Gobla! Gobla!

What a busy time last week was!  This happens every year, Thanksgiving comes and bam!  Holiday season is upon us! This year I gave people the chance to buy home baked bread for their holiday meals.  The picture above is the completed orders!  It was a busy busy couple of days, but I loved it.  

The note people received in their bread orders

Lefse making

In addition to familiar breads I bake weekly, I also offered Finnish pulla bread and lefse.  Pulla bread is a sweet bread that tends to be a bit denser because of the butter, milk and eggs used.  I baked a couple extra for me because of their tastiness.  Lefse is a Norwegian soft flat bread that you spread with butter and then sprinkle with sugar, brown sugar, or simply jam.  These babies are addicting.  Ross helped me with the production line of that.  My parents borrowed me the lefse making tools and Ross helped me with the production line.  They are pretty labor intensive, so having a partner was key!

Graffiti-ed sign by Ross

Once baking and delivery was done, we prepared for hosting Friendsgiving 2012.  It's exactly what it sounds like and so much fun!  Our little one bedroom apartment hosted 13 people and one cat.  A highlight to the party was our pumpkin keg!  We carved out a hole and slipped a bag of wine right inside.  I probably drank out of that guy more frequently just because it was too cute.

Phil relaxing during the party

The bar...note the pumpkin keg

Any one?

 So after playing host and eating too much food at our family Thanksgiving, I'm back to getting life together.  We have a lot of changes happening in the next month and I have lots of lists to make and things to check off!  I'll be telling of those changes soon:) 

Happy Early Winter!

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning to a festive season and the start of winter!  It's cold and a bit snowy here.  We are spending time with family this weekend and had a busy busy week preparing.  So, forgive me for the absence.  Be back next week!

Phil!

Seriously Philipe, I can't get enough of you.

Ode to George

I'm back from the mini road trip!  It's amazing how fast a week can fly by.  I spent some serious time looking out the window seeing the southwest.  Such a distinctly beautiful environment.  I had lots of time to ponder, daydream and write out ideas.  Now that I'm back, life is in full swing!  With Thanksgiving next week (holy smokes!), I'm hopefully going to sell some of the lovely breads that I make in our little apartment.

On a separate side note, one of our three chickens has died.  George.  I got back Thursday night and Ross had said that she was acting weird.  I then spent all of yesterday feeding her water every half hour.  However, when we woke in the morning, she had passed.  As we're heading towards a life on a farm and goals of homesteading full time, it was good to cross this avenue.  How do we see animals?  I always feel emotional towards things passing in this world.  And even if we have animals solely as sources of nourishment, I will always feel when they leave our lives.  I spoke with my parents who grew up on farms and they said animals just die sometimes.  Seemingly, it's that simple.  We have some ideas on why she got sick and died, but I won't go into that here.  So, we gave George our thanks for being a great chicken and helping us in our goals of homesteading.

Here's our lovely George on the fence!  Such a beautiful bird!

 Now, tonight we're off to see this show at Heart of the Beast Puppet Theatre.  We've never been, so we're excited to see what the place and show hold!

I hope your weekends are going well and everyone is excited for Thanksgiving!

New Orleans to Los Angeles!

Well, I'm off on a little spontaneous trip this week!  I left yesterday for New Orleans!  I'm meeting a friend to help drive a van back to Los Angeles and it should be nothing short of an adventure.  To top it off, it's my twenty-great birthday today!  I feel it's appropriate to start the year off with travel and this is one of my favorite spots.  Ross and I lived here while we were house parents for a gap year program.  It was only two months, but it was enough to get in our bones.  This place has magic.  Once I landed, I felt like bouncing in my seat like a five year old!  I didn't.  But now I am.  I'm about to wash my head and head down to Cafe du Monde to start off this new year.  I haven't even looked outside yet and I'm already considering moving us down here:)  Here are some pictures from when we were here in 2009.  I can't believe I haven't been back since.

Jackson Square in French Quarter

 Lower Ninth Ward

 Lower Ninth Ward.  Where houses had stood.

A wonderful man we met from the Lower Ninth.  This sign was in his home...says it all.

 French Quarter.  Why are you so beautiful?

 We lived in the Upper Ninth Ward.  Some street art near our place.

So, now I'm actually squirming to get out of the house.  Enjoy your weeks and be good to each other!

Have a Peaceful Weekend!

Picture from our travels a couple of years ago.  Read it here.