Jenna tweeted a photo of this apple tart I made a few weeks ago and so many of you wanted the recipe so here it is. It’s similar to this Plum Almond Tart I posted years ago except with apples that we picked from apple picking instead of the plums. We paired it with homemade caramel ice cream which is the perfect fit to this tart, but any ice cream will do. Because really, what goes better together than ice cream and apple tart?

Apple Almond Tart (makes one 11-inch tart)

One 11-inch tart shell, pre-baked (use the instructions and ingredients from this recipe)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 ounces finely ground almonds
1 teaspoon almond extract
3-4 apples, peeled and sliced 1/8-inch thick (any variety of apple that you would use in a pie would do just fine)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Beat the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, beat for one more minute. Finally, beat in the flour, almonds, and almond extract, stopping to scrape the sides of the mixing bowl if necessary. Spread this mixture in an even layer into the baked tart shell. Begin arranging the sliced apples around the side in overlapping concentric circles, until the entire top of the tart is covered. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the center of the tart is firm and fully cooked. Remove from the oven and cool completely before slicing.

Not much happening around here these days. The girls are settled into school and that is going swimmingly well. There have been no transition issues with Claudine and she is loving school. The days are quiet because they’re both gone all day, a first. We’re establishing a new rhythm to the year with school drop offs and pick ups. The busy-ness of the season hasn’t quite hit yet, but there is all this pressure already to prepare for the holidays. I’m doing my best to ignore it at the moment. Trying to squeeze in Fall activities like apple picking even if the weather still doesn’t feel much like Fall.

I’ve proven my theory that no matter how much time I set aside for personal projects by consciously controlling the amount of paid work that I take on, the space fills itself with other stuff – domestic chores, parenting, obsessively looking for a new dining table – you know, life stuff (sort of like your income, yes? Your spending rises and falls commensurate to how much you make). How many times have I said to myself, “If I only had a few free weeks”? And yet, here I am with a few free weeks…and I feel more pressed for time than ever.

It all started when my mom planted the idea in my head that we should get a piano and that maybe we should take the one I grew up playing, although it has gotten out of tune. Mia has expressed interest in piano lessons and likes to tinker around with it whenever we are at my mom’s. Mark’s even taught her how to play a melody or three with her right hand and surprisingly, she’ll remember how to play it even if a month goes by. Maybe the kids have skills! And I do have to admit that for whatever reason out of the blue, I’ve been sort of wanting to play again. But it’s always been rather difficult to imagine a piano in our apartment. Our downstairs neighbor has one and you can hear her play – not loudly, but you can definitely hear it. But more importantly, where would we put it?!

Our apartment isn’t that small. 1350 square feet might not sound like much space for 4 people to anyone outside a big city, but it’s actually a decent size apartment for NY. But even if you strive to live minimally – and I do, I’m very good at purging – you still manage to fill it with all sorts of crap, particularly if you have kids.

Last Tuesday my mom called me about a piano that was for sale from a friend that she was going to check out. By Thursday we were taking books off shelves, moving things around and measuring walls to see where we’d put a piano and by Friday, it was in our apartment. My mom works fast (I think she couldn’t bear the thought of her half-Asian grandchildren not taking piano lessons, haha). The morning the piano was being delivered it occurred to me that I had accepted it without seeing it first. What if it didn’t fit with anything else in our apartment? What if it had gargoyles carved in the wood on the sides? Or worse…what if it was glossy white?!? I hadn’t really asked. I mean a piano is just…a piano.

Soooo…the one that was delivered on Friday isn’t exactly what I had hoped. It doesn’t have gargoyles, but it does have scroll-y things and French legs (Mia came in from school and said, “oooooh, it’s SO fancy). I sort of fretted about how big it was and how loud it was and how not minimal it was, plus it threw my whole search for a new dining room table for a loop because the piano sits behind the dining area. It’s definitely a tight fit, space wise. But then we put a few of our things on it and put the books back on the shelf and it’s actually fine now that it’s integrated with everything else (yeah, alright, I still don’t love the legs).

What is it about a piano that makes a home seem more like home? Claudine likes to sit next to me when I play. I stopped playing 15 years ago because I developed bad carpal tunnel from playing many hours a day when Mark and I were music majors at school. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I hadn’t lost my ability to sight-read music, although it’s happening more slowly. I’m not saying I’m good and I didn’t expect to be, not after 15 years, but I was just glad that I didn’t forget everything. Part of the deal with getting a piano is that I’d teach the girls myself so we can save money instead of hiring a teacher for another instrument like the violin. Sounds like a smart idea, but oh my, I see lessons in patience in my future. Let’s see how long it lasts!

It’s Fake! Summer! in NYC right now. It’s not just that the temps are warm, it’s also unseasonably humid which is pissing everyone off right now. But you know, it’s the end of September and no matter how warm it is, everyone’s trying to ignore it by convincing themselves that Fall is really here and consuming as many pumpkin products out there. Like these Pumpkin Ginger Sandwich Cookies, which are again making their seasonal appearance. You can buy them here or here.

Also new in our shops is the Brooklyn Market Cookie, which you guys helped name. These are smaller, more petite versions than the big ones we sell at the markets, but you can now finally get your own shipped right to you. Cookie season is back! Fall is here! (not).

ps. that brooklyn bottle btw is by Elyssa Ettinger.

Seems like whenever we leave Washington, our flight is always early morning so we need to wake up many hours before even the first light breaks. The drive is in darkness, so there is nothing to see out the car windows. I always make sure that our last night is filled with sights, like dusk at the waterfront in Olympia, to carry us over to our next visit.

So I’ll bring you back to New York next week. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Also, we are at the end of September. What?

Going back to Mark’s mom’s house in Olympia, Washington is just about the closest thing to going back home as we can get. Certainly for Mark, as he lived at that house during his high school years, but in some small way for me as well. When we drive to my parents’ house on the weekends, it’s not to the house or neighborhood I grew up in. There are no childhood relics or memories there, so I suppose in one sense going back to this house with the red door, a place that I have also lived in briefly on 2 separate occasions, is the oldest “home” to go back to.

Oh Olympia, you are a sleepy little town, but you have an impressive Farmer’s Market, a nice waterfront, and our favorite coffee roasters. It’s funny how huge the scene felt back then in the early 90s – the birthplace of Riot Grrrls, the indie record labels, the music and the aftermath of Nirvana. I guess you could say that about many of the indie college towns back then. Of course we didn’t really know it at the time, but is stuff like this still happening in college towns? Or am I that out of touch and talking like an old person?

Nothing like picking blackberries down the street and making a pie with it the same day. The kids (Lecia’s and ours) helped pick the berries and then Lecia’s older son videotaped Mark making the pie so that he could remember the recipe (and look, you can see another view of the pie here). We grilled and ate dinner on the patio under lights while watching the sun go down. It’s moments like these that make you reflect and think, “oh, that was a good summer” now that the summer is gone gone gone.

If I ever win the lottery, I’m going to buy a house on Lecia’s street, you’ll see. Then when we’re old and retired we’ll be bi-coastal. Because I can’t ever quit New York, I’ve tried – when I was living right there in the Northwest, in fact. But I can stare at this water view forever.

The temperatures dropped about 15 degrees in New York during the day today. Everybody was all aflutter about hot apple cider, Fall boots, scarves and hearty cold weather meals, but we saw the first signs of Fall already in Seattle. It wasn’t just that the leaves were starting to collect on sidewalks into piles, but we saw leaves turning yellow scattered on trees too.

I think one of our favorite things to do in NY and also when we travel is to pick a neighborhood and just go exploring. We did just that in Queen Anne one afternoon, browsing through book stores, having lunch and picking up a few thing from the grocery. We even found a playground for the girls to play in. It was one of my favorites days in Seattle.

Oh, I’m not done yet with photos from our trip. So much more to show, but you know…life happens, the beginning of school, checking in on my mom, figuring out our Fall schedules. It seems busy. As Fall should be.

But I still find myself thinking about our trip which does really seem like a million years ago, so much so that Mia keeps shaking her head with disbelief saying, “did we really go to San Francisco last month?” From my obsessive weather watching, the temps are going to drop starting tomorrow and it does feel like summer is slipping away. Looking at the photos from our trip gives me a sense of calm and also a sense of longing. I wonder why we connect with some places and other places we don’t. You already know that my lack of emotional connection to Portland confuses the hell out of me, and I have to say that I wasn’t surprised that San Francisco didn’t bowl me over with its awesomeness. I really do love the city and we had a super great time, but it never had in past visits and that didn’t change this time. So what is it about Seattle and the Pacific Northwest? I don’t know. I think it has to do with something about my youth, my long term history with the region, family ties, some fantasies and a few unrealized dreams. Maybe a special place does that for you too?

Ironically, as we were leaving my friend Lecia’s house in Seattle where we stayed a few days once again this year, she and her boys were flying out to NYC. She wrote this about their trip: “Seattle is our home, but we left a piece of our hearts in New York City.” We leave a piece of our hearts every time we leave the Northwest.