With summertime scenes like this, fall comes as a welcome blessing. If you click through, you'll find a short video of revelers at a wave pool in Tokyo. I know it's one of the most crowded cities in the world, but day-um! I visited Tokyo in 1990, and was terrified of getting lost on the subway. As it turned out, the famous white-gloved people shovers were absent on my visit, and we had a grand old time. We visited Akihabara at night, and were dazzled by the multi-level electronics shops with blinking, flashing displays covering every possible surface. I bought a calculator as a souvenir, which I still have though the battery is long dead. I'm even fonder of the teapot, cups, and rice bowls I bought in a dusty shop near a kabuki theater the next afternoon - although I'm sure my teenage self regretted lugging the TEN bowls through the streets of Tokyo, I'm very pleased to have them in my collection now. Gosh, I'd love to visit Tokyo again, but you couldn't pay me to get in that pool!

The cleaning staff at work are nice enough. We exchange pleasantries when they make their evening rounds collecting trash and various recyclables. But why, GOD WHY must they clean all the bathrooms in the building simultaneously? It's 5:07 pm, time to dispatch the "Caution: Wet Floor, Cuidado: Piso Mojado" tent signs in front of the ladies rooms on all floors, effectively blocking access to every toilet in the building. Usually, I have the foresight to make a bathroom "needs assessment" around 4:45, but today I was crafting an e-mail to beg for new software and the "dry time" caught me unawares. Update: 5:27 pm. For crying out loud, how long does it take to clean a few commodes? I may need one of those tent signs for my office, if this goes on much longer.

Welcome to Wanderlust Friday, jam edition! You may remember that I traveled to the Big Island of Hawaii in July, but I don't think I ever mentioned my visit to Mr. Ed's Bakery in Honomu, near Akaka Falls. I first entered Mr. Ed's in search of ice cream, but found myself in the middle of a jam tasting contest. What's that, you ask? Simple. Whoever tastes the most jam, wins. I probably tasted 20 kinds of jam, but barely scratched the surface. Mr. Ed collects fruits from all over the island, including bushels of exotic fruits handed off by neighbors who want to see if they can be made into a jam. I asked Mr. Ed if he had ever met a fruit that he couldn't jammify - the answer? Nope. Although jackfruit is tricky, and makes a mess of your jam cauldron. Mr. Ed's magic jam thumb certainy explains the length of the jam menu: Apple butter Banana butter Calamondin marmalade Coconut Pink guava White guava Yellow guava Passion guava Passion guava peach pineapple Lilikoi Lilikoi butter Lilikoi ginger Hot lilikoi Jaboticaba Lemon butter Lime butter Mango Papaya Papaya pineapple Poha Starfruit Surinam cherry... The list goes on, including sugarfree and low sugar varieties. Every flavor was so delicious and fresh and unbelievably good. And it gets better - Mr. Ed and his wife brought out the "raw materials" for me to sample - fresh lilikoi and lychee, as well as poha berries, which I had never even heard of, let alone tasted. Of course, I had a variety of jams sent home, and have been slowly portioning out jewel-like dollops of jam on my Sunday morning biscuits. I didn't take any pictures of Mr. Ed (too busy chatting and tasting jam), but you can see him on this travel blog (scroll down a bit). And if you missed them, you can see my vacation photos here.

Dyeing yarn at home can be fun. It can have great results! It can have horrible results. If a yarn turns out badly, there's only one solution. Dye it again. And again. Until it looks sort of OK. So start with this: Overdye with coffee, then overdye again with 5 packs of grape Kool-Aid. That leaves you with this: What do you think? Is it passable? Or does it look like something that a cat just passed? I don't think this yarn can take much more. Sigh.

I just bought a copy of Heidi Swanson's Supernatural Cooking after falling in serious like with her blog, 101 Cookbooks. The cookbook is great, and full of creative recipes that I haven't gotten around to trying yet. But if Heidi keeps posting delicious recipes on her blog - like this one for Espresso Caramels, I might NEVER get to the cookbook! And I did finally get around to making a batch of David Lebovitz's Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream - it was divine. Almost too much, even for a caramel lover like me. I cheated a bit and didn't use fleur de sel, but rather cheapo Trader Joe's sea salt ground up with my mortar and pestle. The only bad thing about this recipe (did I mention that it even stays scoopable in the freezer?) is that it leaves you with 5 lonely egg whites - I would have made meringues, but it was a rainy day and I knew they'd never crisp up. Sigh. I ended up scrambling them into a sub-par breakfast rumble. Nothing that a little perfect ice cream won't cure! I must share two other fabulous caramel recipes - this one, for a Caramel-Walnut tart is so delicious - I've made it several times and it's a delectable fall dessert - prefect with lots of coffee. :) And while it's a few weeks until Halloween, it's never too early for a batch of Caramel-Dipped Apples. I used to love the simple caramel apples made by melting down dozens of unwrapped caramel squares, but this recipe is ten times better. No, a hundred times better! I have to eat a lot of these babies now to make up for my inevitable toothless future.

I got sucked into an episode of Wife Swap the other night - now I know I can't be alone in my opinion that this is one of the best guilty pleasure television shows on the air today, right? Anyway, if you're not familiar with the show, two individually crazy families trade mothers for 2 weeks, and each family thereby inflicts its horrendous culture on another family with an equally horrendous, yet polar opposite, lifestyle. Anyway, last night one family was way crazier than the other - they followed a raw food diet - including raw chicken, and something called "high meat", which as far as I can tell, is just rancid meat. Did I mention that they believed water is toxic, and you shouldn't wash your hands? They did practice dental hygiene, using homemade toothpaste made of butter and clay. Oh, gak. Anyway, there are very few foods that I have purposefully never tried, having had the chance (including raw chicken). I've never had biscuits and gravy, although I understand some people find it really delicious. To me, biscuits go with jam, full stop. However, this biscuits and gravy tutorial posted on The Pioneer Woman Cooks! may be enough to change my mind. It looks easy, and the simplicity of Jimmy Dean sausage is very appealing. I had a less-than-satisfying turkey andouille sausage from Whole Foods the other day, and I think sometimes sausage should just be sausage. However, I might have to insist on baking my biscuits from scratch.

I love fall, but it's sadly the time when farmers markets shut down for the year. Bah. I did get a few nice hauls from the Edmonds Farmers Market this summer, including some sweet knobby carrots (so much better than even organic carrots from the grocery store) and beautiful, ephemeral flowers. The bug is home grown.

In case you hadn't guessed, that post title was meant to approximate a raspberry. In addition to luscious blueberries, I also scored a bumper crop of raspberries this summer in Sequim. We all know that raspberries are the most delicate of beasts, tending to mold mere hours after picking. And these berries were so ridiculously huge and gorgeous, I had to make sure none went to waste. I selected the choicest berries to individually freeze for later use in baked goods. Look at them, all lined up like tasty little soldiers. The rest (not including the pound I ate that day) I made into a few small jars of raspberry jam, following a recipe in Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything (he's not kidding). By cooking a diced granny smith apple along with the berries, I ensured gelling without having to add too much sugar, and stretched the berries a little further. This jam is so pretty, and so tasty on a hot buttermilk biscuit.

Don't you love hearing about places you never knew existed? I was so captivated by Bea's description of a Weekend on Block Island on her blog La Tartine Gourmande that I just had to find out more about the place! Although Bea's pictures look like they were taken on a European pleasure island, Block Island is in Rhode Island! I've never been to RI, but I'll definitely give it a try. How wonderful, to spend a weekend biking around an island, stopping only to picnic or chase butterflies.

Make a pie! This is my all-time favorite recipe, I've used it for about 5 years. The promise of pie is the only way to get SOME people to agree to go berry picking. This pie is quite effective motivation. Open-Faced Fresh Blueberry Pie adapted (to make it easier!) from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible Ingredients 9-inch pie crust, unbaked 1 cup frozen blueberries (just take another cup of your fresh berries, and freeze overnight) 3 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried 1/2 cup and two tablespoons water, divided 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/2 cup sugar 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice Pinch of salt 1 1/2 cups whipped cream Make the crust: Follow your favorite recipe for a plain pie crust, press it into a 9-inch pan and freeze for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line the pastry with foil and fill it with rice or a tight-fitting pot lid. Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully lift out the foil. With a fork, prick the bottom and sides, and bake another 5-10 minutes, or until the crust is pale golden. Check after 3 minutes and prick any bubbles that may have formed. When the crust is done, let cool completely on a rack. Make the filling: Put the frozen berries in a medium saucepan with 1/2 cup water. Cover and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and the remaining 2 tablespoons of water. Set it aside. When the water and blueberries have come to a boil, lower the heat and simmer, stirring constantly for 3 to 4 minutes or until the blueberries start to burst and the juices begin to thicken. Stirring constantly, add the cornstarch mixture, the sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Simmer for 3-4 minutes or until the mixture becomes translucent. Remove pan from heat and quickly fold in the remaining 3 cups of blueberries. Spoon the mixture into the baked pie shell and allow to sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours before serving. When set, the berries will remain very juicy but will not flow out of the crust. Serve with gobs of whipped cream! I usually use frozen berries from the previous season along with fresh berries from the current year. This picture shows how pathetic last year's crop was, compared to the HUGE grape-like berries picked at Graysmarsh Farm in Sequim. It's just embarrassing.