Rain? What rain?

We've been lucky that this November has been unusually dry. We haven't had rain for four days! I guess that shows all those people who predicted I'd have Seasonal Affective Disorder by December (I may feel different in March). The weekend started of with a recipe book enhancement expedition on Friday evening. We went to Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners in the Hawthorne District where I picked up Ina Garten's and Alton Brown's latest as well as a used copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It didn't take me long to cook something new.



We spent Saturday shopping for furniture for our formal living & dining rooms. We got a great deal on two chocolate brown leather armchairs and an ottoman at Kitchen Kaboodle. We spent Sunday afternoon driving around the countryside southwest of us. We checked out a couple of wineries, saw a kiwi bush (at a U-Pick Kiwi Farm), and Nathan got down and dirty with a chardonnay grape vine.



We finished off the weekend with Nathan helping me cook our *Louisiana Fusion* dinner: baked fish, cauliflower gratin, and collards made with prosciutto instead of ham hocks. Yum!