last Eye Candy Friday for November...

...and it's raining too much to even try to get a picture of something other than wet plants. So I decided to just go with it:

Taken in the courtyard at work. This is one of the many low places that collect rain water during storms.

I'm about two-thirds done with the thread burying task for Jungle Songs. Man, are there are lot of ends! I definitely will not finish this quilt in November, given that tomorrow's December. But at least I got close!

Last night I did the first grocery run for my December baking-Trader Joe's.  I buy most of the nuts, dried fruit,  and butter at TJ.  The checkout guy commented about the amount of butter in my cart...you should have seen his face when I told him that the 8 pounds I bought was just a start! I typically use 12-15 pounds of butter for baking.

Up this weekend: I need to make a Smart and Final run to get flour, sugar, chocolate chips, eggs, and the takeout containers I use for packing cookies. Next is a Safeway or Nob Hill run to get the rest of the grocery items I need. I'll ask the husband to do the Costco run to buy pecan and walnut halves. For the volume of nuts I make, Costco has the best prices for the halves. Trader Joe's prices are OK of you only need a small amount. The prices is the same, but the packages are now 1/2 pound instead of a pounds, and I need at least 4 pounds!

When I have most of the ingredients, I start baking the fruitcakes and pumpkin bread.  This year, I want to try the Starbucks Lemon bread knock-off recipe I found.  If I'm not happy with it, I'll swap over to making gingerbread loaves.

After the fruitcakes and breads have chilled, I'll freeze them and move on to cookies. First, I'll make the cookie dough that must be chilled before baking. I think there are 5 cookie doughs that must be chilled, but it could be more. I'm adding a couple of new cookies this time and don't remember the details of their recipes.

And that should pretty much fill up my weekend!
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