Ryan and Kristi (Preview)

My friends Ryan and Kristi recently moved out to SoCal and it's been lots of fun getting to see them more.  They are soon to be married and were brave enough to ask me (!!) to do their engagement pictures.  Ryan even let me use his super sweet camera!  We had a grande time at the Riverside Mission Inn and here are a few of my favorites.  Enjoy!

This is only a preview for the following reasons:
1. It's bedtime and I'm tired
2. I work tomorrow
3. I need to learn how to resize for web and apply my initials in a much more streamlined and FAST manner (Note to self: must look up more info on Photoshop actions!)
4. To increase your enjoyment tomorrow (let's hope!) when you get to see the rest!

Thank you and Good Night!

Savor

"We don't take enough time to enjoy our senses.  

To savor tastes and sounds and textures and light.  

The roughness of corduroy pants, 

the shadows on the floor as the sun shifts, 

the pink in a child's cheeks as he laughs.

This beauty, this unnecessary detail, is a mystery." 

- Emily Wierenga

(From this website, sent to me by this dear friend.  Pictures by me.)

Autumn Abundance

I know that it's winter for many of you, but it's still Autumn here in SoCal.  We have been super than excited to pick our first few tomatoes from our garden.  For those that have hear our gardening woes, you will understand how awesome this is for us!  And for those who haven't, yes - we should have had tomatoes long ago.  But we are just now getting them and for that, we are very thankful!  The other fruits include persimmons and either tangerines, clementines, or tangelos (we can't figure out which they are!)

On friday, I turned 20 pounds of this....

...into four loaves of this!  We're enjoying it immensely!

Resolutions and Molasses Cookies

Yesterday I made molasses cookies.  And I was talking to my brother at the same time.  He asked me if I was going to take any pictures of the cookies and post them on my blog.  I said probably not.  He asked why.

I said, "Because I have so many pictures just sitting around on my hard drive from last spring and this summer and I don't have time to get through all of them so why add more pictures to the pile?"

He said, "You should just post one a day and don't worry about making each post a massive epistle."

I said, "Yeah, you're right."

Here's to more posts but less length.  Not every day, that's a bit much.  Just more often.  We'll see how it goes...

So, without further ado.... Here are some Molasses Cookies to kick off the season of snow and good cheer (unless you live in Loma Linda, in which the snow is missing.  But we have plenty of good cheer!  Barry and I already had a christmas present planning session.  We can't wait!)

Molasses Cookies for Barry

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (try it with half white whole wheat)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened (try it with 6 TBSP of applesauce to replace 6 TBSP of the butter)

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/3 cup for rolling cookies

1 large egg (I used 3 Tbsp apple butter instead)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup unsulphured molasses

Directions

1. Whip butter and sugar until light.  (2-3 minutes)  Add vanilla and molasses.  Whip until mixed.

2. Combine all other dry ingredients and mix well.

3.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.  Mix well.

4.  Roll small balls of dough in your hands and then flatten.  Place on cookie sheet.

5.  Sprinkle sugar on top.

6. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.  You want them to still be a little undercooked when they come out of the oven.  They WILL harden as they cool.