Happy Thanksgiiving

 

I'm making' a list, I'm checking' it twice---nope not my Christmas list but my Thanksgiving holiday prep list.

Hi everyone!

I love Thanksgiving. I have my children and closest friends at my table, celebrating our blessings and spending festive times together.

I have vivid memories of so many Thanksgivings...the year I made acorn people place card holders...I was about 8? One of the figures was a mommy acorn pushing a walnut pram with a teeny tinyacorn baby inside it. The acorn cap formed the baby's bonnet! We packed them carefully and put them in a shoebox, for the drive across Ohio to my grandparents' house "Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go." [my mom liked car ride sing along. My poor dad! We're all very tone deaf.]

And Thanksgivings in Cape Cod. My mom was so efficient she'd have everything under control by lunchtime and we'd pile in the car and take a very long drive to all the Pilgrim sites nearby: First Encounter Beach, Corn Hill Beach, Pilgrims' Monument in P-town, the old Puritan church in Orleans on the windswept moor overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. My mom was so good, she actually trusted the oven timer to click on as planned and we 'd arrive home to a fully cooked meal. Awesome.

And even though I complain, I enjoy all the preparation...making the menu, with dishes both old and new. delegating the wine choices and seeing what appears [rose' this year].

I love choosing one of my heirloom tablecloths. This is my favorite, a great grandmother brought this from Switzerland in a wicker trunk. That branch of the family was brought to America by Kraft, to make Swiss cheese.

I like to choose the table runner, iron the napkins---no, the blue napkins didn't "work".

I enjoy polishing the silver, my designated chore since childhood.

Even the turkey plates are fun to see; we greet them like old friends who visit this one day only.

In recent years I've been using mercury glass...with candles and gilded pumpkins and squashes.

I never know how the table will look until I get started. I set the table the day ahead while the pumpkin pie is baking. Oh it smells sooo good!

I do a huge Fall cleaning, usually in October , sometimes not til November. Seeing the house all fresh and sparkly clean makes me so happy. I can feel the tension in my shoulders slip away, I can breathe again. Mess and mini sand dunes, our version of dust bunnies, makes me very nervous, lol.

Menu

Snacks are very light, because the meal is so big.

Cranberry encrusted goat cheese

Apricot white Stilton

crackers/ sliced homemade bread

 

 

red or white wine

Mixed nuts

1st course:

 Italian -style mushrooms stuffed with garlicky ricotta and spinach,

real crowd pleaser, this dish is always made by a friend.

main course

Turkey with gravy

Stuffing [cornbread, wild rice, bacon, chestnuts, dried cranberries]

roasted Fall veggies with apples and nutmeg

creamed onions

braised Brussels sprouts with garlic and lemon

rose' wine

dessert

Pumpkin cheesecake
[I try a new dessert recipe every year. I love to bake, hate to cook.
Wish me luck with the cheesecake.]

 

 

This is Mo's first Thanksgiving! Shall we sneak him a drumstick?

or let him eat clogs?

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you for being my friends!

 

love

lizzy

gone to the beach............

 

 

 

PS FOUND!  in the wine cupboard, LOL!

 

 

PSS Snow, what snow? Note the temps.

So far as I know, it cannot snow when itis 49* out?