Thankful and Blessed!
I almost forgot to prepare a post this week! I had considered posting about some quilty things I am doing but I realized that most of my readers were celebrating American Thanksgiving today-who would be reading? Instead I will share a bit of our Thanksgiving celebration with you.
Most importantly, I will have BOTH of my son’s home again! Unfortunately my new Daughter-in-Law has to work so my oldest will be coming by himself and we will miss her. I hope future Thanksgivings will get bigger and bigger as our family grows. But youngest son is already here…
so the feasting has begun! He just started a new job in Tucson so we are all excited. Notice the birthday banner? In our combined families there are 5 birthdays and one anniversary between early Nov and early Dec. We just leave that banner up for a month!
About 11 years ago, as I was cleaning up after our typical turkey/dressing/green bean casserole Thanksgiving meal, I realized that no one was excited about this meal, including me and my husband! Why was I killing myself to make this meal and then eating the leftovers for days? We, um actually I, decided we were going to do an oil-based fondue, with various meats to fry. And my family was thrilled!
We did fondue for a few years until one year I noticed all the little bits of oil that were hanging in the air long after the fondue. So that was why the floor was slippery! Ewwww. I began a search for Plan C. It had to be something that took awhile, causing us to have wide-ranging discussions, and it had to be fun. My solution this time was Raclette and we have done this ever since.
But wait, we have to have an appetizer!
I always make a trip to Whole Foods to get a varied selection of unusual cheeses to keep hunger at bay until the raclette is ready.
What we do is not an authentic raclette, we do our own version. Raclette uses a table-top grill to heat cheese and it hails from parts of Switzerland. Our raclette grill has a top grill on which we grill slices of beef. Underneath the grill are little pans (“coupelles”) into which we put raclette cheese. The electric burner both heats the grill for the meat as well as grills the cheese underneath. The cheese gets all crispy and is delicious!
The grill space is limited so we fight over imaginary lines which have been crossed and territory is lost or gained throughout the meal. There are 3 men at the table after all…. It all takes awhile and is a relaxed and sociable way to spend our Thanksgiving meal.
I accompany the protein with assorted roasted winter vegetables. And all this food needs sauces! I prepare 6 different sauces (the same each year) and there is also debate over which sauces are the favorites that year. I found these “liquor tasting sets” were a perfect size to hold the sauces. Because the raclette sits in the middle of the table (and is hot!), you can’t exactly reach over to get your sauce, so each end of the table gets its own set of sauces.
Just in case you are wondering, the sauces from left to right on the bottom tray: curry, sour cream/horseradish, “Devil’s Sauce”, roasted red pepper, chutney/balsamic and chipotle.
Wait-it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without pie! We choose 2 of the 3-cherry, apple or pumpkin. Geez pie makes me fat-I wonder why.
And of course, in this family, there is Univ of Texas football to be watched before dinner, sigh. It’s a part of the ritual. Texas is terrible this year so they all may be grumpy. Uh oh. UPDATE: I have been corrected. The Cowboys play today, the Texas Longhorns tomorrow. What do I know?
I have countless things to be thankful for. I walk very early in the wee hours of the morning before anyone else is up. It is quiet. I pray and consider how many blessings I have each day. I love that time of day. So I try to make every day one of thanksgiving. I hope you too are considering your blessings and revel in them. Blessings to all. Thank you for reading-it is a blessing to me to share and chat with you.
Next week I’ll be back to quilty things! I’ll post as always to Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.
Wow, what an interesting dinner–today get photos of the cheese and meat. Easy and very participatory! Good thinking. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Will do Barbara. Happy Thanksgiving to you all too!
this sounds simply lovely Jenny!
Thank you Ter! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and family! Enjoy your day.
Aw thank you Connie! I so enjoyed your display at the River City show. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Thank you for sharing, it is so fun to share celebrations of so many themes/families, and such a reminder of how truly we all are blessed! I do appreciate your sharing in so many ways, keep sewing and sharing!
Thank you Suzanne-we are all blessed! Wishing you and yours a delightful Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving!! Loved your post – my turkey is in the oven as we speak – but totally get that you want to do something different. I do love having the turkey (and the leftovers!), but like you, don’t enjoy all those hours in the kitchen. This year I did several of the side dishes yesterday, so now have a bit of leisure while turkey is cooking. Neither of our boys is home for Thanksgiving this year, but my brother and his roommate will be coming, so there will be 4 of us. The guys will be watching sports on TV, too – I guess that’s also tradition for most families. Enjoy your day!!!
Thank you Peggy! I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful too. If they are watching football you can quilt!
I loved reading about your Thanksgiving traditions–and learned a couple of new words! Of course any cheese prepared any way is a favorite. I have a Texas A&M granddaughter, so I’m going to root that way when Texas plays A&M. I have lots of relatives in Austin and used to spend most TGs there when my parents and sister were alive. My daughter and I had my world-class meatloaf, beets, julienne carrots, zucchini/onions and “pink stuff” (that Cool Whip/cottage cheese/fruit mixture). Will look forward to your next quilty post.
Martha
Oh I’m so glad you enjoyed it Martha! I like to hear how others celebrate their day also. Oh that Texas food-yummmm! Hubby is from Texas and I know all about that Hill Country food. BTW I did attend A&M so I have that connection also. I hope you had a great day!
Always fun to hear how Thanksgiving is celebrated. Ours was last month so is just a memory. Son came home so all was good. Have you tried meat fondue but using beef broth instead of oil? You have an added bonus as the broth gets richer as more cooking is done and the tradition is to drop an egg in and mix at the end then dish out as soup. Love these slow meals.
Happy Holiday.
We did do the broth fondue one year actually and I don’t remember why but it was not a hit. The boys were younger then and perhaps it was the sizzle of the meat hitting the oil. It sounds good again!
LOL! This Canuck, whose Thanksgiving is in October (because our harvest is earlier than yours) has had fun following your celebrations. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Margaret! Hope you’re all cozy and creating!
Love, raclette. Yum! What is most impressive is your courage to break with tradition. Who says Thanksgiving must be Turkey and mashed everything? I did notice you didn’t give up the pies. We have shifted to apple crisp, served steaming hot (put it in the oven after the turkey comes out) and top it with a good vanilla ice cream.
Ha, it was more about pleasing the masses than courage! And yes, those pies still have to be there-I love them! Apple crisp is a great alternative-oh I can just taste it withe the melting ice cream on top….
Happy day-after, Jenny! It was fun to read about your different Thanksgiving feast! Living alone, I pick out the bare minimum of “thanksgiving essentials” and make one or two things for myself to have “leftovers.”
Well that sounds like a great plan Debby! I hope it was a great Thanksgiving for you.