Cute Stuff

Christmas cat toy--Dexter was scared of it at first, but is warming up.

Dexter posing with my new purple mary janes from Lands End.

Awesome kitty folder.

Happy Thanksgiving

Bob and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving together.  We had a nice meal at my parents' house, along with Aaron.  We have much to be thankful for, especially the fact that we are all in good health and have jobs that we enjoy and that make it possible to pay our bills despite the bad economy.

My contributions to the meal consisted of pumpkin pie and Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish, which I learned about on NPR last week.  As you can see, the Pepto-bismol pink relish looks less than appealing and the ingredients don't sound like they'd go well together.  But as promised on NPR, the results were quite pleasing.  This recipe, which I have listed below, will definitely become part of our Thanksgiving tradition.

2 cups whole raw cranberries

1 small onion (3 in. diameter)

3/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons horseradish

Mix ingredients in blender and then freeze overnight.

Move container to refridgerator Thanksgiving morning so can thaw.  The mixture should still have some ice slivers when served. 

Mom took some pictures of Bob and I that we can use for our Christmas cards.

 

And the cats enjoyed left-over turkey.

Weekend Fun

Bob collected seeds from a red cedar tree.

The leaves made a great crunching sound under our feet.

On Saturday, Mom, Bob and I took a little road trip to Utica, Illinois and Starved Rock State Park.  The park was quite scenic and the weather was beautiful (70+ degrees is pretty good for November).  But we were not the only ones who wanted to enjoy the nice fall day; the park was a little more crowded than I would have liked.

 

Today Bob and I went to an antique show at the EXPO Center and spent hours looking at all the cool stuff.  We both fell in love with this rotating Danner bookcase, but did not have the $1,200 necessary to buy it. 

After the antique show Bob and I went to Prospect Park and I took even more tree photos.

Belated Pumpkin Carving

I haven't carved pumpkins in years, so I decided to have a go at it--two days after Halloween.  Bob and I bought pumpkins a couple weeks ago, but got so busy last week that we never got around to carving them.

It turns out that Ian and Dexter like pumpkin pulp.

I baked the seeds after coating them in cinnamon and sugar--they turned out just so-so.