Rosie is Home! And we are settled for the holidays...

We've arrived in San Diego, our former home town. We're staying here for two months to visit family and friends over the holidays, so posting will probably be light for a while. Our exact location is noted to the right.

The best part about returning to San Diego is: we got Rosie back! We feel like a complete family again!

Rosie enjoying her window seat. The table in front is a cabinet that holds her litter box. This cat is styling!

We were really concerned about the stress on her with our transition to Oregon and not knowing what would be involved in starting our nomadic life, especially since we didn't have set plans and we knew we'd be staying with people with dogs and other cats some of the time. My parents had recently lost their last beloved pet and were happy to take her temporarily, problem solved!

Arriving in town yesterday we'd made arrangements for my parents to join us for dinner so they could drop her off and see our new home (my parents are long time RVers, that's where I grew to love the lifestyle).

We were so happy to see Rosie settle in quickly. It was obvious she was still comfortable around us and simply needed to explore her new surroundings. We're glad we are spending a month at this park so she will get really comfortable before we start the nomadic wandering again.

We're gearing up for a big Thanksgiving feast at Hans' brothers and lots of socializing in the near future. I've got food on my mind so I'd like to share a few recipe adaptations and recommendations...

Heidi Swanson, who blogs at 101 Cookbooks, has a wealth of amazing vegetarian recipes with beautiful pictures to boot. This recipe: Spicy Green Beans and Tofu was adapted from her recipe here. My adaptations included streamlining the procedure by sauteing the green beans in the same skillet (instead of boiling them) and I substituted smoked paprika for a lovely smokey flavor that really enhanced the dish. The leftovers were good heated up with some leftover spicy sausages.

Here is a recipe for Cheesey Cauliflower and Bacon, adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen Twice Baked Cauliflower. (My family will recognize this as being "Cindy Potatoes" made with cauliflower.) My adaptations included not mashing up the cauliflower very much, no lowfat cheese, and substituting greek yogurt for the sour cream because that's what I had on hand. I put the dish together in the morning, stowed it in the fridge all day, then baked it for dinner. It was delicious freshly cooked and the leftovers were just as tasty the next day.

Many thanks to my sister for turning me on to this recipe for Chunky Chicken Chili, we have a new favorite, quick and easy, yet really tasty chicken chili. That recipe is delicious as written. My adaptations (because there are always adaptations!) are to use way less butter, substitute half and half for the heavy cream, use ancho chili powder, and substitute greek yogurt for the sour cream.

And last but not least a little sweet/tart treat: Cranberry Orange Muffins, adapted from Food.com. My adaptations were to use half whole wheat flour and replace the white sugar with brown. I didn't have enough orange juice from the one orange I zested and squeezed to equal 3/4 cup, so I added fresh squeezed lemon juice and one single serving container of apple sauce to make up the 3/4 cup required. I also did not sprinkle sugar on top, figuring it had plenty of sugar already. We loved the explosion of tart cranberry with each bite (I think I added more than 1 cup of cranberries to the batter because they are just so good!).

Happy Thanksgiving!