Thanksgiving

Pumpkin, apple, and cherry.

And Cedric had a wonderful time at Franklin Canyon, part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The hikes are delightful--we saw a woodpecker, black walnuts, and wild cucumber seed pods--and the visitors' center has this amazing stuffed mountain lion that you can see very, very closely.

Apple Brown Betty

We often have leftover homemade bread at the end of the week, and I make a lot of bread pudding, but was looking for something a little different when I ran across a recipe for an "Apple Brown Betty" in the Fanny Farmer cookbook. I'd never had one--never even seen one in person.

It's delicious! I cut the sweetener & used agave syrup (1/2 c. agave syrup) and did use the lemon--it came out with this amazing lemony apple cinnamon buttery flavor.

Sweet Potato Pie

The November pie challenge in the Ravelry pie challenge group is family recipes. Lacking any handed-down family recipes for pies, I looked in a family cookbook, for a pie that could have been made--my mother-in-law Pauline's copy of the Prudence Penny Binding of the American Woman's Cookbook. Every family I knew had this cookbook--this edition's 1950s color illustrations are amazing.

The Nimbus Fish Hatchery

We had so much fun at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery! You can get fish food for a nickel, and we used lots of nickels to feed the baby trout. Paul took this photo of Cedric from his favorite vantage point--the water and all the hungry fish made him a little nervous.

There were tons of huge salmon at the gate, some brilliant red and others pink or black. They'll be opening the gates the morning of November 9--go visit!
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fish/Hatcheries/Nimbus/index.asp

Halloween pie

Cherry pie. It's not just for summer anymore.

When Cedric hides

Cedric was with me during this lunchtime walk, when we spotted the hawk on the light pole. I think it was a red-tailed hawk, but Cedric wouldn't come out to give his opinion. All he'd say was, "Polly wants fresh meat!"



I don't blame him. I think all of Cedric is smaller than this hawk's head.

Cedric's lunchtime walk

Cedric has been joining me on my lunchtime walks along the Marina Green promenade. When the weather is sunny, we find the wind bracing if we walk at a good clip. It wasn't his first view of the Golden Gate, but this is still the closest he's been. (Someday I'll take him to Fort Point.)

Of course, Timson wishes for a hot chocolate after such a brisk walk in the wind, but we have work to do, and can't risk spilling chocolate on the books. We have to wait until we get home for that.