Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The boss is home...

...our first fire of the season is making the house cozy, and we are all sated with a fresh batch of Farmgirl Fare's spicy pumpkin muffins (made with pumpkin from our garden and dried cherries from our trees), accompanied by bowls of partially thawed frozen peaches and strawberries mixed together. Yum!

It has been raining since the middle of last night, and we are supposed to be getting our first "winter" storm of the season. Around here that means harder than usual rain and wind - 60 mph on the coast and 40 mph inland is predicted. That could result in power outages if trees or branches come down on power lines, but the power company responds quickly.

Most of our foliage is past its prime, except for this lovely Japanese maple beside our front walk. The ends of the branches have just been set ablaze, and it will take a few days at least for the fire to burn to the center. This not an unusual cultivar; I bought it for the pretty shape created by the bending and grafting of two young tree trunks. One of the trees has long since died, but the trunk of the other still serpentines just above the ground, and the rest of it still pleases.
I hope you are as comfortable and cozy as we are at . . .

6 comments:

Sharon said...

It's blustery and bleak outside but we've got a nice fire in the woodstove. We bought almond this year and every time we open the door to add more wood, it scents the air in the front room - by far my favorite wood to date. Even better, I'm just getting ready to take my book and read in bed under the squishy down comforter. Yup - I think I'm as comfortable as you are.

~~Sittin.n.Spinnin said...

No fires here, but cozy non the less :)
I love trees, wish one didn't have to put up with the rainy weather to grow trees, I would have them all around! :)

Farmgirl Susan said...

Hi Michelle,
I'm so glad you enjoyed the muffins. Thanks for the mention and the link. I love the idea of putting dried cherries in them - and how wonderful that you have your own pumpkin and cherries. I'm envious! : )

Kath said...

I checked out the recipe for the pumpkin muffins. But they are 14 grams of fat per muffin and that is not even counting the fat from the cup of nuts (that is without nuts) And if you cut the fat in half, that is still 7 gms per muffin. I could eat 2 of them with butter. And boy would my tummy be rebelling. I will just have to imagine what they taste like. I need a good, moist low fat muffin recipe that is below 5 gms. each. I made a muffin recipe that I got off the internet and they were very dry. It called for applesauce instead of fat. But it is the fat that makes muffins so moist! ARGHHHH!!!

Michelle said...

Kath, I did cut back on the fat (but not in half). Even so, trust me, these muffins are absolutely yummy right out of the pan -- no additional butter needed! I also upped the whole wheat flour to a cup and a half, and next time will use even more.

Pamela said...

Hurray! He's Home!

I really love partially thawed peaches. We didn't get any done this year--on the top of the to do list for next summer, that's for sure!