A good day to you all. In this part of the globe, this is the day we have chosen to mandate designate as a day of gratitude combined with eating to excess.
It is a beautiful day in the Ozarks — sunny with a very light breeze. There was frost this morning though, so the fairy swimming pool out in the labyrinth was a tiny skating rink instead.
In keeping with the traditions of the day, we are going out to my father’s house where he and my mother are cooking the turkey. My sister is going to be there too, and no doubt she will whip my ass at Scrabble yet again. I still love the game.
Last night I made a pumpkin pie while Jim boiled the onions for his onion relish. This morning, in addition to making a Death By Chocolate cake (for someone else’s dinner party tomorrow), Jim has made dinner rolls, ranch dressing a la Chef Marcus of the Seabourn Pride, and is currently preparing twice baked potatoes. My part in today’s activities is keeping the kitchen clean in between “courses” of cooking. While he was cooking, in between my cleanup duties I picked a beautiful salad out of the cold frames. That made me realize how dry it has been lately, so I watered them and the garlic patch. Automatically, I washed and hung out three loads of laundry, and remade our bed which I stripped this morning.
I also took time to walk in the labyrinth and reflect upon how blessed we are in the quality and number of friends we have. We are both so healthy, and we are not in any financial difficulties in spite of all the banking and credit disasters going on worldwide. As long as we make enough money to pay our electric bill, we have LOTS of food to get us through the winter. And in spite of the downturn the economy is making, I still have enough clients to keep me quite busy doing massage. Some days there is a little more slack time than I really want in terms of paying expenses, but by and large we are coming out pretty even.
Right now as I type for the blog, we are taking a break from all activities so that he can talk to his sister, who just called from California, for a while. They are discussing artisan bread and computers right now. Earlier in the day we heard from Jesse, who has 7 days and a wake up before he leaves the Middle East for home. It was good to hear him sounding so well.
There is much to be thankful for. While our families have their issues, at least my mother is not busy trying to blackmail her children into visiting her by threatening to withhold future Christmas gifts, an act of extortion disguised as humor depicted on another blog I used to visit. Ah well, I suppose I should put on my big girl panties — whatever those are — and stop taking myself so seriously. Except I don’t have panties of any kind any more. Such a waste of fabric and time.
Well, gotta go. Blessed be, y’all.
And a very good day to you to, my dear. Sounds like an awful lot of cooking and cleaning has been going on in your kitchen. 😉 That Death by Chocolate cake sounds very promising and how nice that you are still able to pick some fresh greens for a salad.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m, not much for holidays and mandatory family gatherings, but I like the time off 🙂 We don’t do this turkey eating day in the Far North. I wouldn’t mind Pumpkin Pie though.
Enjoy your celebrations.
Happy Thanksgiving! These are difficult times for so many people. I am feeling grateful that my husband has a job, that our house is almost remodeled from the plumbing problem that flooded it. That it is a quiet afternoon, and it’s been nearly 75 degrees here today. That I got to spend it out in the gardens, where I am most at peace.
Brenda
Happy Thanksgiving – it all sounds delicious, although I’ve never had Pumpkin Pie so I’m basing that on guesswork alone!
Wonderful that Jesse only has 7 more sleeps til he’s on his way home 🙂
The pumpkin pie was wonderful. It is all gone now, though.
This particular pumpkin pie was made with pumpkin that my dad grew in his garden, and we used milk from the dairy down the road in the custard, plus the homemade lard in the crust. It is also quite good if you make it with any other winter squash or even sweet potato.
Maybe I’m going to have to post the recipe.
Happy Thanksgiving. I spent it cooking, now will work on The Boyo, who is having a lot of pain from chronic back problems lately.
Because we had turkey day at my husband’s boss’s house, we didn’t have a lot of cooking to do. I made Joy of Cooking milk bread rolls (with added whole wheat flour in the name of nutrition) and my husband made brussels sprouts with chopped pecans. We had our own turkey day at home today, which I’ll be blogging about shortly.
I wish I lived closer to you so I could check out your lard and how to cook with it!