Smitten Kitchen

I made chocolate chip cookies from the ever popular cooking blog Smitten Kitchen. Half the batch I added roasted pecans and half were without. People who hate nuts are not kidding. They can take it to a new level.  Sheesh.  Zander turned up his hoity toity nose at my golden pecans. Nuts are so earthy, how can anyone resist! 

This is my new oven, well, the oven that came with my new house.  It bakes differently.  Many dinners & desserts have been felled in the fiery belly of this beast.  Lots of trash can funerals.  Some of them were very dear to me, like my blessed banana bread.  However, I think I am beginning to tame the oven and soon will have mastery over my dishes once again.

*Note:
Make smaller dollops
Don't buy organic chocolate chips even when they are on the "almost expired" shelf for dirt cheap.
Trust the recipe when it says, "Bake for 18 minutes, or until pale golden brown."

While the elf was napping, zander set up our Christmas tree.  Ender woke up and beheld!  Lifting his eye brows, exclaimed "Ahhh".  not the most dramatic cry of delight, but it will do for ender.  trimming the tree is one of my most favorite things to do!  Each ornament comes alive to me.  Especially the one's from mama's tree.  Those ones were awakened by my child spirit and I don't think I can ever shake the magic from them.

So while I prance and skip around the tree trying to find the perfect perch for my Christmas friends, ender takes his decorating very, rather seriously....   The ornament has a complex journey ahead when it arrives in ender's hands.  And while he is the source of the precarious situation he is also the guy who will get the job done.  His inventory is strictly felt and pliable rubber.  They are all clumped center left.  Bravo Ender, I love Christmas with you!

Its a wonder I found these three small treasure in this sprawling city.  

It was a quiet and colorful Thanksgiving weekend.  Please remember leslie: a sick baby who was cured by the company of his cousins, fried turkey, chicken and potatoes, plenty of rest, southern roots, mothers,  a trimmed tree, the Last Mohican,  and the ubiquitous grace of God.  

For an hour after his nap, he was content playing with a tiny bit of play dough and listening to Charling Brown's Thanksgiving on Pandora.  Still, at this point in his life I am like a diety who can make all things perfect, like this very real replica of the dog we saw in the park that day...  No one else can make a better dog than his mama!  Oh the dark day will soon come when he realizes that I indeed have not been blessed with artisitc skill, not one drop! 
Nonetheless, I love front porch moments with ender.  It is a slow and well pace. 

"The sword of Elendil was forged anew by Elvish smiths.....And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Andúril, Flame of the West."

 

Yes, I know, its not a sword, but he did forge it anew and he'll use it to strike the most menacing tree stump!

 

 

once upon a time zander became seriously upset with me because I forced him to haul away two chunks of pine trunk from a neighbor's trash pile.  "I wasn't raised this way, Leslie!"  whatever that uppity comment meant....  i don't know what triggered it, but all summer long he scoped people's bulk trash to see if there was any good wood.  And nearly every day after work you would hear that trusty ol' axe swing and crack.  Up at Oak Creek Zander spent a whole day chopping up firewood and hauling it out of the canyon muttering about how much money he is saving. ha ha ha. he is definitely a guy who would rather let his hands do the work instead of his wallet.  except with cool, electronic gadgets.

these two.  they both get a way with so much. 

Blustery and Beautiful!

The trees are candlesticks with burning flames, trying to hold onto their fire in the freezing wind.

Ender and I shivered like little fallen leaves seeking shelter in the mild rays of the sun.   I could have absorbed more of the foreign season around me, but ender was adamant about heading back to the cabin.  I had to carry the popsicle all the way back.  When will he realize that I'm with child! 

Zander hiked to the rim to try and catch him some squirrel.  My friends of the forest eluded his scope. phew!  

At Junipine

 This is Zander's look of "I tried.  What can ya do?" 

 I do not recognize the kid in this picture.  He is so beside himself.  Sincerely, Ender enjoyed his outing with daddy for about an hour.  They hiked to the "tee-pee" and there built a shelter and fire.  The wind and rain snuffed the fun out of ender once it kicked up to unbearable heights.  Zander accounts a screaming, belligerent two year old roaming the woods while he tried to rebuild the fallen shelter.  He cried for his mama (thank you very much) and was horrified that his snacks were scattered across the forest floor. 
It is a good man to take his small son on such an adventure and remain light hearted.

After a snugly nap, ender was a new man and ready to hit the trail again.  He had himself a little party in the fall confetti and made fishing poles out of twigs.  We hit the town for some Indian cuisine and called it a night. 

eating eden

eve.  tree.  images

an apple? i think not!  imagine a ruddy skinned bulb hanging unassumingly from a scraggly tree.  not very appealing, until one day...  the warm fingers of the sun have slightly cracked it open to reveal gleaming garnet.  Encrusted edible jewels flashing in the light.  Too tempting for me.  I pluck and devour. 

I spent my fall afternoons as a kid stealing pomegranates off people's trees with my best friend.  we would gingerly peel back the spongy encasing to preserve the "brains" so we could get as much juicy seeds in our mouths as possible in one bite.  Its messier than ribs.  I'm sure we looked barbaric with the bright ,red juice dripping from our chomping jaws, staining our faces and hands. Oh tis so sweet to be a child eating the redeemed forbidden fruit.

if your babe is ready, let him eat the seeds too. Its where the nutrients are!

Under the Phoenix Moon

Ender and Zander make me painfully happy. 
Last night our church hosted a parking lot carnival and they came in droves! I spun fairy floss for fairy wings and Zander kept eagle eyes on Ender.  They ran a muck together the whole evening.  I love when those team up for a fun time and leave me at my spinning wheel of confectioner candy!  Next time, if ever again I have the bliss of twirling webs of it I will dress up in gobs of pink tool.