Tomorrow is Sunday. Enjoy your rest.
My first 6 quarts of turkey broth are now cooling and I'm getting ready to put 4 more quarts in the pressure canner. It's been a busy morning - but a good morning. The weather is so nice here. Yes, it's cool but it's supposed to warm up nicely. I've already been out walking this morning. It's pheasant hunting season here in Southwestern Indiana and it sounds like war off to the far side of our property. I keep a close eye on everything during this time of the year. We've had several pheasant fly over here to our property and I definitely do not want hunters to get confused and end up over here hunting. I made way too many mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving and to be honest, neither of us wants potato patties right now so to the potatoes I added an 8 oz. package of cream cheese(room temperature), a cup of sour cream, 2 tsp. dried minced onions, mixed it up really well and put it in a buttered casserole dish. Then I put several pats of butter on top and sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese. Tomorrow, before we go to church, I'll put it in the oven on 350 for about 30 minutes and that will be one of the dishes I take for our church dinner. These leftovers are better than the original dish. Later tonight I'm going to bake some homemade bread and I'll take that and some apple butter to the dinner as well. The refrigerator is slowly but surely beginning to look normal again! It's 54 degrees outside right now and so calm. It was wonderful walking my mile today. I went around the lake, felt the wind blow and breathed the wonderful fresh air. It was so nice.
Tomorrow is Sunday. Enjoy your rest.
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Drat it!!! I fixed way too much food yesterday for Thanksgiving. Way too much food!! I actually had to wrap up 2 whole desserts and put them in the freezer. Aghhh!!! I made enough food for 12 instead of 6. Oh well, now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with it all so it doesn't go to waste.
First things first, I trimmed the turkey and got it into a pot for turkey broth. I sliced a whole bunch of white and dark meat for sandwiches, then I took some meat and cubed it for tetrazzini, then put a bunch of bones and scrap meat in another pan for the dog. Then the turkey carcass went into the pot, along with leftover celery, carrots, onions, gravy, a couple cubes of frozen basil and a few bay leaves. I'll let it cook up until all the meat falls off the bones, strain, and let it sit in the frig until tomorrow; and then tomorrow I'll can that wonderful broth for use later this Winter. Whatever is left uneaten, after a couple days, from the sliced white and dark meat for sandwiches will go into turkey soup so I think I'm covered turkey-wise. There's always the possibility of grinding anything that I don't use. Ground turkey is great in place of a lot of recipes using ground beef. We've eaten leftovers today twice and I'm already burnt out on them. We'll probably try them again tomorrow but after tomorrow I'll have to figure out what to do next. I just don't think I can eat them again!!! We had egg casserole this morning for breakfast and I've still got a half pan of that so guess what we're having for breakfast in the morning?! I've swept, vacuumed, laundered sheets and pillowcases, towels and washrags and have put the chickens to bed. They graced our home with 5 more eggs today so I'm almost back up to 3 dozen. Talk to you tomorrow. It snowed!!!! It really is "Over the river and through the woods . . !!!!" I did absolutely everything I could to make enough room on my table for all the food. I put in an extra leaf but if I put in another one we wouldn't have had enough room to sit around the table. Sometimes things just don't work the way you'd like them to. I decided to just set the table as pretty as I could and go ahead and have the food sitting out buffet style but everyone will have to put up with pretty tableware no matter what!! I think it's pretty though and I'll still explain to my granddaughters the whole pass-the-food concept. I still need to get outside and get some greenery. A friend of mine once told me a table wasn't properly set without a flower arrangement!! I hope each and everyone of you take a moment out of your day and stop to count just "one" of your many blessings. Perhaps you would like to try what our family does every year. We go around the table and tell everyone what we are most thankful for this past year. It's a beautiful reminder that our God is ever faithful.
Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Happy Thanksgiving. Goodness, I have been so-o-o busy around here!! No seriously!! I've been cooking my fool head off!! It's just so wonderful! Onion dip, broccoli casserole, cranberry conserve, confetti corn is all stuffed in the frig. I finished up the stuffing/dressing and put it back in the frig. The pumpkin pie is in the oven, the pecan pie is next, then the cranberry tart. Sometime today I need to make the rolls, stuff the celery, prepare the deviled eggs and make the pinwheels. So much left to do, so little time; but cooking the meal is kind of like my gift to those I love for Thanksgiving and I feel blessed being able to do it. I'd be going crazy if I didn't have a mass mess to prepare!! --------------------- I am screaming tired right now . . . but I'm coming down the back stretch. Just two items that HAVE to be accomplished but I'm hoping to do a couple other little things before I flop. Oh, but when it all comes together it will be so pretty and so yummy. At least for 5 whole minutes!!!! The sun is shining brightly this morning but it's still pretty nippy outside. Don't let the sunshine fool you.
I fed and watered the chickens this morning, fed the horses and got Hubby safely off to work. Then I settled in to cleaning, straightening, and pre-cooking for Thanksgiving. I put pie dough in the frig for 2 pies, one for pumpkin and one for pecan. The cranberry tart doesn't take a traditional crust. I'll do that tomorrow. I also took the shredded zucchini out of the frig to make bread but it was still not thawed - so I'll make bread this afternoon. I fried up the sausage, onion, celery and mushrooms for the turkey dressing, put it in a bowl and put it back in the frig. I then went outside to dig horseradish. Hey, we gotta have horseradish!!! While I was outside I vented the hotbox so the lettuces wouldn't fry and went back into the kitchen to get busy on the horseradish sauce. It's a very busy day. ------------------ Bed linens have been changed, most of the laundry is finished but I still haven't finished cleaning the house!! Oh motivation - where art thou? ---------------------------- Three eggs were all the girls gave me today. I knew a slow-down would come and was prepared but even at that 3 eggs is nice. I got out my candleholders, washed and dried them, pulled out the blue tablecloth and the light blue cloth napkins. I think it's all going to make a pretty table setting. Rain, rain go away, come again another day!! I don't know about you all but we've had a boatload of rain here in Southwestern Indiana. It rained almost all night and the wind was blowing harder than usual as well. It was 50 degrees this morning but is supposed to get colder as the front moves through. Weird, weird weather!!
Yesterday I got 5 eggs from the girls. That's not bad at all. I've got way too many eggs sitting in the refrigerator right now but I don't dare freeze any. The Thanksgiving preparations will use a bunch of them up. I've got pies, cakes, deviled eggs - you name it!! I am really getting excited about preparing the Thanksgiving meal. I'm doing something a little unusual this year. When I was growing up and when my boys were growing up, at holiday meals, the table was set as fancy as we could set it. I remember my Mom even used to put a tablecloth and candles on the table and I did the same for my family as well. Over the years I've had so much company at Thanksgiving I've gotten out of the tradition of setting a holiday table. There are indeed a lot of excess dishes to clean up and doing buffet style is much simpler . . . but this year I wanted my granddaughters to see how their Father and Uncle celebrated Thanksgiving when they were younger. It's really exciting for me!! Candles, tablecloth, cloth napkins with napkin rings - imagine sitting down together, bowing your head for prayer, then starting at the head and passing the bowls around the table. Yep, it can be a pain but just once I want to do it the old-fashioned way. When I was young we actually sat down at each meal and Dad would be at the head with Mom to his side. He would always start the food around. These were the times when we would get together at the family meal and we would talk about the issues we all had during the day. Sometimes dinner was very uncomfortable because we would wait all day and then it would all come out at the table. Sometimes the very best news was announced at dinner, but always it was a time when family would gather around the table together. Hear me? Together. Doesn't happen a lot these days. Hubby and I started the same tradition in our family and carried it as long and as often as we could. It got harder to do as the world changed and the family was dismissed as not as important as school functions, after-school practice, etc. But we tried to do it as often as we possibly could. Everything changes, I know, but I liked those family times. ------------------------------------- I just finished making three cheeseballs and stashing them in the back of the frig. Never hurts to have 2 or 3 of these babies hanging around when the crew gets rowdy and stomachs start growling!! I've been making what's called a Holiday Cheese Ball recipe given to me by a friend for years and have had no idea at all where she got it and a year or so ago I found it online. I'll put it on my Recipes Page. I got up this morning and went right to it. It was 40 degrees outside and had been drizzling rain, but for now it was actually very nice outside. Such a nice change from the freezing mornings and having to bundle up for the walk out to the barn.
I got busy right away. I put two packages of beef liver on to boil for the dog. Yes, I know you can eat beef liver but it's one of those foods for which neither Hubby nor I have a great appreciation. I remember eating fried beef liver and onions when I was a young girl and it is not one of my more pleasant memories. Hey, I figure the dog has to eat too!!! I also put two medium-sized beef roasts in the oven smothered in Herbes de Provence, flour, salt and pepper. It smelled good before I even got the oven turned on!! I'll fix these up for roast beef sandwiches on Sunday and the rest I'll use to make vegetable soup. I'll get the vegetable soup canned up and I'll have "killed 2 birds with one stone". I am trying to find uses for stuff I've frozen to empty the freezer and it's not as easy as I anticipated. For the vegetable soup I'll use frozen onions, peppers, cabbage, butterbeans, and corn. I've got this little package of broccoli that I'll dump in there too but that hardly counts. The rest of the vegetables are either canned or fresh so that's all I can get out of the freezer for this project. Monday or Tuesday I'll make 3 or 4 loaves of zucchini bread but after that I'll have to stop because I will be preparing for Thanksgiving. Yes, Thanksgiving!!! I can't believe it's next week. It is really sneaking up on me. Either that, or I'm getting older and seem to be taking things more in stride. I can only hope I'm taking things in stride!!! (Don't even mention the "older" part!) Right now I'm "brainstorming". There's a possibility that we will be getting some venison to put in our freezer and I'm trying to figure out what I can pull out of the freezer to have room for the meat. I do have some milk jug containers filled with water for ice that I can take out of the freezer along with some sugar and flour that I've put in there for storage. That should help a little. I am thinking perhaps I should can up a big pot vegetable soup. I only have about 4 or 5 quarts left of the last batch I canned, so that might not be a bad idea. It would put some of the frozen vegetables and some of the older meat to good use. I'm just going to have to think on this. Perhaps going through the freezer and giving it a look-see will give me some ideas.
--------------------------------- Well, I went through the freezer and did indeed pull out most of the milk jugs full of water. I also got some red raspberries out and am going to make some Raspberry Vinaigrette and can it. While I was down deep in the freezer I found 2 pheasant that were lounging around inconspicuously in there and I can't have that! I've decided they will be dinner sometime this week-end. I found some hamburger buns and got them out. I've been making my own bread and buns but we will definitely use these up. Honestly, I must have 15 or 20 bags of shredded zucchini. I'm thinking perhaps I need to get busy baking some zucchini bread. I also need to get busy figuring out some recipes for the numerous bags of yellow squash I've got in the freezer too. I will say this - rechecking my stores makes me feel so very blessed. ------------------------------------ The Raspberry Vinaigrette is absolutely awesome!!! I only had enough juice for 3/4 of a recipe but I am so glad I had that much. It is an extremely tasty dressing. It's got me to thinking about what other kinds of salad dressings I could fix. It's really that good!! I have to admit that Hubby and I raised oodles of red raspberries so there was very little expense involved. That didn't hurt my feelings any either! I got up extra early this morning. Every bone in my body ached. I'm not exactly surprised. After spending a good deal of time running around in the cold yesterday I'm amazed I don't feel worse. It was nice and crisp on my walk out to the barn. Not bitter just crisp. One of my chickens was already on her nest trying to lay an egg. Go girl!! Yesterday I had 1 rubber egg and 1 egg. Yep, that's it!! Not that I didn't have enough in the frig already, I'm just stating it to let you know that the weather is definitely taking its toll on my girls. I pulled a couple ears of corn out of the freezer, warmed and cut them up to feed the chickens along with some carrot and tomato scraps I've been saving in the frig. They ought to really like that. Meanwhile, I've been doing the laundry that should have been finished yesterday! I oiled my dining room table and put down a Fall Tablerunner. I love to change my table decorations up, as anyone who knows me can attest. I especially love the Fall season since my eye is always drawn to oranges, deep crimsons, golds and purples. To most of my friends' chagrin I even painted my kitchen peach. -------------------------------
I spent most of the day downstairs doing laundry, working in my herbs and listening to music, loudly. Hubby disappeared. He can't handle all that loud music but hey, it's just so good!! The chickens gave me five eggs today. It's not only warmer but not nearly as windy and I'm assuming that's why. We're having Eggplant Parmigiana for dinner this evening. This is one of my most favorite meals. I'm German and Irish but I'd swear Italian is in my DNA somewhere!! Talk to you tomorrow. This day has been a do-nothing . . . yet a do-it-all day. One of those days when you've got more than you can say grace over but nothing of absolutely any consequence, yet still needs to get done.
Of course, every morning I get up fix breakfast, feed the chickens and I've also been feeding the horses. It saves Hubby a trip out to the barn and there's no need for both of us to be frozen when I'm going out anyway. Today was laundry day, and oh, how I love Wednesdays (I'm being facetious here - I hope you know)!! After all the laundry was sorted I got cleaned up and had to go to town. I needed to head to the bank, then the grocery store, the pharmacy and the bakery. I do the grocery shopping for the whole month except for a sparse few items that I might run out of during the month, like milk. I had to get extra and special holiday foods today too because Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I have to have everything my granddaughters love on the turkey table. All that required going to 3 different grocery stores and a couple hours later I was all loaded up. Before that though I went to the pharmacy and for some reason it was an extra long wait today but I was patient. Then I dropped by the bakery to pick up Hubby's free "birthday" cookie and saw the absolute cutest turkey cookies and got them for him too. Then I drove to his work and delivered them to him - after perusing the children's toy section and finding a perfectly adorable birthday gift for our littlest granddaughter who will be turning a year older December 1. Off I went to the bank for a little cash. THEN I went grocery shopping. I finally got home, dragged the sacks into the house and put everything up. By the time all the groceries were put up, I was beat. It was nearly 2:00 p.m. and obviously, I wasn't going to get any laundry accomplished. One of my sons called and we talked for awhile, I walked, I fed the horses, the dog and put the chickens to bed and here I am finally typing my blog. I feel as though I've let you all down today but be that as it may - I'M DONE!!!!! |
AuthorMy name is Nina. Southern Indiana has been my home since 1952. I've been a legal secretary most of my adult life and for my leisure time I enjoy everything connected to the world of herbs and cooking is almost like a "fever". I am also quite opinionated but try not to push my opinions on others. My family is grown and I'm left with a wonderful hubby sharing life with me. I'd guess you'd say my passion is living that life to the fullest. Archives
May 2016
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