My first effort at making a classic apple tartin looked pretty dismal. It looked a lot better when plated with the ice cream and fortunately, it tasted great. The problem was that when I inverted it, the crust broke and the apples had stuck to the bottom of the pan. I might have cooked it a big long. Since Jim loved this classic French dessert, I need to get myself one of those tartin pans instead of using a deep frying pan which was what I used.

My new range top burners are very powerful and it took less time to get the sugar/butter mix darkened.
I still haven't heard back from the company about sending a service person out to deal with a couple of issues with this unit, so I will have to call again today! So far I've made at least 5 calls to the dealer and company and a few emails and have yet to hear back about the status of their last promise to find a service person in our area. Needless to say, my patience is starting to wear a bit thin!

Yesterday I made banana bread which we'll have with boiled eggs for breakfast this morning. I'm still dealing with the flu bug/cold hanging on so cooking, necessary garden work, computer work and paperwork has been it the past few days. And of course, I have all these garden fruits and  veggies which keep coming and coming, so every day I'm spending time looking up new recipes for zucchini, apples, tomatoes,eggplant and now snow peas. The local news suggested that gardeners pick their tomatoes yesterday, so at some point today, I will be making tomato soup - probably a simple, spicy easy and quick recipe if I can find one.

The painters were here yesterday and did all the touch up work - interior and exterior, so that's the last big,  job. The only thing I have left to do is deal with closing down the garden after the first big freeze, and re-arranging the potted plants that had to be moved away from the new raised beds. The gardener will re-do the drip systems once I decide where to put all those planters. After that we can settle in and enjoy our new home and I can get to work.

Today is going to be one of those running around days - first to our sons to harvest veggies, then off to Costco and then Ashland for some gourmet cheeses and other groceries. Our daughter and son-in-law arrive Tuesday so I need to stock their favorite goodies. Our son-in-law is a huge fan of American junk food. We're talking the likes of Twinkies, root beer floats (which I introduced to him), etc. He also loves good bread and good cheeses. Don't we all!