This recipe is an old family favorite and was given to me by Janet. It came from the "Elegant But Easy" cook book (old version). It is great with cream, whipped cream, or ice cream.

Fruit Torte

1 C sugar
½ C sweet cream butter
1 C sifted flour (all purpose)
1 Tsp baking powder
2 Eggs
Pinch of salt
Fruit of Choice
Additional sugar for top
a few Tsp of lemon
Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream sugar and butter until light in color and fluffy. Add flour, baking powder, eggs, and salt. Will result in a sticky dough.

Place dough into 9" springform pan. To the top add sliced apples, peaches, plums, or berries of your choice. Sprinkle the top with sugar, lemon juice, and some cinnamon.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour

Charlie is visiting the area for the weekend. He has now been living in the Lake Tahoe area (north shore) for nearly a year and appears to be living the life of Riley at the moment - working at a golf resort during the summer months and at a ski resort during the winter. What could be better for a 22 year old?

Anyway, he flew down yesterday to play in a tournament with his Dad out at Warner Springs. I took the afternoon off so Alex and I could spoil him a little. We had to do a couple of practical things first like fill out the paperwork to renew his passport, and buy socks and other essentials that a 22 year old guy doesn't think of doing himself. We ended up at Claim Jumper for an early Happy Hour and catch up time. It's common knowldege that 22 year olds are not forthcoming about their personal life but after a bit of digging Alex and I learned a little about his life up there and about Joelle. Yes, Charlie seems to have a girlfriend. Will we get to meet her? I guess that will have to be answered in a future entry.

It was great seeing him although he did seem to complain about the heat quite a bit. I started calling him 'Mountain Boy' because he seems to have lost the ability to deal with the summer weather. Mind you, it has been very hot and muggy the last few days. When I got home the patio temperature was 94 degrees and according to the news humidity was around 65%. I don't remember this as being 'normal'.

We are all sitting on the couch with with swollen bellies wondering why we ate as much as we did. It has been a long and full day with presents and much eating and drinking.

The day didn't start too early and it got off to a good start with Multigrain toast w/scrambled eggs & Canadian bacon, coffee, and fresh fruit salad.

Klaus tucking in to the first meal of the day - his scrambled eggs



The idea was to eat a substantial breakfast that would last us until our dinner later in the day. Did it work? Not really! I had put out nuts, dried fruit, and chocolate to snack on if anyone got a bit peckish and a fair amount got eaten during the day.

Anyway, after breakfast we all sat around the Christmas tree drinking mimosas and opened our presents. I won't go into details but Santa bought us all some really cool stuff as well as the oddities that always show up in the stockings.

Before and after the presents were opened



It was a beautiful day and we spent some time outside reading before getting dinner ready. Yesterday we had all done a lot of preparation to make today easier. We had a nice table setting for the occasion.



The Menu
Butternut Squash Soup with Melted Blue Cheese. It was so warm we ate the soup out on the patio before moving inside for the main course.



Mustard and Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb with Cauliflower Puree and
Brussels Sprouts and Roasted Red Onion



Arugula, Pear and Stilton Salad. We got to this part and skipped it because we were so full.

Christmas Pudding with Brandy Sauce for dessert. I had bought these items from the English import store and can't imagine a Christmas at home without them.

I bought Alex an electronic keyboard because he wants to learn how to play the piano. The keyboard is soft and rolls up for easy storage.


It was a fabulous day but I'm glad it's bedtime.

Janet, Klaus, Alex, and I visited The Lavender Fields today.


Row upon row of all kinds of lavender


They even have a lavender maze


The gift store sells all sorts of oils, creams, soaps, shampoos, etc.


What better way to end a day out than with a wine tasting. Orfila Winery is just south east of Escondido on the road going out to the Wild Animal Park.


They offer a great tour of the wine making process and you can finish up with several tastes of their products which includes olive oils, vinegars, jams, mustards, relishes, etc.


Here's me with Janet and Klaus


And the gift store offers a ton of gourmet goodies to take home with you