What's that crunching sound?

Turkey Day, or any holiday for that matter, rarely goes as planned here. This year was no exception. Karl and Alissa arrived Wednesday night, but had to return after dinner on Thursday, which was planned for 2:00 p.m. The turkey got a late start on the grill, but all other dishes were on schedule. The end result: picture the turkey dinner scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Except substitute stuffing for the turkey. Add loud crunching sound effects and you get the picture.
Everything else was great. A traditional turkey dinner with fresh cranberry sauce, maple-orange glazed sweet potatoes, cranberry bread, green beans, potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, maple pecan pie and very, very crunchy stuffing.
Alyssa brought her friend Tomoko along to share our Thanksgiving dinner. It was her first experience celebrating an American Thanksgiving. As Tomoko stirred the gravy, I chiseled stuffing out of the baking dish and explained that she should never expect to see or taste stuffing like this again. Or at least I hope she never experiences it again.
Karl and Alissa headed back to Eau Claire after dinner and the other guys scattered to do chores or whatever else it is they do during hunting season. Paul, Alyssa, Tomoko and I played a couple of games of Yahtzee -- another first for Tomoko -- who soundly beat us in her second game. While Tomoko learned how to beat us at our own game, we learned a bit about her home and family in Japan, her planned 3-year study of implant dentistry at UCLA and her goal to return home and resume her dentistry practice alongside her father.
Alyssa and Tomoko then settled in (good thing I keep making all those quilts, eh?) for our traditional viewing of the first Christmas movie of the year, Elf.
Black Friday began at a reasonable hour with Alyssa, Tomoko and me at the Wooden Chair for breakfast. Frustrating stops at Michaels and Kohl's left us with just enough energy for a fruitful stop at Fleet Farm and then it was home again. After a lunch of venison sausage (Tomoko had now tasted the entire gamut of farm-produced offerings) sandwiches, we lounged around until it was time for Alyssa and Tomoko to head back to Minneapolis.
It was a great Thanksgiving. Our customary individual offers of thanks before dinner covered it all: We are thankful for our new family members, good health, the safe arrival of our travelers, the delicious meal (well maybe not the stuffing), each other, and the opportunity to share our holiday with Tomoko.

The spice of life

Saturday was the opening day of the 9-day gun deer hunting season. It's a traditional big shopping day for deer hunting widows whose men take off for hunting camp. Since I happen to live at just such a place, my men go nowhere. They're here for the hunt and they have other men with them. Our farm was headquarters for nine hunters this year. Other than eating a lot of food, they really aren't much bother; they're just here being manly. Enough said.
I usually don't go too far from home either. This year was a little different. My daughter-in-law Alissa came along with Karl on Friday night. Wise one that she is, she opted to travel a bit farther and go visit her family for the weekend. I was happy to assist in that choice by driving her to Appleton on Saturday to meet her mom. We met at Penzey's Spices near the Appleton Mall. I love that store and always spend more time reading the recipes and smelling the spices than my shopping companions.
A long-time Penzey's devotee, my loyalty was recently reaffirmed when I foolishly tried another brand of pure vanilla. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't as expensive as Penzey's -- or so I thought. After complaining one too many times of an "off" flavor in baked goods, I finally decided that it had to be that bargain vanilla. My mother-in-law used to say that store-bought bakery often tasted "perfumey" which I frankly didn't understand. Now I do. That "off" flavor in Paul's most recent batch of chocolate chip cookies was more than just an odd taste, it was also the aroma. Perfumey is the perfect word.
That cheap vanilla was dumped out (which certainly knocks it out of the running for bargain of the year) and replaced with my absolute favorite Penzey's product. Pure Vanilla. It is so good. The size of the bag tells you that I found a few other little tidbits to buy as well. We love Chili 9000 and Bold Taco seasoning. Both have just the right amount of heat. And grated orange peel that puts me in the middle of an orchard each time I open it to add a tablespoon or two to a batch of cranberry bread (keep your grated orange or lemon peel in the fridge -- it will put you back in that orchard longer).
Unfortunately, I forgot to take my shopping list with me. I forgot the Bouquet Garni at the top of my list and the nutmeg for Christmas cookies. I may have to go back, or at the very least do a catalog order. And that's O.K. The catalog is nice to receive (this issue has a great recipe for Irish stew that was consumed with gusto by the aforementioned 9 hunters here Saturday evening), but it's not the same as walking through the store with the little black shopping basket, stopping to smell all the offerings and dreaming up the next great dinner -- or dessert -- for my family. The experience is the beauty of the store...and what keeps me coming back. This time, the return trip may be sooner rather than later.

Turnovers

Quilt shops sell many different types of precut fabric collections. Many are named for bakery items: Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and in the case of my project of the day, Turnovers. These precut triangles represent a specific collection of fabrics. The set I have is from Kansas Troubles. After buying one set of 80 somewhere, I happened across the same collection on special somewhere else and picked that up, too. After solemnly swearing off triangles just two weeks ago, I pieced all these triangles this morning without much of a plan, other than to make a lap quilt for a Christmas gift.

As it turned out, there were more darks than lights, so some medium ranges found their way to the light stack to balance out the piles. Piecing the triangles was a breeze. Since I happen to know the intended recipient really likes flying gees quilts, the triangles were pieced in appropriate pairs.

Unfortunately this setting met with a "kind of like it, kind of don't" verdict. There is not a strong enough dominant color to pull off the ridged look effectively. A quick change came up with this

No big thrill here either. It was back to shuffling the pieces again to something like this
Still not screaming, "this is it," but definitely telling me to think about this little quilt some more. Mabye doing those flying geese in columns with a border fabric between. Maybe mixing up the colors more. Maybe picking up the pieces and letting them rest for a few days, which is how it goes when piecing on a whim rather than with a plan. Still, it is my preferred method. I like mulling over my projects. Allowing all those possibilities to sort themselves out in my mind is part of the enjoyment of the process. This batch of turnovers simply needs just a little more time.

Thanksgiving is now

Everyone was here for a celebration feast last night. It was Evan's birthday, which is reason enough for a celebration, but there was more to it than that. It was also close to the one year anniversary of the transplant that converted Karl's stem cells into Evan's lifeblood. More importantly even than that, was that we were able to say that it was the anniversary of the SUCCESSFUL transplant.
All of this celebrating was rather last minute and spontaneous (Evan just received the official report on Tuesday). While we knew Karl and Alissa Diane planned to visit this weekend, Evan's news spurred Kit and Violet's decision to make the drive, too. Knowing that Alyssa wouldn't want to miss out on this event, I called her late Thursday (11-ish) to let her know we were going to celebrate. She squeezed the trip into her schedule as well. As she so aptly put it, "We all came together when Evan was diagnosed with Hodgkins, it's only fitting that we all come together when he gets the news of remission." We even had a little visit from Jeannine and Rick who joined us for a little "pre-sert" birthday cake on their way (don't let them kid you, it was really out of their way) from Eau Claire to Racine. (Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting - 1 stick butter, 1 cup peanut butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 3-4 TBSP milk and a little vanilla -- try it some time with your favorite chocolate cake; it's a great combination.)
Nephew Joel also came down the road to join us for a celebration harvest menu: Roast beef and roast pork (Paul's Angus and Evan and Joel's pork); acorn squash (monsters from our garden); apple and quince compote (apples, quince and dried cranberries stewed with cinnamon, ginger and splash of pumpkin wine); green bean casserole, mashed red potatoes with gravy and rolls. And, of course, birthday cake. The table was full and so we were. The evening was rounded out with rather eclectic music selections (Nat King Cole to Modest Mouse), some rousing games of Yahtzee and conversation.
Evan was up bright and early to make breakfast for all: corn bread (we call it Johnny Cake) with our own maple syrup and breakfast links made from the pork he raised. Another harvest celebration. These bountiful meals are splashed all over magazine covers at this time of year to get us enthused for the holiday season to come. For us, the enthusiasm was plentiful. Even though the calendar may say the official date is three weeks away, Thanksgiving is now.