Cranberry ,English Walnut and Limbertwig Salad

This was the first morning we woke to frosty rooftops here in San Luis Obispo. I knew it was cold when I woke up and Whiskey Sour and Dande we both piled on top of me and Buddy was snuggled under the covers right by my side. He was as warm as a cinnamon bun. So the weather sure got me into a Thanksgiving mood. After we walked Buddy in our slippers today.....with hot coffee and tea..we came inside and I started to dig out some of my special Thanksgiving pieces. The glass compote was grammy's. We have had it on our Thankagiving table every year since I was born.I'll put cranberry sauce in that. And I think you've all seen the paper turkey. Surely, vintage by now..it's the same one we had on the table when Mark and I were kids in Los Gatos. I LOVE it !

The turkey plates are Johnson Brothers. I have a ba-zillion of them. I have collected them for probably 25 plus years. When we moved a couple of years ago from Cambria to San Luis John kept asking "why do we have so many turkey plates when we only have 7 for dinner?" "I don't know, it's just Thanksgiving love I guess." And so it goes.....

I am including a recipe that is probably about a thousand years old. I lost it a couple of years ago. But I am thinking..what did I need a recipe for? There are only seven ingredients. I found the recipe stuck in an old cookbook and added it to RED PLAID. I just love this salad. The recipe suggests you make it the night before. But I am not a fan of a salad that sits around. So I make it just a few minutes before serving it. You won't find this one in Gourmet or Bon Appetit. So it sure fits in well in my"Just old fashion in Maine Thanksgiving Theme" I have going on here this year at Farmhouse.You might have also noticed there lurking in the background some wine bottles....we have been going through the wine cellar too. It's not really a cellar..more like a gap under the stairs out in the barn.


Cranberry Salad
Eula Frye


2 cups raw cranberries, ground in a Cuisinart
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup small marshmallows
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
2 cups diced tart apples ( you know I love my Limbertwig or Blacktwig apples here)
1/2 cup seedless grapes, halved
1 cup cream, wwhipped

Mix together and refridgerate for just a few minutes till chilled.

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.