A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words...



And then the wolves went to another house.



A Thanksgiving Poem to Amuse You

The following ran in this morning's "Annie's Mailbox," Daily Breeze.  The author is unknown.


Twas the Night of Thanksgiving

'Twas the night of Thanksgiving,
but I just couldn't sleep.

I tried counting backwards,
I tried counting sheep

The left-overs beckoned --
the dark meat and white,
but I fought the temptation with
all of my might

Tossing and turning with anticipation,
the thought of a snack became infatuation

So I raced to the kitchen,
flung open the door
and gazed at the fridge, full
of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,
pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes

I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,
till all of  sudden, I rose off the ground

I crashed through the ceiling,
floating into the sky
with a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie.

But I managed to yell as I soared past the trees...
Happy Eating to all!
Pass the cranberries please!

Indeed -- happy eating to all. 

Thanksgiving Etiquette Tips

As a general rule, Thanksgiving dinners are most often attended by family members so you may be wondering, "So why do I have to mind my manners around them?"

Because you do, that's why.

If you are a guest, the usual good manners apply.  Some of them include:

Do not bring your hostess cut flowers; bring a small plant instead.  Reason?  With cut flowers, your hostess has to stop everything to get out a vase, put water in that and arrange the flowers.  A small plant means it can be cooed over briefly and then stuck on a table or the mantle piece or anywhere and the chef can get back to the kitchen.

Prior to the meal, do not offer to help.  "What?" you gasp.  The person cooking the food has mapped out a complicted menu in his/her head and already Has A Plan.  "This will be done by the time I do that..."  Don't distract their train of thought.  This is food we're talking about.

When you step in is after the repast.  Guest:  quietly gather up your plate and silverware, offer to take the person's next to you, go into the kitche and scrape and stack both.  Family member:  Stand up and bellow, "I'll be bussing the table in a minute,  so eat up!"

Make your first servings small so that you can go back for "seconds" and melt the chef's heart.

But before the first bite is taken, it is customary to lift a glass and toast the chef.

If grace is to be said and you're asked to say it, do not go all religous and ramble on about Jesus and "things to be thankful for" for about for five minutes.  There are hungry people here.  Do you really want them to be thankful that you finally shut up?

Guest:  if the silver is obviously old and admirable, say so.  Family member:  do not say, "That's Great-Aunt Hilda's gravy ladle!  I was supposed to get that!"

Feed any kids first so that you can then plop them down to watch a video and everyone else can enjoy an adult dinner. 

Never bring your dog.  Exception:  police and seeing eye dogs.  They know how to behave.  

Thanksgiving Prep Work...

My sister just e'd me a Williams-Sonoma recipe and wanted to know if I thought it sounded good.

Fresh long green beans, wrapped in a 3 or 4 bean bundle with a strip of bacon holding the bundle together; a glaze of butter and brown sugar over the bundle and then bake for 20 minutes. 

It didn't appeal to me (too much grease) but you might just love it. 

I made a marvelous discovery at Trader Joe's Monday.  I'd been mulling the turkey situation - brined or kosher.  Frequent readers know that I abhor adding salt to foods - either during preperation or to the finished product. 

As I stood there, looking dumbly at the two types of turkeys, my eye wandered and I found they are also selling whole, totally-cooked roast turkeys!  I slammed one into our grocery cart with more speed than perhaps was called for...

Advantages:  it only has to be in a 350 oven for an hour and 30 minutes.
I don't have to root around inside a cold turkey (from the disposal end of a large bird) for a bloody bag of entrails.  I don't have to endure the ghastly odor a raw turkey makes when it starts to cook.

I thought it was a bit pricey - 10.83 lbs. for $39.80, but my sister reports she paid $50 for a 10 lb. organic bird. 

This year I have upgraded the green-bean/mushroom soup casserole to new heights of glory.  For years, I have drained two cans of Dole French green beans into a casserole dish, dumped in a can of Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup and stirred it up.  I set the Durkee fried onions aside in a little bowl so people can use the amount they want. 

The upgrade?  Trader Joe's frozen imported French green beans (which are thinner than Blue Lakes) with their Cream of Portobello mushroom soup.  I bought a can of their fried onions and can report that they have considerably less breading than other brands.  The recipe printed on the can says to saute crimini mushrooms and onions in butter, add the frozen green beans and cook, then dilute the Cream of Portobello and add that; cover with cheese and the fried onions and bake until bubbly.  I think that's taking it just a little tooo far...


If you're doing a ham, this is a quick stuffing to serve with it - PINEAPPLE DRESSING
Cream 1/2 cup sugar and one-half cup butter together.  One by one, beat in four eggs.  Add 5 cups of torn-up white bread slices and then dump in a 19 oz. can of crushed pineapple - juice and all -- mix thoroughly and bake at 350 for an hour. 

My final advice?  Do every bit of prep work that you can before Thursday.  Yesterday I cut a baguette into half-inch cubes, bagged it and it's ready to rock and roll.  Good thing I've been doing upper body work at the gym;  it was a day old baguette.   Those babies don't want to give an inch.

Seasonal Stress Reliever

Much is said about holiday stress; the running around from shop to shop, making sure you got the right toy for the demanding kid ("No!  Not the one with the polka-dot dress!") meal planning and food shopping.  Not unusually, all of us will have an entertainment to throw - an open house on Christmas Eve aka The Arrival of the Grasshoppers or a meal after midnight mass.  The family Christmas breakfast with every relative you ever had.

Enough to drive you out of your mind, especially if you throw in bad weather, heavy traffic and fighting over the last cart in the lot.

Should we all start taking a 5mg Valium with our morning coffee?  No! (not that it's a bad idea) not at all.  I recommend selected doses of Erma Bombeck.

If you have never heard of this writer, this is an excellent time to discover here.  There's an old saying in writing and  it is "write what you know."  She wrote about being a wife and the mother to three kids.  And she's funny as hell.

On a son't apartment and his life style:  "Actually the cockroach and our son had a lot in common.  They both came out at night, ate cold fast food and knew how to empty a room."

Her husband loved Halloween and greeting the various kids although he was prone to mistakes.  "Well, what have we here?  Silver shoes.  A fringed shawl.  A comb in the hair.  I got it!  A Spanish dancer.  Come here, Erma, and help me guess who this is."


For crying out loud!  It's Evelyn picking me up to go to the shopping center!"

Erma married Bill Bombeck in 1949 when she was 22.  Age 20 she'd been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disorder (genetic) but most of her adult life it didn't trouble her.  In 1992, she was diagnosed with breast cancer; in 1996 she needed a kidney transplant which was attempted on April 3rd, but due to complications she died April 22.  She was 69.

Arguably she didn't have much to laugh about in her later years, but she never lost her sense of humor.  She was a woman of awesome bravery and great wit.  She's an inspiration to us all in times of stress.  Like the holiday season.

Set In Stone

And that would be the Thanksgiving Day menu.  A lot of our nationally-celebrated holidays have set menus - a ham or side of beef at Christmas and ham agan at Easter. 

The only variations are the side dishes which vary from family to family.  I've been cooking these for as long as I can remember -- green beans and mushroom soup casserole, candied yams with baking spices -- allspice, mace, cinnamon, ginger - whatever's around. 

Years ago I used to make Lime Green Jell-0 with Cottage Cheese.  Finally one T-Day I realized  that no one had eaten any of it but me so I took it off the line-up.  But I still like cottage cheese and canned peaches in the summer - so there!  It's something we do in the Midwest to explain our love for this old-fashioned dish. 

This year I'm upgrading the green bean casserole by using Trader Joe's fresh, frozen French green beans, Portobello Mushroom Soup and their house-brand fried onions for the topping.

Another change - instead of crescent rolls, I'm going to make a pan of jalapeno and corn kernels cornbread with honey butter.  I've always enjoyed making the rolls - Pla-Doh! but only half get eaten and they don't make very good leftovers. 

Richie and I have settled the annual war about the turkey amiably this year.  Since no one will eat the dark meat, I want to do just a breast.  But Richie howls like a wounded hyena, "I want a REAL turkey!"  By this he means the whole bird, wings, legs and all.  But the other week, my friend Marcelle mentioned in passing that she likes the dark meat.  "It has more flavor," she said.  She just won the Legs Lottery!

I like to think of all of the happy people across our nation, happily speculating on what will be served to them when they are hosted at someone else's table.  The residents, of course, already know.  Same as last year.

Playing With A Turkey

Richie got a little creative --  and he made that pumpkin pie!



The Cat's new best friend - and bolster



Adieu!