Happy Turkey Day!

We’re goin’ south, ya’ll. Okay, it’s probably not considered the South (although it’s below the Mason-Dixon line so technically the South) but we’re going further south to the land of no cell reception, where the only radio station plays Jimmy Buffet’s “Heeeeey good lookin’, Whaaaaat you got cookin’”. No joke.

Thanksgiving this year brings me back to my roots. I’m staying at my grandparents house, a house that hasn't changed since I was born except for some kitchen updates and wallpaper removals. It really takes me back to when I pretended to be a chemist and mixed every spice I could find into a bottle with lemon juice and declared it “Spring in a Bottle”. Or that time I shattered the lid to the flour jar, completely by accident, and became inconsolable because it no longer matched the sugar jar. To this day, that jar lid has been replaced by one my grandfather fashioned as a replacement. And the legend lives.

One of these things is not like the other

My grandmother’s kitchen is very open and always the center of attention. So naturally it’s where I found myself pretty frequently for birthdays and holidays and general gatherings. Although the appliances have all been updated, the pictures of us as toddlers remain the same (why do we bother with school photos when we’ll never be as cute as we were with chubby cheeks?). The handmade ‘rustiques’ still hang on the walls, made by my grandmother once upon a time and sold under the name “Kilroy”. Another family legend, I have yet to see these plaster fruits anywhere else so it could be true.

Rustiques: (n) constructed fruits attached to driftwood 

This post contains no recipes. There will be plenty of post-Thanksgiving recipes for pie and cookies and cake but for now, just remember that Thanksgiving is a time to be with family. Make some memories, blow up some chestnuts because you forgot to scour them (true story), eat so much pie that when the dog eats one, you get blamed (also a true story) and don’t consider the calories or fat content while you’re doing it. Thanksgiving is historically the over-eating holiday but it doesn't seem to stop people from going on about how fattening the desserts are and how much butter is in the sweet potatoes. Unless you have a medically prescribed diet, just enjoy the butter. It’s one day of the year and family is more important than any number of calories. Please, let’s move on. 

I was grateful on Tuesday for some crazy cool things at the grocery store (Chinese cabbages would make great Christmas center pieces, if you ask me)

There is so much to be grateful for and today we focus on that. I have found myself looking at my fridge as I prepare to cook and thinking "I am so fortunate to have this full fridge". Everyday gratefulness is also acceptable. Life has its stresses, everyone has them whether they make them known or not. There will always be a deadline or a worry about this, that or the other but at the end of the day, we are lucky. We are lucky to have enough food, to have shelter, to be living our lives and not struggling to stay alive. Everyday things we take for granted. I have a friend who posts one thing she's grateful for everyday and it's not always these big things but little things like "I'm grateful for this beautiful view". It's the little things in life so with that in mind, have a very Happy Thanksgiving and dig into that second piece of pie!

This is a great view to wake up to