Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving holiday at Laurie's parents' home...
Danny and David playing Foosball just before dinner
David trying to dodge the camera and failing!
The dining room is prepared for dinner
David is ready!
BBQ'd turkey!!
Green been casserole, Yam Yums, cranberry sauce and cranberry jello
Close up shot of my favorite dish: Yam Yums
The kids begin eating
Cody's first helping of food - compare to below
David's first helping of food - compare to above 8)
The desserts: the lemon meringue was a popular choice because it was the least rich
Dan working off the calories on the treadmill
The next morning I took a 4 mile walk as I was getting cabin fever...
First stop was the pioneer cemetery
Neat old headstone
Heading back to the entrance
A view of Yoncalla from the cemetery
Another Yoncalla view
A train went by as I was walking. This is next to the high school.
Another view of the high school
This is the house Laurie's family was living in when I met her. Laurie's father built the wrap-around deck you see there complete with the scroll work on the poles. Has changed very little since then.
Here is the old Methodist church in the center of town. This was for sale back in July when we visited. I was really worried it would be torn down, but it looks like it will be fixed up and rented out.
Yesterday evening, Laurie and I went shopping for a few items needed for the Spanish Omelette. I thought I'd grab some cranberry sauce since I always seem to be without it this time of year. With the recent article I read about micro-filtered honey that removes all pollen which is the only way to trace where the honey comes from (with the suspicion that much of it comes from China without disclosing that fact) and the vast number of products that have replaced sugar with high fructose corn syrup, I decided to check the ingredients of the cranberry sauce cans. Sure enough, all the cans had high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar.
I was going to boycott and look for cranberry sauce elsewhere, but Laurie suggested that we try making it ourselves. I grabbed a couple 12 oz packages of fresh cranberries and left. When I got home, I did some research and found a recipe that sounded good called tangerine cherry cranberry sauce. I already stock dried cherries so all I needed was tangerines (or oranges), cloves, and anise seeds. The recipe calls for star of anise, but I couldn't find that at Winco so I settled on regular anise seed. I used a cheese cloth to keep the seeds and cloves out of the sauce.
So, first let me say that I like cranberry sauce with turkey and on turkey sandwiches, but I'm not a big fan of it on its own. After making this recipe, I am now a huge fan! This is SO good that I couldn't stop snacking on it. The kids loved it too. So tangy and delicious and so easy to make. I'm probably going to need to make another batch before Thanksgiving. Here is the recipe:
1 (12-oz) bag fresh cranberries
1 cup small dried cherries (larger ones can be chopped a bit)
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated tangerine or orange zest 1 cup tangerine or orange juice, plus water as needed
1 whole star anise
3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
There is a good write-up of the recipe and a video here:
http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2010/11/tangerine-cherry-cranberry-sauce-your.html
Here is the video for your convenience:
3 Cloves and Anise seed
It required 4 of these little "cuties" to supply enough juice and zest
All ingredients added
All ingredients stirred
Simmering
Finished product - my mouth is watering just looking at it
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November 2012 Update: After making this recipe again this year, I would propose a change. From now on I will only add 1/2 cup of dried cherries and use juice and zest from 3 tangerines. Make up the remaining 1 cup of liquid with water.
I planned to try making a Spanish Omelette for Saturday breakfast after hearing about it from my Spanish friend Gema. My first impulse was to add extras to it like green chilies and mozzarella cheese but decided to try the traditional recipe first and go from there. The recipe is fairly simple requiring only 3 potatoes, 1/2 onion, 4 eggs, olive oil, and salt. But preparation, cooking the potatoes thoroughly, and "flipping" the omelette take some time and practice. I couldn't find anything large enough to help "flip" the omelette so I ended up using a round baking stone (see picture below) which was VERY heavy and difficult to maneuver. I stacked hot pads up to create a soft place on the counter top in case I dropped the stone 8). I'm already in the doghouse because of breaking one of Laurie's baking stones last month.
The end result was pretty good although I think the potatoes I used were too large and the omelette didn't seem "eggy" enough. We had the omelette for breakfast with english muffins and everyone really liked it. There were no leftovers 8) Here are a few things I would do differently next time:
Possibly use a little less potato or add one more egg (I look forward to hearing Gema's opinion of this)
Use a smaller frying pan (with a lid) so that the omelette turns out thicker and the sides are cooked better AND so that flipping it is easier
Cut the potatoes in smaller pieces and possibly cook them part way through in the microwave (is that heresy?)
Just a few pictures of my 18 mile Saturday morning ride to the Dayton pedestrian bridge. I used to ride this quite often when I lived in Lafayette as it was only a few miles away.
The wood was very slippery - I nearly fell on my bottom.
My bike
The bridge from a distance
An old abandoned church in Dayton
I couldn't believe this was an oak tree. Most oak leaves just turn brown and fall off but this one was a magnificent deep red color.
