I know – Christmas is almost in full swing but for those of us (moi) trying to savor every last bit of Autumn before all the trees are bare and for those of us in cold places – it really gets cold I wanted to pay homage one last time to the beauty of Autumn! A stroll along the lake in Fremont made me think about the expression “get your ducks in a row” – now I get it’s origin! The walk along the water was really beautiful! And the discovery of a new park with a bunch of 20 somethings playing a rousing game of touch football! (all I needed was the ball….)
A particularly leafy stairway (soon to be covered in snow?!!!) Coming up soon – Christmas and a visit to a Christmas tree farm!

Couldn’t help myself on that one! The perfect transition from Fall to Winter this unique and beautiful “Rookery” wreath if brought to us by those fabulous Beekman Boys! I am a little late to jump on their bandwagon but between their Beekman 1802 TV show and website and fabulous world in general these guys take Cozy (and humor) to the ultimate level!
A pic of their gorgeous farm in Sharon Springs, New York! The house has seven fireplaces including this one in the kitchen the purportedly most used room in the house. I can clearly see why! So long story short (and you can read all about them on their website Beekman 1802.com) Brent aka Dr. Brent Ridge was born and raised in North Carolina. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and he was Vice President of Healthy Living at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. He writes for The Huffington Post, and is now CEO of Beekman 1802. Not too shabby. His partner Josh’s story goes a little something like this: “Josh Kilmer-Purcell was born in upstate New York and raised in rural Wisconsin. He is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Bucolic Plague,” “I Am Not Myself These Days,” and “Candy Everybody Wants.” Kilmer-Purcell is a monthly columnist for OUT magazine and a contributor to NPR. He is co-founder of Beekman 1802.” Touted as a “gay Green Acres” the series chronicled the couple’s trials and tribulations as novice farmers.

Loads of inspiration from these two guys and although for me it is a tiny tiny bit early to go full on Christmas, when I saw this picture on their website I just couldn’t resist!

There’s nothing like having good, make that a great friend to invite you over for a big Thanksgiving dinner. That would be our host Gavin and here he is doing one of the things he does best, opening a bottle of Veuve as a kick off to our super cozy and totally fun Thanksgiving dinner! There were 10 of us total gathered on the blustery and somewhat drizzly Seattle day. Cheese, crackers mulled wine started us off with nibbles until Matt showed up with dates stuffed with goat cheese and toothpicks stacked with feta,cucumber, kalamata olive and cherry tomatoes (Barcelona flashback!). Also Kimberly’s delicious mini pumpkin tarts! Careful not to fill up before dinner but what the hell, it’s Thanksgiving! Pre-dinner Gavin handed out sheets of paper and asked each of us to write down 3 things about ourselves – one of which was not true. A great way to have a lot of fun while learning funny little things about each other! Everything was delicious – Kimberly and Robert cooked the turkey perfectly, Gavin and his mom roasted vegetables, commandeered the mashed potatoes and stuffing, I took on gravy and cranberries. I ad-libbed with this years recipe and they were my favorite to date. I’ll include the recipe at the end of this post. Pot luck entries included Anton and Lisa’s corn soufflé, Stephanie’s delicious yams and someone even brought the famous green bean casserole. I don’t think I’d ever eaten it before – I have to admit it wasn’t bad at all! Anton making some tough side dish decisions! Lots to be thankful for that’s for sure…where do you even begin to count…? Thanks Gavin and everyone for a really great day. No Friday off for us, tomorrow we were back at work (boo too) but we had a fun and relaxing day and after all, the weekend was right around the corner. Always something to be thankful for!
REALLY GOOD AD-LIB CRANBERRIES
2 12 oz bags of cranberries
3 medium sized pears (peeled and cut into medium size chunks)
about 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
splash of balsamic vinegar
1 cup sugar (or to taste)
2 cup water
zest of one small orange

place water and sugar in medium pot till it comes to a boil.aAdd cranberries, pears and ginger and cook until cranberries start to burst (this is at a gentle boil for about 10 minutes)
throw in a splash of Balsamic Vinegar
remove from heat and add in the zest of one small orange or to taste.
chill until sauce thickens.
I find serving this just slightly chilled, a little above room temperature, brings out all the fresh flavors.
The great thing about this recipe is how flexible it is – apples, raspberries, lemon zest – you can create your own yummy tradition!

Someday I’ll be a baker and be able to whip pies like this out of my, um….kitchen! But until then I’ll leave it for cozy friends like Sid to send me tauntingly successful pictures like this of his gorgeous mincemeat pie he made his family yesterday. No fine tuning needed here Sid, this not only looks incredible but I’m certain tasted amazing too! Can I take lessons?

I'm possessed by pears these days and came across a couple new ways to enjoy them. If you don't have your Thanksgiving stuffing recipe figured out yet below is one from William’s Sonoma combining 3 of my favorite holiday ingredients Pear, Chestnut and Sage that sounds great!
I will definitely add some pear along and fresh ginger into my cranberries but my new absolute favorite pear recipe comes straight from Absolute Pear Vodka. Sorry, I could not resist that play on words! Believe it or not, from Martha Stewart - Pear Rosemary Cocktail – haven’t tried this yet but you can bet I will!
Ingredients

6 to 10 Seckel pears
4 cups (32 ounces) vodka
1 cup sugar
12 sprigs fresh rosemary plus more for garnish
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) pear nectar
4 cups (32 ounces) sparkling water
Directions

Put enough pears into a 48-ounce glass jar to fill. Add vodka. Seal jar, and let stand at room temperature 2 weeks (up to 2 months).
Heat sugar and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Add rosemary; remove from heat. Let stand 30 minutes. Discard rosemary. Let cool completely. Syrup can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 1 month.
Fill 12-ounce glasses halfway with ice. Add 4 tablespoons vodka, 2 tablespoons syrup, and 3 tablespoons pear nectar to each. Top with 1/2 cup sparkling water. Serve garnished with rosemary sprigs.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING from Cozyland!

It seems that Winter is getting a little impatient and wants to be here sooner rather than later so before the wind blows all the leaves off the trees Marc and I headed off to Seward Park this Saturday for a walk around the lake. At a leisurely pace we walked the path around the lake, the entire walk lasting about 45 minutes. The park itself is 300 acres and there are additional hikes “inside” the park into woods which have trees as old as 250 years old (apparently a young forest by Seattle standards where some forests have trees from 1000-2000 years old!). We passed a funny fire hydrant that seemed appropriately adorned in Fall attire – classic Seattle grunge? We were bundled up in hats and gloves and even though we just had really delicious burgers at Blue Moon Burger in South Lake Union the chill in the air made me in the mood for a soup. This Jamie Oliver Squash soup with Parmesan Croutons would be just what the doctor ordered – all I had to do was make it! (that might happen on Sunday and I do have sage growing in the garden!). We still had lots to do on our precious Saturday and the sun was starting to hid behind the clouds. I was so glad we took advantage of this beautiful Fall day!

Here’s another great food link to add to your already stocked library: SMITTEN KITCHEN! I thought this recipe for Pear Cranberry Gingersnap Crumble sounded like a perfect new addition to my dessert repertoire – and could even make a worthy appearance at a Thanksgiving table! Work is really getting in the way of exploring our new state of Washington – did you know we have Cranberry Bogs here? From what I understand about 2.5 miles from Seattle – I definitely need to put this cozy outing on the list! One more from Smitten Kitchen – Cranberry Caramel and Almond tart – I love this website!