Dad's Birthday and Thanksgiving

Time got away from me again, and I didn't get a chance to post about my dad's birthday and Thanksgiving in a timely manner, but better late than never right?!  My dad and stepmother came to California to celebrate my dad's birthday with us and Thanksgiving with my stepmother's family. We were so pleased to be able to celebrate my dad's 79th birthday and spend this special time of year with them. My stepmother Susan, is a fabulous cook, and we always have a lot of fun cooking together. A few years back I made this coconut cream tart for my dad's birthday, and ever since it's been his go to birthday dessert, so I whipped one of them up for him, as well as joint cooking his prime rib feast! I made the cast iron skillet potatoes that I did a few years ago at Christmas time.  Susan made Yorkshire pudding for the prime rib, which was fun to watch being made. I must give that a try some time! I think my dad looks pretty great on his 79th birthday :)   The next day we took a break from cooking and took them out to Bull Valley Roadhouse for dinner, and they loved it.  We had so much fun visiting with them, and it always seems too short.
Thanksgiving this year came at lightening speed, for me anyway.  If you are a long time reader, you know it's my favorite cooking holiday, and I'm always tinkering with perfecting cooking that darn bird. This year, I think I found the best combination!  I can't remember if I blogged about some mishaps with my All Clad roasting pan or not, but I noticed that when I moved back from France in 2004, I started cooking my Turkey in my new All Clad roasting pan, and for some reason had lots of trouble with even cooking. I'm still not sure it is the pan or not, but I went back to all the times my turkey did turn out, and I always used those cheap foil roasters. So, I went back to those last year and had a much better result. This year I saw a recipe from Martha, where you start the bird upside down. You use a whole loaf of ciabatta bread, cut open like a book, and slathered with lots of butter. Lay the bird breast side down on it and crank the heat up (475) for 45 min. The recipe is on line of course, if you google Martha's upside down turkey. The only thing on the recipe that I think was wrong was cooking time, but other than that,  it's a keeper! We used a 15 lb. bird, so it wasn't that hard to flip it when the time came. I'm sad I didn't think to snap a picture of my perfectly golden cooked bird. We were so hungry we tore into it as soon as it rested. The breast meat was really juicy and tender, and all the dark meat was cooked perfectly, with no pink spots like I have had in the past. I also basted it every 20 min. with white wine and butter. Can I just say that you might want to pick at the yummy turkey juiced caibatta bread and call it a day! I used the juice soaked ciabatta in the extra stuffing to add flavor to it. I also stuff my bird. I know a lot of people are afraid to do it, but I have always done it, and I think it makes the best stuffing. Ok, enough about the Turkey!
This year we had some new friends we made through Alex and Barbara, our German friends. Alex and Barbara could not make it this year, as they were in Germany on business. We were delighted though to have Ralf and Annette join us.  Annette brought a really yummy salmon appetizer that she made to kick off the feast, and Caitlin brought an apple/cranberry whiskey cobbler to add to the dessert fun.  It was a really nice gathering! I put up the blurred picture of Caitlin and Cyrous, because that is the only one I nabbed of them, so pretend it isn't blurry hahaha.

I spied this cute little woodpecker outside on the neighbors apple tree the other morning, it's he cute?!  I'm happy to report, I haven't had anymore birds hitting the windows recently. The trees are about ready to take their winter nap, and each day the landscape changes bit by bit. This week it will rain for a few days in a row, and most likely take out the rest of the golden leaves, and turn the trees into winter lace. I love seeing it all change from my little tree house.

Shop news: I just finished a cute little dress that I will post about soon. I have been trying to squeeze in a few outfits before Christmas to fill up my shop. I just shipped out one of my little fur hats yesterday. I'm really hopeless with planning ahead for Christmas items for my shop. I know you should start in July or so, but I'm never motivated to do it then, so I leave it with my red capes and the little hats and whatever I can make to round out the fall/winter garments that I have in there. I don't think I'll ever be the Etsy power house seller hahaha. My money maker is that cape in the months of September and October, and I reached my goal again this year with them. Lots of really nice customer reviews makes it all worth while. I also got the cutest pictures back from a customer that I did a big special order for a while back. It melted my heart to see the clothes on this beautiful little girl, and how much her mom loved the pieces.  This is why I like to do what I do on a small scale.

On that note, I need to get house back in order after taking out all the Christmas boxes out. Right now my living room looks like a Christmas tornado just hit!   Happy Holidays!

Glorious Colors of November

Oh you big beautiful month of November, with your pumpkin pie spice colors sprinkled everywhere, ..I love you!  Out of every window of this house I see splashes of gorgeous colors of autumn. Sitting perched on a hill and the main living area being high up, I feel like I'm living in a cool tree house with such splendid views of the changing seasons.  As we were driving yesterday, we saw the most gorgeous trees that looked as if they were on fire, and I wish I had my camera because they just didn't look real. California rolls into autumn like a stubborn child not wanting to leave the party of summer, but when it arrives, it's so beautiful and I love drinking in all the sights and smells that come with it.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite cooking holidays, and today I'm off to forage for the feast. I'll be making the classics and our new tradition of the Mexican sweet potato dish that everyone loves. I usually change up the green side dish every year, and have one new dessert in addition to pumpkin pie. This year I'm making a pecan chocolate tart that I saw in Martha's November issue. I'm off to look for maple sugar for it. Have you ever used maple sugar? I'm intrigued if it will actually  add a maple taste to the dessert or not. Stay tuned for the verdict on this.

As you can see buy the photo above, we finally got the kitchen island from Crate and Barrel that we wanted to put in that spot. I LOVE it and it really fits well in there! We also bought two stools for the other side where the leaf comes out, to have a little breakfast/sitting area. The stools we got were from Ikea, and look great (these are the ones) and look like they came with it. The island is a great height and it will be nice to have this surface for Thanksgiving food prep.  We also got some much needed shelving in my studio and now things are much more organized and efficient. It's always so fun to go in there and work with the nice lighting and everything now in its place.

Speaking of my studio, I have a couple of custom orders that I'm currently working on that are super cute and involve embroidery, which I really miss, and plan to start incorporating more of on up coming pieces that I have in mind and I just got the first cape order of the holiday season.  Next post I'll show you my new shelving and some snaps of the work I have been doing.

The newlyweds are doing great! Caitlin just got a job at Anthropologie for the holiday season, but wants to stay on after. Anthropologie is building a mega store in our town that will open in the fall of next year, and when she interviewed they told her that there will be more jobs in the visual department. So there could be some great opportunities, if she likes working for the company.

Well, I'm off now to go hunt for my maple sugar and other fixings. If I don't come back before Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a great one!

Our Thanksgiving

Phew, that was fun and and exhausting! We had such a lovely day shared with some friends, who are expats from Germany, and of course cutie pie Caitlin. Cyrous came by later, as he had spent the day with his family. I kinda went crazy making desserts and in between doing so, decided I would do a whole floral arrangement. I had a lot of fun making it though, but man was I wiped out by the end of Thanksgiving day!  We usually eat later than most, since I can't even bare to get up early in the morning and start messing with a raw turkey. It makes for a more relaxed and even paced day for me and most of the time we invite people who are use to eating much later than what most Americans do on Thanksgiving.
I sure did have a blast using my new food processor for the meal. I really could tell the difference in quality and performance and I feel like I really made a good choice with it. The best part was how super lightening speed it was to whip cream, and next time I will keep a better eye on it, since it was almost butter consistency hahaha.
Our guests, who I mentioned were German, had never had Thanksgiving food. They couldn't get enough of it, and had many helpings, and enjoyed all the flavors of the meal. They really loved the pumpkin pie, which also they had never eaten! I'm glad we were the first Thanksgiving gathering that they had.
Next day was spent cleaning up the huge mess in the kitchen, because you know how it is, no matter who organized you think you are, that last few minutes of getting all the food on the table is a nightmare and always leaves the the kitchen in a big disaster!
Saturday we met Cyrous' parents to look at a venue for the wedding. It was beautiful, and hopefully this will be the space, because it has everything that we all need in a venue. Exciting times ahead with the planning. Can't wait for Caitlin to start trying on dresses, I think that will be my favorite part I think, and flower selections next hahah. I would so love to do the flowers, but know how impossible that would be to fit in.
While putting up my feet after a long Thanksgiving day, I checked my Etsy shop and someone had bought my last cape! This made me so happy, and has given me a push to get some more made up for the holidays. I kind of needed a break making them after the Halloween rush, but now I'm anxious to get some more completed.
I sure hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, I know we sure did!!

Our Thanksgiving

We had such a beautiful Thanksgiving, from the weather to the company. This year we shared it with some extended family and a new friend. Lots and lots of laughter and fun times. We sure missed Nicole and Pierre, but we did get to skype with Nicole for a little bit. She made her very first Thanksgiving dinner in London, and shared it with a few friends.
Hope everyone had as much fun as we did!