Cranberry Sauce and the Big Day

On Wednesday I made cranberry sauce. I use a recipe on the back of the Ocean Spray bag of cranberries and tweaked it a little.
Here are the basics:
Pour 1C. water and 1C. sugar into a big pan. Bring to a boil.
Add a 12 oz. package of fresh Cranberries, return to a boil, and reduce heat.
Boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring once in a while.
Pour sauce into a bowl and cool completely at room temperature.
Refrigerate until serving time.
Makes 2 1/4 cups.

Tweaking the recipe:
I add the zest of one orange to the sugar and water.
I added 1/4 c. more sugar too. This balances the tart orange rind.
..., and when the cooking is done I take a metal potato masher and "smash" the berries. I like the consistency of the sauce better( and so does everyone else) when I use the masher.
I doubled the recipe.

Wednesday night I made some brownies with pecans and wrapped a present for the hostess who just had a birthday.

I thought that this photo was appropriate considering the subject matter. Sometime during the year I bought this small, folded down box(ephemera for a collage) and it just seemed to go with this post. They didn't say "dried" cranberries back in 1906. They were called "evaporated". I find that interesting. It sounds nicer. In a time when refrigeration and freezing were not wide spread, this must have been a wonderful convenience. (Please click on photo for a close-up.)

We drove for two hours down to the Prospector's brother's house in the Bay Area. It was a wonderful day with delicious food and a chance to see all the relatives. They had 17 people for dinner..., including 3 dogs. We took Carl with us.
He was such a good dog; very social and a rather good traveler. Although, we had to stop twice on the way home because the pupster needed to make a rest stop. One time in the middle of the central valley, on the side of the road, in the dark, next to a grape vineyard and then, AGAIN, at a gas station. It was like having a child with us. Then he settled into his crate for a quiet ride back up into the foothills and home.

In addition to the great dinner, my brother and sister-in-law sent us home with leftovers, cookies, nut bread, jam, pomegranates, a beautiful calendar and..., pillows. PILLOWS? Yes, pillows. Two brand new pillows with covers. Now, I don't know about all of you out there, but that is one practical gift that I would never think to buy someone..., and it's so cool. We needed new pillows. Every year I like to replace our pillows and I guess someone was reading my mind.
My brother and sister-in-law, in addition to having all of us there for dinner twice a year and doing all that cooking and baking, are foster parents. They have 3 adopted children and one biological child. They just adopted a boy this summer. He has many disabilities. He's such a lucky little boy. We have so much admiration for this family. This was the first year that they didn't have a couple of extra children living with them for the holidays. YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!! Thanks for the wonderful Thanksgiving day.

I wish that we lived closer to our family but, right now, we love where we live and we can still get down there in a reasonable amount of time. Until we get too old to be here we will just keep this old farm and do the driving. It was worth it. I got to see the family and **my grandkids** all at the same time. Yeah, it was a good day. There is so much to be thankful for.