Always on Plan B!!!

Nothing in our Thanksgiving plan went as planned but it still turned out great!  We had some invitations to join others for their feasts but opted to stay home, relax, and do our own cooking.  Just the two of us!  We looked forward to hearing from our children and just cooking a traditional dinner, somewhat downsized (like a teeny but tasty 3# turkey breast that I'd bought at Safeway ages ago and had them in our freezer).  

I even braved Safeway the day before the big day to get some last minute items.  I decided to not do that sort of silliness again!!!  so many people.  it was like being stuck in traffic on the free way.  

The plan was that Terry would do his usual cooking of some side dishes and I'd do the other more basic dishes.  He wanted to try something new....a Buttermilk pie!  He wanted to make a favored bean salad.  Then we sorted through all sorts of things that we've made/make like oyster loaf, sweet spuds, mashed spuds, gravy, dressing, cranberry salad and on and on.  We planned on eating around 2pm.

The plans of mice and men do change things and that is what happened to all our grand plans for a meal fit for royalty and large enough for the entire kingdom (we'd decided to freeze the leftovers and make TV dinners!)  The mice won!!

He found evidence of a mouse in the house and more specific in the shelves in our food room.  Granted it's not a room.  It's shelves in a room but we call it the food room.  So he announced that he would need to empty out EVERY SINGLE OUNCE OF FOOD, check it, clean it, check dates for expiration etc. etc.  We are obedient in storing commodities so this was a major task.  I was glad that he jumped on his white horse and charged forth and I took the role of fair damsel while he slaved.  Hours on end.

Sidetracking here.  Once in awhile in my food storage frenzy I will think about my neighbors and feeding others.  Terry raised a quizzical doubtful eyebrow, when he found these gigantic cans of spaghetti sauce and tomato paste and black olives and a case of marinara sauce and a case of tomatoes and oh, yes...coffee creamer.  Take a number and get to end of the line if you are hungry for tomato soup when we need food and the stores are short!!

The best sport in the world!!!

Let the hunt begin!!! 

Every couple needs 6#'s of Tomato Paste....

and a case of marinara sauce and tomatoes.....

plus 6#'s  Spaghetti Sauce!!!!

 On Thanksgiving day, he started in again, on his pest control.  And I became chief cook and bottle washer.  I enjoyed the puttering and fixing and all that goes with putting familiar foods together.  It took me 3 hours but I can say I enjoyed every single minute.  Usually he is the main cook (by choice) and I do a few more ordinary things like salads, table setting etc.. those sort of things but today it was nice to just do the cooking myself.  I didn't do his bean salad and he never made the Buttermilk pie but we had so much of everything else that we definitely weren't in want for a single thing.

During that time I thought of you and wondered what you were cooking and eating and doing.  I thought of my children.  A lot.

The older I get the more I realize that the time they are all at home is just priceless, never to be retrieved, once in a lifetime time period that is worth it's weight in gold.  It's a time when no one has to figure out if they'll be home as they all live there 24/7.  Once they leave it's really hard to get everyone back together and many of us aren't fortunate to have family in the same town.

I wish that I'd taught my kiddo's how to make some quirky recipe or traditional dish in our family while they lived at home.  In our house it would be Poor Man's Mush or Sausage/Gravy with biscuits or oyster loaf- that might be classed a bit different, just by virtue of what it is.  Sourdough pancakes or Whole Wheat bread.  I never taught them bread and Terry never taught them Sourdough pancakes. Our children have called asking how to make Poor Man's Mush or Sourdough Pancakes.  Even when David was here, in October, for Terry's birthday,  he asked for a lesson in how to do it.  And that isn't the first time.  This milk/flour porridge is so enjoyed by our children and not a one knows how to really make it.  I think they enjoy it!! Now that would have been a nice gift to leave home with!!  A part of their childhood memories.  

So I thought about you and how nice it would be if you watch for something, a little different that you cook or something that you consistently do together, in the food world....bake cookies or fudge or whatever.  do it often enough so that it becomes a tradition and teach your children to make it and when they leave- they have that tucked in their back pocket, tied in a hanky, like a little stash of home.

Oh, I'm am so nostalgic and sentimental and all that but that is my nature and make-up!!  

So we had planned a full blown Broadway Hit Musical for our Thanksgiving celebrating and ended up instead with a Reader's Theater!  I love all sorts of drama productions and this one was a hit also!!!  Plan B...once again!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have you ever read this?  By George Washington. 1789.  President George Washington.  (there is an easier to read copy- below the original) It is beautiful and this partial line had me comparing it, to the current reality of our wonderful country,  and brought tears to my eyes.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

....“to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”...

Thanksgiving Proclamation - The Original

Thanksgiving Proclamation

Issued by President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favor, able interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other trangressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go. Washington