Jake and Brenna: Fall Fun

Next on the list of catching up is fall semester. We didn't have a lot of time for fun last fall since we were both busy starting grad school, so this post will be short. We took a picture to commemorate our first day.

Ann Arbor is beautiful in the fall because of all the deciduous trees. The leaves were gorgeous, especially in the parks along the Huron River. I'm really sad that I didn't take a single picture, but I've put it on my list of to-dos for this fall.

Jake's birthday was at the end of October. We celebrated by doing a local activity, the Tour de Food. Basically, you visit each of five locations (a bakehouse, a coffee shop, a creamery, a deli, and a sit-down restaurant called the Roadhouse) owned by Zingerman's within 24 hours. It's a local business, and their food is amazing! We heard that the reward for completing the tour was a free t-shirt, which used to be true. Unfortunately, they had just changed the reward to an entry in a drawing to win a $250 gift card. We didn't win, and the t-shirts would have been way better, but we still had a lot of fun. All of the locations have special birthday deals, so we took advantage of those along the way. We got a free loaf of bread, a free gelato, and a discount on our lunch at the deli. It was a really fun and delicious way to celebrate. Then, Jake opened his presents. What a lucky boy.

We didn't do much for Halloween, but we did carve pumpkins. We decided to do Adventure Time characters this year from one of our favorite cartoons. Only one trick-or-treater recognized them, but one is worth it, right? We really enjoyed them ourselves.

Since Halloween was on a Wednesday, we went to play trivia at Buffalo Wild Wings with Jake's friends from school, a weekly tradition. The questions were Halloween themed, and so we discovered that there are college students only a couple of years younger than us who have 1) never seen Ghost Busters and 2) even more tragically, do not know who Bill Murray is. We did really well with the theme - I think we got second place that night.

Our last notable fall activity was making Thanksgiving dinner. Since most of our friends were leaving town for the holiday, Jake and I decided to make an entire Thanksgiving feast for just the two of us. The food was really great, but I don't think either of us would do it again. Obviously everyone else has figured out that Thanksgiving is way better when you pool your resources with other families so that you get to enjoy all of the foods you love without spending days in the kitchen. Don't worry, we get it now, and we'll be following suit in the years to come.

The Menu:
Rabbit
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Stuffing
Sweet potatoes
Rotkohl (Red cabbage)
Rolls
Cranberry chutney
Apple pie
Homemade vanilla ice cream

Phew! What a list. (Thanks for sending a few recipes, Michele!) We split it all up, which means Jake made most of it while I worked on the pie. I had never made my own pie crust before. Martha Stewart and Alton Brown were there to help, but they don't always get along. Despite their differences, the pie turned out really well. Anyway, like I said, the food was all really good. We had a really fun time cooking and eating together. Next year, though, we'll have to team up with some friends or order take out.