Happy Birthday, Claudia!

Here's wishing a wonderful birthday to you and many more!

Stop whatever you're doing...

And make this...

When my mom, sister and I took a tour of Europe a couple years back, we had a dessert for every country. In Italy, gelato. In France, crepes. In Germany, apple crisp.

With colder weather and apples fresh from picking, a little apple crisp was just what I craved. If healthy is what you're looking for, you won't find it here. This is a celebration kind of dessert. (And if you happen to be celebrating Christopher Columbus Day or the fact that it's Thursday, so be it. We're all about celebrating.) But it was delicious! (just ask my husband)

Caramel-Apple Crisp (makes 8 to 10 servings)

Topping:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

10 tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground allspine

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

10 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, diced

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsalted butter, diced

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 Pippin or Golden Delicious apples (about 2 3/4 pounds), peeled, cut into eigths, cored (we used Golden Delicious apples that we picked up from the pumpkin patch)

Lightly sweetened whip cream

For topping: Whisk first 6 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until small moist clumps form. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. (I love do aheads! Made for multitaskers.)

For filling: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stir sugar and butter in large skillet over medium heat until smooth sauce forms. Add lemon juice and cook, stirring, until caramel is deep brown, about 5 minutes. (The trickiest part. Do not multitask here. It will burn very quickly.) Mix in salt, then apples. Toss until apples are evenly coated, about 1 minute. Scrape apples and caramel into 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish; spread evenly. Sprinkle topping evenly over.

Bake crisp until apples are tender, sauce is bubbling thickly, and topping is golden, about 50 minutes. Let crisp cool 15 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream. (Homemade whipped cream is best. And so easy!)

Happy Birthday Mamma Llama!

(me and my mom, who's just a few years older in this picture than I am now. i love how much i look like her here.)

It's my mom's birthday today! And though we can't be at home with her to celebrate, we are wishing a big happy birthday to her from out east. I love you, Mom. Thanks for always making life one big party. I want to be just like you when I grow up.

p.s.- i love you more than chocolate ice cream. which you know is saying a lot.

Passed!

Remember that big test I mentioned? Well, I passed. And I promise you, it was life changing. I've never been so happy to see a four letter word.

To celebrate, J and I went to the new Indian food place just down the corner from our now (very empty) apartment. (I'm not usually the biggest fan of Indian food, but believe me, J has earned this too.) We toasted with a bottle of wine we had been saving for such an occasion, and barely made it through dinner. (I woke up at 2:30am the night before my test and was too nervous to ever go back to sleep.)

your newest CRNA! (certified registered nurse anesthetist)

one very tired, very happy, very relieved husband

It felt like one of those days I will remember forever.

{one year}

shown above: our rooftop pool excursion at the Standard downtown, a lovely anniversary dinner at The Little Door, celebration champagne gifted to us on our wedding day, and a little white (red velvet) cake just like the day we were married (frozen cake layers don't taste any good anyway, right?)

27 candles.

We celebrated my birthday in fine form this year, thanks to J. He managed to keep (mostly) everything a surprise, and combined all of my favorite things to celebrate my birthday.

Over two weekends and a weeknight (a weeknight!) we...

went to the Orange County Fair (complete with photobooth pics, 4H auctions, and my favorite- a churro!),

had dinner at Fleming's (so delicious I can still taste it) and drinks at Casey's Irish Pub,

and made a trip home to Thousand Oaks for a Cominski BBQ (the best kind).

Thank you, friends and family, for the happiest of birthdays. I consider myself one lucky lady to have people like you.