Butter Anyone?

Today was my day off and we had a fun day of walking the beach with Rudy, going to the Pacific Grove farmer's market, shopping for Thanksgiving day dinner fixings at Whole Foods and then coming home to have dinner and bake.

The farmer's market was great. We got fresh, local strawberries, grapes, rainbow chard, persimmons, green zebra tomatoes and tons of nuts like hazelnuts, pistachios and pecans. I am thrilled to still be able to get fresh picked organic produce in November. Hallelujah California!

We put together our menu for Thanksgiving. This year we tried to do something a little different. We are both totally over the Tofurkey thing and decided to skip it completely. Instead are making a tempeh dish for the main course. Our menu plan is as follows...

Maple Grilled Tempeh with Mushrooms, Green Beans and Quinoa
Baked Coconut Sweet Potatoes
Sauteed Rainbow Chard with Garlic and Mushroom Broth
Buttermilk Biscuits with Black Pepper, Sea Salt and Green Onions
Cranberry Pecan Frangipane Tart

I have linked to all the recipes above and you can see them by clicking on each line. The chard recipe resides inside my own head so I cannot link to it.

Tonight I christened my new tart pan by making a honey, lavender and sea salt shortbread in it. Can you say BUTTER? Jesus. I ate two smallish slices of it and I now feel like I may throw up a clod of lard the size of a football. Don't get me wrong... it was really, really good. It's just super rich. The recipe is simple... it's just sugar, flour and butter, lots and lots of butter. When it comes out of the oven you brush the top with honey, sprinkle on sea salt and lavender buds and pop it back in to the oven for three more minutes. Here are a few images to get your heart racing...





While your heart is racing ours are clogging and churning from having eaten this stuff. It's ridiculous to even being eating things like this but hey... what can I say?

Today I stopped in at Diggity Dog which is a shop where you can spend thousands of dollars on dog toys, dog clothes and dog treats. It's a store for crazy people. So in I went. The result was the purchase of a toy which I have been longing to buy for Rudy for months. He destroys any kind of plush toy we give him in minutes so it is really hard to find something that will last for awhile. I think this one may do the trick, plus it's super dumb looking which is always an added bonus. It has triple thick, quadruple stitched layers and is stiff as a board. Cross your fingers for me that he does not eat it up and spit it out any time soon.





I also bought him a red and green plaid Christmas collar with huge jingle bells on it. Yes. Like I told you... the store is for crazy people. Stupid people who are also crazy, like me. Anyway... it will be fun to make him wear it around town for the next month. We had to pimp his holiday style.