Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? as we sit and enjoy this first weekend of this new decade. In this crazy world we are living in today, I have to keep my head grounded and enjoy my family, togetherness, good food and great company. We keep the company very small, my bubble is not that big as we try and stay safe. As I sit here writing my daughter is making us dinner and the smell is amazing. As she is browning onions and bell pepper the kitchen is filled with such wonderful aroma as she teases the guys (my son and hubby) this will be a vegetarian dinner. They will love it as she is a wonderful cook. It will be a “meat” and potatoes dinner only the meat will be made with lentils, mushrooms and quinoa. She made vegan pancakes this morning without any eggs! What? and they were delicious. They were banana with mini chocolate chips, yummy! I am so happy she loves to cook, and she has so many cookbooks she has often told me she gets lost in recipes. Haha, that can happen when you have too many to choose from. As I am sitting here thinking about food, I wanted to share what we did today. Oh wait, I forgot to tell you we drove up to my daughter’s to spend the New Year weekend with her up North.

We got there early today Jan. 1st and there were not a lot of people so the shops and eatery’s were not crowded. As the day wore on, more and more people filled the streets. My family and I were happy to be on our way to avoid the crowds. I will say it really wasn’t that crowded, but definitely more people than when we arrived. While we were there we bought lunch at a take out place and my better half and I had bratwurst sausage with sauerkraut and it was one of the best brat’s I’ve ever had! (We clearly aren’t vegan, but support my daughter and I should really eat a plant based diet. Not such an easy change to make, so I try and eat healthier every day.) My son had cheddar and bacon sausage and my daughter had a huge Bavarian pretzel with cheese. 😀

I am writing my coffee share in the middle of my weekend away and so I will probably post an after weekend smile post next week as we are going to Pismo Beach tomorrow morning and we will have the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had at this famous cinnamon roll place in Pismo. AND it is just one or two streets from the Pacific Ocean! I have shared our cinnamon rolls from there in previous posts when I have visited here but my hubby has not been there yet as I often come to my daughter’s with just my son. My husband works every weekend, so I have traveled more with my son or by myself than with my husband. We asked him to take this weekend off and to be honest I have been trying to get him to retire. We will see if this will be his last year or last few months. He only works 2 days a week and has been doing this same job for the last 10 years. So he hasn’t had weekends off in that long. Only rarely when we decide to travel or make a special weekend vacation is he off of work. I digress, it will be so fun and special to eat our cinnamon rolls on the pier in Pismo and smell the ocean and watch the waves. The seagulls or pigeons will be nearby begging! Can I get you another cup of Joe? or more tea?

As I wrap up this evening so I can get this posted I will tell you that the dinner we were smelling as I started this post was absolutely delicious. Here is a photo of the finished product! My hubby is from the south and his Mom from Arkansas and as it goes all or most southerners eat black-eyed peas to bring good luck to the New Year. So for the last 36 years we have made black-eyed peas with our New Year dinner. My daughter found a really good recipe as they tasted great. Everything on the plate was super tasty!

Here’s to a Happy, Lucky, Prosperous New Year!

~Diana ❤