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Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  My son at my parents' home.

A couple days ago I experimented with baking in my new oven.  I decided to try making a black-bottom oatmeal pie.  I got the recipe from a Midwest inspired cookbook by Amy Thielen.  The pie was amazing!  I used the best butter and cream and chocolate I could find.  It was scrumptious.  I ended up sharing a couple pieces with some workers from the city who were installing some new floodwater pipes in our front yard yesterday.  The rest was quickly consumed by family members.  

] Getting the house decorated for the holiday season is a lot of work.  But it's also an exciting time.   One of the best parts is the chance to declutter and organize spaces.  What a great excuse to clean and get organized!  Especially because when the holidays are over, to me anyway, it's not as fun to put decorations away.  (It always seems more messy to me.  I find pine needles sometimes in February!)

Time for hot cocoa and peppermint candy canes.   Oh.  And don't forget marshmallows!

Today was the last day of our summer Farmer's Market with farmers from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan.  Also, French nuns residing in Chicago who sell their pastries and breads.   I really can't think of much better than local grown foods, and seeing foods in their more natural states, like these brussel sprouts.  My mother said when she was young, grocers always sold brussels sprouts this way and bananas on the stalk, just like I saw them selling bananas in Costa Rica recently.  Anyway, I really like getting out and talking to the producers and getting fresh high quality foods.  They often inspired some of my paintings.  You may have seen some of my farmer's market finds in a...