Oh heck yes they need the wool out there! I will tell you, we really liked Pendleton, and we got to see a bit of it, but since I was NOT comfy driving we had to wait for Robert's breaks, and so didn't get to see anywhere near as much as we'd have liked. And the wool outlet was on the outside of town...as we drove away yesterday, it started to SNOW again, which it was NOT supposed to do. If it hadn't been doing that I might have finagled a stop there, and it turns out it was just a freak, passing, huge cloud that we came out of around 10 miles later...but we didn't know that at the time, and just wanted to get away and not stop. Nor did we want to get off or on the highway more than needed, since we nearly ended up backwards with our FIRST on-ramp. Robert got a little bit full of himself and took the turn 1 mph too fast whoopsie.
Anyway, we did want to stop in. And today I saw an ad in Sunset magazine (a treat I buy every few years) for a picnic/camp type blanket with pendleton wool on one side, and waterproof backing on the other...LOVED it! Only $98.
There are two things that might prevent the pie from being as good as it normally is. 1. I only had the amount of cinnamon that the recipe called for. I've been upping the spices b/c it's so goooood, so it will be relatively bland. And 2., I used organic pumpkin. So...I like using organic products, it makes me happy. But there are a few things that just do not taste *right* when organic. I can only think of two right now, and they are artichokes and canned pumpkin. Canned pumpkin even LOOKS different when it's organic, and it smells even funkier. Sure, that's natural, but my palate isn't ready for natural pumpkin, I suppose.
Nothing looks more gross than sweetened condensed milk, by the way.
The cold virus bacteria allergy crud is starting to lift in me, I think! And in E. This morning at breakfast I had this potato thing that had roasted cloves of garlic, and I found myself just eating those cloves, b/c I want to boost myself. This trip is going to be hard enough, since we'll be all sharing a room together (we officially have a family bed, but the reality is that Robert's snoring is SO bad he sleeps in another room) and this little trip was a horrid look ahead at what that's going to be like. It will be extra hard if I'm also waking up coughing and blowing my nose.
Let's see if that pie is done yet! It's taking ages. And it smells too pumpkiny, not enough spicy...sigh. But the guys found an open store and got some tasty treats and will be home soon, so that's nice.