Tasty Treat

My friend Danni over at Critter Farm offered this idea a couple years ago. And now that we have our own flock of awesome egg layers I thought I'd give it a try. I made up a batch of oatmeal, spread it on a tray to cool, and offered it up to our girls. It's such fun just to watch them slowly discover not to be afraid and that it's actually edible.

Cooling off to edible temperature . . . I even donated my patriotic Dollar-Tree tray for the cause.

"Hmmmm . . . wonder what the heck that is?"

"What are we supposed to do with that goop?"

"Mama, give me a hint here!"

"What do you think, Bertha?"

"Hmmmm . . . not sure, I'll try if you try!"

"Well, shoot-howdy! This is tasty!"

"Okay now, move over, there's plenty of room for all of us!"

"Oh hi Myrtle, now that you just laid that egg, you must be hungry. Come on and join the crowd, this is good stuff!"

Life is good!

Christmas Cookie Baking

Today my daughter and grandson came over to do some serious cookie baking. Jen and I work well together—easily sharing the kitchen and having fun— each doing our own thing. At the end of the day we ended up with some beautiful cookies and a batch of fudge to fill up several plates to be used for gifts.

CD is nearly as tall as I am and he's almost eleven years old . . . 
another year he'll be taller than me. 
He's a neat kid and I had fun with him today!

He was a great Sous-Chef! He has good knife skills 
and chopped nuts like a pro.

Lemon Dream Bars—my favorite cookie ever. 
My mom used to make these at Christmas time too—a three layer cookie starting out with a flaky crust, a filling layer of egg, brown sugar, walnuts, and coconut . . . 
with a glaze of powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest on top.

Chocolate Chip and Macadamia and White Chocolate Chip.

My sister Patty shared this recipe with me and it is a real hit. 
It's a Frosted Cranberry Orange cookie . . . delicious and pretty too!

Jen ended up with her six plates of cookies. 
She'll be back tomorrow for more.

These were going to some lucky teachers!

Ken was our official taster and gave us a thumbs up!

Life is good!

A New Idea for Christmas Baking

Christmas baking usually means, to me anyway, baking cookies. To others it may mean getting ready for the holiday months ahead of time by preparing a Fruit Cake or two. Others may be thinking of making an old fashioned Christmas Pudding. 

I've wanted to make something I'd never made before, and because Ken and I love having our morning cup of cappucino, enjoying a biscotti with it would be a perfect way to start our day. When I mentioned that idea to Ken, he responded with "Yes, and how about making some maple-nut scones like they have at Starbucks!" So that's how I spent my day. And it was fun and they both came out darn tasty!

These are Gingerbread Biscotti . . . I plan on making Lemon Biscotti tomorrow.

These are the Maple-Nut Scones. Next time I'll make them a bit thinner because these rose a bit too high, but didn't hurt the edibility!

Life is good!

The Joy of Tole Painting

Another Christmas tradition that's been going on for the last dozen years or so, is painting a set—actually several sets, of ornaments to share as Christmas gifts for our daughters and their families. And this year is no exception. I just finished them yesterday and now they're ready to hang on the tree and hopefully bring a smile or two to their recipients!

I love the style of Kay Quist, the designer of this set, in fact I think this is the fifth year I've used her. Only snag is she likes to use layers and layers of colors—this set included thirty-five different colors of paint, but I'm always happy how they turn out.

The final set of three Christmas cutie-pies!

"Love"

"Smile"

"Joy"

Life is good!

Christmas Spirit Abounds

A holiday tradition I absolutely love is the annual Christmas Tea at Sierra Pines Church in Oakhurst. It's a time of giving as it is a major fundraiser for the Women's Ministry program at the church. The tea itself was beautifully catered, the time spent with my daughter and granddaughter was priceless, and the room full of raffle treasures was quite popular and raised enough money for the program to run smoothly for a year without using any of the church's operating funds. At our table there were many winners including Jen, Karah, a me! As we were leaving the church for the evening we could truly feel the Christmas spirit kick in.

Tea sandwiches, scones, and sweets . . . plus tea served in a beautiful tea cup and saucer that everyone was invited to take home as a souvenir . . . and a fun night spent with Jen and Karah . . . life is good!

A wonderful Christmas tradition, thank you Jen!

Life is good!

There's Nothing Better

There really is nothing better than fresh eggs. The girls have finally caught up with us and provided enough to actually fill up an egg carton. Since only two of the eight of them are currently laying I'm sure there will be a time when we'll have so many that we'll need to start sharing. But in the meantime we'll enjoy their two-eggs-a-day routine. 

We have eight hens, all born in May making them six months old: three Buff Orpingtons, three New Hampshire Reds and two Sexlinks (cross between Leghorn and Buff Orpington) . . . these eggs are gifts from the Sexlinks.

I love how a fresh egg holds its shape while being poached.

 Life is good!

Farewell Summer Garden

Chilly days ahead means our late-blooming tomatoes will never get ripe on the vine, so we decided to just pick them all while still green and before the first frost hits. 

We realized too late that the tomato plants were a whole lot thirstier than they let on, hence the late-blooming tomatoes didn't have a chance to enjoy enough sun to even blush!

I found a recipe for Green Tomato Relish which called for 24 large green tomatoes. I looked at the box and decided I had enough small ones to do the trick. I mean, really now, who decides how big a "large" tomato is?

I ended up with two bowls of this size.

To the 24 "large" tomatoes I added three red and three green bell peppers and a dozen "large" onions . . . chopped them all in a food processor. Then sugar, vinegar, celery and mustard seed and a bit of salt was added, and simmered on the stove a short while before canning.

The recipe gave me 14 pints of relish. 
These will make great Christmas gifts!

I must include in our final harvest a nice bunch of peppers . . . Jalapeños, Sweet Italian, and a few Pepperoncini Peppers.

Life is good!

For the love of sailing . . .

This past summer found our Midwestern grandsons having a good time doing what their dad taught them since they were big enough to swim . . . sailing! The boys are ten-and-a-half and twelve years old and are now able to sail independently. Living so far from California we don't get to see them as often as we'd like, and I was pleased to get these photos. They are growing up so fast . . . soon they'll be racing in the regatta with the "big guys!"

Appropriately dressed in short wetsuits, under the guidance of their dad, R and T make ready their Sunfish.

Getting the rigging right is most important.

And soon they're off!

I'm thinkin' this is R by looking at the back of his head . . .

...yep, it's R . . . black shorts.

Here's T, in red shorts. Thank goodness they have on different colored shorts because it's hard to tell them apart in these pictures.

By the expression on T's face he must be thinking . . . "Where is that dang wind?".

Rainbow over the Regatta must have brought good luck to the winner.

I love this picture of R, who looks so comfortable and confident in his sailing ability.

I just learned, and you will see if you read the first comment, that these boys did quite well in the summer competitions, even beating out some adult competitors!

Hopefully we'll see these guys and their mom and dad during the holidays, giving us an opportunity to catch up on their lives.

Life is good!

Fall visit to Healdsburg

We love going over to visit my baby sister and her husband in the fall. Normally we stop by on our way home from a summer in Oregon, but this year we drove over a bit later in the year. The first day we were there the guys went fishing on Lake Sonoma and caught their limit of scrumptious Steelhead, which truly made Ken a happy camper. Sorry, no pictures because they were cleaned, made into fillets, and vacuum packed before I thought to get my camera!

Making this visit a bit later in the year meant that we were just in time to gather walnuts under their giant walnut tree growing in the middle of their vineyard, which we did on the second day.

See the big walnut tree in the background . . . growing right in the middle of their vineyard which supplies luscious grapes to quality vineyards in Sonoma County.

This tree spreads fifty feet.

As I walked under the tree and looked down there was a blanket of walnuts under my feet . . . I couldn't take a step without stepping on a walnut.

Here is my sister and brother-in-law with a neighbor's dog helping collect walnuts . . . between them and Ken and I, we collected two five-gallon buckets full of walnuts.

This is adorable "Scarlett Begonia" waiting patiently while I cracked a walnut for her . . . she loves eating walnuts and understands she can't crack the shell herself!

This picture is quite meaningful to me. Friday, I was able to easily hike out this far from our car to get to the walnut tree . . . that red speck is my sister, Jackie, hiking back to get the car to pick me up. I met her half way. Last year, at this time, there was no way I had enough oxygen to make it to the walnut tree. Praise God for great doctors!

Jackie and Rick love celebrating the "Day of the Dead" as celebrated in Mexico. I've never gotten into this holiday until recently, I guess since my brother and parents have died in the last ten years. She asked me to bring my paints to paint her a piece for her Day of the Dead altar, which I had fun doing on the third day of our visit. And of course we had the traditional "Posole" a delicious soup made from pork, or this time Jackie used turkey legs, and hominy . . . a great tradition we've enjoyed for several years.

Now you'd think I would have taken a picture of her altar . . . I did not. But maybe I can get her to send me a picture that I can add to this blog at a later time.

Here is the finished piece before varnish, which Jackie will spray on herself.

She just sent me this picture of her Day of the Dead altar. Some may think it's a bit creepy seeing skulls and skeletons, but after I understood the meaning of the holiday I realized it's a day to celebrate all your friends and relatives who have gone on before you . . . celebrating and remembering the life you had with them.

Our last night together we went to a new restaurant in town called "Agave" and enjoyed a great meal together while listening to a mariachi-type guitarist and singer. We had a great time with Jackie and Rick as we always do. Now they are off to their house in Baja for three and a half months to enjoy some sun while we enjoy our winter.

Life is good!