Life's a Stitch

One more post from the past, this one from California, then back to the very rainy Pac NW, where we've sought comfort in cooking….in our…wait for it…Instant Pot. Yes, I've fallen prey to the epidemic of home chefs who have bought this Canadian invention. Did you know it's Canadian? I did the patriotic thing by buying one, but on Black Friday, an American institution. More on that in a later post.

Back to the Coachella Valley. This is expanding from a knitting blog, to cooking, painting, geocaching and travel – all antidotes to life (my blog tagline). Truthfully, retirement has been quite the antidote, allowing time for all the rest (excuse the double entendre).

Cooking: 

M & KC were responsible for Christmas dinner. They have a unique foolproof way of cooking prime rib, the reverse of my standby recipe where you put it in the oven at a very high temperature for 30 minutes then turn it way down for two hours. They cook it ever-so-slowly at a low temperature then brown it up on the grill. I concede, their method works better than mine.

What was Christmas dessert in the desert? Poached pears in blackberry wine with custard sauce. We received a box of Harry & David's pears as a gift from my sister and put them to delicious use:

Painting:

Besides the acorn, I was able to finish two more watercolours during the three weeks of our stay:

Geocaching/travel:

C finally convinced me to ride up that extremely winding road to visit his favourite place: Idyllwild, CA, elevation 5000ft.

They bribed me with geocaching, the most popular one there at the squirrel statue.

I was doubly rewarded by a 70% off sale at the local art store without considering the 40lb  limit for checked luggage on Allegiant, the airline that charges for everything: $2 for water and $16 for carry ons.  We nailed it weight-wise but some had to be left behind for next year.

We flew from the sun, over the snowy mountains and back into the greeny greys of coastal Washington.