a lazy sunday

Current tune: "The Show" by: Lenka

Today Christina (my Cazenovian flat mate), Gracie, Nikita, Jeff (our friend from Illinois that lives in flat 6), and I decided to go apple picking. We were going to do it Saturday morning, but alas, England had other plans for us and it rained all day.

So we got on the bus as ASDA’s and headed up there. We got dropped off at the farmer’s stand with the apple orchard in back of us and inquired about apple picking, only to learn that the orchard we saw was private and the cashier did not know of any apple orchards in Canterbury that permitted public apple picking. Boooo!!

Needless to say we enjoyed the fresh produce from local farms! I bought some yummy looking little mushrooms and big brightly colored carrots to make in a vegetable pot pie this week, and some flour to make shortbread cookies!

We decided to save ourselves the 1.60, in pounds, and walk back to Canterbury. It was nice walk of about 2-3 miles where we amused ourselves with conversation, the random cute greenhouses, farms (for Christina and Nikita to get in their pony fix), and the scenery around us. I also picked some pretty flowers that are now my little centerpiece on my kitchen table in my flat.

The farmers stand inspired me to bake some shortbread cookies and cook with fresh veggies again! (I’ve been eating a lot of eggs, ramen noodles, and whatever else that is cheap). I miss cutting up fresh veggies and cooking them in pasta and rice. Yummy!! So I made up two batches of homemade shortbread cookies and we had little tea party with biscuits! I made up the batter and started making up the cookies until Christina took over for me, Nikita would put them on the cookie sheets (that we burrowed from everyone we knew that owned one), and Gracie would check on them once we had them in the oven and then put them on paper towels on the counter to cool. It was a pleasant fluid assembly line of cookie production.

Nikita and Christina in the cookie production line <3

Jeff, Amy (our British friend from flat 4), and Jen (another Cazenovian that lives in the group of flats with us) hung around the kitchen keeping us entertained with conversation about the moth man prophecies, ghosts, and mythical gargum that we all like to eat up like its ½ price ben & jerry’s. It was a really nice couple of hours and we all enjoyed tea and fresh baked shortbread biscuits with friends in my kitchen flat. Shanna came along a bit after and joined all of us for tea and biscuits as well!

I’ve been inspired to start baking, now that the weather is getting colder, which makes me really happy. I enjoy cooking and baking for people whom I love, and if that’s for my friends it’s just wonderful!