You're Next, Christmas!

Good morning, my friends. If you're reading this, then you must have recovered from your turkey coma by now. We had such a lovely day. Matthew brought two friends, and Mae's mother was with us, for a total of eight. We were meeting one of Matthew's friends for the first time, and he was a very nice young man hobbling around on a broken ankle. I was sorry for him. It looked so uncomfortable.

So I took time out of my soon-to-be-too-busy day to stitch Tiny Treasure #23. This one has wagon wheel stitch, basketweave stitch, straight stitch, lazy daisy, stem stitch, and French knots.

There were some things to get started cooking...the all important stuffing, and boiling the turkey giblets for gravy later in the day. We added a leaf to our table and scrounged up two extra chairs. When the table was set, it looked like this:

One of the things I love about Thanksgiving is putting out the dishes we see only once or twice per year. The plates were from Mike's grandmother...the one we called Mermie. The sterling silverware was some I inherited from my Great Aunt Marie...we called her Auntie Ree. The glassware was from my mother. She and I went to a going-out-of-business sale to pick up those water goblets. My mother loved pretty dishes in the same way her mother did. The wine glasses with the gold leaf were some she found in a second-hand store. 

Erik and Mae arrived first. Mae brought this thing of beauty. It's a French Apple Tart. She also brought a pumpkin cheesecake.

She's a master at putting together a charcuterie board. It's become her permanent assignment whenever we get together for a big dinner.

So here's our dinner. This is my plate. Starting at the top are mashed potatoes and gravy. I like to use red potatoes, unpeeled, and I add a clove of garlic for about every two potatoes to make them garlic mashed. Moving clockwise is Sweet Potato Crunch. I've been making sweet potatoes this way since the recipe appeared in Cooking Light magazine in the 1980's. Erik insists on them. Even my sweet-potato-hating brother liked them this way.

Continuing on around is the turkey Mike smoked on our Traeger grill. It was brined overnight, then given a buttery rub. He smoked it for an hour and then turned it to a roast mode. It was moist and delicious. Next, you see the Cranberry Cherry Marmalade. At the bottom of the plate, the Classic Green Bean Casserole. Continuing around in the 8:00 position is Balsamic Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta. Thinking I was the only one who liked them, I went back and forth about whether to include the Brussels sprouts. As it turns out, everybody except Mike likes Brussels sprouts. I was glad I made them. Of course, the jellied cranberry sauce. An absolute must. And then smack in the middle of the plate is my favorite Bacon Stuffing. This recipe originally appeared in Good Food magazine ages ago. I've been making it that way ever since. Here's the recipe for that.

Bacon Stuffing

from Good Food magazine

Stuffs at 14 lb. turkey with leftovers

Ingredients:

6 cups prepared bread stuffing

4 ounces bacon, cut into 1/4-inch dice

2 medium onions, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced 1/4" thick

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves or 2 teaspoons dried, chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

1 lemon, halved

Directions:

Pour bread stuffing into large mixing Bowl.  Place bacon in large saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until crisp.  Using slotted spoon, remove to paper towels.  Add onions to pan and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat 5 minutes.  Mince 4 cloves garlic and add with mushrooms to onions.  Cook 5 minutes, then let cool.  Add mushroom mixture, bacon, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste to bread crumbs and stir to combine.

Stuff turkey that has been rubbed inside and out with halved lemon and garlic clove.  Spoon stuffing into both cavities.

* * * * *

Now, I know some celebrity chefs will tell you not to stuff the turkey. I've always stuffed mine, like my mother before me, and her mother before her, and nobody has ever had a problem with that. I'll keep doing it that way until the day I die. Celebrity chefs are not the boss of me. As a precaution, we always stick a thermometer into the stuffing to make sure it's at 165°F. And, if you ask me, the stuffing from the bird is the best kind.

Okay, and then because we were all still starving, we had a wedge each of French Apple Tart and pumpkin cheesecake. (You can see the cheesecake behind the apple tart.) Yum. Dinner was delicious, and the company could not have been better.

So, another Thanksgiving done and dusted. (I only heard that "done and dusted" idiom a couple of years ago. Since everybody else is saying it, I guess I will too.) Before I sat down here this morning, Mike and I were busy putting things away and cleaning up some more. I still need to hand-wash the wine glasses, but things are mostly set back to right. The refrigerator is full of leftovers, and so I won't need to cook again for a while. Already I've put out all the Christmas quilts. You can see the run-down right here. The only thing missing from that line-up is this little Christmas stitchery completed last year.

Okay, so aside from finishing the clean-up, I'm giving myself an easy day. And since I haven't eaten yet this morning, I'll start there. 

This morning's slow-stitching will have me finishing up the last of the Tiny Treasures for this go-round. There are 72 in all, and so they'll be back again. There should be time for sewing today, and so I'll continue making four more blocks for the Stair Steps quilt. Probably I won't finish them today, but I'm hoping to get at least two more done.

It'll be good to spend the day relaxing and sewing. Tomorrow is backing day at a local quilt shop, and so I'm planning a trip south for that. I need to find a backing for the Merry, Merry Snowmen, and I'm on the hunt for some Christmas fabric to make a requested table runner. So...off I go. 

How is the holiday season treating you so far?