It’s Cookie Central at our house this week. We started with the fussy ones: Frosted Sugar and Shortbread Cookie Sticks – to get them out of the way. They require frosting and sprinkles so take more time than others. Twelve more kinds to go. I even got YA onboard today!
When do you start your holiday baking (if you indulge)?
It seems to me that Thanksgiving has more expectations attached to it than any other day of the year. I like to read advice columns in the morning (makes me feel like I have a good handle on things); for a couple of weeks the columns have been filled with angst about Thanksgiving.
Grandma doesn’t want to host dinner and two of the daughters are throwing a fit because it will spoil the day. Uncle Joey always drinks too much and everyone is worried about whether he will spoil the day. Cousin Mary has a new boyfriend who is a vegetarian and everyone is worried his dietary needs will spoil the day. Grandpa won’t come because he has a new puppy that isn’t welcome and it will spoil the day. For so many people Thanksgiving seems to be encased in amber; it must be exactly as it’s always been and it can’t be spoiled.
As a person who moved away from home at an early age, got divorced and then became a single parent, I have never had a chance to cement a list of requirements to make Thanksgiving Day overly static. There is however, one thing that I have been in charge of for many years – the thankful project. I’ve done a paper Mayflower w/ little scrolls that people wrote on, I’ve done a large cut out turkey whose feathers became lists of what we’ve thankful for, I’ve done a large tree with leaves for the thankful thoughts. This year I’m doing a big poster board covered with square of different papers and have a handful of markers for everybody to write with. I love doing the thankful project as it really brings it home to me where my focus should be, rather than on whether the potatoes are the way I like them.
One of the things that I’ve written down for the last couple of years on the thankful project is “baboons” (which I then have to explain). I am beyond grateful that I’ve found a community of folks who are thoughtful, caring, sincere, well-read, funny… all these things and more. I’m thankful for this past year with you all on the Trail and looking forward to the year coming up.
No question today – just heartfelt thanks for all of you!
I am an only child. When I was younger, I cringed when I said that to people, as I invariably would hear the same phrase “Oh, you must be spoiled”. It always made me want to apologize.
Spoiled, to me, brings up images of the nasty girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I think that people can be spoiled in good and not so good ways, and I have tried to spoil my children and the people I love in good ways.
Our daughter is coming home for Thanksgiving. We haven’t seen her for six months. Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday, and she has great expectations for her trip home. Every year we “spoil” her by letting her plan the Thanksgiving meal. She has old favorites, and likes to try new things as well. She doesn’t help prepare the food, but leaves it to us. This year she has requested French bread, an apple crisp for desert, cranberry salsa, a basic turkey dressing, butternut squash casserole, mashed potatoes, a simple turkey that is covered in cheese cloth and basted with herb butter, and, of course, green bean casserole. She also wants cranberry mimosas.
Daughter has also asked that she gets a down comforter on her bed, and has other favorite food requests for the 10 days she is home. I think this is a very good way to spoil her.
How do you spoil the people you love?
I often feel like I own every kitchen toy possible. Then I get another catalog in the mail or see an ad on the internet. My latest acquisition is a spiralizer. Dreadful if completely accurate name.
It has 3 different blades so you get 3 different widths of spirals and you can use it on a wide variety of fruits and vegetables (zucchini, onion, potato, pears, apples, carrots, beets). Pretty much if you can stick it onto the machine, you can probably makes spirals. Before I bought it I checked out several books from the library to see what kinds of dishes could be prepared – ended up purchasing two cookbooks as well (and yes, I did get rid of two old cookbooks when the new ones arrived).
Of course, the day I had time to mess with it, I didn’t want to go shopping so I just made up a recipe using ingredients I already had in the house.
Sherrilee’s First Spiralized Chilied Potatoes
1 large yellow onion, spiralized
3 large Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and spiralized
2 T. butter
1 can of Chili Beans
1 can of tomatoes w/ chiles
1 pouch of Taco sauce
1 T. chili powder
1 T. cumin
Salt & pepper to taste
2 c. shredded pepper jack cheese
Saute onions in butter until translucent in oven-proof skillet. Add potatoes and cook for 8-10 minutes until they get soft. Add beans, tomatoes, taco sauce and spicing to taste. Top w/ cheese and heat in 350° F oven for about 15 minutes until cheese gets nice and melty.
YA loved it. Good recipe for a cold, rainy weekend even if I feel badly for participating in “verbing”!
What new verb do you detest?
Two iconic restaurants in St. Paul will be closed by the end of this week. This saddens me, because I love a good neighborhood restaurant, and hate to see them replaced by the chains or the glitz that seems to accompany so many newer restaurants. (Even although I’ve never lived in St. Paul, these two were well enough known that I had made my way there all the way from Robbinsdale.)
The St. Clair Broiler, a burger and malt place (visited by Al Gore), closed at the end of September after 60 years in business. Back in the late 70s, we used to meet a St. Paul friend for a burger at the Broiler, followed by a movie in a theater on the same block, if memory serves. A St. Paul Pioneer Press article reads: “With the recent boom in neighborhood restaurants, staying competitive has been a concern for the Broiler, which underwent an extensive menu change and decor refresh in 2015 in the hopes of attracting some younger customers. Apparently, the gamble didn’t pay off, as the restaurant was no longer profitable…”
And it breaks my heart that Muffuletta is closing this weekend, Nov. 11 being its last day after a run of 40 years. A European style bistro, its wonderful outdoor patio was a huge draw in the mild months of the year, and the indoor space was cozy in the winter. If I could, I would drive up for one last brunch with a friend (including a nice glass of wine), followed by shopping at Bibelot and a tour through Micawbers Bookstore, both on the same Como Avenue corner. Apparently upcoming street construction is a factor, but even this icon hasn’t been a money maker for some years. Sigh.
What are some of your favorite places that are no longer with us?
ETwice a year I bundle up all my bedding – allergy covers, dust ruffle, sheets, comforter and pillows – then I head on down to the laundromat. I could do all this laundry at home but I’d rather get it all done in an hour or instead of running up and down the basement steps all day long.
Since I’ve been schlepping down there for almost 20 years, I’ve realized that there are some rules involved in the laundromat.
I follow most of the rules, although I’ve never taken anybody else’s laundry out of a washer or dryer. I do try to look at others and smile, but it doesn’t do much good, as nobody else looks up. And I don’t sit in my car either – something to drink, maybe a donut and a book and I’m good for the time I’m there.
When do you make your own rules?
I love Halloween. Not the original All Hallow’s Eve, but what it has morphed into: the costumes, the candy, the jack-o-lanterns. Even as an adult, I love to dress up (today I dressed as the Crocodile Hunter, complete with a large upholstery foam crocodile that draped over my shoulders). I have a lovely decorative flag of a full moon with bats, a wonderful huge ceramic jack-o-lantern with the letters of our last name as the mouth and a whole bunch of Halloween luminaries that YA and I made when she was younger. (I’m not crazy about all the gory horror films that get trotted out at this time of year, but that’s another story.)
Unfortunately the reality of the trick-or-treat experience these days is not as much fun as I would have it be. I live on a busy street with a lot of folks who don’t leave their lights on; this keeps the foot traffic down. This year has a couple more strikes against it: it’s a school night and it’s REALLY REALLY cold. I normally only get about 25 trick or treaters. This year I only got 15 before I finally closed up shop. The last 5 kids got a huge handful of candy each!
When has a holiday disappointed you?
Husband loaded his pickup on Monday of this week and headed to Denver to see his dad and stepmom. His dad is in an assisted living facility due to Alzheimer’s Disease, and he hasn’t seen him for a year. Husband returns home later today.
I am accustomed to Husband spending time away from home during the week when he works on the Reservation. He is usually home on Friday, and it was strange not having him here yesterday. Strange, yet somewhat restful, since yesterday was the first Friday for eons that it was the end of the week, I was at home, and we were not planning what to cook for the weekend.
Husband is a compulsive cook, grocery list maker, and menu planner. I can tell when he is thinking about cooking something. He has this broody look on his face and gets real quiet. If I ask him what is going on he says “Just a minute”, and, many, many minutes later, he tells me what foods he wants to prepare. This only happens when we are at home. He recognizes how odd this is and confesses that he can’t stop thinking about cooking when he is at home.
I got off work early yesterday. I was content to eat ham sandwiches and breakfast cereal. The free time was nice, and I had had a restful afternoon playing with the cats.
What do you like to do in your free time? What do you find relaxing?
Found Iguana Joe’s on our first full night in Aruba. Close to the hotel and a few vegetarian options. After dinner YA chose a dish with Oreos in it for dessert; she thought it would be a pie with Oreos in the crust. Turned out to be deep-fried Oreos!
What dessert would be a pleasant surprise for you?
My mother didn’t cook much, but she was a good cook who really cared how her dishes turned out. She was particularly fussy about her chicken. When I was a very little girl, mom would buy chicken from the meat man in the back of Nelson’s department store. The chicken came whole and was wrapped in white butcher paper.
She usually cut up the chicken she bought and baked the pieces. I have vivid memories of her holding each piece over an open flame on the gas stove to remove any possible remaining pin feathers that were missed when the chicken was processed. There usually weren’t any such feathers, but it was something she had learned growing up on the farm, and she always did it.
Husband and I like to get big roasting chickens, but they have been hard to come by lately. In desperation the other week we took a chance and bought a “Southern Hen” in Walmart. It was indeed from the deep South in Alabama. It was the right size (about 9 pounds), and we decided to cook it whole in the slow cooker.
The roasters we usually buy are nicely processed and have clean skins with no pin feathers. I would have needed a blow torch to remove the feathers and quills from our Southern Hen. I tried a lighter to no avail, and ended up laboriously removing it all with a needle nosed pliers. My mother would have been appalled. I guess they have different standards in chicken processing in the South.
The meat was tasty, but I made sure every bit of skin was removed and discarded once the chicken was thoroughly cooked. Husband has indicated that it might be nice to keep a few chickens in our retirement. Our experience with our Southern Hen makes me think otherwise.
What do you remember about family food ways from your childhood?
Trail Baboon 