What's Cooking Grandma?

Hmmm turkey's almost defrosted, special dishes are washed and tablecloths and napkins are ironed. It's nice to have all this extra time in retirement to get ready, not to mention the extra hand who has just retired! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone and eat all you want!

More Color and Oh No

She's got the camera out again!
Here is another view of those"vivid" leaves that show we manage to get some fall color here in sunny California.





Then here is the quilt I recently finished with fall colors for the inside.

Who Would Of Guessed

that carrots could be so good. No, really this carrot recipe turned out so good! Here it goes: In a large skillet (not so really large) combine 1 1/2 pounds carrots (I'd say 5 carrots) cut into 1/2 inch slices (halved lengthwise if large), 1 tablespoon butter (that I inadvertently left out),4 sprigs thyme, and 1/2 cup water; season with coarse salt (I used sea salt liberally) and ground pepper. Bring to a boil over high and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is absorbed and carrots are tender, 7 to 9 minutes (more like 12-15 for me) Serves 4 per serv: 95 cal; 2.9 g fat, 2 g protein, 15.8 g carb, 3.9 g fiber.

Jack! Come Here!

Does anyone else have a Lab that's afraid of the camera? Jack just hears that "bling" and he knows it's the camera coming on --he high tails it down the hall

then, he runs to Dad - -








hide me PLEASE!



Dad just laughs - -he's on the computer!


Where's Lassie when you need her?

Fall Color in California?

I'm a native Californian. It wasn't until we met Brian and Pam that I really cared about fall color! They moved in across the street from us in ~1990. They were a young married couple (we were not!-our daughter was already out of nest by then) but the story is about Brian's love of trees and his love of color - -and Pam's love of color. Brian introduced me to the love of trees with color. In our front yard we planted (after much consultation with the Kelly's since they had to look at it day in and day out) a Scarlet Red Oak. Wow-what a beautiful tree.Brian would walk me around the neighborhood educating me about the various trees and their atributes. But - -the real lessons learned from him is in our backyard-- a beautiful California Native Grape-Roger's Red that we planted to cover the patio cover. Wow - -talk about fall color. Look at it this year
And it's THAT time of year - - Bob and I sometimes argue about whether or not to prune back the grapes. I plead with him to wait til after Thanksgiving. After all we planted it for the fall red color. I've won, so far this year.Now for Pam Kelly's lessons on color. Pam introduced me to quilting. Her most valuable lessons however were about the use of color. To tell the truth I don't remember exactly WHAT she taught me but because of her I truly have a profound love of color not only in my quilting but in my life. She taught me to be more confident in my quilt making and in my homemaking. I may not have lots of crazy colors in my home but it's a comfortable home. Brian and Pam have moved to the east coast to the land of fall color and we'll be visiting them some time soon!

Left Something In Vegas

WoooHoooo! This past weekend we went to Vegas with our friends, Janette and Herb. Janette and I went to see the Bette Midler show - -great show. Here we are after-sorry the picture is so blurry. The guy I grabbed to snap the picture must have had 3 too many of those show drinks! We were out walking, walking and more walking on Monday from 8am to dark-thirty, stopping only to eat and a drink or 2 or 3-hmmm. We stayed at can you guess? Yep, you're right!

92 Year Olds Make You Smile

I just love my mother-in-law, Virginia. What you see is what you get and boy do you get some funny stuff sometimes. Today I took her to Walmart and in the car we were talking about the beans that her son (my husband) made last night and how good they turned out. But they also give you the after affects - -well that beans usually do! So she says - -as serious as a heart attack: "You know what they used to say years ago about beans- -If they don't pay the rent kick them out!" Just makes me laugh thinking about it!