...12.2...Over the Weekend...

...we were up before dawn again to head back home...

...the sunrise en route was beautiful...

...back home...we unpacked...and along with a bunch of food...this are all the things we brought back from Mom's...a few books Mom was finished with and thought that I'd like...Sissie's vegan Monster cookies and kiwis...some vegan granola...and a beautiful box of tea...

...such a nice variety of teas...I'm sure we'll enjoy them...

...so I enjoyed one of sissie's cookies with a cup of tea...

...and we went out for Mexican...it was delicious...

...when we got home we got the Christmas lights up on the porch...

...icicle lights on both porches...I may also put the red ribbons on the stairs...we'll see...

...I meant to go back outside after dark and get a better photo...

...and we changed the lights on the back porch to blue and white for Advent...

...it's hard to see the blue ones for some reason...not in person...just in the photo...

...the we got the Christmas Tree down from the attic...

...and got it all set up...

...we'll give it a day or so to settle and unfurl and then we'll decorate...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...11.30...Thanksgiving Update...

...we got up at 5 AM for the drive up to the mountains...

...as it got daylight about 7-ish...it was still raining...

...but the rain stopped about the time the mountains came into view...

...the first thing we saw when we got to Mom's was this small herd of deer in the bottoms...

...I went out onto the porch to take my usual photo...but the mountain across the river was under a cloud...

...so I went back in to try and unmold the mousse that I'd made Tuesday with Julia...

...I dipped it into a bowl of hot water and it unmolded beautifully...

...and I put it on Mom's pretty table with all of the November Birthday pressies and cards that I'd brought...

...we got to cooking...this is Bryanna's Breast of Tofu...I kept taking it out and spooning the marinade over the top...

...at some point in the morning the clouds had lifted a bit and we could see across the river...

...we made some vegan gravy with Washington's broth...

...and the breast of tofu was done...

...and the vegan dressing as well...

...so then I assembled the vegan Ambrosia salad just before everyone started to arrive for lunch...

...it turned out pretty perfectly...

...a photo of the ladies...

...and my overstuffed (as usual) vegan plate of Thanksgiving goodness...

~Have a lovely weekend!

...11.28...Delicious Vegan Food we ate...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

...I thought I'd do a quick post before we head out the door to drive up to the mountains for our family Thanksgiving gathering...we're just waiting on the coffee to finish anyway...but the Man said "you're insane"...haha...

...remember all those little green tomatoes that I picked over the weekend...

...I dredged them with some cornmeal and put them on the Griddler...

...just like I do with my sort of scrambled up squash...

...and of course they were deliicous...such a treat to have fried green tomatoes in November...

~Have a lovely day!

...11.27...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...the body of Little Sissie's Aurora Borealis is done...and I'll have a bit of passenger knitting time over the next few days...hopefully I'll get at least one sleeve done on the Thanksgiving trip...

...what's in your workbasket this week...

~Have a lovely day!

...11.26...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made the Vegan Mousseline de Volaille...to take as a vegan appetizer up to Mom's for Thanksgiving...

...I've tried a bit here and thought it was pretty good...and we'll have it with the copycat wheat thins...I'll let you know Thursday how it turned out...

...and all of the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!

...11.25...Over the Weekend...

...before the weekly shopping I wanted to get the floors done...so we did that first thing...

...and then went out the door and left them to dry...

...and then we did the weekly shop...

...I got a bag of green lentils to try another paté for the Thanksgiving gathering at Mom's...and also the vegan whipped cream, mandarin oranges and coconut for a vegan ambrosia salad...

...and then we headed outside to do a little yardwork...it's not too cool right now...but we're expecting our first frost of the year...so I got the tomatoes off of the back porch...

...and harvested the last handful of ripe ones...

...and also the last handful of green ones...

...and then I dumped out the pots...and saved the dirt...

...and I weeded the lillies along the sidewalk and we put out three more bags of mulch...

...back inside I scraped all of the leaves off of the oregano...

...and put that into a jar...and the whole house smelled like oregano...which is not really a bad thing...

...and then our pineapple that was sitting on the counter was ripe...and I wanted to try the viral opening of a pineapple...so we whacked it on the concrete a couple of times and then rolled it around a couple of times...

...and just exactly like in the video...you can pull the little segments off of the pineapple...

...one after the other...it was so neat...

...so I put it into a bowl on the counter so that we could just nibble on it throughout the day...

...and then it was time to do a little bit of prep work for the Thanksgiving trip...so I made some Copycat Wheat Thins...

...and cut them into little squares...

...and then (over-) baked them a little bit...

...and I also prepped some collards...

...and popped those into the Instant Pot...

...and finally in anticipation of frost...we covered up our baby sedum...it is cold hardy...but it's still pretty little...

...and we covered up the baby blueberries as well...but the winter garden will have to fend for itself...haha...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!