Thanksgiving Centerpiece

I am thankful for our relaxing day together. It does amaze me how quickly hours of preparation turns into full bellies. Ken, amazing chef, once again cooked everything to perfection. With a gleam in his eye, he took my challenge of eating at a specific time to a precise new level. Perfect.

Earlier in the day, Jessie and I were a pie making machine: she did the filling – I, the crusts. Two pumpkin, one apple and one pecan pie was more than plenty. I missed the trip out to the Root Connection for the big bag of Kale. Sauteed with shallots, it was immensely fresh. Peter was the master of preparing cranberry sauce. It was the basic sauce of simmering fresh cranberries with some sugar and water. Then he added zest and juice from a fresh Satsuma followed by ferreting out cloves and ginger from the spice drawer along with a little salt and pepper – all from someone who doesn’t really take to cranberry sauce all that much. Peter E. gave us two huge bags of corn last summer which we cut off the cob and froze for this meal. It reminded me of my Iowa roots – so sweet. Everyone helped with the clean up so there was a lot to be thankful for in that. Alex was the poker chip hog in the Tripoly game and Jessie and Peter beat it around the Pictionary board  first for the best guesses with almost nothing drawn at all.

Among other things this Thanksgiving, I learned that paying extra for an organic heritage turkey makes a lot of difference as to whether or not people actually like turkey. No comparison in flavor! I also know that roasting 6 organic turkey wings the week before, saving the crispy bits and fat for gravy and dressing saves a lot of time. We covered the wings with water and added an onion & a few carrots and sprigs of fresh thyme to make broth for use in the dressing. We froze the dressing & the crispy fat and used them on the real day. Big time saver…savour. It was well worth the effort of freezing the corn last summer.

One of my favorite summer memories was the time my mom brought her friend to our house for a visit. Every aspect of it was lovely. She brought us some fancy pants chocolates from California, all different shapes and flavors. After dinner we carefully split maybe 2 or 3 chocolates into bite sized pieces so we could try each one. Add a few sips of red wine and you’ve got an inspired gift! Another moment was picking sunflowers at our local CSA farm. We took in Seattle’s Public Market and the Sculpture Park. After visiting Lopez Island for a day, we had a delicious dinner in Anacortes at Cafe Adrift (make reservations – 360-588-0653). Near the end of their visit we enjoyed a sculpture installation by an artist from Lopez island at the Bellevue Art Museum. They were stacks and carvings of madrona wood – just beautiful.
It was a delightful visit!

Here they are at Pike Place Market waiting for them to “throw the fish”. However, this was right after the controversy happened with the animal activists. We never saw them throw the fish.

Here is a link to the controversy.

There are no lies in pictures of hands.

This is my favorite picture of Alex’s graduation. I am so proud of this guy. He worked hard.

Jessie took this picture – she can see so many things the rest of us do not see. Oh yeah, we all took other photos – ones with his sleepy grin. They are pretty good too. The one with his adviser/teacher was sweet – she yanked him through that program on the days he didn’t feel like it. Others with his sister, parents and grandma were all nice – it was obvious we were proud. Hands tell a lot about a person and yet they keep the secrets of the night before – unless your mom writes in her blog that you were celebrating until 4 AM!!!

I love fried eggs, cinnamon toast and tea for lunch. To be precise, I like 2 eggs, 1 piece of toast and a huge mug of tea with milk and agave syrup. I have this at least once a week and will most likely live on this when I’m old. Imagine my surprise one day when I cracked open a jumbo egg and there were two yolks! I gasped! Then I was in a dilemma – eat 3?

twins with a sister

I am going to learn about blogging.