Quick Dog Sweater and Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays!

See the pillows that will be given to the homeless after the holidays under the tree?  Such a nice project that someone going to the same physical therapy place as me does each year...

Our son and his little dog, Buffy, are staying with us now.  The weather has turned cold so I wrapped her up a little for evening walks...  Buffy is such a good little friend, and stood still so she could get the little buffer for the cold.  This was a dish towel from the archives....

Then I remembered a sweater that I could no longer wear and fashioned this smart looking outfit for her!

Hope you are all having as nice a time with your families and friends.

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My Gift Recipe for you!

I first had at my quilting group holiday party, but have already made two times for friends!

This last time I cooked some extra with 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar and before baking the mixture put in these silicon holders along with cut up marshmallows.  Once cooled I removed and wrapped each one up for special candies for my Godsister.  Yum!

But if you don't cook, surprise your family with these cute little heart waffles from IKEA...

Easy to heat on cookie sheet, or use toaster for a few at a time!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

Sewing isn't happening for me right now.  I do have some other posts with photos that I will share as soon as I can - but I did notice that it's time for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Days - so sharing that link now:

http://www.sewmamasew.com/2016/12/giveaway-day-sewing-craft-supplies-fabric-patterns-etc-4/

Always fun to see new blogs, and to enter for giveaways!

So just sharing the news.

Friendsgiving 2016

This year we had our third Friendsgiving, a great new tradition to add to our lives.

This year was extremely easy as we made it a potluck!

DH and I made a turkey breast, gravy, cranberry sauce and salad. We had cut up vegetables, dip, cheese, crackers and DH made stuffed baked mushrooms and wine ready when folks arrived.

I made cranberry sauce with some spiced rum, vanilla, and pumpkin spice, and the salad had cucumbers, tomatoes (on the side), dried apricots, nuts, avocado.

Others brought:

• Beautiful and tasty roasted fall squash: butternut, acorn, and purple yams were cut so they were all about 1 inch square then roasted with some kale.
• Delicious Danish unpealed fingerling potatoes cooked with butter, and sugar.  Here is a possible recipe to follow: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/caramelized-potatoes-237664  

• Added 12-18-16: Here is the actual recipe:  
  
  At the Friendsgiving, I promised June the recipe for the glazed potatoes. So here it is:
  
  
  1 kg small firm potatoes
  1 dl sugar
  25 g butter
  1. Clean the potatoes and cook them with the peel on in lightly salted water for about 15 minutes. They must not get too soft. Peel them and let the potatoes cool off before you proceed. 
  2. Pour the sugar into the cold pan in an even layer. 
  3. Let the sugar melt WITHOUT stirring - if you do it, it might get lumps. 
  4. When the sugar has melted you add the butter. Turn up the heat and add the potatoes.
  5. cook the potatoes at medium/high heat for about 5-6 minutes. Carefully stir once in a while. 
  6. When the potatoes have an even layer of sugar, they are done. 

• Rustic Olive Bread served with both oil and vinegar and butter.
• Fabulous Cheese Cake with a graham butter crust
• Special homemade sake - (made with potatoes and yeast if I understood)

We invited our son and DIL but they couldn't make it, and also some other students from DH's classes.  Bet you can tell who came from Denmark!  Such a pretty blouse.

I didn't keep track of the time of things, but it was a great evening.

Great LA Walk

Saturday November 19, my son and I did our first Great LA Walk.

This event started 11 years ago when someone was celebrating their 10th year in LA.  Each year he plans a different route.  This year was mainly along Pico Blvd - from  around the convention center to the shore in Santa Monica.

http://www.greatlawalk.com/  and https://www.facebook.com/greatlawalk

We drove up from San Diego the night before and walked an additional 1.7 miles from the hotel to the starting point...

Lots of people in line to eat here.

Starting point for the walk.

She was part of a group that walked from LA to San Diego!

Hollywood Sign

At first we were all together, then as lunch time came each picked different places to eat.

This place had delicious shrimp and fish!

We crossed street to eat here, but didn't see any apple pie being eaten so we went to a different place - a Jewish deli and split an eclair there.  Yum!  There was a harp store across the street!

We catch sight of the ocean!

On the beach - pier in background.

After our photo we left to get the car and have dinner at a place that would split the time for the drive back.

We took the metro back to the car.  One transfer and we were almost at the hotel where we picked the car up.  (Very easy and just $1 for card and $1.75 for fare.)  Then we drove to La Mirada to have dinner at Clearman's North Woods Inn.  Called up good memories for both of us.

I had my 12th birthday at North Woods Inn.  Almost always replicate that meal and have the root beer and hot dog. Sometimes though I have the cheese bread with both types of salad (red cabbage and green with blue cheese dressing).  Always nice to de-shell the peanuts and throw the shells on the floor.  Also had my first drink in a restaurant with a boy there too!  Planters Punch = huge, sweet and delicious!  I used to take our son there on our trips to visit my Godmother so he has memories of it too!  Other places we used to stop at are:

http://twoheys.com/
https://www.yelp.com/biz/goodys-restaurant-san-gabriel (now in El Monte it seems)
https://www.knotts.com/california-marketplace/mrs-knott-s-chicken-dinner-restaurant
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Taiko-Japanese-Restaurant/121493051194475

hotel to start                                            40 min  1.7 mi  2.6 mph   3635 steps  136 cal
start loews rr break                                    1:55 min  5.4 mi  2.8 mi   11104 steps  429 cal
loews to charlies fish 7 chip lunch                       42 min  1.6 mi  2.3 mph   3478 steps  130 cal
lunch to coffee bean & tea leaf drink and rr break        46 min  2.2 mi  2.8 mi    4543 steps  173 cal
break to bike shop for gloves                             29 min  1.7 mi  3.5 mi    2951 steps  136 cal
gloves to _______                                         10 min   .5 mi  3 mph      801 steps   38 cal