A good week in The Pearl, quite rainy, but we had nothing like our friends to the north in the Seattle area, nor in areas of Oregon that were hit pretty hard with power outages and flooding. We stayed close to home except to venture out to visit friends and go to a birthday party.

One of our favorite shows, especially in these turbulent times, is the Great British Bake Off. We stopped watching a lot of the Cooking Channel shows because they were so cutthroat, in fact one of the shows was called “Cutthroat Kitchen: Knives out.” Food is one of our escapes, and a way of bringing people together, so the whole idea of cutthroat just does not work. The British show is different, people help each other, are sad when a baker has to leave the tent; it is positive and upbeat, just what we need.

For Sunday lunch I tried a new recipe, it was not a great success, BUT what was a great success was Tricia’s rendition of the entrée that we had at the Oyster Bar. She used smoked trout, which went perfectly with the roasted beet, goat cheese, pumpkin seeds, and the remoulade. I posted about our meal at the Oyster Bar here.

I did a bit of sketching with a white POSCA acrylic pen in a ProArt black sketchbook.

And then a snow covered cabin with Procreate.

A Place in the Sun still gives us some comforting visions of Europe and France.

On Wednesday we went to a birthday party for our friend Diana. It was at Swine Moonshine & Whisky Bar, a new place for us, but definitely a place we will go back to, if for no other reason than for me to have a pretzel, one of the best ever, with good spicy mustard and a Swiss cheese fondu – my kind of meal.

Only one more Friday post this year, I need to reminisce a lot and block out a ton. This coming week we will be busy, as I would imagine it will be for you as well. We are both sending you our thoughts and wishes for times with people who bring you grace and peace, moments of laughter, and of course good food. When you can, grab that sketchbook and capture a moment or two, even just a color swatch of the day, or a two-minute outline of some food.

I leave us with a couple of quotes from Tiny Tim in “A Christmas Carol.”

“I never complain about what I cannot change. I am grateful for the things I have.”

“A merry Christmas to us all; God bless us, everyone.”