) from a beloved artist.

A couple of days ago, my garbage disposal stopped working. This is not the first time that this disposal stopped spinning suddenly. When you have 40+ year old appliances, you come to expect outages now and then. In fact, one of the perks of my apartment building is that there’s an entire staff of guys who are paid to be around and fix things when needed. However, the last time my gb went down, it took Emilio all of three minutes to fix it. And it cost me $20.

So when it stopped working this time, I figured that I would try to fix it myself. I poked around under my sink for awhile and didn’t find much. I called Scott in and made him get down on the kitchen floor for a look (he was so thrilled at this turn of events). Then we turned to the internet, and thanks to a little sleuthing on Scott’s part, we were able to find trouble-shooting instructions for our In-Sink-Erator Badger 1. Apparently these devices have not changed much in the last forty years.

Unfortunately, the repair required a particular tool, called the Self-Service Wrenchette, that was provided with the disposal. I found an allen wrench, but it didn’t do the job. Scott returned to the tool drawer, poked around a little bit and came back to the kitchen, holding a small tool and said, “Your propensity for keeping everything has paid off once again.”

Yep, he was holding the Self-Service Wrenchette that originally came with disposal 42 years ago. However, I can take no credit for this one, as all applause goes to my grandparents, from whom I learned my retention skills.

A few twists and turns, and the garbage disposal was working like new. I discovered an olive pit that had gotten stuck under one of the blades and was holding up the works. Hooray for fixing things yourself!

Then this summer, I was hired to blog at Slashfood and started to earn some money writing about food. This felt nearly too good to be true, since it brought together two of my passions and gave me an opportunity to expand a little in the world of food writing. Well, it continues to get better, because a couple of weeks ago, they asked me to move into the role of lead blogger/editor for site. This is what I hinted at briefly in this post a couple of weeks ago and now it is officially official.

There is this part of me that is continually boggled by the fact that my future is starting to shape up in a way where I can see that I will be able to make a living writing, reading, editing and possibly making some food video. I feel so fortunate that sometimes I have a hard time articulating the gratitude. It is such a joy to be in this place in my life.

My friend Jamie came over for lunch today with her 18-month-old daughter Ivy.  They spent the morning at a music class for toddlers and headed over afterwards, wearing complimentary down coats and smelling like cold morning air.  I put out an odd assortment of foods for them including smoked turkey and white bean soup, beet salad, cheeses leftover from the Food Blogger Potluck, my friend Wendy’s homemade pickles, some sliced apples and pears and a cluster of grapes.

Jame and I sat down to eat at the table, while Ivy jumped around.  She’d come over and sit on her mom’s lap for awhile, take a few bites and hop down.  I have two child-sized chairs at my coffee table and she’d sit on one for a while and them the other.  We stacked pieces of bread in a tower and she happily accepted the bits of pickle I handed her.  Most impressive was that she ate her weight in beets, loving the dark sweet root vegetable that I had slicked in a dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

We talked as Ivy danced around us, catching up on our recent events as well as news from the lives of our mutual friends.  After about an hour, Ivy walked to her stroller, levered herself into the seat and started buckle herself in.  Jamie looked over at her and asked, “Are you ready for your nap?”  Ivy nodded her head emphatically and said, “Yes!”

Quickly doing a little bit of clean up, Jamie shrugged into her coat and leaned in to give me a hug.  Afterwards, I leaned down and gave Ivy a scattering of kisses across her face that made her smile and tuck her head down into her neck.  She blew me an air kiss and they were off.  On days like this there is nothing about life that I don’t like.

I had an amazingly fun time tonight and I didn’t even have to leave the comfort of my apartment.  I played host to the first ever Philadelphia Food Blogger Potluck.  I’m not sure what the exact count was tonight, but I’d guess there were around 20 people here.  It was food bloggers, food vloggers and a few choice friends and significant others.

My table was piled high with an outstanding assortment of food, including meats, cheese, amazing cookies, apple cake, salads, curries, rice dishes, boiled peanuts and fun appetizers.  David outdid himself and brought something in the neighborhood of a dozen bottles of wine (and we nearly emptied all of them).  I made a VERY yummy concoction of potato, squash and cheese (I’ll be posting about it on Slashfood soon).

It was a resounding success.  Here’s to another terrific potluck sometime in January.  Now I’m off to finish cleaning the kitchen.

I’ve been spending a little time looking at my life lately and realized that despite the inner turmoil I’m dealing with on a daily basis about what happens when I graduate in December, things are looking pretty good. And most of it has stemmed from this blog in some way. I originally started the blog as a place to write about my search for work that made me happy. In the process of writing about my pursuit of a path, I discovered that the pursuit was turning into the path. Then I started to write about food and it all started to click.

So many of the friends I have these days first entered my life through blogger events (meetups and BlogPhilly, mostly). Without blogging, I wouldn’t have become friends with Scott and never would have starting making Fork You (I like to think that we’re making the world a better place for eaters, one recipe at a time). I even found love through blogging, short-lived thought it was.

All of this is to say that I appreciate my blog (and it’s steadfast readers. Hi mom!) and all of the wonderful experiences I’ve had because of it. I appreciate my life. And despite the uncertainty I feel about what happens next in life, I’m happy to have walked this path and to be here now.