It’s Fall, and few things make me drool harder than homemade applesauce (in case you were wondering what else could possibly trump applesauce on the list see: the cast of Ocean’s 11, dental work, and a good nap).

I digress. Homemade applesauce is surprisingly easy to make and cooks up really fast. It’s a great way to use apples that are starting to get mushy, or a fun way to make use of your haul after a visit to the orchard. Plus, it’s a lot less work than making a pie.

For your consideration, here’s my really simple recipe.

3 Pounds of apples – That’s 6-8 apples for those you without food scales. (Any variety will do but Gala, Red Delicious, Fuji, Macintosh and Honeycrisp work really well.)
¾ - 1 Cup of Sugar
½ Cup of Water
2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon (more to taste if that’s what you’re into)
The juice of half a lemon Read More »

I love to love things. It’s true. So much so that I used to say “Love You” on my voicemail - until my friends instructed me that not only is it not true (”Do you LOVE your Dr’s office who calls to confirm your appointment?”), but that it was also a tad creepy to the strangers calling to leave messages on my phone.

So I changed it. And focused my love on other things. A now - for your benefit - I will bring you a weekly Love List. On all things I love. Because if I love them - well then obviously you may love them too. And there was once a song that said what the world needs now is love sweet love. So sweet love I will bring to thee.

My love list for October 4th, 2008:

1. The word Adore. I don’t know why, but I LOVE this word. Lately I’ve replaced the word “love” with “adore.” As in, “I Adore pay day,” or “I absolutely ADORE that Marc Jacobs bag (but not adoring the not-so-adorable price tag),” or “I don’t care if Jeremy Piven is a shmuck - girls have been drawn to them for ages - why stop now? And, therefore, I adore him.” Read More »

Ed Westwick is hot. We know you think so. And we think so too.

We also think that a threesome with him and Chase Crawford could go down as one of the best nights of any woman’s life.

[Drool]

But, thanks to Drew Barrymore, that will not be happening any time soon. It seems the former Mrs. Mac has moved on from her boyishly cute ex (Justin Long); last night she was spotted locking lips with the one and only Ed Westwick. Who, by the way, is like 20 years younger than her.

It’s ok, though; at the same party where Drew and Ed were caught making out, Ed was also spotted in leather pants and a purple fanny pack. And he was not being dressed by the costume peeps at Gossip Girl. He actually chose to wear that.

Let’s just hope Barrymore keeps her slutty Mrs. Robinson paws off of Chase Crawford. If he wants an older woman, that woman is going to be me, damnit.

I have always had this intense passion for baking. I’m not sure how much of it was the romantic sense of making something great looking and great tasting and feeling the accomplishment that came along with it, and how much was just plain old having the ability to scrounge around and make something from practically nothing to satisfy my raving sweet tooth.

One thing I had never really delved into was pie baking. Brownies, cookies, cakes — I loved them all and I could bake them fairly well. But pies…if it wasn’t refrigerated, I hadn’t tried it. And then I had a craving for apple pie.

My fiance being the loyal supporter he is, accompanied me to the store and watched me stare at the shelves trying to figure out what looked yummy. I’ve never been one for cooking apples (sometimes I have an issue cutting them uniformly) and since this was my first foray into pie-world, I didn’t want to risk screwing up the um, very essential filling. So, without an official recipe, and without really knowing what I was doing I came up with the following plan. No, it isn’t good for you, but it’s darn tasty with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.

You will need the following: Read More »

Move over Crackberry. Step aside, iPhone. There’s a new boy in town and he aims to be bigger and better than his predecessors. (Note: and, no, John McCain didn’t invent this one, either.)

Rumors have been circling for awhile now that Google would be creating a phone, and in just a few days we will finally get to see it. It is called the Dream, which is quite a name to live up to. The information about this badboy is being kept under major lock and key, but many people (read: techy geeks) are sure that this phone will give Apple a run for its money.

If you are really nerdy, like me, you can watch the demo video to see what The Dream has to offer. But if you don’t want to waste 7 minutes, I can sum it up for you:

It looks and acts a lot like the iPhone: touchscreen, internet, Google maps…

I don’t know much about technology, or programming or phones (beyond texting), but I am not sure this Google phone is so revolutionary. I guess I’ll just have to wait until September 23rd to see. For now, I’m holding tight to my iPhone.

Apple released a brand new iPod on Tuesday and while the rest of the nation was captivated by all the pretty colors and the new gizmo’s shake-to-shuffle feature, I was a little busy geeking out about the other announcement: iTunes 8.

Unlike previous incarnations, iTunes 8 is shaking up the application for the first time in years, this time with the introduction of a better visualizer, a new way to peruse your library and a handy little feature called Genius. Read More »

Why? Because, as usual, Steve Jobs and his cronies have released a newer, better Nano. Poor 3rd generation Nano; so short and squat. Now she’s getting overshadowed by her taller, thinner replacement.

I know how that goes.

The new Nano - built with cleaner and less toxic materials - also comes in a full rainbow of colors and is the perfect combo of portability and function (sorta like this guy). New features include longer battery life, a larger screen and the landscape view for viewing cover flow and movies.

The coolest thing about the Nano, though, is that you just have to give it a little shake to shuffle your songs. That might be the coolest thing ever. And the reason why, as usual, I will be buying another Nano.

Damn you, Steve Jobs. DAMN YOU.

Shopping for college can be stressful: you don’t know how much room you will have in your dorm, how much is too much, if you’ve brought enough, and if it will match the stuff your roommate has.

Shopping for elementary school supplies was so much more fun - you got to stock up on your favorite Lisa Frank supplies and you begged your mom to buy you a few gel pens because everyone was using them.

This year, instead of making a quick pit-stop at Staples on the way to school and buying a few notebooks and black pens, why not bring some of that grade school excitement back with fun school supplies?

Remember how excited you were to use those gel pens to fill out worksheets in the first couple weeks of school? How cool it was to start a brand new notebook? Here are some funky school supplies that will make you want to head to class, take some notes, and do some hardcore studying. Or at least they will help you make friends by serving as a good conversation starter for the girl sitting next to you.

This stuff puts the “cool” back in school. Yeah…I went there.

Calculator - You will probably need to bring one of those nerdy graphing calculators to your Advanced Stats class, but why not buy one of those enormous & brightly colored calculators for when you just need to add, subtract, multiply, or divide? Math sucks, but bright pink makes everything better. Read More »