Well - how was your Thanksgiving? Ours was fantastic. Sarah's family rented a house near the Gorge (at George!) for four days this last weekend and gathered to celebrate. We didn't get much accomplished, but we did have a relaxing time that was relatively conflict free. There were several rather hilarious events - not sure which was funnier - someone spraying cider all over the table during Thanksgiving dinner from laughter, someone impersonating a sumo wrestler while playing Hoopla, or someone trying to imitate Aretha Franklin without using any words.

We completely skipped Black Friday (a bit hard on Sarah's mom, who gets most of her holiday shopping done that day). On Saturday, what remained of our party (Andrew and Kate had to go home for work) trooped up to Leavenworth. Which, for those of you who aren't from the Northwest United States, is a Bavarian-themed town in the mountains of Washington State. We've been there several times before, but never actually around the holidays, so it was fun to actually feel some of the holiday spirit they try and sell you all year round. We took a good 5 hours to walk around and check out what was new and visit our favorite shops. Sarah's dad got the chance to catch up with some of his artist cronies, and we got to see Santa and some very talented musicians in leiderhosen (spelling on that?).

We also took copious amounts of pictures, so look forward to seeing a ton of those this next month as we plunge headlong into the gift-giving season. We're still working on getting the bugs worked out of the comments section, so if you decide to grace us with your thoughts, please click on the post title to make sure you're on the individual post's page before commenting. Otherwise, your comment will be lost the next time we post.

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I'd say that winter is making its home very comfortably in our neck of the desert. For a few weeks, we had those brilliant colors that fall is so famous for. In fact, according to my photographer father, ours was one of the few areas in the state with any substantial color at all - not something which usually happens. Winter has been in other places in our state much sooner than here.

But this past weekend, I'd say it showed up. Very dramatic entrance, btw, kudos for that. We had an enormous windstorm through the entire basin while the rest of the state got snow (except Seattle, I don't think they believe in it). We got steady rain (also unheard of around here) for nearly two days - with gusting winds. I'm not sure how gusting, exactly, but gusting enough to rip apart a large majority of the fences surrounding our housing development and completely take them away. (There go our H.O.A. dues skyrocketing)

Our lonely little tree had some of those gorgeous glowing oranges and yellows that look so good in real life and don't translate too well to film unless you're a pro (I'm not). Until this past weekend. Good thing I snapped a few shots last week.

In other random bits, J says the comments are working, so feel free to let us know you've been here and what we could improve to make your blog reading experience better. Not sure we can do much for the quality of the writing, but everything else is fair game. And - I've learned a bit from all the food blogs on copyright of recipe issues and such, so look forward to that molasses cookie recipe to get you going on Wednesday just in time for Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

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As promised, here's my "made up" recipe for marinara sauce. I took what I liked about the other homemade sauces I've tried...and combined them. The wine can be omitted, but know that the type of wine you use (and if it isn't there) adds a lot to the flavor. This makes enough for 3 large servings if you don't drown your pasta in sauce. Or, alternately, enough for one box of pasta of the penne variety.

Add approx. 2 Tb of olive oil to a large saucepan over medium low heat. Empty 2 cans of low or no salt diced tomatoes (or the proportionate amount of fresh diced) into the pan. Normally, I drain one can and include the juice from the other. I tend to like a chunkier sauce so hence the draining. Thinly slice 2 large shallots and stir in. Smash one clove of garlic and toss it in. Run another clove of garlic through a garlic press and add that. Stir in 1 Tb of garlic salt if you like it super garlicky like we do. Add approx 2 tsp dried rosemary and 2 tsp dried oregano, or the approx amount of Italian seasoning.

Then grab a full bodied red wine and stir in 3/4 cup. Yep - 3/4 a cup. Or more, if you really like red wine. My favorite to use is "Pantheon" from Terra Blanca, but my brother informs me it is now sold out. So he suggests finding a red wine blend that is very full bodied to sub. (Pantheon is 81% Nebbiolo, 17% Cab Sauvignon, and 2% Dolcetto if you'd like to try and find something comparable - good luck) Bring this mix to a simmer and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and smashing the larger bits of tomato.

After the 15 minutes of simmering, add a dash of Mrs. Dash original (hah!) and 3 Tb of butter. Allow to simmer 15 minutes more, or until it reaches the consistency you desire. If it becomes too dry, try squishing some more of the tomatoes.

At this point, I try to have my pasta all cooked - then I drain it and simply add it to the pan with the sauce, stirring to coat. I serve it with freshly grated Parmesan and those delicious small loaves of french bread you can pick up at Albertsons' for 99 cents.

This is by FAR not as sweet a sauce as one you get from a jar, considering the only sugar in it comes from the tomatoes and the wine. And much of the time, I add a lot of spices as I enjoy a lot of herb-y flavors on my pasta. I also tend to use whole wheat pasta, which makes the whole meal feel much denser. I have tried adding meat, but the savory balance is thrown off a bit if you try to add meatballs or ground beef to the mixture. I am very tempted to try it with mushrooms or over chicken parmigiana. Feel free to add or subtract as you see fit. Enjoy!

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I've honestly been trying to post more often...and to include interesting pictures with my posts. Not much new around here, other than play rehearsals, and Doxa rehearsals, and job interviews, and medical tests, and you know- the usual. I'm going to try and have Jason take some photos of a play rehearsal and tell you a bit more about that next week. But our memory card has taken a nose dive in cooperation, only holding 5 images at a time, so don't be testy if you're forced to wait a little longer on that.

For now, we're just trying to get into the thankful and contented mindset (remember that holiday BEFORE Christmas?) I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, cleaning out cupboards and getting rid of the two (or three and four! ) can openers and barbecue forks and pumpkin carving sets we have hiding in nooks and crannies. I've been doing more baking, probably because it feels like an autumnal thing to do, and I hope to share my homemade marinara sauce recipe with you by the end of the week. So here's looking forward to that. And to the holidays.

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That time of year has been reached - you know. The time when all the red cups come out. More specifically the Starbucks Holiday Drink red cups. Those ruby harbingers of the seasonal drinks - the Gingerbread Latte, the Eggnog drinks, and most frightening of them all, the big final evil bosses if you will - the Peppermint Mocha and the White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha.

Normally, during the holiday season, J and I don't change our eating habits that much. We don't attend many parties, so there's no need to bake or avoid the pitfalls of buffet tables. We might eat a piece of Roca here or there, or some extra nuts. But in perfect honesty - it's not a problem. However, when it comes to the Peppermint Mocha, pretty much the only time we're guaranteed to drive by a Starbucks is if we already have a drink in our hands.

I'm not sure what it is about these drinks - whether it's the peppermint syrup, the peppermint tinged whipped cream, the red sprinkles, or heaven forbid - the chocolate. Yes. We're the Meadens and we have a problem. I don't even like Starbucks mochas normally - I can't handle the acidity of their coffee paired with the acidity of the Hershey's syrup. But still I give-way (even now, they sound good).

So this year, we took things into our own hands. We went to the local Cash N'Carry and picked up an industrial sized container of Ghirardelli's white chocolate syrup and peppermint coffee syrup. J is a Meaden, which means coffee practically runs in his veins, and between the two of us, we can make a carafe of coffee better than Starbucks and we figured this means we can save approximately $250-$300 in the upcoming seven or so weeks of the holiday season on coffee. Well, at least we hope to.

Unfortunately, we celebrated our good idea with a trip to Starbucks.






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Last week, we donated one of our couches to our church's youth room effort. It had definitely seen better days, and this is now it's fourth or fifth home in the form of free gifting. But it still had some comfortable years left in it, so off it went to a place where kids can be rough on the furniture without fear of ruining it. However, this left our other couch in danger of being massacred by our cats, who we still have not managed to completely train not to scratch the furniture. (One is pretty good about it, and the other one was put into our lives to teach us patience...)

Since their scratching post was also in sad disrepair, we planned on buying another one sometime before Christmas. And now that there was this lovely brown couch just sitting in the living room waiting to be violated by cat claws, the time-table moved up considerably. So we went and picked out a new, rather large, cat "skyscraper" as Jason calls it, and hauled it home - barely fitting in the back seat of our car.

The cats have taken to it instantly, and we have had nary a furniture scratch since we brought it home. And of course, the reduction of furniture in our living room inspired us to re-arrange both the living room and the dining room. We also have an Ikea $25 desk (very simple, nothing super sturdy) that has managed to become surplus. If you'd like it for free, please contact us.

Personally, I think the combination of Halloween weekend and the end of Daylight Savings Time is a perfectly lovely combination. We kept it very low-key around here. We had a few friends over for pizza, Rock Band, and the annual viewing of "Nightmare Before Christmas." Also, we broke last year's record for number of Trick-or-Treaters. This year we had seven! Living in a mainly retiree filled housing development and on a cul-de-sac to boot somewhat limits the number of little costumed people we get at the door. This year, we only bought candy because one of J's coworkers told us she was bringing her daughter by. So there were enough candy bars for us to indulge a bit, too. And to tuck into J's work lunches for the next week or two.