Thanksgiving Feast!
On Thursday, we're going to have a feast here at Lark Circle. It's not gonna be like an old-tyme king's feast, but just the same, we're having a feast. We've much to celebrate this year and it's time to just have a feast in remembrance and honor of the God who provides.
I see Him in the preparations for this feast. It started with His hand in providing the very plates we'll be using, both at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Pfaltzgraff has been replaced (wrote about this earler) and we have an abundance of place settings for the feast. I'm borrowing some tables and chairs from the church for the feast as well.
Over the last few weeks, I've been shopping for the feast. Some stores have better prices on this vs. that, and I shop around. Our dinner this year comes from Macey's, Winco, Smith's, and the Commissary. Macey's is the only store I know of that carries the frozen squash for the soup and has better produce than the others. Winco was cheaper on some things, like the milk for the pumpkin pies and potato chips. The commissary is a blessing. Five dollar bricks of cheese sell for half that price and pie crusts were absurdly cheap there. So are spices. Smith's is the go to place for butter and milk.
Cooking started in earnest with the bonus turkey which is in the oven. Thanksgiving is a meal I don't tinker with; it's looked forward to for 11 months of the year and if you mess something up, you ruined someone's holiday. This is how it goes for most people, not just me and mine, but I'll illustrate it with this story.
I made up a cranberry-pear thing. It's cranberry sauce with some chopped pears and a bit of orange peel zest. It's way good. My mother won't eat it. She likes cranberry sauce. Period. And I could open up a can of cranberry sauce and she wouldn't eat that either, although you can hardly tell the difference. There is one, but it's not all that noticeable. So I knew that and made plain cranberry sauce that first year with the pear thing. The pear thing gets gobbled up. The plain sauce, well, I make it for my mom.
It's her day too.
I mentioned a bonus turkey. I've invited 12. Ten may show up. I'm planning on seven or eight because two said they couldn't make it. Two won't tell me whether or not they're coming. I got this: Plan on us showing up and if we don't, we don't.
Nothing like a commitment.
Anyway, we're having bonus turkey because I don't know if there will be enough gravy for that many people from the regular turkey. I am cooking a turkey to make turkey gravy. Someone suggested that gravy comes in a can. I think I looked at him like he was from another planet. Gravy comes in a can.
But not here.
So bonus turkey is being prepared in a different way. It's all herbed up. Instead of apple dressing, it's stuffed with sausage dressing. It smells good so far. I'll slice it up for sandwiches and use the small carcass for making turkey soup. I like turkey soup, but it's just me and the old lady. A pot of turkey soup will last us weeks. This is a small turkey, so I'll just slice it up for this and that and vacuum seal the meat.
The drippings will go into the fridge for turkey gravy.
Dips and soup are made tomorrow. The soup always tastes better with a day to sit, so I'm gonna let it set a day and heat it up for Thanksgiving. Cranberry sauces are made tomorrow as well as pies. Busy day of baking and cooking tomorrow. Somewhere in thee, I'll make a cheese ball. Good thing I'm off.
On Thursday, I will start my ritual day of getting up at six to purchase a newspaper. My sister likes to look at the ads. The stuffing gets made somewhere after seven and the bird goes in the oven about eight. A fire gets started sometime around eight or nine and will bur all afternoon. The parade will give way to football. Cheeses and crackers will be arranged on plates. Celery gets stuffed. Pickles and olives find their way into bowls. Yams get pre-boiled and cut for candied yams. A jar of green beans from our garden gets opened and boiled for 20 minutes before becoming green bean casserole.
While I'm doing that, the old lady will clean the house for the 20th time this week. She gets weird about it. The tables will be set somewhere about one in the afternoon. Guests are expected anytime after that.
Ice will be put out and drinks chilled in an ice tub we have for the occasion. There are soft drinks in glass bottles. We're getting fancy up in here. There will be bottled waters as well. Tap water works for me, but for guests, a little something nicer, I think, is called for. Coffee will be available. I have some Christmas blend from Starbucks which was given to me.
It's a bit much, but we're celebrating the extravagance of our God, who has been so busy in my life and I want to feast to His glory! I think we're supposed to enjoy God and I do! I asked my pastor last week if most people get to live out as much Scripture as I do. He just kind of shook his head no and smiled.
In this, there's a lesson for me to learn as well. Life has been in a rainy season for a very long time and I think the rain is starting to let up some. I don't mean there won't be storms, it's part of the deal as a Christian. But the monsoons of the last few years are starting to subside and give way to a season of preparation. Just as our feast took months of preparation to unfold, so will the things God is preparing me for. There is a plan, I believe. I've agreed with God on that plan. I'm following Jesus and the prompting of the Holy Spirit along the way.
I'm trying to make those major adjustments in my life that will need to be made and respond to God's time in a positive way. I understand it's much like preparing for the feast. There is much to be done and when all of the time has lapsed for preparation, the thing will come to pass.
It's just not gonna be today. But it doesn't mean that today there won't be something I do to prepare for that day when it arrives.
I see Him in the preparations for this feast. It started with His hand in providing the very plates we'll be using, both at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Pfaltzgraff has been replaced (wrote about this earler) and we have an abundance of place settings for the feast. I'm borrowing some tables and chairs from the church for the feast as well.
Over the last few weeks, I've been shopping for the feast. Some stores have better prices on this vs. that, and I shop around. Our dinner this year comes from Macey's, Winco, Smith's, and the Commissary. Macey's is the only store I know of that carries the frozen squash for the soup and has better produce than the others. Winco was cheaper on some things, like the milk for the pumpkin pies and potato chips. The commissary is a blessing. Five dollar bricks of cheese sell for half that price and pie crusts were absurdly cheap there. So are spices. Smith's is the go to place for butter and milk.
Cooking started in earnest with the bonus turkey which is in the oven. Thanksgiving is a meal I don't tinker with; it's looked forward to for 11 months of the year and if you mess something up, you ruined someone's holiday. This is how it goes for most people, not just me and mine, but I'll illustrate it with this story.
I made up a cranberry-pear thing. It's cranberry sauce with some chopped pears and a bit of orange peel zest. It's way good. My mother won't eat it. She likes cranberry sauce. Period. And I could open up a can of cranberry sauce and she wouldn't eat that either, although you can hardly tell the difference. There is one, but it's not all that noticeable. So I knew that and made plain cranberry sauce that first year with the pear thing. The pear thing gets gobbled up. The plain sauce, well, I make it for my mom.
It's her day too.
I mentioned a bonus turkey. I've invited 12. Ten may show up. I'm planning on seven or eight because two said they couldn't make it. Two won't tell me whether or not they're coming. I got this: Plan on us showing up and if we don't, we don't.
Nothing like a commitment.
Anyway, we're having bonus turkey because I don't know if there will be enough gravy for that many people from the regular turkey. I am cooking a turkey to make turkey gravy. Someone suggested that gravy comes in a can. I think I looked at him like he was from another planet. Gravy comes in a can.
But not here.
So bonus turkey is being prepared in a different way. It's all herbed up. Instead of apple dressing, it's stuffed with sausage dressing. It smells good so far. I'll slice it up for sandwiches and use the small carcass for making turkey soup. I like turkey soup, but it's just me and the old lady. A pot of turkey soup will last us weeks. This is a small turkey, so I'll just slice it up for this and that and vacuum seal the meat.
The drippings will go into the fridge for turkey gravy.
Dips and soup are made tomorrow. The soup always tastes better with a day to sit, so I'm gonna let it set a day and heat it up for Thanksgiving. Cranberry sauces are made tomorrow as well as pies. Busy day of baking and cooking tomorrow. Somewhere in thee, I'll make a cheese ball. Good thing I'm off.
On Thursday, I will start my ritual day of getting up at six to purchase a newspaper. My sister likes to look at the ads. The stuffing gets made somewhere after seven and the bird goes in the oven about eight. A fire gets started sometime around eight or nine and will bur all afternoon. The parade will give way to football. Cheeses and crackers will be arranged on plates. Celery gets stuffed. Pickles and olives find their way into bowls. Yams get pre-boiled and cut for candied yams. A jar of green beans from our garden gets opened and boiled for 20 minutes before becoming green bean casserole.
While I'm doing that, the old lady will clean the house for the 20th time this week. She gets weird about it. The tables will be set somewhere about one in the afternoon. Guests are expected anytime after that.
Ice will be put out and drinks chilled in an ice tub we have for the occasion. There are soft drinks in glass bottles. We're getting fancy up in here. There will be bottled waters as well. Tap water works for me, but for guests, a little something nicer, I think, is called for. Coffee will be available. I have some Christmas blend from Starbucks which was given to me.
It's a bit much, but we're celebrating the extravagance of our God, who has been so busy in my life and I want to feast to His glory! I think we're supposed to enjoy God and I do! I asked my pastor last week if most people get to live out as much Scripture as I do. He just kind of shook his head no and smiled.
In this, there's a lesson for me to learn as well. Life has been in a rainy season for a very long time and I think the rain is starting to let up some. I don't mean there won't be storms, it's part of the deal as a Christian. But the monsoons of the last few years are starting to subside and give way to a season of preparation. Just as our feast took months of preparation to unfold, so will the things God is preparing me for. There is a plan, I believe. I've agreed with God on that plan. I'm following Jesus and the prompting of the Holy Spirit along the way.
I'm trying to make those major adjustments in my life that will need to be made and respond to God's time in a positive way. I understand it's much like preparing for the feast. There is much to be done and when all of the time has lapsed for preparation, the thing will come to pass.
It's just not gonna be today. But it doesn't mean that today there won't be something I do to prepare for that day when it arrives.
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