O K T O B E R F E S T!

in honor of the season, my dad's german heritage,
and the three inches of snow outside we had our own
little oktoberfest tonight complete with spaten,
bockwurst, potatoes, red cabbage and i even made
pretzels from scratch:

















one of my co-teachers and her german husband and
another friend came over for dinner and a fire. and
we can't forget the polka music. all around a lovely
evening. eins, zwei, drei zuffa!

and i decided to fore go the dirndl and braids for this:








































brown leather maryjane pumps: walmart
grey tights: target
black jersey dress: ross
orange + black pashmina: cost plus world market
earrings: target
bierstein: germany (belonging to my co-teacher)

this evening i tried in vain to pretend that summer is not over,
despite the fact that the pine needles are falling, the telltale brisk,
autumnal breeze has blown in, i had to put on long sleeves for my
run and it was dark by the time i ate dinner. at least what i was
eating was summery.



i made spaghetti with oven roasted green and yellow zucchini, crumbled
goat cheese and lemon juice and zest. it was delicious. if only the weather
was complimentary.

this is one of the best unplanned, thrown together
meals i have ever made.
i started with some hamburger {i'll confess that
i use the frozen patties}. i topped that with some st.
agur blue cheese, put it on some sliced ciabatta from pearl
bakery and spread on some horseradish mayo. then
i added some sliced onion, some spring greens and a
sliced green tomato from the farmers' market.

















at the market, i also picked up some fresh beets. i've
never bought beats before so i just tried one sliced last
night with some balsamic and salt and pepper. but beets
have a much higher potential{and have you seen their
color!?!?!}, so today i shredded one and tossed it with a
little olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. to really
'make it work' as tim gunn would say i topped it with some
crumbled chevre and chopped fresh walnuts.


















eating like this should be illegal.

what i wore today:





















cowboy boots: thrifted
dress: ross
belt: thrifted
feather earrings: charlotte russe

we had quite the feast last night. at the special request
of one my roommates, i made toasties; a sun dried tomato,
garlic parmesan spread broiled on top of baguette slices.
we also had a cheese plate with some st. agur blue cheese,
tillamook cheddar, red grapes, garlic stuffed olives and
an artichoke jalapeno spread. there was a also a green
salad with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette, some fresh
cherries and a cucumber and heirloom tomato salad.
john made some lovely penne with lemon zest, goat
cheese and roasted summer squash.

































and kelly, not to be outdone, made this lovely
blackberry, plum and peach lattice work pie.

it was a lovely evening on the porch with great food,
good company and then a bike ride in the dark.