I was sitting at my desk on my Friday, which was a payday, browsing the internet. This is not a good combination. I happened to visit A Piece of Vermont and before I knew what I was doing, I had placed an order. And when I came home from work today, it had arrived! From Vermont to New Jersey in a weekend. I was impressed.

And then I opened the package and I was really impressed. I had ordered some sock yarn that was labelled imperfect. I used some of this same yarn to make the socks I gave to my sister in law. I liked it so much I bought some more for me. And I bought some roving. It's superwash merino, bamboo and nylon. The top one is Blue Marble and the bottom one is Eleanor Rigby. And oh my, they are soft. And beautiful. And did I mention soft? Unfortunately, I have to put them away for the moment. I think I could become an ADD spinner and just spin little bits of everything I like and never do anything with the yarn.

It was nice to find the package waiting by my door when I got home. The day wasn't terribly stressful, just seemed long. And I have two more days before the long weekend. Tonight I am making cranberry/fruit relish so it will have some time for the flavors to blend before Thursday. Pk and the girls love this stuff but I like my cranberry sauce out of the can with the seams still showing. Yep, I'm a simple woman. But for anyone who's interested, this is the easiest recipe ever and you can alter the amounts to suit yourself.

Cranberry/Fruit relish

1 bag of fresh cranberries

orange juice

1 can sliced peaches

1 can pineapple chunks

1 can pears (cut into chunks)

raisins

walnuts

sugar

Put the cranberries into a large saucepan and cover with orange juice. Add sugar to taste. (Cranberries can be very tart). Cook over medium heat until the cranberries pop. You'll hear it. Add the canned fruits (drain them first) and what looks like a good amount of raisins and walnuts. Stir and cook for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool. It will all be a beautiful cranberry color and will thicken slightly.

Now, I meant it when I said to make it your own. If you don't like pears, leave them out and add more peaches. Ditto raisins or walnuts. Add what you like. There have been years when I have forgotten one or another fruits and nobody noticed. The important part is to cook the cranberries and to add amounts that look good to you.

Confused? I'm sorry. I don't cook many things from recipes. This frustrates my girls to no end. One of the things I promise to do for them is to write their favorites down before I die so that they don't get lost. I don't know how my grandmother made cole slaw and it was my very favorite. She developed Alzheimer's disease before I could get her to tell me. I will try not to do that to my girls. There is a web site called blurb where you can go and publish a book of your own. It's not too expensive for something special, like, say, a book of favorite family recipes. So, I have to remember to take some photos of the things I cook this holiday season so I can put them in the book. Pk offered to take some shots as I cook so the book will have some color. It would make a nice gift.

Well, all this talk of food has made me hungry and it's time to go and start dinner. Spaghetti and meatballs tonight. And beans to go into the crockpot for tomorrow. Pk wants beans and weanies (ewww) tomorrow. I'll eat some eggs.....

eta: for some reason blogger is running all the paragraphs together no matter how much space I leave between them. I went back and bolded first words to make it easier to read. What a pain.