24th anniversary

I was 23 when I married my husband.  It's now 24 years later and feels like an extra special day, since it falls on a Sunday, and is also the same number date as the years we've been married!

Our daughter, Hannah, is now 23 and we are getting ready to go to San Antonio, Texas for her wedding!

We had our turkey early, as Thanksgiving falls during the Nativity fast, a 40 day period, where we fast from meat, as well as some other things.  I made cranberry sauce using dried, sweetened cranberries soaked in hot water and the used my immersion blender in the wide-mouth pint jar and just served from it and put a lid on it, to store in the refridgerator.

A few days ago, we woke up to at least 6 inches of wet, heavy, beautiful snow!

I made several pies, apple, pumpkin and hazelnut (instead of pecan). The hazelnuts had to be toasted, first. I poured them out on a tray and gave them a few minutes on top of our woodstove.  I make all my pie crusts in the food processor, either with butter, lard, rendered from our own pig's fat (can you tell I'm excited to have raised our own pig and have it as food?), or coconut oil.  I tried a gluten-free flour blend with lard, didn't turn out well, edible, yet crumbly.  So, overall, it's felt like a cozy fall, with savory foods and the wintry scenes from our house.