Some of my most favorite things

often come out of the garden or kitchen of my sister.

Let's just say fresh, beautiful, half-inch brussel sprouts, halved and fried and tossed with a touch of parmesan and seasoning salt--- mmm, mmm, good.

Oeufs en Cocotte

A very simple, decadent pleasure that I have somehow missed before this. Being a lover of eggs-- fried, scrambled, in an omelette, on a bagel, sunny-side up with toast, poached, even occasionally in a quiche-- I have somehow missed ever trying these. Or even knowing about these. (Although supposedly they were discussed in Julie and Julia.. a favorite book I now need to read again.) Until this week, when I went searching for ways to use up creme fraiche.

I love creme fraiche with grapes. But there are really only so many grapes with creme fraiche I can eat in a week. Thus... the search for recipes and my discovery of my new favorite food. Oeufs en Cocotte. Tonight marked the third time in a week I have made one for myself, and the week is not over.

I started with the recipe from the blog Chocolate and Zucchini and have been trying different variations. My favorite so far was made with ham, a dash of seasoning salt, and parmesan over the top....

Dancing With the Anemoi

The winds of fall are, thankfully, not as brisk as they were here a few weeks ago. This was brought home especially after a drive through Spring Grove Cemetary over the weekend. Everything was cleaned up and as beautiful as ever, but the number of trees that were missing parts of themselves was incredible.... Instead, the winds seem to have taken up residence in my mind, blowing this way and that with my current NaNoWriMo story. In fact, the working title of my current story is "North Wind."

They have even taken over my knitting. Here are a few of the winds trapped in my version of Ann (from Crossroad Knits)'s Anemoi Hat...

Lantern Walk

Well, after how many years of living in Cincinnati, I finally made it to the Clifton Lantern Walk!!! With the change in time, it was dark by six. The walk was lit with hundreds of paper sacks filled with sand and candles, and we were able to walk on the road. Perhaps 150 people or so showed up. Maybe more. I'm never a good judge of crowd size. There were many beautiful and colorful lanterns. Everything from old style tin-punched cans to colorful moons to paper stars to stainglass windows (cutouts with colored tissue paper). Here is a photo of my own low budget lantern.







And a more well-lit photo to see the detail. (cut out with an exacto knife in about 2 minutes...)







Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera, so no photos of the sea of lanterns bobbing fore and aft.