Golden Sunday Morning

It's a quiet Novemeber morning and we are getting into the week before Thanksgiving. Menu planning is in high gear. Going to start to get out some of my special Thanksgiving serving pieces and my Johnson Bros. turkey dishes.Might do a fast polish on the silver, iron a few of my brown and orange gingham napkins, pick some rose hips and make a wreath for the door...that sorta thing. I got this new book yesterday while I was at Barnes and Noble "The Elegance of The Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery.I love what it said on the inside cover. " This is a moving, witty, and redemptive novel that exhalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous amoung us." Well, that got my attention. I also took up crotcheting this week. I picked up some white organic cotton yarn and a crotchet hook at Michaels ...watched a You Tube video on the chain stitch and I am off.The postcard of Thansgiving is an old vintage one that has been sitting in my kitchen window for the month of November and the big turkey is from the cover of an old menu dated 1915. Now we need to set the date to go and do a little Thanksgiving grocery shopping. John and I make a big deal out of getting the turkey every year. We go out to lunch and then go to the market. Suppose to rain here on Thursday...that would be the perfect day. We'll make it Thursday.

Red Plaid Blankets

The first picture is a photograph of a picture I have in my home. I keep it up all year round. I love Thanksgiving. Every year I cruise all the foodie magazines..trying to come up with new and exciting ways to make mashed potaoes and stuffing. But this year I am going another way. The kind of Thanksgiving we had as kids. You know the one, nothing is made out of Gourmet magazine. I did buy the Novemeber Gourmet..being it is the last issue and all. R.I.P. But I am more in the mood for the other book. Gourmet Wine Cooking. The Easy Way. It's not that I'm looking for the easy way out...I just am in the mood for the other.Below is my menu for Thanksgiving this year. The Thanksgiving dinner you would find at grandma's house up in Maine. And see the red plaid blanket. That's what I want on my bed on Thanksgiving Eve in my bedroom while I am staying in Maine...waiting for Thanksgiving Day. The blanket is actually one I have thrown over my red wing backed chair. They are camp blankets from up in Maine. That's where I got them. That's were I wish I was for Thanksgiving. I'll once again...pretend.

Thanksgiving In Maine Menu 2009

Roast Turkey with herb, spinach and sausage stuffing
Cranberry Salad with walnuts and Limbertwig apples
Green bean casserole
Mashed potatoes
Roasted yams with pecans,butter and cinnamon
Cranberry Sauce
Pan gravy
Biscuits

Gopher Glen Cinnamon Spice apple pie

Grammy and Grampe

Childhood

As little kids grammy and grandpe always had these little tins around the house at the holidays.With the little butter cookies that had the sugar sprinkles on top. They sure aren't anything that you would find in the Willams-Sonoma catalog..and I guess therein lies the charm.I got this yesterday at the grocery store in the holiday section. Having this tiny tin sitting on my drainboard during the holidays always reminds me of those happy childhood days of waiting for Santa. The house all decorated for Christmas. Grandpe always had a fire in the fireplace. Fruitcakes from the neighbors sat in tins on the counter. Grandpe eating a slice every morning with his coffee exclaiming it to be the "best fruitcake Mary Alice had ever made." My grandparents have been gone for many years now, and when grammy died my brother Mark and I went out to the store room and found all of the boxes that held the Christmas decorations at the house in Los Gatos. And as I was going throught it, I thought to myself, why this is a box of just some old dime store ornaments and tinsel. Nothing special...alot of it plastic..you know, reindeers with glitter, snowmen with the carrot nose broken off, socks with stains and holes,the tinsel thin and smashed to one side.Construction paper chains Mark and I had made. A piece of brown paper in the shape of your hand and drawn with crayons to look like a turkey. A bouquet of plastic poinsettias with gold sparkle,candles that had a fake flame on the tip..all melted from spending the summer in the store room .Everthing in those boxes was tattered and old. But as kids..we thought it was MAGIC.Our eyes glowed with wonder and amazement at the tree and decorations every year.And I thought, as kids you don't know or care about what store the decorations came from, how much they cost and were they fancy..... or not. Did they come from places like Gumps in San Francisco or those charming Christmas shops in Carmel? No, none of that mattered. It doesn't matter to kids. It's just the feeling of home and family that really matters. Still does.

Butter Love

There it is. Isn't that just the greatest looking crock of butter. We just couldn't pass it up. You can refill it so I can always have it in my refrigerator. Everytime I open the door, my eyes go right to it.....

Girls Day Out

Sharon and I have been friends for nearly 40 years. I was the first person to work in her shop in Cambria called "Heart's Ease". It was the best job I ever had. I learned about herbs and gardening and all things New England. And I was hooked. Forever.And now all these years later I am still "pretending" that I live in New England. Sharon and Jeff live half of the year here in San Luis Obispo and half at their cottage in Christmas Cove, South Bristol, Maine. So we miss seeing each other for about six months every year. Sharon and Jeff are home.... and it was girls day out. We have a mutual friend, Susie Bassetti who came "over the hill" from Cambria to meet us for lunch in Paso Robles. We ate at "Artisan" and we had a lovely time. Susie brought us each homemade foccacia and olive bread made from the olives on their farm. Lucky us ! After lunch, Susie had to get back to tend to things at the farm and Sharon and I headed out for a late fall drive. Just to catch up. Girls-style.

Vineyard Drive, Paso Robles, CA

After lunch Sharon and I took a drive to one of our favorite places.Vineyard Drive. It takes you out into an area called The Adelaide. It is a drive where you find yourself amoung vineyards and wineries and farmhouses and barns. And we had a beautiful afternoon. The sky was a buttermilk sky. Big high clouds shading the bright sun, the vineyards were in full fall color, the crush for this year was winding down. Walking into the wineries you could smell grapes and damp leaves. In the distance red shouldered hawks swirled high above in the late afternoon sun. We drove lazily down the road enjoying the walnut orchards and olive groves. We came upon The Halter Ranch...a big old house that has been redone by a local architect. It sits grandly amoung stately 100 year old oaks. There are many out buildings on the property...the old barn..the little red shed. It is so peaceful and quiet there. A PERFECT Novemeber afternoon. As the sun began to sink we moved on towards home, but only after one last stop. To Nature's Touch in Templeton.