Where Have You Been?

Song - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan

Where have you been my darling young one?

I'm a bad, bad blogger.....I forgot November and December!

Well I didn't really forget them.  It was more like they bowled me over!!!

 I babysat my son's sweet pup Chewy. What a cutie!

We had 22 guests for Turkey Day!

I completed two commissions and started a new painting.

This was from our Spring trip to Scotland - a piper greeted us in the Highlands near Glencoe.

My mom and I had some downtime at Lake Tahoe.

We had a great cousin's reunion which I did a lot of family tree work for.

David, Timmy & myself

And then Christmas just blew by......

And I was sick the entire time (3 months) with some kind of 

flu-bronchitis-pneumonia-cold-cough thingy! UGGG!

And being stubborn - I never went to the doctors.

Lucky for me, my husband and my boys all cook as well do their loveys, so I had plenty of help.

I hope you will forgive my absence for the last two months.

I'm still here!

As a treat I am going to share two special yummy recipes 

Pumpkin Bread a la Monica

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

1 ½ c. flour

½ tsp. salt

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 c. pumpkin puree

½ c. vegetable oil (I sometimes use ¼ c. water and ¼ c. oil)

2 eggs, beaten

¼ c. water

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. allspice

¼ tsp. cloves

½ c. chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, salt, sugar, & baking soda together. In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin, oil, eggs, water, & spices. Pour into bowl with dry ingredients & mix until all are combined. Stir in the nuts. Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3-in. loaf pan, bake 50-60 minutes until done in the middle. Remove from pan, cool on a rack.

 

Jacque's Delicious Cranberry Honey Butter

 1/4 c. honey
1 c. butter
1/4 - 1/2 c. chopped dried cranberries
& orange zest to taste

Jacque placed the butter in small canning jars with handmade labels. 

“And now let us welcome the New Year —full of things that have never been.”

—RAINER MARIA RILKE