baking&rock climbing: adventures

What is this, you ask? It's hard to say, really. It looks like it might taste good--illusion, I assure you.

I decided a few weeks ago that I really, really missed fall. All of a sudden amnesia hit me, and I didn't remember how much I hate it when summer ends and I get cold; I forgot that fall, for me, means going back to class, no more beach weather, and the beginning of gray, depressing Michigan winters. Instead, I was filled with nostalgia for apple picking, football games [I don't want to talk about it right now], donuts & cider. Not that these things aren't great; it's just that it's rather amazing how attractive things that you can't have are.

Anyway, I decided that I was going to make apple crisp to celebrate the beginning of the fall and share a little of Michigan culture with Rosario here, who, poor thing, has been inflicted with endless blue skies and a complete lack of cold weather. It took me a good week and a half to gather the supplies. Oats were easy enough to find, as were apples (mostly, I think, because I wasn't picky about type of apple). Brown sugar was tough. What I ended up finding as brown sugar was more like cane sugar dripping in molasses, but close enough. The baking soda said "for household use only," but what do they know, anyway. I literally had to buy every ingredient; even butter wasn't in the fridge.

So I set out one evening to actually make this thing, and I was confronted with yet another problem: measuring. Sure, I had remembered to hit the "convert to metric" button on my online recipe, so that was all taken care of. My current problem was that the only tool I was given for measuring was basically the metric equivalent of the scale my mother uses at home to weigh packages for the mail. The smallest increment was 20g--and here I was needing to measure out, you know, one tablespoon [8g] of flour, half a teaspoon of baking powder...So I guessed.

I'm not a very good guesser.

When it came out of the oven, it smelled great, if a little overwhelmingly of nutmeg (I got a little carried away with the guessing in this area). But the biggest problem was, as Rosario put it, that it tasted like pure sugar. Ouch. Some people like sugar!

But nobody likes sugar this much, honest. You couldn't even taste the apple.

I guess I'm stuck with flan and arroz con leche for dessert. Poor me...
Now this picture presents another story altogether. This is me yesterday, in Ronda, Spain, one of the most beautiful places on Earth [I say this a lot, but it's true, honest].

I guess it's not much of a story. Look, this is where I was yesterday! They thought I was crazy for sitting like this! It was fun. End of story.

We also hiked like maniacs down into a gorge to see a waterfall and a puzzling doorway that said "Central Electric" (ideas, anyone?) and what looked like an abandoned house. We climbed back up, which amazingly enough was a much longer distance than going down, I swear. I walked into a short pole and got a huge bruise on my knee. I bought some really pretty ceramic bowls. I bought ice cream (you have to try it EVERYWHERE, you know, just to find the best place). I got half lemon sorbet, half coconut sherbet. Yeah, it's as good as it sounds. Amazing.

Rosario wants to go back to Ronda with me, which I'm totally okay with. I have to take Brad there for the hiking, too. It's a gorgeous little town. I love Europe--the "new" bridge in the town is 18th century, if I remember correctly. You know, like the same age as the United States. The old bridge and Arab bridge are much older (but I don't know exactly how old because I was taking pictures instead of listening to the guide).

Ronda is basically built on a cliff, so it offers lots of opportunities for pictures. These are three of my favorites:




And if you're really amazed by this city & my amazing photography (and, obviously, my skills in technology), check out my facebook album! It's awesome.

Off to London this coming weekend with the parents--I'll let you all know how that goes! Hasta luego, chicos.