Thanksgiving Pictures and the Thanksgiving Flea

Hi everyone! Now I know we're maybe a little tired of leftovers right now, but I did promise to show you all my food and table. The weather was amazing! I don't make this stuff up. Definitely an evening for our first glass of wine out on the deck at sunset.

Then, light the candles on the table:

Food:
Mel & Kelley mentioned  they wouldn't have time to walk on the beach when expecting holiday guests. My answer is--first, I make a lot of lists, including what has to be completed each day before the holiday. And this year I listened to Mel and asked my various guests to bring some of the food.  This worked out really well. And they brought the food in lovely serving dishes, another big help.

Mushrooms with spinach/ ricotta/ parm stuffing.

Roasted brussels sprouts with bacon and pine nuts.

An assortment of wine.

Including this lovely French rose for me, as I don't like red wine.

I did just the turkey and gravy.

And roasted butternut squash with apples, cranberries,  and pumpkin seeds.

Creamed onions.

Stuffing [cornbread and chestnuts.]

The turkey was very moist and tender. I had a nice amount of leftovers to share and send home with my guests.
I forgot to take a picture of the amazing pumpkin cheesecake from LK! We ate it ALL, it was amazing. She even brought whipped cream.
.................

Today was cooler but sunny and nice. The flea was bustling but the junk was, well, junky. The dealers need new stuff! I was looking for old pink or silver ornaments, but no.
There was a fun turkey platter! Modern? maybe Italian?

and a booth with unusual and very lovely India textiles, similar to my Thanksgiving table runner, which is a patchwork  of embroidered sari remnants.
.

Let's hope next week, maybe the last!?, has better pickings.

love

lizzy 


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

PS: The Goose Family.

The parents have their wings around Baby, but c'mon! Give the little guy a bow. Yeesh.

''oooh, yummy! Mommy put the turkey bones in the garbage
and I GOT INTO it and ate and ate and ate.
Now I have a turkey hangover.
Don't tell!''

A Thanksgiving Walk

Thanksgiving! It's a quiet day. 60*.

My family and friends will arrive soon, I have the turkey in the oven--so now I will take an hour to enjoy the serenity and beautiful solitude--the calm--of my beach.

A Thanksgiving walk is my tradition, I value the quiet time to count my blessings and to enjoy fond memories of holidays long ago.

I remember my parents and their grey shingled house. I miss them.

The family tradition in Cape Cod was to  put on the turkey and then take a long sightseeing drive to all the Pilgrim places---Corn Hill, where the Pilgrims stole the Natives' cached corn;  First Encounter Beach, where they met those natives; the Pilgrim monument in Provincetown, near the place the Pilgrims first landed after their journey from England.
Cape Cod at Thanksgiving is so evocative of those long ago days. I'd wonder, was the weather this beautiful? did they think the Cape beautiful? Safe and peaceful? Were the leaves as colorful, the water so blue? And--oh look! wild turkeys, trotting along the road. Pilgrim dinner, once upon a time.

We'd always stop at Wendy's in Orleans, get Junior Burgers and fries; we'd drive up to Fort Hill and have a car picnic, admire the glorious view...then home to a delightful aroma of roasting turkey.

Now I celebrate early with a quiet beach walk. I'm so thankful I live here at the beach, near a great and amazing city like New York. I am thankful that I can share this day with my beloved children and dear friends.

And of course--Mo! And all my friends here in blogland~~~~~

Happy Thanksgiving!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

ps table decor and food pix in a few days.

Antique Turkey Platters and Old Fashioned Silverware

Hi! Happy Thanksgiving to all  my friends here. I love Thanksgiving, such a warm and loving holiday. I always enjoy the preparations---I can't even call it ''work'' ---that many of us do each year.
I thought this page from Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer was so handy. I cut it out and taped it inside a cupboard door. Sure I've made a zillion turkey dinners ---I still have to try hard to get it just right.

But first I have to dig out the turkey plates and platters. I'm not sure if I showed you the platters, or just my plate collection. But since I get the platters out each year, to unwrap and enjoy---we can take another look. Turkey platters are I think, so fun and festive. I believe they are an American tradition, though many of the best platters were English Staffordshire china. Maybe every home should have just one, but somehow I have accumulated five. Sofar!

I usually only use the biggest Spode platter. I like its weight and shape.

It's English.

This one is marked Japan.

Unmarked, maybe USA, by Johnson Brothers. Similar to the one above but not exactly the same.

A small size, of good quality but unknown origin.

A delightfully garish Woolworth's style tin platter.

The details are so charming~! They almost always show the turkey in a field, with a house or cabin in the background.

They almost always have a fruit border. Though the Spode platter has dainty flower baskets instead.

One side  of the scene always has naturalistic etched design of wild seeds, weeds, brambles---and leaves and underbrush.

I love this one, with its prickly pods, so familiar, though I don't know what the tree is. [we called the pods gumballs?] edit: a sweet gum tree.

The scenes are transferred designs, usually in brown / sepia, though all colors were made. [I yearn for a blue version, and black], then the colors were tinted by hand, some more skillfully than others.

Another nostalgic chore is polishing the silverware. I know it's not fashionable to use silver utensils nowadays. They do need light polishing if not used daily. But it's a family tradition and I love my set. Like having ''wedding china'', this is the only way I'd ever be organized to have enough flatware for a holiday party.

My dad made the box, with cherry wood from a friend's trees. The silver was given to me as gifts, from my parents, for years, as I accumulated a goodly set.

As a child it was my job to polish the silver.
 My brother never helped. [For some reason I feel like he and my dad went hunting on Thanksgiving morning, but--probably not. A mystery.] And I've never been able to convince my kids that it could be fun! And it's now their job. Nope, here I am, a few days before the holiday, silver polish and a soft cloth in hand.

This lovely set of Victorian pearl handled silver fruit utensiles was a gift from an antiques dealer friend, back during Brooklyn days.

When I opened the old flannel cover, inside also were also silver ladles [top left, below] plus a couple more, including a sugar shell,. For cranberry sauce, creamed onions, etc etc. Very useful and treasured for the memory of a good friend.  [He sold me most of my blue transferware...].

Mo loves to help! He is sharing his beloved Gator dolly, I guess we'll have gator wings, lol.

[no, Mo, not really!]

I hope your holiday is wonderful, with friends and family, and good memories. Good times.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Look east...full moon rises.

look southwest, the sun sets on another day.

The fence and pink moon.

The walkway. And the moon. The Hunters' Moon, November.