Extra Greatful

Happy Thanksgiving!

Occasionally during the month of November I will participate in "thirty days of thankful", where every day you post one thing you are thankful for on your socials. It can be a very good reset if I am in a crabby place mentally, but I try really hard to find something to be grateful for every day, so this year I decided not to. 

As I mentioned in my last post, my brother and his wife came to dinner today, along with my nephew and his new wife. We had a really great visit, I definitely don't get to see those young adults enough! 

Life is funny sometimes. 

Twenty years ago, late on a very cold Thanksgiving night, (our 1st without Mom) several of our family members traveled to the nearest airport to meet the newest member of our family, my nephew, The Artist Formerly Known As Pablo! (He goes by Paul these days) His parents, and Oma (Grandma) traveled to Guatemala, to become his foster parents and bring him home here to the United States. 

Look how young we were! 

The next day we (Aunties and cousins)  gathered at their home to really meet Pablo.  He barely spoke any English, but he was a happy, confident little bugger. 

It's hard to believe that twenty years have gone by. I meant to get a picture with them today, but we were too busy eating, and talking, and going over photo albums of pictures of little Pablo. I took them out to show his wife what a cute lil guy he was, because (drum roll please!) They are expecting a baby in the spring!! 

Holidays can be bittersweet time. We create new memories, enjoying the loved ones we have here, while honoring old traditions, missing those who are not. My heart is incredibly full with all of my blessings, and I am

I can't wait to meet my newest Great! ❤️ 

Thanksgiving Eve

Originally published Nov 2011) The pumpkin pie just came out of the oven, and the sausage stuffing is made.   The house smells amazing!  Is it wrong that I'm cooking up the little bit of stuffing that wouldn't fit in the baking dish for dinner tonight?  I'm going to watch "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" (which we had to dvr because I was cooking) and eat stuffing.  Sounds just about perfect to me.

When I make things like stuffing, or dressing if you prefer, I always think of my Mom.  We only had her home made dressing (her word choice) once a year, at Thanksgiving.  Every Thanksgiving Eve, after the dishes were washed and the children were otherwise occupied, Mom would head back to the kitchen, in her housecoat, and begin the dressing prep.  Pretty soon the smell of celery and onion would come wafting into the other room.  If you were sneaky enough (me) you could grab a piece of dried out, torn up white bread that was sitting on the kitchen table in her big brown bowl and dip it into the buttery, celery, onion, goodness........and burn your tongue for you efforts.  Mom would be too busy cleaning out the turkey to notice.

By the time she finished there were usually two, if not three or four sets of eyes watching as she mixed the dressing and stuffed the turkey with it.  I don't do that, it's supposed to be dangerous.  However, for 20 plus years none of us ever got sick.........  Then she wrapped him up and popped him back in the fridge til morning.

My stuffing recipe is very different from my Mom's.  The only part of hers that I liked was the actual bread/onion/celery.  The apples and giblets would be picked out and set aside.  Mine has sausage and mushrooms, and it is da bomb!  It is also done, so I have to go now!

My holiday memories are so precious to me, but I always look forward to making new ones.  Times change, people come and go, old traditions are put aside, in favor of new ones.  It's all good.  It's life. As my mother used to say, "Life is what you make it." and with our holiday traditions she made ours very memorable.

Because I love this story, and it's my ultimate favorite Thanksgiving tale, and because he's coming to my house for the first time tomorrow for dinner (I wont give him stemware.) here is a holiday bonus blog:  http://queenie930.blogspot.com/2011/11/goblet-incident-of-76.html

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Pass The Cranberries

Thanksgiving is upon us again. This year I will be cooking dinner for my brother and his family, which means The Artist Formerly Known As Pablo, and his lovely wife will be joining us! I don't get to spend nearly enough time with that boy, but hopefully that will change now that they are back in this area. 

I know I have a few other blog posts about Thanksgiving, you'll definitely want to find the one with my best holiday story, involving Pablo's father when he was little. I'm currently writing with my phone, and I'm uncertain how to link to it. If I figure it out, I'll put it here.* Santa is bringing me a lap top this year,  because I'm dusting off this corner. I have a lot to say. A.Lot.To.Say.

The other day I saw this

and it made me laugh, because the top picture was my Mom, and the bottom has always been me.

Then I started thinking about her homemade cranberry Jelly, and it took me right back to the kitchen of my youth. Come along with me! Picture it, 1970 something. The cozy kitchen is painted pumpkin orange, and the appliances are avacado green. There is a big kettle on the stove, boiling fresh cranberries. Mom, or Grandma Leni, who lived with us on the weekends would be minding it, and stirring occasionally. Maybe we were allowed to when we were older, but not then. 

On the kitchen table Mom had her fruit press set out in a bowl. I thought maybe my sister still had it, but no. Neither of us like cranberries, so it's gone. I can't find an accurate picture on the internet, but here is today's version. Similar, but more flimsy. 

It took a half an hour just to figure out what this is called! When I put "cranberry press 

" in the Google machine it showed me some festive holiday adult beverages. 

To the best of my recollection the steaming hot berries were drained, (maybe not totally)  then poured into this press a bit at a time. MOM would use the pestal looking thing a-ma- bob, which was bigger than in the picture, and stained red from years of squishing cranberries, to mash the cranberries, and she did let us help with that. I remember the pungent, sour smell, and the heat coming off the mush left behind. 

The liquid was returned to the pot, sugar was added, and it went back on the burner. More stirring, more bubbling, then like magic, it was jelly!

Next up on the kitchen table were the iced tea glasses. We would see these tall amber glasses on the table for dinner on very hot summer days, (so....twice a summer?) and then Mom used them to serve the cranberry gel.(what she called it)  the glasses were pretty similar to this, and also no longer in the family. 

All of this would have happened the Saterday or Sunday before Thanksgiving, and I'm sure we used the gel as a side right up til Christmas. Uh, we, meaning other people in my family, definitely not me, and apparently not my sister either. 

It was tempting though. The jelly smelled good, and was such a pretty red color! I know I tried it every year, I still do. I always think that it was a mistake, I must really like it. I do not. I also burned myself every single year, because I had to touch that beautiful red jelly, newly in the amber glass. It was too tempting! I would still do it now, if I could. 

I have never made the gel myself, mine comes from a can, and for the first time in my life I didn't even buy one. No one likes it, no one eats it, why do I buy it?  However, I will miss it. That little blob of gel on a plate, with rings around it from the can. Is it even Thanksgiving without it?  There are a couple days left, who knows......

Happy Thanksgiving!  Maybe this year I will put the turkey right side up in the roaster! 😀 

*In trying to find the story of my naughty brother, I found "Thanksgiving Eve" which I originally published in 2011, and at the end of that blog is a link to the one I was talking about! Due to my "I don't know what I'm doing." It is republished right after this blog. So, easy peasy!