‘Tis the Season

(I made this with Scrapblog.com – try it – it is very fun)

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Blogging Thanksgiving

Pie baking, stuffing, sweet potatoes… Let’s live blog Thanksgiving!!

We begin with the pies. Here is a picture from my vintage 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook…

Vintage pies

We are making pumpkin (naturally) and pecan! But first … my favorite part of Thanksgiving – my mother’s pumpkin pie recipe:

NOW! Onto the pie baking!

Crumble 2/3's cup of butter into 2 cups of flour until it kinda looks like cornmeal

Add 1/4 cup of REALLY cold water and gather into a ball - flour the table and get EX CALIBER the rolling pin... more about EX CALIBER later.....

Roll, roll, roll

Place in pie pan and trim so you have will tidbits for cinnamon rollups

Flute edges by pinching with thumb and index finger - PRETTY!

 

The pie filling - made with CREAM!!!

Make cinnamon rollups with left over dough: roll, slather with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon, rollup!

Bake on an upside down cake pan that is dented and old and belonged to your grandmother probably. They taste better if baked this way.

TIME FOR YOUR CLOSE UP, Cinnamon rollups!

Here is a pecan pie recipe – do all the same stuff except with pecans and dark corn syrup this time!

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I Remember Mama…

Nancy Ann – A Life

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Songs my mother taught me
In the days long vanish’d
Seldom from her eyelids
Were the teardrops banish’d

Now I teach my children
Each melodious measure
oft the tears are flowing
oft they flow from my mem’ry treasure (Anton Dvorak)

My mom and I used to sing this together. It was a heavily marked song in my great grandmother’s song book. It is an old timey tune, full of pathos and emotion written back in the days when people’s lives were more precarious than our own. It is my favorite.

One of my favorite old movies is “I Remember Mama” with Irene Dunne and  Barbara Bel Geddes. I have made my own little movie to remember my own mom, Nancy Ann. She was my rock and my best friend. My mom loved the Metropolitan Opera and listened to the radio broadcasts every Saturday. She had a gorgeous soprano singing voice (think Kathleen Battle) and was sunny and bright, always eager to listen to YOUR story and an amazing voice teacher. She was the best grandmother ever and I want to share her with you here. I used music which represented the era she came from, she and my dad loved Andy Williams, hence the Moon River and she enjoyed a classical music career with her wonderful second husband, a composer in his own right, Eloy Fominaya. The final song is Mi Chimano Mimi, her favorite aria, from Puccini’s La Boheme, sung by her favorite soprano, Renee Fleming.  I think the internet is a wonderful way to highlght the lives of people who deserve to be known by others.

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(Bumped again by popular request) My Really Exceptional Stuffing (I made this up myself)

 

Stuff this guy!

 

2 Boxes of Gourmet Seasoned Croutons - Crumble a bit with your BARE HANDS so they aren’t so lumpy (DON’T USE GARLIC CROUTONS!!!)

3 Celery Stalks – chopped 

1 Big Onion – finely chopped – FINELY! FINELY MEANS FINELY

1 Granny Smith Apple – chopped

1 Bulging handful of Golden raisins – (make sure they are dropping on the floor from your hand when you transfer them to the big bowl across the kitchen- that’s how you know you have enough)

2 sticks of BUTTER (the better to kill you with!!!)

1/4 Cup Ice Water

3 Eggs – Beaten within an inch of their life

Melt Butter in an attractive, copper bottomed pan reminiscent of Julia Child. Throw the celery, onions, apple and raisins in the melted butter. Bubble around until the onions and celery are translucent. Taste them a lot. Beat the eggs during this interlude. Pour the celery, onions, apples and raisins over the crumbled croutons and stir and stir until mixed. Taste a lot before you add the eggs. Add the eggs. If you are feeling Russian Roulette-ish, taste again once the eggs are added. With a zig zag motion, pour the cold water over all and stir, stir, stir. STUFF THE TURKEY. Place left overs in a pretty casserole dish, choose the little one you received when you got married from a distant non relative friend of your mother who you called Aunt Patty, this type of casserole works best. If you do not have a non-relative named Aunt Patty who gave you a simple, yet pricey casserole dish, Pyrex works just as well. 

I LOVE MY STUFFING~~~~

 

UPDATE: Three people have now asked for my recipe – on this blog I call that a quorum – I think I will make it a tradition! I have not been blogging much lately. I needed a little break. But, I think I have some blog ideas brewing.

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