Marriage, a thing of the past

Since Brian and I have been married we've found that we are an anomaly of sorts. Our apartment leasing office keeps referring me to as "Brian's girlfriend." To which Brian always responds, "Ashley is not my girlfriend. She is my wife. We are married." With much emphasis. Actually, a little too much emphasis ;) Our neighbors always seem surprised to find out that we are married. And today the UPS man delivered a package for Brian and asked me if my last name was Ramsey too (while I am standing in the doorway in my bathrobe with wet hair). I said yes and he explained that most of the time it's the girlfriend who signs and he has to make a note if it's a different last name. 

I've found that there is a new expectation when two people live together. It's that they are "living together" and "trying it out."

Laurie's Fresh Apple Cake

I left this out of my Fall Break recipes because the post was getting too long. But I did also make friend Laurie's Fresh Apple Cake. I served it twice (half to D & K and the other half at Brian's family Monday night, it was a crowd pleaser with both groups). 

Fresh Apple Cake
 2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
3 cups peeled and chopped fresh apples (I've been using 3 large Gala apples)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-in. tube pan. Mix sugar, oil, and eggs until well-combined (about 2 min.) Add salt, soda, vanilla, cinnamon, and flour. Mix well. Fold in pecans and apples. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean (it took 90 minutes for Laurie and me). Remove from pan and pour glaze over cake while still warm.

Glaze:
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup margarine or butter (softened, NOT melted)

Mix well and pour over cake. 

I hate peeling apples. I almost baked something else when I saw I had to peel apples. But Brian, being full of surpises, can perfectly peel apples. It's a skill ya know. A skill I don't have and now I don't need ;)

October 21

This morning when Brian left for work I walked down to the car with him to get my camera. It was still dark because he leaves pretty early to open the coffee shop on Wednesdays. And since I had my camera I took a picture of him and the crazy precepitation.

The little white dots are snow flakes. I know I've already blogged about the shock and horror of snow in October, but mark my words any snow that falls to the ground outside my apartment before November 1 (the date I have deemed appropriate for snow) will be photographed and blogged about.

I'm going to be driving in this in a few hours. I'm a bad enough driver without snow.