Happy Thanksgiving!

This is just a short blog post to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope today is filled with the people you love and lots of pumpkin pie! I'll be making my mother's special pumpkin chiffon pie recipe. I have modified it a bit, so it doesn't use raw eggs.

1 cup cream

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

powdered pastuerized egg white to equal 2 egg whites

1 pre-made graham cracker piecrust

In a double boiler, stir in cream and pumpkin. Add gelatin, mixed with 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly, until gelatin has dissolved and mixture is starting to thicken (about 8 min). Remove from heat and chill until cool, but not set. Mix up the egg white powder with water (as directed on package, to equal two egg whites) and beat until it holds soft peaks. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, beating until peaks are firm. Fold into pumpkin mixture, blending well. Pour into graham cracker crust and refrigerate until set.

Autumn Chill

Harvest time is wonderful, isn't it? We are finished bringing in everything from our garden. The tomatoes have all been made into sauce, the spinach is in the freezer, the squashes are lined up in a row in the garage, the honey has been extracted from the hives, and Mr Right has lots of hot peppers!

Today it got windy and stormy, so it was time for the March of the Tumbleweeds to begin in the fields behind our house. They wait until they are all dry and ready to snap off their bases, and then when the winds blow, they roll in a parade across the field! However, it did mean that I had to drive a bit of a slalom course down the road when I went to do the school run!

Soon it will be time for lots of visiting family and friends, so here are some samples of coasters that just arrived from Coasterstone! We want there to be lots of places for people to set down their drinks, don't we. This weekend we are hosting the annual Mead-making class, so I expect about 25 people to show up. Fortunately I have done lots of other coasters too!

Things are Golden in Golden

On Saturday, Ian and I decided to drive up to Golden, CO to take an art workshop at the Foothills Art Center. Golden is a very picturesque town and we did a lot of walking up and down hilly streets. The leaves are almost past their peak, as you can see in the photo, and I think our unseasonably warm weather might be over, so I'm glad we had one last warm sunny day to explore! After growing up in Florida, where the changing seasons don't really manifest themselves, I love watching the colors in the Fall. Do you have a favorite season?

3,2,1, Blastoff!

Today is an exciting day for Margaret (she is the third from the left). Her school has a wonderful program called WAVE (Webber Aeronautical Ventures in Education). This is an astronaut and space science training program, and Margaret is heavily involved. There are only seven schools in the country that have this program, and it was set up by NASA. They have an actual space shuttle simulator. This year, Margaret was chosen as one of six astronauts. They do a lot of the same types of physical and simulator training that real astronauts do, and then they "fly" a mock mission. The launch was this morning, and they sleep in the shuttle tonight, so I won't see her again until tomorrow night.

Here is a picture of mission control, showing the launch. The pilot flew by hand, rather than autopilot, which is very hard to achieve, but he did it beautifully. Margaret is payload astronaut, so her job is to take care of the satellite that they will be retrieving. The teacher astronaut for this mission is Margaret's science teacher, who also happens to be the national liaison for teachers with NASA, so she is very knowledgeable and experienced. They are lucky to have her, and Margaret adores her. The launch was very well done, they all handled it very professionally. I might pop over again later-they have a camera feed to the inside of the shuttle, so we can see what the astronauts are doing. Ian says, "Mom, you know she's not a real astronaut, don't you?" but I can't help being excited!

New Calendar

Hooray, my new calendar is here! This calendar is being produced by Current and is available for $6.99 from their catalog and website. Putting a calendar together is a lot of hard work, but I am proud of how this one came out.

Teacups and Tobies

Here is the china pattern for today: Waterlilies by Gladstone. This is another set from Mum; these were given to my grandmother for a wedding present. I included the sugar tongs just for fun, as the sugar basin is quite large and is obviously made for sugar cubes.

Here you can see the maker's mark on the bottom of the cup. This mark was used between 1924-1942, but I haven't been able to find anything else out about the pattern.

The last time I wrote about Toby jugs, there seemed to be a lot of interest, so I thought I would post some more. These are from Mum. The handsome fellow in the middle is the one that started it all, as he belonged to my mother's mother. He isn't a proper Toby, as he doesn't have legs, but isn't he lovely?

This photo shows Mum's only Japanese Toby, the pink fellow on the left. You can see the difference in art styles. The Japanese started making these for export in the 1930's. This one is stamped "Occupied Japan". Japanese jugs in general are worth much less than English ones. I'll post more Tobies on future teacup tuesdays, but I think this is enough for now, don't you? As always, thanks to Artful Affirmations and Martha's Favorites for hosting!

Guess What Day It Is?

That's right, it's Teacup Tuesday! I have neglected it for the past few weeks, what with one thing and another. Since I have just come back from visiting my mother, I decided I would showcase some of her beautiful china for a couple of weeks. This cup is made from glass and gilded. The photo doesn't really do justice to the lovely teal green of the glass. The spoon is gilded to match.
My parents bought this set in the south of France early in their marriage (this was long before they emigrated to the States).



As you can see from the shape of the pot, it is actually a coffee service, but I like it very much. When I was a little girl I thought it was the most glamorous thing I could imagine! The set is handpainted; Mum says they bought it from the artisan who made it. She said it cost more on the duty to bring it from France to England than the actual set cost!