summer's here!

Wait, it's only May 8th.

While the rest of the country has been experiencing above-average temperatures, here in the great lakes region it's been chilly. Ten to twenty degrees below average. Until today. It reached 84. Blessed every saint that ever walked the earth; finally. No one complained, but we definitely exclaimed, "it's hot!" Because it was. Our house is not prepared for this. I had to search high and low for our window fans. Thank goodness for window fans. Have I been thankful for that yet?

On a side note, we had dinner with some wonderful friends, Jess and Jake (and their girls, Yael and Avah, I've blogged about that cutie patootie here. It didn't take much arm twisting when venison steaks were mentioned (which were delicious btw). The menu also included pretzels (hey Jess, I need that recipe), an amazing couscous salad (which I know was super easy to throw together, but I'm not that creative), a bowl of juicy, fresh fruit (did I mention today felt like summer, perfect!), and apple crisp with homemade french vanilla ice cream. Would you like to guess which dish(es) I made? It shouldn't be too difficult if you were paying attention.

The apple crisp and vanilla ice cream. It hit the spot. Man oh man. It was so good.

I had given some thought to strawberry shortcake, but had apples that unfortunately aren't fresh enough for regular snacking. I figured baking them would be the best thing for them. And it was.

So maybe I'm thankful for apple crisp too. Served warm with vanilla ice cream.