I seem duty-bound to follow the maxim, “It never rains but it pours.”  About ten days ago I came down with vomiting, violent diarrhea, and headache, and went to see my doctor, who ordered some tests.  One evening a few days later I got a call from a nice woman in the Health Department wanting to know what restaurants I’d been to and what milk, chicken, and vegetables I’d been eating. She got in ahead of my doctor’s office telling me I’d been diagnosed with salmonella. Apparently there is a “cluster” of cases in the area, and Hennepin County wants to know what we’ve eaten in common. I called my doctor the next day. She confirmed the diagnosis and prescribed an antibiotic, which took several days to work, but I’m just about over it at this point. Whew!

But please, please, let this be the end of this series of miseries, which began back in early March and kept piling on and on.

We are now at the start of autumn, the trees are beginning to show some color, and we are awash in apples. There are only two of us in this apartment, so an apple pie would be too much, I needed something smaller. I found a recipe on the Internet and adapted it just a little and it works wonderfully. Buy a container of Pillsbury Grands Crescent Rolls and lay them out on a baking sheet. At the wide end of each triangle, place a thick slice of apple, unpeeled. Put a dab of butter on the slice. Make a spice mix of a tablespoon each of allspice and cinnamon and a teaspoon of nutmeg. Strew this along the triangles. (You won’t use it all; put the remainder in an airtight container and make another batch later in the week.) Take a teaspoon of sugar (more or less, depending on how sweet you like your pie) and scatter that along each slice. Crumble walnut halves (or buy chopped walnuts – but I like the bigger chunks) and scatter them along each slice, not too many, just enough to make the occasional pleasant surprise in your mouth. Roll the triangles up and bake at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes. Serve warm. Yum!

One of the ways I know I’m better is that I had the energy to prepare these and the appetite to eat two of them.

Another sign of autumn is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, which is the 29th. I’m getting the goose today and we’ll feast indeed this Thursday at a big pot luck.  I’ll stuff the goose with a mix of garlic cloves, chopped apple, onion, and fresh parsley and roast him in a hot oven, basting frequently.  We’ll sing “Amazing Goose” (Amazing goose/How sweet the flesh/That saved a wretch like me./I once was broke/But now am flush/I’m saved from penury). Who eats goose at Michaelmas will not want for money for a year. It’s worked for us for over thirty years. It doesn’t make you rich, it just puts an end to fiscal emergencies.

I’d had to cancel the Shawano appearance when I got sick, but now it’s on again for this Saturday. I’ll be at the Beans and Books Coffee House in Shawano, Wisconsin, from 1 pm on Saturday till no one is interested anymore (maybe an hour).