That Friday Feeling

Today is one of those Friday mornings when I wake up already feeling the joy that will come over me as I walk out the door of my office at 3:30pm. It was a busy, productive, and even exciting week. I'm planning a regional conference and registration is on the rise! It is going to be great, and I am thrilled.

On a side note, I took time this week, when SB was working at home one evening, to re-watch one of my all-time favorite movies. The music, the dialogue, the carefully placed scene details, the characters, the human emotion, the humor, the eccentricity... it gets me every time. Here's a classic scene clip from the film for your Friday morning:

Speaking of human emotion, last night I attended a surprise birthday party for my professional mentor and friend. At the party were more than 30 people from all areas and times of his life. At one point in the evening, because he is a music lover, a guest played piano and the whole group sang songs including "Imagine," "Help!" and "If I Had a Hammer." While of course I found it slightly awkward (because I am me), it was also a really beautiful thing. Friends are such an amazing gift in this life, and togetherness through meals and music is particularly special.

Lastly, I'm hoping to get crafty this weekend... perhaps I'll have project pictures to report back next week.

Autumn Cake

a photo from a recent (flooded) hike

I have made this cake twice this month -- for two different celebrations of my birthday. It is a keeper of a recipe -- a cake that is surprisingly light, springy, spiced, sweet, slightly sticky, and all-around delicious.

Maple Apple Upside Down Cake
from Joy the Baker

For the Apples/Sauce:

• 2 medium apples, peeled and sliced into ½-inch thick wedges
• ½ cup pure maple syrup
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

For the Cake:

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup pure maple syrup
• ¾ cup packed brown sugar
• 1 apple, peeled and grated

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and butter a 9x2-inch round baking dish or cake pan. 
2. Slice two apples into wedges and arrange the wedges in the bottom of your prepared baking dish, overlapping as needed.
3. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the maple syrup, 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Heat until the butter melts and the mixture begins to simmer, about 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Pour half of the syrup over the apples in the baking dish. Reserve the remaining half for after the cake is baked.
4. For the cake, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter, eggs, maple syrup, brown sugar and grated apple. Add the apple mixture to the flour mixture and stir well. Dollop the batter onto the apples in the baking dish and gently smooth the top.
6. Bake the cake until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 45-50 minutes. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the cake to loosen it a bit before inverting it onto a plate. Drizzle the cake with the reserved, heated up syrup and let cool just slightly before slicing and serving.

Bonus Poem by Rumi:

A Bowl Fallen from the Roof

You that give new life to this planet,

you that transcend logic, come. I am only

an arrow. Fill your bow with me and let fly.

Because of this love for you my bowl has fallen from the roof.

Put down a ladder and collect the pieces, please.

People ask, But which roof is your roof?

I answer, Wherever the soul came from

and wherever it goes at night, my roof

is in that direction.

From wherever spring arrives to heal the ground,

from wherever searching rises in a human being.

The looking itself is a trace

of what we are looking for.

But we have been more like the man

who sits on his donkey

and asks the donkey where to go.

Be quiet now and wait.

It may be that the ocean one,

the one we desire so to move into and become,

desires us out here on land a little longer,

going our sundry roads to the shore.

From Rumi: Bridge to the Soul

Translations by Coleman Barks