The Holidays are in full swing...next up...Thanksgiving!

We've had a long, hot summer, and a short, warm fall...

And now we're in for a snappy cold November!  Already had a couple of light snows between the sleet storms, cold rain storms, thunderstorm, and wind storms.  I have the feeling that this will be a white Christmas.    

I have fully harvested my garden...took all the remaining green tomatoes and packed them into paper towels in a box to allow them to slowly ripen at room temperature.  I stripped all the baby green peppers and Jalapenos, the half-grown strawberries that were struggling along under the wildly thick strawberry plants, and the apples that have been knocked out of the top of my dwarf Golden Delicious tree, and I left all the sad looking ones in the garden heap for the birds to snack on when the pickings get slim.

I have a quart ZipLock bag stuffed with tiny bitsy little hot peppers, inch-long or so.  I also have a bag stuffed with green bell peppers about an inch long.  I freeze these and add them to soups, stews, salsa, etc through the winter.

Waste not, want not.  My son grinned at the bag of tiny peppers I handed him, but he did make a salsa last night and called me to tell me I was trying to kill him.  Said they were the hottest he'd ever tasted. Sigh.  When will kids learn that mom always knows what she is doing?

This Thanksgiving I am going to do the family traditional 21-pound turkey with my special dressing...cornbread and crouton breads mixed up with about two sticks of butter and chicken bullion, sauteed onion and celery bits, fresh rubbed sage from my still flourishing herb garden, tiny mushroom caps, slivered almonds, and a few pinches of coarse ground black pepper.  Prepared in a baking bag, outside the turkey.  

I put my large turkey into another sealed baking bag, on it's tummy, with about three tablespoons of fresh dairy butter inside the washed cavity.  I put the large roaster into the oven and forget it until the stove alarm goes off...20 minutes per pound...and out pops a tender, juicy, piping hot turkey just as I finish the walnut laced, heavy cream and raw brown sugar yams that are drizzled with melted butter.  (The sauce on these yams is to die for. They fight over them instead of go "Yams? Ugh!")

And the homemade cranberry sauce. Only a few like cranberry sauce, so I don't make much.

Five to ten pounds of white potatoes (depending on the number of people who are coming, and how much I want to give away leftovers).  Whipped with half a pound of creamery butter and a cup of heavy cream.  White pepper and a dab of sea salt to taste.  Complemented by the giblet gravy...some with giblets and some without...and a fresh frog eye salad made with acine de pepe, lemon sauce, pineapple, oranges, huge maraschino cherries, and a pint of freshly whipped heavy cream... YUM!

Needless to say, it takes about three days to recover from the fat/sugar/turkey coma that everyone has after they eat.  Oddly enough, I seldom have leftovers to eat here because the minute dinner is over, the daughters-in-law begin loading the leftovers into portions for each family unit to take home.  And since I don't have a dishwasher, I use the highest-quality paper dinnerware and napkins. LOL!  I do use my good silver, though.

How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?  Any favorite dishes?  What is YOUR traditional Thanksgiving dinner composed of?

Hugs, and many happy days ahead!

Fran Lee

http://www.franleeromance.com