I’m back! I survived my first week back at work. It was a little hard to hand the little bear over to the day care on the first day. He gave me the saddest little ‘where are you going look’ but after a few days he was fine.

I’m finally getting some Christmas baking underway. Alex complained to me the other day that he was sick of pumpkin. I kept making pumpkin pie and pumpkin spaghetti for dinner :-p I told him that was impossible but I would make him something more Christmassey.

I can’t wait for Thanksgiving! We had a great Thanksgiving last year in New Hampshire with my sister but this year we’re having a huge dinner with about 15 members of my family in Knoxville. I’m in charge of desserts of course

I made this coffee cake from the new Ovenly cookbook. Every time I went to NYC I never had the time to go to Brooklyn and this happens to be where some of the best bakeries are. After reading this cookbook I’m really bummed that I never made it to Ovenly. I only made a few trips to NYC when we lived in Connecticut and in all my intensive bakery research never came across Ovenly.

I love fall in Tennessee so far. The foliage isn’t quite as vibrant as it was in Connecticut but it’s still very beautiful. There are lots of green pastures and the first nine miles of my drive into work there are dozens of ponies wandering around! I have to be careful to pay attention to the road and not look over at the ponies too much.