Barbie Butz e1577383874121
Barbie Butz is an independent columnist for The Atascadero News and Paso Robles Press; you can email her at barbiewb@hotmail.com.

Last weekend was a busy one here in the North County. The Holiday Boutique at Atascadero Lake drew a lot of visitors who started their holiday shopping early. The Elks held their traditional Veteran’s Day Dinner on Thursday, Nov. 11, and the Printery Foundation held its annual meeting on Sunday, at The Groves on 41, with the help of the north San Luis Obispo County chapter, AGUA CALIENTE, of Questers, who planned a silent auction for the event.

Questers was founded in 1944 and has chapters in the United States and Canada. Members are interested in antiques, collectibles, and historic preservation, hence their interest in the historic Printery building. For more information about the organization, contact President Karen MacLaurin at (805)712-0038.

If you missed the Holiday Boutique at the Lake, you can shop at the St. William’s Church Annual Thanksgiving and Christmas Boutique this weekend on Saturday, Nov. 20, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. There will be beautiful handmade items, including jewelry, birdhouses and feeders, baked goods and candy, and so much more. Proceeds will benefit Loaves and Fishes and Restorative Partners.

St. Williams Church is located at 6410 Santa Lucia Road, Atascadero.

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Don’t forget the dedication today at 3:30 p.m. for the Memory Walk at the Colony Museum. A feature of the Memory Walk will be engraved bricks designed to remember a person, event, place, or celebration. There will also be a Memory Walk at the Colony Heritage Center. For more information about the project, visit
atascaderohistoricalsociety.org. Remember there’s lots of parking by the Chamber. Just park and walk across the Centennial Bridge, and you’re at the Museum!-

Your pumpkin recipe for this week is Pumpkin Pie Biscotti, a favorite treat for this time of the year.

Pumpkin Pie Biscotti
Ingredients:
3½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powdered
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
½ can canned, mashed pumpkin
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter
1¼ cups macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl; stir well. Combine pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla, stirring well with a wire whisk. Slowly add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. (Mixture will be very crumbly; it will gradually become moist after stirring.) Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add macadamia nuts. Cook, stirring constantly until nuts are browned. Remove from heat and cool completely. Gently stir cooled nuts into dough.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and divide it into 4 portions. Lightly flour hands and shape each portion into a 1×15-inch log. Place logs 3 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake for 23 minutes; cool logs 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees. Cut each log diagonally into 1/2-inch slices with a serrated knife. Place slices on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends, and remember this anonymous quote, “Water separates the people of the world; wine unites them.”

Cheers!