THE BRIDGE-WAY

Lionhawk wrote:

For those who celebrate, Happy Thanksgiving! My prayers go out to the world is all I can say. The only good news on that front is I found some Butterballs for $.98 lbs. Of course, I didn't buy one. What am I going to do with a turkey? Besides, my fridge took a poop on Monday. Good thing I caught it in time. Was able to save most of it this time. But the fridge is officially dead. Didn't have much in it so the loss was minimal. Always something.

Well, Mr. V. good to see you have plenty of wood for Winter. Sorry, the vids are way too late, you old fart. Back in my day, there were no vids. Go figure. Well, there was, but it was 8 mm. Film was on a reel. I don't care who splits it, wood is a lot of work. The way I see it, any tips are valuable and if one technique will make it easier, I'm all for it. Or save time. The logistics of processing wood is usually not well thought out and bad habits get passed down through the generations. Using a sharp ax when splitting wood is a bad habit. Now if you get into ax throwing, you'll want the ax to be as sharp as you can get it. Or for limbing a tree. I would also use a smaller ax for limbing. Easier to control. Less weight. I also didn't post up my technique. It would be better if I demonstrated that on a video. Maybe for next year.

No worries, Mudra. Moving is a major job.

Everyone stay safe.

Carol wrote:

Lionhawk wrote:

For those who celebrate, Happy Thanksgiving! My prayers go out to the world is all I can say. The only good news on that front is I found some Butterballs for $.98 lbs. Of course, I didn't buy one. What am I going to do with a turkey? Besides, my fridge took a poop on Monday. Good thing I caught it in time. Was able to save most of it this time. But the fridge is officially dead. Didn't have much in it so the loss was minimal. Always something.

Well, Mr. V. good to see you have plenty of wood for Winter. Sorry, the vids are way too late, you old fart. Back in my day, there were no vids. Go figure. Well, there was, but it was 8 mm. Film was on a reel. I don't care who splits it, wood is a lot of work. The way I see it, any tips are valuable and if one technique will make it easier, I'm all for it. Or save time. The logistics of processing wood is usually not well thought out and bad habits get passed down through the generations. Using a sharp ax when splitting wood is a bad habit. Now if you get into ax throwing, you'll want the ax to be as sharp as you can get it. Or for limbing a tree. I would also use a smaller ax for limbing. Easier to control. Less weight. I also didn't post up my technique. It would be better if I demonstrated that on a video. Maybe for next year.

No worries, Mudra. Moving is a major job.

Everyone stay safe.

Good morning Lionhawk and Happy Thanksgiving.

It's been quite a few past days with unexpected company (one son who hasn't been to this Oregon homestead in 40 years or joined us for Thanksgiving in the past 25 years. He called and asked to come. Sweet Baby Jesus... miracles do happen. He drove over 800 miles in one day and arrived the day of the snowstorm, so it's all very white out. On the last sunny day before the snow, spouse and daughter went tramping through the woods to look for a Christmas tree. She picked out a 9 footer and it's a good 6-7 feet wide at the base, which she got to carry back to the house. It's not going to fit. It needs some serious trimming. Her job. Meanwhile, the tree is out by the front deck rail with limbs covered in at least 3-4 inches of snow waiting for the snow to be shook off and its trim.

Our son is allergic to cats. We have 3. You can't even begin to imagine what we went through cleaning the house and the room he's staying in to get rid of as much cat dander as possible. This included stripping the bed and taking everything that was covering furniture to protect it from cat vomit and washing it. It also included deep cleaning the floors, dusting (twice), using the UV light, and running the HEPA filter for hours to clean the air. It also meant replacing the furnace filter with one that's equipped to filter out allergens, laundering all the towels, cleaning the window... yadda, yadda, yadda...

So after doing all the cleaning, that meant my cooking schedule got delayed and what was planned to make and bake on Tuesday didn't get started until last evening. Now the "pumpkin pie" saga unfolds.

So, after searching YouTube for a good pumpkin pie recipe and settling on one using a butter crust, it was time to prep the crust. This involves multiple steps of chilling the dough... rolling out the chilled, chilling the dough again once on the pie plate.. we set it out in the snow for that last step. So one would think we're good to go getting that damn pie crust ready to bake. Let's just say the finished product shrunk at least a good inch from the top sides down into the pie dish.. made the second curst attempting a different technique and the bloody thing did it again! The cooked crust looks more like a torte rather than a finished pie crust with fluted edges. And of course, the filling goes up to the rim of the pie dish... no curst in sight. Even after making a beautiful fluted edge - nada. The second curst skipped that fluted edging step and let it hang straight up an inch over the edge mistakingly thinking this would do the trick. Bloody hell! The shrinking pie edge is twice as bad as the first attempt.

Moving on...

I got up at 3:30 am this morning to make the pie filling and bake the pie. Now that it's in the oven baking it was time to prep the whipped cream (with a little added vanilla and rum). Got out the handheld mixer, poured the heavy cream into the metal bowl, and set the mixer on high... forgot everyone else was sleeping.

Bedroom doors started to open with disgruntled sleep-deprived family members coming out to curse me for waking them up at 4:30 am. They all went to bed between 10 & 11 pm.. my family are all night owls. I'm the lone early bird - except for the dog and cats. The dog who wants out and the cats who are ready for their first meal. With many apologies to them and feeling shame, they left somewhat vindicated that they had chastised me thoroughly so that they could return to bed. By now our daughter's cat decided to join in the activity. He started to climb up on top of cabinets, race around, and meow outside our daughter's door. More cursing from our daughter who locked Albert out of her room thinking she could get back to sleep. Hah!.. He was not to be appeased. She had to come out again and spend time petting him to help settle him down.

Moving forward in thought. At least the cranberry sauce was made yesterday and now one pumpkin pie is completed with the second crust ready to be filled. I may ask the grouchy daughter to make that one as this pie was her boyfriend's request.  

So now it's 6:27 am. Already took two Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen for chronic back pain. Don't know why? It's not all that effective. Yet a trickle of hope does shimmer with a thought.. maybe it will do the trick this time.

Yesterday was also the last-minute trip to the market. Can you guess why? Spouse showed Son our package of instant garlic potatoes and Stove Top dressing mix. This son is a gourmet cook who also worked in a French restaurant both in France in high school as a foreign exchange student and again later in the US. He pulled up his Thanksgiving menu from last year on his computer to illustrate what a creative superb dinner he had made. The photo of the meal did look awesome. Then he insisted we had to use real potatoes and get some Artesian French bread so that he could cube and make the dressing. He also asked if I had a big mixer...  by now you can see where this is going. The easy stress-free instant dinner is now turned into a labor-intensive full production. On his grocery list was wild rice, a variety of root vegetables to be roasted, fresh parsley, sage, and thyme for the dressing. additional cranberries (both dried and fresh), a pomegranate, and seeds will be used in the Spinach salad. Cornbread mix for the muffins.

Okay.. backtracking to last week.

Last week while at the Dollar Saver purchasing groceries,  before we knew there were to be any guests for Turkey dinner, I looked for the smallest turkey I could find.... more along the size of a large chicken think that this turkey would only be for two. Fortunately, given the altered dinner situation,  2 additional turkey legs were purchased two weeks prior just in case there was a food shortage and no turkeys were available. So.. ta-da, this bird will have 4 legs instead of the traditional two. Did you know that Safeway was out of cranberries yesterday, the day before Thanksgiving! Shocking! Fortunately our trusty local "health" food market had fresh cranberries in stock, so was able to pick up a few more bags for the alter meal menu.

Fast forward to Wednesday evening. I was so overwhelmed and in back pain from all the cleaning, last-minute menu changes, and shopping that all I could do for dinner was make some instant Sicilian split pea soup with slices of Artesian French bread In addition to making the Jasmine rice for our daughter. She's making a gourmet Salmon dish for herself and her boyfriend since she doesn't eat turkey or red meat.

Hopefully, after the early wake-up noise, they'll sleep in late. Nope, no such luck.  However, I can now get some rest. Maybe even put on the Wheel of Time later and veg out. I've finished my part. Everyone else can take over the kitchen. Well, except perhaps, when it's time to help to prep the turkey.

It is now 7:07. My spouse is up to making German pancakes. Son is in the kitchen with his large cup of peppermint tea. Some of the cranberries that were sorted out were taken out for the deer who are now standing outside in the snow steering in the window with "high hopes" of more. In fact, she is staring at me now. sigh.. so beautiful.

Son took a look at the pie and said... "Well, at least it looks homemade mom." We all burst into laughter. Indeed it does. No one would think that pie was store-bought. However, the good news.  With the rum-flavored whip cream, it will taste amazing. And after a bit more rum... it will taste even better.

7:30 am to 10 am Son is in the kitchen peeling veggies and prepping the whole cranberries, celery, and onions to add to the dressing, I was there to make up the second batch of pie filling, pie in the oven. We're working in shifts as the daughter is her Salmon dish prepped by her spouse. turkey was washed and waiting for the roasting pan to be cleaned.. then it gets prepped to wait for its turn in the oven after the vegetables are roasted.

The daughter switched out with me and is now in the kitchen with Son and her spouse working on her creation. PTL for whoever thought up a kitchen island. Delicious smells including a baking pumpkin pie permeate throughout. I'm ready to dive into the first pumpkin pie sitting out on the island just because it looks so tempting. The daughter has put her dough to sit on top of the propane fireplace to rise... It's the outer covering for her salmon dish.

Time to get up and put the melted butter, herbs, salt, and pepper onto the turkey and into the roasting pan. 10:37 am... Okay, deer are back in the front yard to scarf up the peeling from all the vegetables that went into the roasted vegetable dish. Just finished prepping the bird putting some rosemary under the skin along with some pats of butter. The brushed melted butter on the exterior, salt, peppered, and added thyme along with other poultry Provence herbs.  Next up is prepping the cornbread muffins and getting them into the oven as soon as the pie is out. No need to worry about the crust on the second pie and it's not even visible.

Mashed potatoes need prepping and wild rice. Corn muffins are in their little paper cups waiting for the damn 2nd pie to set in the middle. Second mistake,  using a deep pie dish that is most likely meant for apples. I'm such a ditz. Move over Lucy.. you have company girl. Okay.. not quite set as it should but after an hour and a half enough is enough. With enough rum whip cream on top, hopefully, no one will notice that the center of the pumpkin pie isn't set. The edges are a bit over-done, very, very dark brown. Besides, that pie has had all the attention it deserves for one dish.

As soon as the cornbread muffins are done in go the roasted vegetable and stuffing dishes... That will take at least another 40 min to an hour before we can put the turkey in.. another 3 hours. While that's cooking next up is the mash potatoes and wild rice.

The daughter will be back in to work on her dish after the dough finishes rising.

Arrghhh..  the oven is off by 40 degrees!.. no wonder why everything is taking so long. Just added another 7 minutes to the muffins. I wonder if the turkey will be done in time to eat it today? Who knows? And to have a moist turkey, the bird likes a long slow bake at a lower temp. What should be 3 hours may end up being 5 or 6. I may be back in bed by then!

If all else fails.. i.e. the turkey not being done... I'm starting off with pumpkin pie a rum whip cream.. maybe just some rum or eggnog to help over the hump. Or maybe eggnog with rum whip cream. Doesn't that sound delicious?

Okay... muffins out and roasted vegetables along with dressing in for an hour. There is a bit of breeze blowing the snow off the pine trees. Just checked the dough on top of the fireplace. Bubbles ... it's working.

Eggnog? Just pulled out the Almond milk eggnog and poured a glass. So cool, refreshing, and delicious. Don't dare start on the hard stuff at this hour if I don't want to end up sleeping face-down in my mashed potatoes. A few sips with the pumpkin pie with rum whipped cream near bedtime would be lovely. That is if it's possible to eat dessert after dinner as compared to the onset of dinner.

Spouse is whistling as he clears off the table to put in the extension... Son has emerged from his nap. Is now prepping the wild rice (shallots, garlic, mushrooms, and bay leaf in the chicken broth.) [Note... never in a million years would I do all that he is doing for this dinner. One of the best Thanksgiving dinners we had was take-out from the Hawaiian market that we took up to the national park and ate on paper plates at the picnic table. So.. we're not that picky. However, with him here preparing this delicious feast... we are both grateful and VERY appreciative.}

Soon... after all of the prepping is done and it's all cooking it will be time to set up the chessboard... or perhaps play a few rousing hands of 'Go Fish' if we're not too tired. We tend to get a bit vocal with our card games.

Son is off for a nap and daughter is off to go for a walk in the snow. The spouse is peeling the potatoes. More leavings for the deer. They're enjoying Thanksgiving as well.

Meanwhile, the turkey is outside where it is 32 degrees.. so at least it won't freeze while waiting for its turn in the oven. Which hopefully is within the next 20 minutes. .. yea, the timer just went off. Time for Turkey to go into the oven.

Hmm... just remembered that we have to put in the table extension and set the table with our mixed matched dishes. Martha Stewart, I'm not. Ahh... I wonder what it is like to afford someone to clean the house, do all the grocery shopping, prep the meal/clean-up, and set a glamorous table for a feast. However, at my age, many of those things don't much matter anymore. It's being and sharing together, building new warm, loving fun memories that are precious.

And some may wonder why we're so thankful... it's a wonder to have so many sleep-deprived chefs in the kitchen in a relatively good mood prepping, baking and cooking. Labor of sharing and love, a delicious work in progress... and by the time we actually get to sit at the table to eat we're also thankful to rest our backs and get off our feet. And we're thankful that we can all be together to share this food that we prepared. And we're also thankful to the farmers, truckers, and markets for getting all this product where it can be purchased. And we're thankful that all of our family is safe. Sadly, some are alone.  We're thankful that we have this day to remember all the blessings that daily flow our way.

And I'm also thankful for our Misty family. Please continue to be blessed and may our Creator's light pour down upon you, through you, and surround you in its never-ending healing grace.

Thanks for posting your days in such detail, Carol. If you weren't so far away, I would have lent you my stove. And thank you for including us in your prayers. I went through and corrected your post. Only because you threatened to delete it by morning. I don't want you to be labeled as an Indian giver on a Native American holiday. Besides, we already have one of those personalities. Hint: Get an oven thermometer. Sounds like Murphy's law also applies to Thanksgiving. The frailties of it all. Reminds me of the Waltons.

Carol wrote:Oxy... just like I enjoy being a recluse you enjoy trying to go incognito.. only your spirit won't let you because it has too much to share with everyone. You have on-line friends here who appreciate your uniqueness. Grab onto that thought... you're appreciated by people who are able to see you for the shining spirit that you are.

mudra wrote:Lionhawk wrote

Mudra? What can you tell us? I can only imagine pulling a move in these times, especially in Europe. Hope things are proceeding according to your plans. Cool

French and Spanish borders crossed with no problem.
The whole family is now reunited in the land of my ancestors.
The view above is of our landing in Barcelona last evening.
The skies are always amazing along  the ocean.
Here is a view on the sea taken from my son's house.
Very cold and windy here today.
One can feel winter is at the door.
I am taking a rest after weeks of hard work moving all my stuff.
Then I'll gradually look for a place where I can settle, build my nest, grow food
and play with my painting brushes and watercolors ‍
I made it before things get nastier at the borders.
Still a lot to move further but I am quite pleased

Congratulations on your successful move and reuniting with your family mudra. Family and a view of the ocean is awesome. Resting after a move is good. May you rejuvenate in the light and love of your family. I had wondered how your indoor garden did and was so impressed with all the work you did to get it going. I hope you find fertile ground to grow and paint. Pax and much love being sent your way.

Carol wrote:

Congratulations on your successful move and reuniting with your family mudra. Family and a view of the ocean is awesome. Resting after a move is good. May you rejuvenate in the light and love of your family. I had wondered how your indoor garden did and was so impressed with all the work you did to get it going. I hope you find fertile ground to grow and paint. Pax and much love being sent your way.

Thank you so much Carol I am receiving so many blessings and encouragements from all over the place it feels I just made the right move

I am leaving behind very dear friends of mine though in Belgium.
Due to the crazy times we are undergoing and forceful mandates on the rise,
and because most of us chose to opt out from the jab we know we may never hug again.
For each of them and all the moments we shared along the years ... this song

https://youtu.be/QptZ8tYZAkE


From now on I will meet them in the virtual world where all my other dear friends that you Mysties are dwell.
I am blessed to know , thanks to the many years we shared together, that Love cares not about distance nor any borders.