Thanksgiving Wishes, Memories and Recipes

Here is wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow.
I hope you get the chance  to slow down and enjoy this day with friends and family.

Thanksgiving would not be the same without our favorite foods.

Click here to find a recipe for this cheese ball.

 
Click here to find a recipe for sweet potato casserole.

Click here for a recipe for pecan pie muffins. This is a good substitute for pecan pie. And if you can't afford the pecans, click here and try a recipe for poor man's pecan pie!

My mom passed away in 1996 and I still miss her dearly, but she still lives in my heart.

She made the best turkey dressing! I try to make it like she did, but mine will never be as good as hers. She never had a recipe she went by, she just added this and that and it came out delicious. My husband and kids loved it and my kids ate spoonfuls of it before it went into the oven. If I had my druthers, I'd eat it without baking it, too.

What did the dish consist of? Mainly bags of herb stuffing mix/croutons (she sometimes used toasted bread and sage, too), chicken boiled and stripped  from the bone and cut up and cooked celery (and maybe onions). And be sure to add the delicious broth the chicken was cooked in. Stir. She cooked it in the oven for approx. 30 minutes or so. Cover it with foil 'til the last 15 minutes or so to brown lightly on top.

As you can see, the above recipe is filled with words such as approximate, or so and maybe. My husband's best advice is to be sure and make it moist. He loves moist dressings! So I make sure I put in lots of the chicken broth.

How do you make your dressing? Do you use oysters, cornbread or something else that makes it special?

Click over to my writing blog and read my kid's column for the November issue of Two-Lane Livin'.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted by Janet F. Smart on Writing in the Blackberry Patch.



 

Turnips Anyone?

In the early summer you look forward to the first squash. In the fall you look  forward to the first turnips.

But, just like squash, you can only eat so many turnips. After satisfying your taste buds with a few raw ones and a few cooked messes, you grow tired of them.

When Daddy was alive, he always wanted us to plant a turnip patch. He'd sometimes bring out the seeds himself and we'd work up an unused section of the garden and spread the seeds. The seeds were tiny and he'd tell us to mix the seeds with sand and scatter them upon the ground.

Daddy passed away last spring, so he wasn't here to help, but we planted a patch in our garden and thought of him while we did it.  But, after enjoying them for a while, we promptly forgot about them.

Wow, they have grown!

We have some whopper turnips! 

Daddy would be proud!

I think it is kinda weird the way they push up out of the ground and end up above the earth. It is amazing how they grow.

Usually they are not good, when they get this big. But this one sure was. I brought it to the house, peeled it and cut it up. Wasn't a thing wrong with that gigantic turnip.

I think a person could make a meal out of just one. What do you think?

Are your turnips getting out of control, too?

They are good cut up and cooked, but I also like them raw. Just peel 'em, slice 'em and shake a little salt on 'em. Yum!

What is your favorite way to eat them?

Posted by Janet F. Smart on Writing in the Blackberry Patch.

Christmas Cactus - Suggestions?

Christmas Cactus plants are so pretty!

Especially when in bloom.
Mine never bloomed last year.

Any suggestions? I need something to brighten my holidays.
Someone told me to not water them after November 1st.
Do I need to transplant the large one into a larger flowerpot or will that hurt it at this late date?

I need your help. Any Suggestions?

Posted by Janet F. Smart on Writing in the Blackberry Patch