Ok, so I’m a bit late posting this, and I didn’t take a lot of photos of Thanksgiving - this is it, really. It’s difficult to play hostess and photographer simultaneously. Anyway, I did, at least have a little fun with the food. See?

Cherry pie - not with canned pie filling, mind you. I used frozen cherries. It was really tasty - I’d probably try a little less sugar next time, for that extra zip of tart.  I cut the swirly shapes with a knife, the leaves with a mini-cookie cutter.

Homemade cranberry sauce. I don’t know why I keep making it. It never gets devoured like everything else. I like it, though. Maybe I should just reduce the recipe next time. It has fresh cranberries, orange juice and zest, and sugar. It simmers together until the cranberries burst and it coagulates a bit. Yum. Way better than the canned stuff, in my opinion. I like to put it on my rolls instead of jelly.

No photos of these, but I was quite domestic this Thanksgiving. I also cooked a huge turkey. The roaster oven made it easy, and boy, did it cook quickly! Only two hours for the nearly 19 pound bird - I was astounded. Also: real mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, stuffing, homemade rolls, honey butter, broccoli slaw, sweet potatoes, the cranberry sauce, the cherry pie, two pumpkin pies, a pecan pie, a french silk chocolate pie, which Hana decorated, but I neglected to take a photo of (grr), and non-dairy brown-rice pudding. Some of the guests brought a few other things, but those are what I made.

Whew! It was a lot of work, but it turned out so nicely, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Even me. And so, it’s worth it.

Creativity Question: Have you any creative Thanksgiving traditions? Meaning, something you make or create either yourself or as a family? Or something you did this year, if it’s not a tradition?

I didn’t do any crafts, and I don’t decorate for Thanksgiving, aside from the table and serving areas - my decor consisted of wired ribbon (I, the ribbon addict, already had it) in a deep burgundy color with gold accents, a few pine cones, some of them gold, and some other little earthy things I had in my stash - oh, and the 6 ears of Indian corn for 50 cents. It doesn’t take much to make it look nice. In the center, iron scroll-work with a white serving dish filled with rolls. The tablecloth was way too big, so I bunched up the parts that fell to the floor and billowed them a bit and pinned them around the four legs, then tied with ribbon. I was going for “I meant to do that” rather than “oops, the tablecloth is too long and I don’t want you to trip”. I think it worked. I suppose for Thanksgiving, my creativity tradition is homemade foods and inexpensive but nice table decor which I usually throw together last minute. BTW- eating on real plates was sooo nice! 

So tell me YOUR traditions - probably much more interesting than mine.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at 8:39 pm and is filed under babble, creativity, just life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.