The Busy Season

The last few days have been a flurry of activity with shopping, planning, dinners and parties.  On Christmas Day I joined my good friends Julie and Dave (many of you know them) at their house for an afternoon of cooking and then eating.  I took the top photo from their patio around the time the eating began.  The sun was getting low in the sky and lit up the distant mountain beautifully.

I caught Julie and my good friend David putting the finishing touches on the main dish.  We had a Moroccan themed meal for our Christmas dinner.  Julie picked all the recipes and our group got to work putting it all together.  We had a persimmon and pecan salad, a chilled mango soup, an aromatic and delicious lamb tagine and roasted Brussels sprouts and cauliflower with spices and parmesan cheese.  I baked an orange almond cake for dessert and Julie made some orange and pistachio ice cream to go with it.

It was a nice enough day to have our first two courses on the patio.

I snapped this photo while we were enjoying our salads around the fire pit.  It took a few shots to get the fire lined up perfectly but, I finally got it.