Cranberries

Fresh Picks packed a pint of fresh cranberries in our delivery this past Tuesday, giving me no excuse to pick up a can of the jellied stuff at Dominick's. So, on Wednesday night I stood in the kitchen looking at them, remembering all of the different ways Mom had made cranberry sauce over the years (with orange rind, with different spices, etc.) and wondered if I had a recipe on my shelf somewhere. My go-to book, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters, lacked a cranberry sauce recipe (surprisingly), but sitting next to it was an old worn book that I'd never turned to for actual cooking guidance.


This was a cookbook given to my grandmother by her friends in the Navy just before she left to marry my grandfather on Christmas Eve 1944 after knowing him for 7 weeks (!). (I can still hear the way she would say, "It was wartime!") The inscriptions inside are the best part:


"No scorched biscuits! No scorched pans! And always watch out for those lily white hands!"
"Here's to better toasted cheese sandwiches."
"Don't forget the Baked Alaska! Lots of happiness and Good Luck."

"Don't let this book stand in the way of your happiness - make tea."
"The best of everything to you - you are really swell."


And the cranberry sauce? It was perfect! And, to be honest, the only part of the meal that Christopher was actually interested in (other than the pie filling, but of course)!

Thanks

The air smells like pumpkin pie right now. I'm cozied up on the couch with my darling (aka. my MacBook :), and I have a cup of black tea with milk at my side. We may see a teeny bit of snow later on. The sky is a wintery gray with lots of spindly, bare tree branches clouding my view. The boys are sleeping because a) that's what the littler one does everyday at this time, and b) the bigger one has the stomach flu.

And so... our Thanksgiving dinner will come tomorrow, and that's okay. I'm grateful that we're not travelling when one of us is feeling so Icky. And relieved that we're not bringing the Ick to someone else's table.

Earlier this month we spent time in California; all of us in Southern California for a big birthday celebration and then C and I in Northern California where Mike was missed (again!). All of the friends and family we visited are fresh in our minds today. Though we miss our friends and family, the wonders of Skype will allow us to say hello and see the faces that we might have chatted with had we flown elsewhere.

This is my most favorite holiday because it centers around people and food. Not stuff. (Just stuffing!) It's a time to think about the little things and the big things. A time to openly proclaim one's gratitude for the comforts of a home, the stability of a job, the rosy cheeks of a baby and the warm arms of a beloved relative. The only material competition might be something along the lines of "whose turkey is the juiciest?" or "to have whipped cream or ice cream or that frozen-marshmallow-stuff with my pie?" These are serious considerations made sweeter when I think of how lucky I am to even be considering them.

On our table (tomorrow night):
- Turkey. Mike is going to BBQ it, Mike Beltran-style. Hey, it's only going to be 31 degrees out there, not like it's single digits or anything. And! This is the first time we will have cooked meat since early August. We're a 99% veggie household these days. It's nice.
- Cornbread stuffing. Let's see... this year it has cornbread (duh), onions, celery, a little Italian sausage (again with the veggie thing flying right out of the window in the name of Thanksgiving), mushrooms, apples, veg broth, parsley, rosemary. Should have added that fennel in the bottom of the fridge. Maybe to beef up the leftovers. Pun intended.
- Cranberry sauce. Details tomorrow.
- Roasted brussels sprouts, carrots, and parsnips. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast. Easy.
- Garlic mashed potatoes. Mike would be very vocal about his disappointment if I didn't make these.
- Pumpkin pie. Williams Sonoma Pie & Tart book recipe (a go-to source given to me by Auntie Jenny at my bridal shower), with a slight mod (but, of course). I added a dash of cardamom (there's your kardemumma, Kate)! Let's see if we even notice. This recipe is a favorite because it is a real custard pie made from cream and eggs with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and freshly ground nutmeg.

Here's the cheesy part: I hope that what is most prevalent on our table is Gratitude and Love. And, why not? That's what the holidays should be about, I think. To wit: my mom recently told me a story about a Thanksgiving dinner we had growing up that sounded straight out of a Chevy Chase National Lampoon movie. My addition to the evening was to tell everyone that we should all be thankful for the dinner we had because there were people out there who didn't have anything to eat for dinner (in so many words, or less). I was what - 8? Despite the irreverence and cynicism for which I am so well-known, it turns out that this very basic level of Gratitude has been there from the beginning.

So, go forth and in between bites of turkey and pie... feel all that Gratitude wash over you. It's pretty awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving from our corner of the world to you and yours!

xo,
MM&C

Rabbit noggin

Funny how the addition of a third biped in the house can so drastically cut down on my blogging time... and naps are still in transition (regretfully, I understand that the 2-to-1 thing can take months, as it is around here), so my double opportunity for laundry, phone calls, home office stuff, etc. is often narrowed down to the afternoon. But hey! He still naps!

Oh, did I mention we decided to paint the interior of our house? Yes! Out with the severe reds and blues and in with the cooler, subtler puttys and greens. Being unable to resist saving a buck (or a couple thousand), we took on the project ourselves. Christopher is *not* helping, which means a single room is usually a 3-4 night ordeal. From 7:30pm-11:30pm we prep and tape (trim touch ups will come later), the next night we prime (replacing dark colors with light requires extra diligence here), and then we paint (cut in, roll, repeat). We are lucky to have a few built ins and some interesting lines in our main living spaces. As painters, we are not grateful for this.

Halloween was fun with several perfectly young-toddler-appropriate celebrations. On October 23rd, my parents' group - The Parent Circle - threw a party replete with a toilet paper roll station (yep, a whole corner filled with rolls of tp for the unrolling), cupcake decorating, toys, and obnoxious kiddie music. Christopher was interested for about 15 minutes and then decided he'd rather stretch his legs outside, so Mike joined several other dads (of 12-18 month olds!) and their wee ghosts and goblins for an autumnal stroll (chase?) outside. Yay for adult drinks and mama-visiting-time!

Christopher wore his costume to the following week's Wiggleworms class, and then again to our weekly Thursday playgroup, and finally on Halloween itself. Instead of trick-or-treating - he has many years of that ahead of him! - we joined favorite friends Rosie and Scott and their 1-year-old Finn for s'mores and hot chocolate over their little firepit in their backyard. We were home and warmed up again by 5:45pm. Perfect. When was the last time you had a s'more? I recommend Hershey's Dark. It's deeee-licious.

All this to say, we've been so busy that I realized yesterday afternoon as C and I rode out the side gate for a few errands via bike that I still haven't told Mike about the decapitated rabbit head that's on the parking strip alongside our house. Gross, man. I think it's been there for about 5 days now. And I'll bet Mike's been coming in and out of the gate on his way to/from work at such a lightning speed that HE hasn't noticed it, either.