Flowers, 1 week later...

Still beautiful! Just a small bouquet now.

We got the orange vase for our wedding.

Cranberry

It's that time...

Cranberry time. Every year for the past 6 years I've made this cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving--always a double batch because it's so good. We aren't big holiday people--most years it's just me and a few family members (this year husband and parents most likely!). Very relaxed. Still have to have the proper cranberry, though!

The recipe I use is this one from Williams-Sonoma, originally recommended to me by a friend in 2005. It's the best! Sometimes I use mandarines instead of the orange if they are available (this year we went with local oranges and apples from Apple Hill). 

I didn't can the sauce, but am storing it in jars in the fridge. So pretty!

By the way, I got a tiny bit of fame in the November issue of Sunset Magazine, because I commented on their Facebook page about this sauce and they printed my comment in their magazine (p. 10 bottom left corner).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Apple-Orange Cranberry Sauce--best ever
From Williams-Sonoma

1/2 Orange
2 cups water
1 tart apple
3 cups cranberries
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves

Juice the orange (set aside juice), then use a paring knife to cut the white pith away from the orange peel. Discard the pith, and chop the orange portion of the peel into very small pieces. Place the peel into a small pot with the water, bring to a boil over high head, then cook for 10 minutes.

Chop the apple, place in a medium saucepan. Add the cranberries, orange juice, cooked peel, sugar, and spices. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Let cool, and store in the fridge for several days, or freeze. Bring to room temp before serving. Makes ~3-4 cups.

October Sierra Romps

After the early October storm we had, Adam, the dogs, and I went up to South Lake Tahoe for a weekend.

It was cold! And snowy!

Saturday we were at Echo lake.

We even got out the doggles!

After our Echo Lake snow hike (we just did an out-and-back from the Echo Lake trailhead..didn't go that far due to increasingly deep snow), we drove down to Hope Valley to camp in our usual spot. That night it got down to 28 degrees! In the morning we were treated to beautiful frosty sagebrush view. 

My favorite. 

How good weekends end: sleepy dogs in the van!

(Way) belated halloween post

We don't usually dress up for Halloween...but this year we did some last minute dog humiliation!!

Check out Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf Dressed Up As Grandma.

They didn't mind we switched their sexes (assuming big bad wolf is male..).  Dude makes such a cute Red Riding Hood (though he is hard to capture in all of his awkward glory..). We won "best group" at our dog agility class Halloween Party!

Been busy

We've been really busy lately, and don't see anything changing soon. But, we did end up staying home this weekend and I stopped by the farmer's market yesterday morning and found these flowers--couldn't pass them up.

Have a good week-