Apple Hill

On Saturday, we took Patrick's mom to Apple Hill. It is a large orchard area outside of Placerville. There are several tree farms and vineyards around as well. Garrett and I went here every year as kids. We remember going on pony rides, fishing in a pond, corn mazes and the mini train. We looked at crafts and made a cheesy ornament. There was a fudge shop with caramel apples. I tried an apple doughnut with my fresh cider, but it only tasted like a regular pastry :< We bought all kinds of fruit (59c/lbs - so cheap!), olives, juice, chocolates and pie to take home.

Thanksgiving

We had a fairly mellow Turkey day this year. Patrick's mother came out from Wisconsin; she brought us all kinds of Wisconsin cheese. Our favorite kinds are Brick and cheese curds (because you can't get those in California). Poor Owen was sick as a dog and our little guy was an eating machine. I made green beans and brussell sprouts and everyone refused to eat the sprouts (even though they were delicious). Dad's turkey was tasty, but he tried to sneak dried fruit into the stuffing again and it ended up slimy. Everything else was great. Mom always bakes the best pies! (Mine are never good: hard fruit, bad crust, gooey on the bottom; I don't understand it.)

This was the first year that Mom and I didn't get up at 5:30 to hit the shops. Some were even open at 4am, but the early offers were pitiful. We were very disappointed that no stores had any free stuff or great specials this year. Well, that is not completely true as Mervyns gave a free $10 gift certificate to the first 200 shoppers. However, so many people all slept outside the door that we, mere early risers, didn't have a chance. Even JCPenney did not do the annual, morning, Mickey Mouse snow globe giveaway (this has been around for as long as I can remember.)We all went to the movies instead.

Grape Jelly

I brought home some Zinfandel grapes and S. Blanc from this year's harvest because I thought it would be fun to make my own grape jelly. We tried two years ago and failed (not enough gelatin I think, but the juice was tasty.) Vanessa tried to protest, as usual, because she claimed I was going to mess up her kitchen. We decided to use our new electric juicer (thank-you Greg, whoever you are.) Last time it took me over an hour to crush the grapes. This year took only five minutes, but was just as messy! Vanessa reluctantly helped and sent me to the grocery store twice. Once for jars and again for more sugar. We made three batches, two red and one white. We were not sure how the box recipe would turn out because wine grapes are at least ten times sweeter table grapes. The first batch is a little watery, but set enough to eat. The subsequent batches are still liquid, maybe I'll try more gelatin. Any suggestions? I have decided that Vanessa is going to retire and start she will selling my R&G Wine Jelly. I'm sure there is market for this and we will become millionaires:) I will be forcing everyone to try it over thanksgiving. Otherwise our weekend was uneventful; we cleaned out the garage and closets in the house. For some reason, nothing really looks any tidier, but we fell better about our mess.

Vegan

So I have been trying make healthier food for myself and Patrick after reading a new nutrition book and watching several episodes of my favorite BBC show of the month "You are what you eat." I found this blog: veganlunchbox.blogspot.com
Its so creative and inspiring; perhaps if I was a stay at home mom, I would cook like Jennifer. The blog about this mom who packs healthy, fun lunches for her son. Now, I have tons of new ideas. I paid particular attention to the posts about being sneaky at hiding vegetables in food. (I have been doing this for years because Patrick is a picky eater when it comes to anything healthy, but now I have lots of new techniques.) Last night I made General Tofu (like Chinese General Chicken) and the boys scarfed it up. Ha, they had no idea!

Vanessa told me to write something, so here goes.

Ok so the eye surgery was ok, it was rather painful for a couple days as Vanessa wrote, and I am not completely healed but it is pretty cool to reach toward the alarm in the morning and actually see the numbers. As for me obviously harvest is done which is nice, I can actually see Vanessa for more then a couple hours and catch up on sleep, oh and see the rest of the gatewood clan as well.
Oh my mom is coming out to Ca for Thanksgiving, it will be a fun, I can't wait. That's it for now good reading???

Ha

This weekend, Patrick and I went to the city with my brother and Cheryll. We were celebrating Garrett's 30th birthday and the second anniversary of our engagement. We stayed at this wacky Victorian hotel, had a dinner of Tapas and saw a comedy show. We saw David Allen Grier and a few other comedians. All three of them were funny, which never happens! Patrick got tickets for the late show, it started at 10:15, and all four of us were almost falling asleep waiting for it to begin. When did we get so old? But it was good to have a night out away from the kids.