Thanksgiving and Then Some

Good morning my dear readers! Thanks for stopping by! It is a cold day here in Murphy, NC, to the tune of 38 degrees at 11am, however, and this is a BIG however, the sun is finally shining again. Plenty of rain and gray skies has been our norm of late, although Thanksgiving was a beautiful day for which we were grateful.

We are living and learning as it pertains to plants in this climate. One might be tempted to think we should have been practicing common sense, but one would be wrong in some instances. I did bring this plant indoors and what is so remarkable to me about it is that it is blooming much more vigorously than it was in the warm weather. Go figure. 

The Lowe's ad for Black Friday contained poinsettias and we fell for it hard. Fortunately they were but one dollar a piece because by Shop Small Saturday, they looked like this.

Not just one but two urns like the above!! Live and learn is a good motto to follow, especially the learning part. 😀

As was probably the case for some of you, grocery store runs were more frequent than typical in the days before Thanksgiving. On one such trip I saw that yeast was on sale so I picked up a pack and at the same time noticed that Fleishman's has a pizza dough yeast. Well, why not try it, especially because it requires no rising time?

I've got to say, I am sold! It was crazy easy to work with and while the taste was not as robust as had it proofed, it was excellent for a homemade pizza on a cold winter's night! It was so easy a child could make one with ease so my advice to you is check it out should you be a pizza lover! 

Despite me saying a cold winter's night, we are still several weeks away from the official start of winter. They filled up our gigantic propane tank about two weeks ago and I keep wondering how long it will last. As you may recall, it supplements the electric power when it gets/stays cold. This upcoming summer we must remember to buy propane because by the time he came to fill it in early November the price had risen significantly. Another live and learn scenario. What a blessing to have new opportunities for learning, right? It, and the multitude of stairs is keeping us youngish. Yup, youngish because as I type I am thinking of a multitude of folks we either know personally, or through others, who are 90+! Living another twenty years seems impossible, but then again, why not? 

Because Bruce and I were celebrating Thanksgiving as a couple this year, my kitchen duties were not so much that when D'Anna asked if I wanted to ride down to Elijay in order for her to pick up a Honey-Baked ham, I was, let's do it!! It had been quite a number of months since last I was in a larger town and it felt sort of weird  to me, seeing all manner of chain stores, including HBH.

One reason I agreed to go was because, and this will probably sound crazy to some, but I wanted to visit their large thrift store where I was hoping to find some new things for the bookshelves and a mirror for over the fireplace something I have mentioned ad nauseam. Not being much of a thrifter, despite that it was not much in her realm of experience, she agreed to take me there. She has been in a Goodwill a time or two so not completely a novice, but definitely not one with thrift in the name! Well shoot, it was closed for Thanksgiving! We decided to head to Blue Ridge where there are thrift stores and lunch. Way past lunch time, when we got out of the car after being fortunate to find a parking space, I saw a pub right there and I suggested we try it. The streets of Blue Ridge were teeming with tourists so eating at an out of the way place made sense to me. Another new experience for her, going to a pub and adding to that, eat at the bar! One of the things that I so like about her is she finds great pleasure in simple things, something I think I do as well. So, birds of a feather and all that.....

The menu was extremely limited, so with few choices she ordered fish and chips and I had chicken tenders. The owner was the bartender and we learned after a while not to ask too many questions. A woman sat down next to me who owns a big brewery across the street and knows him as sort of cranky. It was she who told us as much. She also said he was once an Irish Catholic priest who found a different calling. 

That would be him behind the bar because according to our new acquaintance; that's the only way he likes it.  At any rate, it was a new experience for her and maybe one day she will sit at the bar with intention. 

Once she dropped me back at our sweet house on Campbell Street, I got to work making Bruce's apple pie for Thanksgiving. Really, it is not workto me so perhaps I should say that I began a pleasurable experience, peeling lots of apples, making a crust and hoping for the best on getting it off the was paper!!

The apples were local from Mercier orchards in Blue Ridge. 

Our menu was a simple one, made even simpler because we only bought a turkey breast which was most certainly a first for me. Gosh, the big dinners I once made! So many people! To combat dryness, I made a compound butter, using fresh herbs from our little garden, including parsley that for some reason had not frozen, along with rosemary that has been robust and hopefully will make it through the winter this year. As well I made the simplest cranberry relish, one I have grown to love. You know the one....three ingredients and for some folks they use a food processor but not having one, the grinding function on my thrift store blender made a find stand in. Oh yea, an orange, a bag of cranberries and a cup of sugar.

Bruce started to take a photo of the table, so I took a photo of him taking said photo.

Bruce's favorite dressing turned out well, as did the green beans with lemon zest and almonds. Shockingly, the turkey was way better than I expected. Another star of that show were the mashed potatoes, nearly my all time favorite food. I believe I read an America's Test kitchen post that claimed that rather than cutting potatoes into chunks, cut fat slices instead. Not only did they cook faster, but they just mashed so well. Thus, a new tip you may want to try to add to the pizza yeast trick!

Pretty much as soon as Bruce was in the kitchen washing the dishes, I was gathering the Thanksgiving decorations making way for Christmas! Having only four tubs in our upstairs closet made it easy. I would rummage through and find things to carry downstairs, including two second-hand goods. 

In some regards it almost makes me sad to think how many hours it took someone to do the cross stitch on this placemat as well as the two others, along with three red napkins, for $1.25. May she, and I am only assuming it was a she, never learn how little her work was valued. 

The tiny lamp was a Christmas present to us because we love little, and think that after the paint dries, it will look sweet on the bookcase. 

Now because we are going to Florida for a few weeks, Bruce was not terribly excited about putting up the tree, but his love for me prevailed and we now have a beautiful tree.

I don't expect anyone to remember how last year, after having the tree up for about a week, all of the pre-lit lights went out, forcing us to undecorate and put on new lights. (Google thinks undecorate is not a word but Google has never had the pain/pleasure of undecorating before! Maybe it isn't a word but for our purposes we will stick with it.) You are seeing the aftermath of Bruce's efforts to cut off the previous lights.

This is but a fraction of what he cut off!! 

And now the living room looks like this, including the finished second bookcase behind the television!!

Vancouver taught us the power of Christmas tree lights on gray and gloomy days.  (one of a ton of posts from Vancouver should you be interested)

Friday afternoon, on Black Friday I walked into town with the intention of shopping local for as many Christmas gifts as possible. My first stop was a winner, and not only did I buy two gifts, but I received some Murphy dollars, if you will.

Ignore the expiration date because I promptly spent the one I earned that day at another shop. So far, so local. 

I did see this going through the town sometime last week.

Look at that gray sky! In addition to the sky, take a look at our brand new pavers and grass!! It is so exciting! The project that has marred downtown's appearance for most of the year is nearing completion and it is turning out lovely. 

Below is a first for me. Saturday morning, the mop I'd left in pine sol water on the back porch was frozen!

Live and learn Gail, live and learn.

We were there for Shop Small Saturday and we will be there for the rescheduled Christmas tree lighting which will be held tomorrow night rather than Friday because of....you guessed it, predicted rain on Friday night. Hopefully folks will see the notice and we will have a good crowd.

I will be sure to let you know!

your friend,

Gail

p.s. life got in the way and I am finishing this at 6pm.