Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Boy am I stuffed! Today we celebrated at the home of Jeff's paternal grandparents, Jake and Dana. They live in North Brookfield, NY near Jeff's hometown of Waterville. (about an hour away from us)

My father-in-law Daryl is the oldest of 7 children and Jeff is the oldest of 15 grandchildren so there was a packed house, just the way I like it!! 

The food at Jake and Dana's with Jeff's uncles in the background

Caiden and Jeff thinking about getting a 3rd helping

On Tuesday evening we hosted the holiday with my family and Jeff's parents. My brother and sister had places to go today so it's just nice to be able to get everyone together regardless of the day.

 My brother Jason his daughter Nevaeh and my sister Lisa

      Caiden, Rosemary, my brother's fiance Steph and baby Nevaeh

  Proud Poppa

      nom nom nom

One of my all time favorite dishes to serve is Rosemary Sourdough Stuffing I found in my Better Homes and Gardens magazine back in 1996, and have used it ever since. (It's been folded and refolded for years and will eventually fall apart)

Everyone loves it! Give it a try.

ROSEMARY SOURDOUGH STUFFING

 Better Homes and Gardens magazine, November 1996

•3 cups sliced assorted fresh mushrooms, such as shiitake, brown, or white

•1 cup sliced celery

•1 cup chopped onion

•1/2 cup margarine or butter

•1/4 cup snipped parsley

•1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed

•1/2 tsp. pepper

•8 cups dry sourdough bread cubes (*)

•1/2 to 3/4 cup chicken broth

In a large saucepan, cook fresh mushrooms, celery, and onion in hot margarine or butter until celery in tender but not brown; remove from heat. Stir in parsley, dried rosemary, and pepper.

(I omit the pepper and dried rosemary for good ole' Bells Seasoning)

Place dry bread cubes in a large mixing bowl. Add the onion mixture. Drizzle with enough chicken broth to moisten, tossing gently to coat the bread cubes.

Use the stuffing to stuff one 8- to 12-pound turkey or bake separately in a casserole, covered, in a 325 F degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes or in a 375 F degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until heated through. (If the stuffing is baked inside the turkey, the temperature of the cooked stuffing should register at least 165 F degrees in the center.) Makes 8-12 servings.

* To make dry bread cubes for stuffing, cut the bread into 1/2-inch square pieces, You’ll need 12 to 14 slices of bread for 8 cups of dry cubes. Spread in a single layer in a 15 x 10 x 2-inch baking pan. Bake in a 300 F degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until dry, stirring twice; cool. (The bread will continue to dry and crisp as it cools. Or, let stand loosely covered, at room temperature for 8-12 hours.)

I love the holidays! I love being with family and making memories for my son. And that I'm thankful for!!!

The tale of the 105 year old cookbook. weird. weird. weird.

Well, some things are just weird. Period. And here's an example- long story probably made longer.

My husband Jeff is from a small town called Waterville about 60 miles east of Syracuse, New York. I just love small towns, love love love! Everyone knows everyone, a real sense of community! I would like to live there someday when Caiden is off to college.

Anyhoo, I receive emails from Ebay when anything from Waterville comes up for sale. Last year I bought a 1905 Relief Society Cook Book- Revised by the King's Daughters of M. E. Church Waterville, NY.  

     Something old and from Waterville-

had.to.have.it.

 Hand written on the inside cover of the book was-

Miss Mae Hayden Waterville, New York Dec. 20, 1910.

Unfortunately for Jeff I'm not a great cook, but I do like to try recipes now and then. 

A couple of weekends ago I brought the cookbook up to camp with me and let my mother in law Rosemary look through it. It was a rainy cold day so we were all huddled inside with literally nothing else to do!  All of the recipes were written in by women of Waterville long ago and some of the last names are now street names in town. Having lived there all her life Rosemary loved it! We decided to call her mother's sister, 82yr old Aunt Irene, better known as Chuchi (polish for aunt). We put her on speaker phone and Rosemary began to read off some of the names in the cookbook to see if Chuchi knew any of the ladies, seeing as she used to work in the Waterville nursing home way back when. She did know some of them and then preceded to explain where they lived in town and who they where married to. That phone call took about 20 minutes. Then a little bit later we decided to call her again when there were some terms we had never heard of used in some of the recipes, like an iron spider (iron skillet) sweet milk (regular milk) etc. During the course of a day we called her a total of 5 times, all because of this cookbook!

After dinner we had exhausted all our efforts on the cookbook and were going to leave Chuchi alone for the rest of the evening. Or so I thought. I was just thumbing through it again when I came across a Cranberry Nut Bread recipe cut from a newspaper. It was about 7" long by 2.5" wide. It looked to be from the Waterville Times Newspaper, probably 1920s or so. Included in the cut out just below the recipe was an advertisement for a Dry cleaning business which read- "Dry cleaning- quality work on all kinds of garments at lowest prices for first class work. Satisfaction guaranteed. J. L Feuiner. 174 Sanger Avenue Waterville."

                                                              

Rosemary was looking over my shoulder and said "does that say 174 Sanger Ave??" "Yes, why?" "That's Chuchi's house!"  Yup, you read that right, Chuchi's house. Sooooo, we called Chuchi again and let her know that in some random 105 year old cookbook, which by the way we bothered Chuchi about all day long, happened to have a newspaper cut out with her address on it!! Now THAT my friends is WEIRD!!!!!

Halloween 2010- Wrap up!

Well I did it! I finished his mask an hour before he went out trick or treating. I think it came out great if I do say so myself. =)   Here's what I did. At the Salvation Army I found a pair of white cotton lounge pants $3.99 and a white top for $2.99 and because it was pink tag day, both were 50% off! Score! I found a large piece of red felt at the Thrifty Shopper for 25 cents and straw hat for $1.

I made the tie out of the red fabric with some cardboard to give it some weight.

Ouchie, fabric shears are sharp!

Extra fabric used for the hamburgers with ketchup and pickles! I love love love me some McDonald's pickles!! Yum!

I made his cape and mask using the $2.95 black apron and $3 yellow shirt from Walmart.Then I taped off the shirt and pants using the only tape I could find: duct tape. (no pictures of that sorry) Sprayed the hat, shirt and pants with left over fabric paint and voila! There you have it-  a happy teenager!!!

I told him since I injured myself during costume construction that any Twix or Kit Kats would be confiscated from the treat bag!!!

It was about 38 degrees in Upstate New York and hailed twice last night! I made him wear long johns and jeans under his clothes. BBRRR! He had a good time going out with his friends and didn't mind the cold at all. How do kids do it?? How was the weather in your neck of the woods.