What's the best season for a wedding?

Winter, spring, summer or fall? We’re having a summer wedding (like many people do) but I love the idea of off-season celebrations.

A friend I used to work with told me about her winter wedding – there was a blizzard that left feet upon feet of snow where they were supposed to have their ceremony and the venue flooded! So, loved ones gathered at her parents' house. It was cramped, but family and friends pitched in to push away furniture, move in chairs and everyone squeezed inside for the day. It turned out unexpected, but became a great memory...and a funny story they can forever tell.

What do you think? What's the best season to tie the knot? Today is a rainy one throughout northern California, so here are some beautiful rainy weddings.

Window seats

When I was a little girl I used to try to squeeze up onto the ledge of the window in my room to read, pretending it was a window seat. 

With only about six inches to spare on the windowsill, it was anything but comfortable and I couldn't last up there for more than a few minutes, stretching my leg across and pushing my foot against the space where the window frame meets the wall to keep myself steady. 

Maybe I had read about window seats in a book somewhere...I don't know. But ever since then, one of my dreams has been to have a window seat. There would be nothing better than snuggling up to a good book on a winter afternoon on a window seat. (I just finished Half Broke Horses and The Glass Castle. Jeannette Walls' writing is heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once.)

Check out these pretty reading spots below! Plus, 36 cozy window seats from Freshome. Do you have a window seat? If so, I'm coming over...

And, an awesome window BED...

*Top painting "The Window Seat" by Sir William Orpen 

Fall Recipes: Pumpkin bread

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so it's only fitting that all of my posts have been about food this week, right? :)

I like to think of certain foods as a bit magical. Some are more magical than others. Why? Because they can disappear quickly, into thin air, leaving only tiny crumbs strewn across the kitchen counter. This pumpkin bread is one of those magical foods. Plus, it employs a "two-bowl method" as I like to call it (meaning, the recipe only requires two mixing bowls  -- one for dry ingredients and one for wet ingredients). Done and done.

Pumpkin bread

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the wet ingredients, you'll need:
- One 28 oz can of pure pumpkin
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs

For the dry ingredients, you'll need:
- 3 1/3 cup of flour (or 3 cups white flour plus 1/3 wheat)
- 2 cups of sugar (I used 1 cup brown sugar, one cup white)
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. nutmeg
- 2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix both in their respective bowls, then add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir until smooth, and spread evenly into 2 loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean from loaf.

You can totally leave the recipe at that. But I got a little fancy and put on my baker's thinking cap. I chopped and caramelized some walnuts by sautéing them with smidgen of butter and a generous handful of brown sugar (Paula Deen would be so proud) until they were coated in sweetness. Walnuts never tasted so good!

Then, I mixed up some frosting with a cup of confectioners sugar, combined with a splash of milk and another splash of vanilla extract, and drizzled the icing on each loaf after they cooled from the oven. On top, I sprinkled the candied walnuts. 

And there you have it! I brought one of the loaves to work with me last week, and it was happily devoured. Thanks to my mom for this original recipe. :)

Mad for mandarins

Yesterday afternoon, Andrew and I drove out to the Gold Country Fairgrounds to get our daily dose of Vitamin C (plus some!) at the 19th annual Mountain Mandarin Festival in Auburn. 

I had the chance to speak with Joanne Neft, the festival's founder, back when we did a profile on her for Sactown's April/May issue, and since then, I've been wanting to attend the festival -- especially since it's practically in my backyard of Grass Valley and I've never gone! The fairgrounds were filled with vendors selling everything from handmade crafts to homemade toffee and from mandarin milkshakes to hefty 10 lb. bags of mandarin oranges grown in the area. Fun farming fact: warm days and cool nights in the Sierra foothills make it a prime growing climate for mandarins, hence the yearly festival. :)

We wandered and snacked on free samples and then dug into a delicious pizza from the portable wood-fired oven of Bella Familia Pizza topped with bacon and, yes, mandarin slices. Delicious...

Placer County was glowing with fall colors and we couldn't help get a bit carried away before we headed home toting our own 10 lb. bag of yummy, bright little citrus orbs...

Fall Recipes: Butternut squash soup

Last weekend, I went a little crazy in the kitchen. Something about that crisp chill of fall and that early hint of winter in the air makes me want to bustle around from mixing bowl to oven all day. So that's just what I did. I took out my old handwritten recipe book and whipped up some creamy butternut squash soup and some dense pumpkin bread. Our apartment sure smelled like fall all day! Because it's our first full rainy weekend in the area, I'm sharing my soup recipe to start. Get ready to chow down and warm up...

Butternut Squash Soup

This soup recipe is good for three reasons. It's cheap, it's simple and it's soul-warming. What more could you ask for? Well, maybe that the soup had magical powers. But who's to say it doesn't? First, you'll want to gather some veggies and a plump butternut squash (which happens to be one of the cheapest items at the grocery store/farmers market this time of year).

- Slice the squash into four sections, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and place face-up in a roasting pan. Turn the oven to broil and let it heat up.

- In the meantime, finely chop up the following: half of an onion, 2 ribs of celery, 1 large carrot, and 1 pear (or apple, depending on your preference or what happens to be in your fridge at the time). Sauté these with 1 tbsp. of butter in a large saucepan until the onions are clear and the veggies are soft.

- Stick the squash in the oven to broil until it's roasted on the edges and until you can easily poke a fork through it (about 10-15 minutes). Ah, look how lovely it looks...

- Set the squash aside to let it cool slightly. In the meantime, add 3 cups of chicken broth to the sautéed veggie mix (I used 3 chicken bouillon cubes, dissolved into 2 cups of water + 1 cup of milk to make the soup a tad more creamy) and bring everything to a boil.

- While the squash is still warm, take a paring knife and peel off its skin. Cut the squash into chunks and add it to soup mix. Boil until soft. 

- Then (here comes the messy part), purée the soup using a blender, hand blender or food processor until smooth--but not too smooth. Add salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg to taste. Serve immediately, and enjoy!

Autumn pomegranate

Ahhhh......that's me sighing the ceremonial "end of deadline week" sigh of relief. This new issue of Sactown is going to be so cool. Literally. ;) Looking forward to a relaxing, rainy weekend and next week's holiday festivities. 

If you're wondering what the photo is about...my mom and dad saved me this huge (like, the-size-of-my-hand huge) pomegranate from the tree in our front yard and it's almost too pretty to eat. So, of course, I photographed it and its lovely crown.

P.S. Speaking of which, have you ever heard this quote by Frederick the Great? 

P.S.S. How to eat a pomegranate. I'll be using these instructions soon...

Have a happy weekend, everyone!

Echoes: lost and laughing

Actually, as my woods-treckin' mama has taught me, you should stay put if you're lost in the woods. ;) Nonetheless, Ellen's words are worth a Wednesday chuckle. This quote is from her 2009 commencement speech at Tulane University...what a lucky class!

P.s. A birthday shout-out my bff Kimmy K - the girl who always follows her own path, marches to the beat of her own saxophone, and takes time for nature walks... :) 

*Photo from the Tahoe wilderness

All the color

Last weekend, Andrew and I gathered with thousands of other locals and visitors to watch the 33rd annual Sikh parade as it came strolling down the street in our neighborhood in Yuba City. I was completely mesmerized by all the color, especially of the women's beautiful saris. (And I kept thinking how comfortable they look!) I snapped these photos while we stood on the sidewalk, and The Appeal-Democrat, where Andrew works, was there capturing the event. Check out a slideshow of their photos here.

Our engagement photos

I'm thrilled to (finally!) post me and Andrew's engagement photos, captured beautifully by the talented Hannah Nicholson, who I went to high school with and who just happens to be my good friend Heather's little sis (follow that?). We ventured out to Empire Mine State Park in Grass Valley, with its beautiful stone house and gardens, and had a blast setting up shots around the grounds there in the beautiful late-summer afternoon light. Hannah snapped away, Andrew and I tried not to pose awkwardly and Heather helped us pick out good spots and faithfully carried around purses/water bottles/extra lenses. 

I must say, it was so much fun doing this kind of outdoor photo session with friends. All the pressure of a formal, stuffy engagement shoot went out the window and we could just relax, be ourselves and make it our own. Lots of laughter was involved that day. And the photos we'll cherish forever...We call this first one below our "album cover." ;)

Hannah also brought her film camera (yes, film!) I'm so glad some people still believe in this "old fashioned" photography method, because the results are truly phenomenal. As Hannah would agree, the grain, depth and captured light in film can't be beat. Below are some images she shot in film. LOVE the ring and daisy one. 

"Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along." -Rumi

THANKS, HANNAH & HEATHER! You can view more of our engagement photos on our wedding website here!

Nashville

Have you been watching the new ABC show "Nashville"? I got drawn right into it. Yes, I'm a sucker for anything with country music and a plot line. I never realized what a brilliant actress Connie Britton is...she's got the classic Faith Hill/Martina McBride thing down. But the song below from the premiere stopped. me. in. my. tracks. If you listen to anything today, listen to this song! It was originally recorded by The Civil Wars, a brilliant duo.

A bicycle story

I once had a beautiful, sea blue beach cruiser bicycle with a white wire basket and a matching bell that chimed pleasantly to warn passersby of my arrival. I saved up for the bike between my freshman and sophomore year of college and rode it happily to school and work each day, zooming along the blackberry bush-lined bike trail that connected my apartment to campus. I took my bike to the park on weekends, rode it back from the store with groceries in the basket, and when my friend Jenny visited from England, she rode it around too, fascinated at how our California "university" culture was obsessed with these oversized two-wheelers meant for boardwalks.

Then one day, someone cut the lock and took my bike away in broad daylight. I was furious. And I’ve always wondered what happened to it. Sold for parts? Sold in another county? Another state? It's one of life's little mysteries...And I later learned that bike thieves make off with 200,000 bikes every single year. The madness!!

Now I have a new bike - great and less valuable - but not nearly as magical. ;)

Also:
- a famous Australian bicycle poem
- the coolest hand-painted bike bells
- the app by my mountain biking enthusiast of a brother uses when riding crazy trails like this 

*Painting: "A Dog's Pace" by Carolee Clark

My bucket list

Do you have a bucket list? 

I clearly remember that day in freshman English class at the computer lab, sitting next to my bff Katherine, as we typed up our dreams and goals. Our assignment? Create a 100-item bucket list.

The other day I was thinking of that list, wondering how my goals (however mundane or far-flung) may have changed since then. So I dug into my computer files, way back 10 years ago. Sheesh, was it really that long ago?? Katherine, we’re getting’ old!

Lo and behold, I found that list from 5th period English. I skimmed through it laughing and shaking my head. A lot of my dreams have remained the same (travel around the world, write a novel or two, learn to play the guitar, hike the P.C.T. ...) but some have changed completely (learn to yodel, ride all the roller coasters in the U.S., have lunch with Kobe Bryant??) What was my 9th grade mind thinking? Funny how 10 years can completely alter your perception of the world. But then again, the core of who we are and how we think stays pretty consistent, I believe.

I was proud to learn I've already accomplished some of those goals I wrote down that day (work for a while as a newspaper reporter, go skydiving, travel to Australia). And one item in particular on my bucket list made me smile. It said, "marry someone I trust and love." 

You see, dreams, goals, wishes (and buckets) do come true.

Echoes: make your path

Thursday night inspiration...I can see Friday on the horizon!

*My photo from an endless eastern Wyoming wheat field