Snow and rain mixture and the holidays in a bowl

Last week held some really good things for me. We got great news regarding a loved one's health (thank you, God), and I got an unexpected week off in between jobs. I start a new job this Monday, and I'm excited to learn some new things and to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to continue to increase my skill set. 

I didn't do an intense amount of anything this past week during my time off, but I did accomplish the seasonal change of the house and got through the messiest part of my closet. Flimsier, lighter draperies and bedding got swapped out for the heavier stuff. This helps keep us warm at night, and those heavy curtains work alongside the aggregation of marginal gains in the area of the electric bill for sure.

My headache yesterday was not from crazy hormone fluctuations like I initially thought (so much fun to be a woman, rolling my eyes). It was a weather system that rolled in overnight. I did not realize that we were expecting a rain and snow mixture this morning. When you stick your head out the door, the air is made up of that thick, heavy, damp that hurts your bones. I'm not a fan these days. I'd much rather smell our honeysuckle vines and tomato plants floating by on a soft, warm breeze. Have you ever walked through a patch of tomato plants? That smell is just heaven.

Yesterday was a day to make cranberry compote and biscuits! Isn't it gorgeous?!! I love it the most on warm biscuits, but it's fantastic on pancakes and waffles with maple syrup, too, or for the meat-eaters, it's good alongside ham or turkey or on a turkey sandwich, etc. 

Mine is super easy. You take one bag of fresh cranberries and wash/rinse them really well and pick out the bad ones. Grab a 9x13 pan and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then, dice up about a half a stick of butter into the pan. Pour in the cranberries and sprinkle one cup of sugar over everything. If you like it a bit sweeter, then add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar. Finally, grab a whole, fresh orange and squeeze the juice of the entire orange over top of the cranberries. Throw this all in the oven, uncovered, and baked for 25 minutes. 

Stir at least twice during bake time. If the cranberries have all begun popping open and the mixture has thickened a bit, then it's done! You can also add about five whole cloves as it bakes (and cinnamon if you love cinnamon), but remember to remove the cloves before serving. Walnuts would be good in it, too! I'm getting ready to go warm up a biscuit, throw some peanut butter and vegan bacon on top of that biscuit, then drop a giant glob of this stuff on top of all of that and eat it with a fork. This stuff looks and tastes like the holidays. I make at least two batches a year.

I've made some headway in the Christmas gifts department finally. The weekend after Thanksgiving, I'll change the house over from Autumn to Christmas/winter and we will wrap up the gifts that we have so that they look pretty until we get them delivered. Right now, they're just in their original boxes and bags, so the room that they are in looks a little clogged up on one side. Well, frankly, it actually looks cluttered. Blech.

Happy Saturday to you. Here's hoping you have sunshine heading your way! I think we have to wait until Tuesday before we see the sun in its entirety again, but it is Autumn, after all. 'Tis the season for cold and wet and damp around here. The excitement of laundry is on our agenda today, don't be jealous, I'm sure you can find something fun to do, too, ha ha.