Avocados and Temecula

Good afternoon, my friends. We've had a leisurely morning and an outing already today. In about an hour, we'll head over to the home of some friends for a nice dinner. My contribution is this Orange Upside-Down Cake. 

This was originally a test recipe from America's Test Kitchens. Sometimes I make this as a cake for two, but this is the full meal deal. I've figured out I can post recipes from the Paprika app if I first convert them to black and white. This one still seems a little small. Where the salt is listed under the ingredients, that's 5/8 teaspoon, divided. The rest looks readable, but if you prefer, email me, and I'll send it to you in a different format.

The cake was a special request from the man of the house on wheels. 

After that, we headed north again to pick up some more avocados. They'll be the last ones from this visit. As we were leaving, I noticed Sadie was having a purrfectly wonderful morning nap. Please do not disturb.

After picking up the avocados, I wanted to go to Temecula. On our several past visits, we've gone to a particular place, and I really wanted to just walk up and down the main street in Old Town. I love these old buildings. This one is Baily's.

I'm not sure about this one, but it housed a couple of dress shops. (I'm afraid my dress-shopping days are over.)

This next one was the Penfold Building. I checked for any historical information about these buildings, but didn't find anything.

We had lunch at the 1909 Cafe located in this building.

Mike's burger bun had the name of the cafe branded into it.

I was being beckoned by the hostess when I snapped this next picture. I wish I'd taken a little more time with it. It says "Wine Country" at the top, and I think you can see the rest of it pretty well. It was a manhole-sized inlay in the sidewalk.

While we ate our lunch, I noticed this "Painted Garden" shop across the street. We took a stroll through to see their many colorful items for sale. Most everything you see in color in these next images is made of metal, but there were also scads of succulents for sale.

This next image is so busy, I didn't think you'd be able to pick out the subject. I've circled it in the middle. It was a peacock that behaved like one of those tippy birds. It tipped forward and rocked backward. This was the largest one, but they came in two smaller sizes as well. 

I just loved all the color in here.

Look at the front of the table here, and you'll see some sculptures of ants engaged in different activities.

I was smitten with these cats, but the last thing we need is a huge and heavy "rock" to carry around.

Next door was the Mercantile. And look at that!

Inside, I liked this tea towel. I believe I crossed this boundary several cats ago.

I loved these tags for gifts of wine. The one in the upper right was especially good for Thanksgiving.

Before leaving, I purchased the first refrigerator magnet of the trip. They also had shot glasses, but they were not the shape of the ones I collect. Bummer. Oh well. A magnet is better than nothing.

So, I must be on my way. Dinner with friends awaits. If you've enjoyed reading this post, you can thank Smitty for his careful editing.

Oh yes, and I can't finish without showing you this game of inside-outside. The kitties take turns in the Catio. Sometimes one waits while the other hogs the whole thing. This time it's Sadie inside, Smitty outside. Sometimes it goes the other way.

Okay...gotta go. Have a good evening, everybody!