Thanksgiving

What are you doing this year? Staying home and cooking or going to a relative's or friend's
house? I love Thanksgiving.

We are having a dinner for 7 to 12 people. Kenzie is the question mark. We are hoping she gets here so Stephanie will feel like coming with her mother and sister.

My children are all getting together at Dave's this year. Since I was there for much of July, and because I kind of think that they want it to be about their generation -they haven't said so, but I'm sensing it - I will be staying here in SA. Chris's parents are doing the same, so we are having dinner together - here, but both contributing to the food. Linda is bringing her traditional pumpkin pie and a new recipe - a broccoli and cornbread casserole. I'm cooking a turkey breast, some butternut squash, and cranberry sauce. Since it will just be the three of us, we decided that would be enough.

Last year at this time, when I was cooking Thanksgiving extravagaza, I thought that it might me the last one I could ever cook.. This year, I find I am a little slower, but can still cook a feast of turkey and ham and all the stuff that goes with that. My daughter will bring the green bean casserole and others will bring the pies...I am glad to be alive.

Love,



Betty

11/9/2012

Tomorrow I'm ordering a fresh Turkey from Sunflower Market,

also having small potatoes ( Red, White,Purple) Stuffing,

Cranberry Sauce, Jumbo dinner rolls, Vegetable, dessert

Chocolate Whip Cream Cake With Strawberrys, Wine....I'm

stuffed thinking about it, Oh yes fresh flowers on table,

and chocolates..........

Cheers..Joe...

I'll be visiting my Grandmother with my father and the dog. We'll probably be having ham, or some kind of steak.

David,

I hope you have a lovely day and do not have to shovel snow.

Love,

Betty

Betty Fasig wrote:

Last year at this time, when I was cooking Thanksgiving extravagaza, I thought that it might me the last one I could ever cook.. This year, I find I am a little slower, but can still cook a feast of turkey and ham and all the stuff that goes with that. My daughter will bring the green bean casserole and others will bring the pies...I am glad to be alive.

Love,



Betty

We are glad you are, too.

Annie

Betty Fasig wrote:

David,

I hope you have a lovely day and do not have to shovel snow.

Love,

Betty

But I like shoveling snow

But don't worry, we're going to Memphis, so there's little to no chance of snow.

Ordered my fresh turkey yesterday. Will do my usual Turkey, dressing. My home made cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes, scalloped corn and pecan pie. Just my bride and I.


Betty, Glad you're up for Thanksgiving. Have a GREAT day!

Hooray for the green been casserole. I cheat - we had one for dinner the other day. Nothing like a green been casserole to top off meatloaf as well as turkey!

Thanksgiving will just be another meal. I have a house guest who is negative 95% of the time and doesn't believe in holidays, birthdays or any occasion that shows consideration for anyone else. Therefore, I will pull together a few things and pretend we are enjoying Thanksgiving dinner.

DK,

Don't let your negative house guest run your house. Invite one friend to join you in Thanksgiving.

In spite of my powerful words, I am not a powerful person. That's why I write...

Do you journal? I have found that to be a powerful tool for releasing other people's c**p.

A couple of years ago, I posted a link to an article on the therapeutic value of journaling here.

Bummer. It's gone. I looked for the file on my computer, but it didn't make it from the old one.

I have a print-out somewhere. Will see if I can find it.

DK,

Then write: I respect your right to ignore Thanksgiving and assert my right to celebrate it. I have a lot to be thankful for. You are welcome to join in with our festivities or forgo them,"

You can do it--take charge of your house and life.

This picture appeared in my facebook feed:



Here are the fifty pie recipes for Thanksgiving:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/50-pie-recipes/index.html?soc=rotdfb

How delicious looking!

And every one looks yummy!

But I didn't see a recipe for my grandmother/great-grandmother/great-great grandmother's buttermilk pie which has a similar taste and texture to a chess pie, if you aren't familiar with it:



Take time to look - the site gives step-by-step pics and directions as well as the recipe (scroll down past the pics if you are in a hurry) It is the same recipe I learned from watching my grandmother make it.

http://cookingwithkrista.blogspot.com/2010/09/buttermilk-pie.html

11/11/2012

Now I'm confused what to serve as dessert for

Thanksgiving ! They all look Yummy !!! HELP !

Cheers..Joe..

Joe,

Don't worry, any of them will be delicious. People are so full after a meal they don't even have much room left for any pie.

Look at all the recipes and pick the easiest one.
They all look great to me.

Dear Joe,

Wouldn't it be nice to make tarts!? Little pies that everyone can take home. Depending on your time, you could make each recipe and instead of a pie, make small tarts. You would not have to make all the pies, only the ones that you think sound the best. I will look into that, myself. I am not a pie maker. I usually let the guest bring the pies and they go to Publix bakery. All the pies have been delicious. Better you than me, though.



Love,

Betty

Joe,

If you can't make up your mind, try a combo, it's my favorite:

Pumpkin Pecan Pie:

3 eggs, divided
1 cup canned solid pack pumpkin
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
dash salt
2/3 cup light or dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 prepared deep dish pie crust*
Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°.
*If using a frozen pie crust, do not thaw; preheat a baking sheet in the oven and place the pie on the cookie sheet to bake.

In small bowl, combine one egg, pumpkin, 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Spread in pie crust.

In medium bowl, beat remaining two eggs slightly. Stir in corn syrup and remaining 2/3 cup sugar, the butter and vanilla; stir until well blended. Stir in pecans. Carefully spoon over pumpkin mixture.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until filling is set around edge. Cool pie completely on wire rack.

Ann and Don,

Your recipes are scrumptious.

My wife and I are cooking for her dad and brother and my parents and spending the day together in our tiny apartment sharing good cheer, too much food and cherishing old memories while making new ones.

The holiday holds bittersweet memories of times shared with too many people who are no longer with us. For many years, my wife's mom would cook the turkey with all the trimmings and my mom would cook a cazuela de mariscos (seafood stew from the N.W. of Spain) with many family and friends pitching in to help. The feast would go on in my in-laws' home into the wee hours of the day with even more friends dropping in after an evening shared with their own families. Clean up, rest, and then repeat again for New Year's eve (with Christmas at the home of the youngest family member, waiting for Santa and opening packages at the stroke of midnight).

Family has dispersed--some moving back to Spain after retirement, some seeking greener pastures elsewhere, some simply following divergent paths. None of us is within walking distance of each-others' homes. Visiting often is no longer easy, even when life, work, health and the weather do not interfere.

My wife and I started cooking last night, working until about 1:00 a.m. and will continue preparations tonight when I get home from work after 9:00 p.m. My mother in law is no longer with us. My mom can no longer remember how to cook the wonderful dishes that I learned from her, including her cazuela. This incredibly strong woman who always made her way in life on three continents is frail, fading a little more each day. The same is true of my dad. I cannot imagine a holiday without them. I can only imagine my wife having to go through Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and every other day of her life without being able to talk to her best friend and confidant, her mom.

In making the stuffing late last night I asked my wife if she thought her mom would mind if I added some diced dates to her mom's stuffing recipe. She nodded and said that her mom would approve no matter what I did with a broad smile. We got along famously, she and I. I know what her absence means to me. I cannot fathom the ache in my wife's heart--the larger space in her own heart that can never be filled again in this world.

On Thanksgiving I am most thankful for my wife, for my parents who, though wobbly, are still here, still standing and with whom I can have long conversations by phone every day if, unfortunately, not in person as often as I would like for too many years now. I am thankful for having people in my life who touched me deeply, too many of whom were gone too quickly, leaving behind a world poorer for their passing. And I cherish every moment spent with family and friends, painfully aware that sooner or later they will exist only in the memories of those not yet called back home.

How touching and wonderful.