Thanksgiving weekend

 

Steam.....from the COOKIN'!!!!

 

1.     Which do you like better: hosting Thanksgiving at your home, or going elsewhere?

  We have never hosted Thanksgiving dinner thanks to FOOTBALL and the fact that we don’t have TV at our house.    End of story.  I would LOVE to host but people don’t want to come to our house because either they want to host at their house and/or they can’t watch football at ours.  Feh

2.     Describe your perfect bite?

A fork full of turkey, mashed potatoes, and a bit of stuffing all dipped in cranberry sauce

3.     White meat or dark?

 OPT?  Other People's Turkeys?  Dark.  I barely like turkey as it is and I find that white meat equates to eating a wool sock.

4.     Do you buy a fresh or frozen turkey? Organic? Free-range?

 Mile’s usually wins a frozen turkey each year at work.  Just the usual run of the mill turkey that we smoke and use for soup.  I would really like to brine, smoke and cook up an organic free range hen sometime.....I may have my chance on Christmas Day this year.  We are putting our feet down and refusing to go to anyone else's house.  They can come to OURS for once.  There's no friggin football on. 

5.     Stuffing with giblets or without?  

 I like pulling out the giblet bag and obnoxiously shoving them in the kids faces.  I used to give them to the dog…..

6.     Sweet potato pie or Pumpkin pie?

 Miles makes a killer pumpkin pie that even I like!  And then we pair it with my famous cranberry/apple pie.  Tradition!

7.     Anything you won’t eat at the Thanksgiving meal?

Turnips.  GGUUHHH, my family always used to make mashed turnips.  One of the few foods that will make me puke.

8.     Carve Mr. Gobble at the table or serve on a platter? 

At the table for chrissakes…a la Clark Griswold.

9.     What side dishes are a must-have in your family?

MASHED-FUCKIN-POTATOES or Momma aint happy.

10.  Do you stick with a particular menu from year to year, or do you mix it up? 

Up until about 4 years ago, when we started going to the T’s house for Turkey/Football day, we mixed it up every year.  Since we had not yet experienced a brined/smoked turkey, the family was HATIN’ on turkey so we made some  alternative dinners!  We did fondue with homemade won tons, shrimp, and veggies….with the traditional Thanksgiving  sides a couple years in a row.  One year we roasted some cute Cornish game hens and made stuffing with oysters.  Maybe a ham once……..

11.  Are leftovers a blessing or a curse? 

Turkey Soup on a cold Alaska night is always a blessing!  Just throw the mashed potatoes in and make it thicker!  Cranberry/turkey sammiches…What’s so cursey about that?

12.  Formal table or Chinet?

 Paper plates?  Really?  Not unless we had, like, 50 guests.  My momma taught me better than that.  Lazy, wasteful, tacky and did I say LAZY?

13.  Your menu:  If I got to host?!?!

Organic free range hen.  Miles would brine and smoke it.

My amazaballs oyster stuffing

MASHED-FUCKIN-PO-TA-TOES that Miles makes to perfection

My phenomenal cranberry chutney

My Brussel sprouts with craisins and Gorgonzola, a new family fav

         Miles's homemade bread with Willa’s homemade butter

 

 

White wine, a Gewurztraminer or pinot grigio….and, of course, red wine.  Marziano Abbona San Luigi Dolcetto di Dogliani, Piedmont, 2010

14.  Extended family, friends, both or just the immediate family for dinner? 
I would really enjoy having both!  My mom and Pops and some good friends! And folks who don't have families to celebrate with....

15.  Is Thanksgiving a religious or secular holiday in your home? 

Neither, but it’s a spiritual day.  Even if I just have to grab at the few quiet moments to inwardly give thanks and breathe in the wonder of it all….everything we are blessed with….  It’s also  a chance for me to help my children(well, it's just Willa now) find the grace in giving pause to be thankful.  A time of openly sharing what means the most to each of us, to acknowledged the TRUE origin of this holiday, to hold in reverence the native peoples of this land that have suffered at the hands of those who would conquer and destroy.  It IS a spiritual day….despite the eats, drinks, and screaming at the tube.

 

16.  After dinner, do you go to the latest movie or watch football on TV or just a turkey induced snooze?

Football before, during and after…..feh.  As much as I HATE when the chicks hang with the chicks and the guys hang with the guys at social events, this year while our men occupied the man cave, the women folk and children gathered about to play Scattegories.  We had a GREAT time, lots of laughing and silliness and some seriously creative answers!  So glad I stayed upstairs to play.  And I DID get in the obligatory after-turkey nap.

 

17.  Do you watch the Macy’s Parade?   

Haven’t watched it since I was a kid!  But EVERYTHING is so commercialized and corporatized anymore.....

18.  Christmas decorations up before or after?

The weekend after Thanksgiving is traditionally when we fuck up our backs hauling up the decs from the crawlspace.  By Sunday evening the tree is up, lit, and ornamentized and the rest of the house sporting our wacky mish-mash of holiday fare.

19.  Black Friday shopping or sleep in. 

 Fuck.Black.Friday.  You have to be a real douche to buy into that shit.  And even douchyer to go out on Thanksgiving!  What’s the popular meme this year?  ““Black Friday: Because only in America, people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.”   Disgraceful.  Curmudgeonly rant over.

20.  Favorite Thanksgiving memory?

So many!  The year Miles dropped a pan of green bean almondine on the floor and implemented the 5 second rule-dude’s FAST!-and then later almost caught the dinner table on fine.  …not so much Miles’s fondest memory.  I thought it was a knee slapper, though!  And when we had T-Day dinner at home, we always had a blast at the post-gorge neighborhood sledding party!  Sad now that so many of the kids are over 18….and that the hosts of the sledding party have moved.  L sigh……

       
21.  Picture taker or memory maker?  BOTH!  My drunken antics sparklin’ personality and camera skills make for lovely memories both tangible and ethereal.   ~hic....

This years Thanksgiving was almost complete...with a cold bright morning to trek over to our friend's house in, a hearty workout on the ski trails, hot showers, Baileys and coffee, happy chatter, snuggling with my hunny, kids playing, cooking, eating, football, games and the yearly performance put on by the kids.  The only thing missing was Dylan.  Our first Thanksgiving without her.  Willa burst into tears at the dinner table when our friend mentioned Dylan during grace. She really struggled not to.  I saw the corners of her mouth quiver downward like they do when emotion is making it's way up...she turned her eyes to the ceiling in an attempt to stave off the tears while Todd spoke.  She glanced over at me and I offered a knowing smile....and that was it.  I walked Willa to the bathroom where she buried her head in my chest and let out what she had held in since her sister left.   I hope it was cathartic and clearing for her.  I hope Dylan knows how fortunate she is to have so much love around her.  And that she is missed.

Halibut and shrimp turkeys for the vegetarian in the group!

The formerly obligatory, eye-rollable, VERY chaotic and off-the-cuff yearly T-Day performance by the kids was actually enjoyable this year!  I can't believe they put together a really cute musical about 3 little turkeys AND included the token boy under 10 in the creativity!  The girls also choreographed a lovely dance to Katy Perry's Legendary Lovers.  Willa isn't your typical play dress up and shake her booty kind of kid....but the dance was so sweet...the kids so innocent...it was a struggle to hold in tears.

Three little turkeys terrified of the hungry farmer!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........................


The rest of our Thanksgiving weekend was spent skiing in wonderland, seeing the Nutcracker ballet in Anchorage, playing games in front of the warm fire, making cookies, putting winterlights up outside, finishing up  the inside decorations, and watching Christmas movies.  And snuggling.  Lots of that.

 

The Game of Life.....New York Life style!

 

My favorite Holiday movie....absolutely timeless and lovely and relevant today. 



A wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Zero degrees and sun-kissed trees

As always, an abundance of things to be so grateful for....and a wonderful day with friends to remind us that gratitude should be acknowledged on EVERY day... I hold strong in my heart a commitment to give a moment of time each day to take inventory and offer thanks.

Over the river and through the woods that morning we drove to our friends, the T's, house for a full day of cross-country skiing, football, visiting and eating.  I LOVED that we started our day with  good, hard, most fabulous skiing up on the Powerline/Blueberry hollow trails!  It was so beautiful...gently snowing...the mountains around us were obscured, forcing us to appreciate the immediate beauty around us.  It felt SO good to get that fresh air and exercise, come back to a hot shower, relax with an adult beverage and not feel guilty about the big meal to be consumed!  Those people that I've always seen out running, skiing, biking, etc. on the morning of a big holiday?  They got it goin' on!  It made the day THAT much more sweeter....a feeling of having really earned it!

The rest of our 4 day weekend was spent with friends-testing the wine we brewed together a couple years ago, skiing, snow shoeing, watching movies, and decorating the house for the holidays.

Leaning tower of cranberry sauce

Hillside view from our friend's home

The obligatory Thanksgiving nap

Eats at the ready

Pre-dinner dress up

The innards of my apple-cranberry pie

Decanted wine awaiting our verdict.  Needs to grow for a couple more years!

Amazing alpenglow from our house

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We certainly have a lot to be grateful for.

Lo and I had fun making corn husk dolls to represent each of us for the place settings and Dea set up a beautiful table for our feast. We also made a bunch of leaf cut outs and put one thing we are thankful for on each one. I strung them up to look like falling leaves. We broke out the dinning room table and chairs from the shed. We don't have a dinning room-we gave it up so that Lo could have a bedroom. We just eat on the island in the kitchen but for holidays and entertaining use the old dinning room set. I can't wait to get a big-ass "last supper" table for future feasting and entertaining when we build our addition! Later, we dove into the bowels of the basement to bring out all our Holiday decorations and we'll spend the next couple of days decorating the house for Solstice and Christmas.

We didn't do anything too "out there" food wise like in years past. We've been known to do fondues, rack of lamb, and skirt steak. But since Huz won a turkey through work we figured we'd take a shot a smoking it. As beautiful and tender as it looked and as amazing as it smelled, we all just decided we're not turkey people.

Next year we'll try Cornish games hens or perhaps a duckin(minus the tur). The rest of our meal was scrumptious. We all partook of some serious homemade goodness. Dea made the most killer pumpkin cookies(and I'm not a big pumpkin fan).

As a our turkey was finishing up in the smoker around midnight, Huz was making his famous cinnamon rolls for the next morning.

Cinnaomn roll Dracula

This year I made a pie for the first time-apple cranberry and the Huz (a former pastry chef) said it beat his. The ultimate compliment! I also made a rockin stuffing with oysters and gorgonzola. We had the usual cranberry sauce, mashed taters, green beans with hazelnuts, and Huz's fresh baked rosemary bread. And Jazz on the sterio with a chocolaty 1994 Cab.

To work it all off we headed outside for the Annual Neighborhood Thanksgiving Sledding. Our neighbors down the street erect a humongous bonfire and everyone sleds from the top of our road down into the neighbor's driveway, making a sharp turn (hopefully!) at the corner of their garage and proceeding to blast down into the back yard! And someone always drives the Green Machine with 2 long ropes hanging out the back in order to pull a gaggle of sledders up to the top of the road. Good times!

Then, with appetites re-stoked, it's back home for pie and eggnog, a reading of the Thanksgiving story(a good one I got from Lo's school-with more emphasis on the Native Americans) and the start of singing Christmas songs for lullabies.


*Regarding my inquiry into the the truth about the Thanksgiving story, I stumbled upon this one, "Why I Hate Thanksgiving". MUST READ. Your thoughts?

Our future Thanksgivings will also include honoring those Native Americans who perished in genocide, and those who experienced degradation, slavery and displacement.

Native American Dice

This is a game the kids love to break out around Thanksgiving, right about the time that we're watching "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving". If you have the DVD, there is a goofy extra called "The Mayflower Voyagers" which tells the story of the Pilgrims' journey to the New World. I've barely touched the surface of the "Pilgrims and Indians" theme with Lo because I'm still not positive that that whole story on which this holiday is based, was the happy tale of unity and compassion that is so prevalently depicted . I read A Peoples History of the United States years ago and was troubled by the section on the Pilgrims. It portrayed them as opportunists who didn't hesitate to use force to take over land occupied by Native Americans. In the past I've looked for further info on this but didn't find much. If anyone is up to speed on the REAL story of Thanksgiving(as well as Columbus), please contact me! I'm not into teaching my children the public school sugar coated version of the truth!
In explaining the Pilgrim story to Lo, I've focused mainly on the Native Americans and how they lived peacefully and prosperously on the land and how they were willing to share with the Pilgrims who were struggling. Beyond that, Thanksgiving, to us, represents just that... A holiday of Giving Thanks for what we have.

This Native American game of dice fits well with the Thanksgiving themes that work for our family's yearly tradition. I discovered the game a few years ago when I spent a summer working with kindergartners at a camp. I brought the idea home to Dea and we made our first "edition" out of popsicle sticks and seashells. Now, years later, it was time to give Lo the chance to make the game and i thought it would be fun to use the more traditional materials. She loved the whole process of gathering sticks outside, stripping them of bark, drying them by the fire, sanding them and so forth. A really great tactile experience as well as a lesson in history, economics and counting! Anyway, I'd love to share this simple but engaging game.

Materials we used:

10 "counting" sticks per player-no more than 8 inches long
Sandpaper
Sharpies in various colors
6 walnut shell halves(these will be your dice!)
Modeling beeswax or Sculpy
Seed beads, tiny seeds, pebbles, bits of sea shell

What we did:

We stripped the bark off the sticks and then sanded them to bring out the lighter color of the wood. You can also use a pocket knife to whittle tough bark off or even leave some bark on for interesting patterns. Make sure to sand the ends of the sticks.

We then created designs on the sticks with the sharpies. You can be as creative as you want or go traditional with simple geometric designs such as bands, diagonal lines and dots. We left a few of our sticks natural and just polished them with beeswax polish.

Next, we carefully broke open our walnut shells with a small spreading knife. I hear an oyster shucker works great to get the nut open- leaving both halves in tact! Our method only allowed us to keep one half whole while the other side broke. We also discovered that Lo likes walnuts! Another food to add to Miss Picky's list!

We used a nut pick to dig out the nuts and scrape clean the shell.

I decided to also sand the edges of the shells.

After putting my hands through torture trying to warm up and soften the beeswax(you'd think I'd have no problem being a massage therapist!) we filled the inside of the shells with it to the brim.

Then we decorated the undersides of the shells with our seed beads.

How to play the game:
Each person starts with 10 counting sticks each. The first player tosses the 6 dice. The score depends on how the dice land.
All the flat sides of the shells up or all flat sides down=2 sticks

Half the shells up and half down=1 counting stick

All other combinations=0 sticks

The first player collects the number of sticks indicated from the second player. The second player then repeats the process. The game is over when one player has all the sticks! This game can take quite awhile, as each person's fortune rises and falls unpredictably! If your little ones have a hard time with the length of the game, they can always play with fewer counting sticks.

With the dice Dea made a few years ago, we labeled each counting stick to represent something of traditional Native American value. Some of the valuable items were a horse, a tee-pee, one tanned skin, etc. Since we are Alaskans, we incorporated such Alaska Native items as mukluks, qiviut, snow goggles, a kayak, and a fur. I think this made the game more interesting with another dynamic! It was always a bummer to loose your horse or kayak, but you could live without goggles or qiviut. It was a challenge to get those certain valuables back! Go ahead and add your own ideas to the game, it's fairly open ended with room for imagination! Enjoy!