LOCALGOODNESS FROM CHICO!

What a nice surprise! Susan & Chris' gift arrived today from Maisie Jane's in Chico. Lots of local Sacramento Valley goodness....packets of flavored almonds, local olives, Sierra Nevada IPA mustard, apricot jam from Gridley and beautiful organic rice from Hamilton City. And all in a nice antiqued copper tub that I can use in my kitchen to hold pots of herbs this year. Great stuff!

BOXING DAY TREAT

 Our Boxing Day tradition is a big pot of minestrone. The absolute required ingredients are good sweet Italian sausage, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, dried beans, pasta and collards!

Here is the pot of goodness. I've added carrots, celery, mushrooms, peppers, & eggplant from the garden. A combination of chicken stock and onion soup give a nice complexity to the mix.
Be sure to drain the collards as they always come in a very spicy broth. Don't even think about using fresh collards...they take forever to cook and do they stink up the house, according to my friends in North Carolina. Even there they used the canned! Of course you could use kale or mustard or chard...any tough green.
As for the seasoning, less is more because there is already seasoning in the sausage, the chicken stock and the onion soup. I just add a bay leaf, some cubes of basil & garlic and some sage. I just let it osmose for a few hours on low on the stove or in the crock pot. Serve with crusty french bread for a real hearty meal.

PRETENDING TO BE IRISH

Nothing says holidays like an Irish coffee. All we needed was a good strong pot of Peet's dark roast, some Bushmills Irish whiskey, whipped cream and dark chocolate to grate over the top. And of course our regulation Irish coffee mugs (a gift from Chris & Susan).

DECK THE HALLS

 Well, actually it's just deck the mantle this year as we opted out of the tree part. Chase likes to plop down in front of the fireplace when we have the gas log going. This fireplace is faced in "Eden rock" from a quarry up in the Cascades just a few miles from here. The painting above the mantle is of a winter scene that my mom got us years ago....who knew it would go so well at Angel Crest Manor?

 We used a magnolia leaf swag with some white lights, candles, the 1905 lamp from the Ashcraft farm on the left and a wire frame tree with little cones I got this year from Christian & Johnson in Chico on the right.

The owl is also from C & J in Chico. They had an entire tree decorated with various owls...it was hard to choose just one!
Have a nice holiday...we're expecting snow today, tomorrow and maybe even for Christmas!

CATAINMENT

What does a cat do on a nice sunny December day? Climb up a trellis, of course!

                              Queen of all she surveys!

                       Don't try this at home!

DOWN CHICO WAY

 Our first trip out of town since April 2010! We chose Chico of course for a quick weekend visit with the chillens! Our first stop was in Corning at the Mecca of olive oilness...Lucero where we posed as "extra virgins!" 

 The Lucero Co has a very nice tasting room with a mind boggling display of oils.

 Quality time with the "chillens" included seeing Chris' bike collection including this little beauty which he rides down to the grocery store. Mr. A helped Chris with some bike restoration while we girls went shopping in vibrant downtown Chico which is so much more alive than the downtown of Medford! We recharged with some coffee at Peets after a visit to Christian & Johnson florists which had all their Christmas decor on display. Too hard to resist! 

And we had a nice visit to Wine Time for tapas and wine/beer treat courtesy of Chris & Susan for our anniversary. Then it was on to the California Lake Pavilion for a senior dance event hosted by Chico Area Recreation. 

MAYAN MAGIC

 I grabbed up a 5lb bag of Mayan sweet onions at Grocery Outlet the other day. Turns out they were grown in Peru (yeah Peru Peru not Peru Indiana). Onions do love a porous soil like the volcanic soil in Washington state courtesy of Mt. Ranier and Peru at the base of the Andes! So I sliced 'em up and slow cooked them in a bit 'o butter and some olive oil.

Carmelized onions should have a nice, well, caramel color. Now I just add chicken broth, white wine and some garlic and you have a great onion soup for a chilly fall day. Yummmmmm!