Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving Day

This year for the first time in a long time, we didn't hold Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Instead we joined my parents, who are staying in Coeur d'Alene.

My folks come up twice a year (spring and fall) and stay in Cd'A. (Sadly, my mother's very bad asthma precludes her from vising our farm any more.) They come mostly to see the girls, and without their brave trekking between states we would hardly see my parents at all since they live so far away. They're not usually here this late in the year, so it's a rare treat to have Thanksgiving dinner with them.

My mother and I split the cooking. She made the turkey, gravy, and veggies; I made the stuffing, dinner rolls, and dessert.

I did all my cooking yesterday. I started with bread stuffing.



Two pans, ready to cook.


Making a blueberry pie.


Dinner rolls, second rising.


The day's tally: a basket of rolls, wild rice stuffing, bread stuffing, two cheesecakes, and a blueberry pie.


Cleaning up the mess...



...then indulging in a much-needed glass of wine after nine hours of cooking.


This morning after church, we joined my folks. All the bounty was on the table.


My dad carved.


We had a lovely but quiet -- and very blessed -- Thanksgiving Day. How was yours?

16 comments:

  1. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Living so far away from my own grandchildren, I understand why your parents make to trek twice a year. Time with grandchildren is precious. I'm glad you have the chance to make those memories.

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  2. This is the first Thanksgiving at our house that didn't involve 6 kids, 5 in-laws and 7 grandkids, as well as taking food to the fire dept. across the road. All the grown kids are moved away to different states :-(

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  3. We had a great day today. We put up shelves on the porch and organized our clay pots and such. Our family gathering yesterday was one of the most enjoyable we have had in years. Good memories.

    By the way, I thought I had a knack for stacking stuff in the dish drainer, but you might have me beat!

    Fern

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  4. We had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving with a new 6 week old granddaughter. My son is not in Kuwait this year. PTL!! I had all of my 6 children with me. We had a total of 26 for dinner, and got to use the fellowship hall at church so we had plenty of room! We had plenty of good food, and no one was sick with cancer, and my dad was still with us. (stroke in May) God is good! And I am very thankful.

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  5. It's been a great Thanksgiving with too much food as usual. Your food looked delicious and plentiful as well. I had to laugh at the plastic bags in your dish drain. That looks like my house. In fact have several bags drying right now. Oddly, I store my recycled bags in my dishwasher, along with lots of other kitchen things. I actually enjoy washing dishes so I refuse to use it. I've been trying to get my husband to remove for years. I warned everyone who shared our meal today that I wanted no help with the cleanup today because I wanted to just enjoy our family time. My MIL insisted she could load the dishwasher to help out. I think she was rather horrified when I told her I use it as a cupboard and it's currently full of recycled plastic bags and aluminum foil. I've been married for 35 years so even though she was horrified I'm sure she wasn't surprised :-). I won the battle of the dishes and had a wonderful time just visiting with family.

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  6. None of the kids were able to get enough time off to travel the distance, so it was just the four of us (my brother is my neighbor). My husband was home from work, for which we are very thankful he has a job, and that this year we didn't have to keep everything in a holding pattern for a few days. I made the usual Thanksgiving fare of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, homemade rolls, acorn squash tart, and a broccoli/apple/onion/bacon dish. Pumpkin pie was the dessert that no one had room for. I thought since I had not eaten any wheat/barley for a couple years, I would try one of my rolls. I had two benadryl for dessert but was thankful I didn't have to use the Epi-pen, and I even managed to clean the kitchen before the combination of turkey and benadryl put me out until this morning, LOL.
    A blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours!

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  7. We had our friends from the city up once again. It is the only time we get to see them anymore. This is a long standing tradition and we had it one year when the new home had a roof but no windows. My son and I had to put plywood over some facing the wind so things would quit blowing off the table. The big fun thing we do is target practice! We went through about 250 rounds of 30-06, AK ammo, 9mm, and 357 mag. It was way cool, only got into the low 50's but it was a lot of fun anyway. Our friends have a 3 year old granddaughter and she remembered her trip to the bird lady. Last year she got to handle some of our tame chickens.

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  8. We haven't gotten together with our daughters and their families for Thanksgiving in many years. They all live too far away. My wife is the cake decorator in a grocery store in our town and they were open on T-day, so she had to work until 3pm. That meant for the first time in YEARS I had to prepare the bird by myself. Stuffing and the whole nine yards. I did okay! We had a wonderful meal after she got home. Her specialty is cherry pie. Mine is apple pie. So we made one of each for dessert. We baked them the day before and put them in the fridge. I love pie, but I was diabetic, so I couldn't eat it in the past. But after my 6-month stint in the hospital, I'd lost 60 pounds AND my diabetes! So, I had a piece of each pie! They were wonderful! LOL --Fred in AZ

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  9. Loved the sound of your Thanksgiving day, and the food looks delicious! I miss American Thanksgivings--moved here to Canada after we married 23 years ago. That last picture made me cry a little--what a blessing that your dad and mom are still with you. My dad passed away almost 11 years ago when I was 34. How sweet it would be if he was here to carve a turkey and spend quiet times with us..

    May the Lord Whom you thank bless you richly!

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  10. Looks like a great family time was had by all. By the way stuffing should be called dressing and should be made with cornbread. Years ago I fell on evil days and was job transferred up north. That was my first go around a dressing made with anything other than cornbread. You know what I did? I ate it of course. I ain't going hungry.

    Huggs..

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  11. We (27 family and 9 friends) met at my sister's house. Three turkeys, a ham, 20lbs of mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, rolls, crab salad, yams, green bean casserole, homemade fruit cocktail, and a bunch more that I can't remember was followed by 3 homemade cheesecakes, 5 pumpkin rolls, 2 pumpkin pies, many cream pies, chocolate ganache, and even more desserts. Friday morning we all met back at my sister's house and more friends and relatives visited and we spent all day "cleaning" up the leftovers. We live 4.5 hours away from the rest of the family so we all really enjoy the 2 day food fest. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving like we did.

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  12. There were fourteen for dinner here and we got the good news that there will be fifteen next year with the arrival of another grandchild!

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  13. Hi Patrice, greetings from NorCal once again.

    We have family here from the Philippines so they simply stood back and let us cook. For the first time in their lives they got to experience an American Thanksgiving meal complete with the usual food.

    I am the baker in the family so while wife did turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, I went on with blueberry pie and pumpkin cheesecake pie.

    Many phone calls came from other family members here in the States on the east coast and still more in the Philippines. We all were most blessed that the big typhoon did not impact the home area in any major way and all the family is safe and well.

    And since I originally am from Canada we celebrated BOTH Canadian and American Thanksgiving. So very much to be thankful for this year.

    Winston

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  14. This was a most unusual Thanksgiving for me. As a single father of four children (now adults) I treasure these family get-togethers, especially since the death of my father. My mother of 90 years has been the matriarch that pulls these large family gatherings off, but not this year. It seems that all eight of my siblings decided that they would celebrate Thanksgiving with their own families. This left me to organize my own---so I did. But as well as I planned it,, in the end it all fell apart, Not because the kids didn't want to come but because they made a decision at the last moment to see their other grandmother whose health was failing very fast. She suddenly died, but they each got to see and visit with her before she passed; and were able to comfort each other after her death. Before this took place I made a decision to celebrate with my mother and children in any way possible. Thus, on the morning that they were with me and before they left for the trip to see their dying grandmother I changed Thanksgiving to the Monday and made arrangements to meet them( plus significant other) for breakfast for a pre-Thanksgiving meal at a local restaurant. My mother joined us as well and we made the most of our time together at breakfast. I am so thankful that they made the time for me and that they felt it so important that they make the trek to see a dying grandmother.....I know that they will do the same for my mother and someday for me...God bless for their big hearts.

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  15. If you don't mind my asking, what cookbook(s) do you use? It seems like you always have a good recipe for anything you choose to make.

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    1. I have a number of favored cookbooks (Land O' Lakes Country Recipes, The Joy of Cooking, etc.) plus the occasional online search, but my favorite cookbook remains Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book. Please see this blog post:

      http://www.rural-revolution.com/2013/12/recipes-for-boxed-stuff.html

      - Patrice

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