Another week of burning eyes, a scratchy throat, and constant worry that these could be symptoms of COVID-19 I'm feeling and not just the effects of the toxic air. By midweek, being trapped in our sealed up house had me feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted. Obviously that meant it was a great relief when a fall storm blew through late Friday evening and finally wiped out the lingering smoke. Over the two weeks we spent shrouded in smoke, summer gradually shifted towards fall, and Sunday afternoon, under blindingly blue skies we pulled pound after pound of perfectly ripened apples off the larger of the two trees in our backyard. Now that I don’t have to worry about the possibility of further contaminating the already stagnant air inside our house by baking, I’m now very much looking forward to experimenting with all things apple - pie, sauce, tart, muffin. If you have a favorite apple recipe you'd like to share, I'm open to suggestions for using up our bounty!