Giving thanks for all we have

Now that the presidential election is over, we can now concentrate on the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, a time for giving thanks for all that is good in our lives.

Thanksgiving is also a good time to post Norman Rockwell’s series The Four Freedoms, inspired by Franklin Roosevelt’s speech to congress in January of 1941, and published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1943.

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms."

"The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world."

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world."

FREEDOM OF WORSHIP

"The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world."

FREEDOM FROM WANT

"The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world"

FREEDOM FROM FEAR

Our nation and the world at large would be a better place to live in if President-elect Barack Obama and the members of Congress would do all in their power to ensure these four freedoms are guaranteed to everyone -- everywhere in the world.

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms."

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941

I can finally eat again!

Thanksgiving at our house was a delight.

We had great food, good company, and the gift that keeps on giving -- a nice stomach virus. Our eldest granddaughter, Dancer Girl, was feeling puny while at our house from Thursday through Sunday, and by Sunday night, so was I. Today is the first day I'm finally starting to feel normal again and can eat. Daughter and our other granddaughter also had mild bouts of the upset and thankfully are feeling well now. Baby brother, son-in-law, son-in-law's brother, and husband never did get sick which is a good thing.

Thanks to my good friend Susie of Susie's Space, I was able to set my Thanksgiving table with items from the give-away I won from her.


Aren't those turkey napkin holders cute? My kitchen was redolent with good smells from the food and from the cinnamon and spice potpourri. (This picture of my holiday table was before all the mountains of food was passed out and the gorging began.)

During the past couple of days I was unable to digest anything other than Jewish penicillin (chicken soup) with some white rice and bits of turkey. It must have worked because today I was actually hungry. Yes, I was finally able to eat something substantial. And what did I make but this (recipe compliments of Rosa of Living As Rosa):

This is a recipe for a fabulous beef stew from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. Out of necessity, however, I made a few minor changes. My stew was served on a bed of mashed potatoes and included chopped celery and canned peas instead of frozen peas. Also, I didn't have any tomato paste (used tomato ketchup instead) or bay leaves so I omitted them. I'm sure these alterations to the original recipe changed the flavor slightly but all in all the stew was delicious. Thanks, Rosa, for the great recipe. I took your advice and sliced the carrots thinly and they cooked up just fine. I have added this recipe to my favorite recipes binder.

Now that the Thanksgiving food bacchanalia is over, we can concentrate on the upcoming Christmas and New Year's gorgefest. What's on your menu?

Blogging under duress

Daughter + 3 are here visiting and she is making me write this meaningless post (all the while standing over my left shoulder). Do I feel as if I'm in prison? Yes, I do. She's making me do this, especially when I'm in the middle of COOKING for tomorrow's big dinner. We are having our "official" Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Yesterday we ate at daughter's in-laws' house, so today I'm cooking for us for tomorrow.

I've already been chastised because I wanted to make this with yeast that was totally expired (can we say 2003?). She also is making me rewrite this until I tell the truth about the yeast. Bad mama.

So, I'm off to the store to purchase some good yeast so I can make my bread for tomorrow.

In between being poked in the shoulder by daughter, one granddaughter MESSING with my mouse while I'm trying to write, another sitting on my cedar chest begging me (over and over and over again) to help her feed the fish in the fish tank, and baby brother coughing, sneezing, and tooting all at the same time right next to my head -- it's been an interesting afternoon. If there's any typos in this useless blog post, it's all daughter's fault. (Insert daughter laughing hysterically.) I wish she would stop poking me in the shoulder.

I forgot to tell you how we were all awakened at 1:30 a.m. by daughter who plunked baby brother on me all the while dancer girl was puking all over her sister in the other room. Bad grandma -- I probably fed dancer girl too much chocolate last night. Husband was nice enough to wash all the bedding and clothes while daughter bathed her.

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and didn't exceed your caloric limits too badly. I'm planning on making several pumpkin pies so we should easily exceed ours.

A birthday present from a good friend

A very dear and long-time friend (you notice I didn't say "old" friend) sent me a beautiful birthday wish today and included was this photo. Friend and her husband had joined us for Thanksgiving last November, and during the course of serving up the feast, she took this picture of me.

So, for those who thought I looked like this:



This is what I "actually" look like:

Here I am, barefoot but not pregnant, in my kitchen wearing the apron my darling granddaughters made for me. The meal turned out great and everybody had a wonderful time.

BTW, in approximately 51 days husband and I will be grandparents to a new baby boy. Daughter alipurr is feeling wonderful. Can't hardly wait for the big event.