Happy Thanksgiving & Memories of Thanksgiving Past

This morning while I was making my stuffing I remembered how my Dad would buy day old bread, cut it into cubes and lay it out on the kitchen table for it to dry out even more.  I don't remember him placing it on cookie sheets to dry it in the oven but he might have dried the bread that way.  He would add his own spices to it and of course saute the onions and celery to add to the stuffing.  I have never made mine from scratch. I think he started using the bag stuffing after we moved to Florida, it was probably too humid there to dry out the bread. 

Wishing all of you and yours a wonderful safe day.  This little video really says all I think of during this special season of Thanksgiving.  May we have an attitude of gratitude all year long.

Advent Calendar: Holiday Foods

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories Joggers by GeneaBlogger

Did your family or ancestors serve traditional dishes for the holidays? Was there one dish that was unusual?
 
My memories about Christmas food seem to be identical to my memories about Thanksgiving food.  I have no special memories of Christmas Eve Food.  Christmas Day was the turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, stuffing and canned cranberry sauce.  Of course pies for deserts. 

Since our grandparents liked in Nantucket Island Massachusetts we never had holiday dinners with them.  My parents didn't speak much about what they had growing up.
 
My Dad use to cook the turkey liver, gizzards and heart.  It was a treat to eat these while waiting for the big meal to finish cooking.  I don't know how long he cooked them, I only know he boiled them.  He would also cook the neck but he was the only one who would eat that.  I have tried to cook this items but some how it doesn't turn out right.  I can still see the little aluminum pot he use on our gas stove in New York in my mind's eye.  He used the same pot when we moved to Florida only we had an electric stove. 
 
Many of my favorite Holiday treats I learned about after I left home.  As a nurse many of my patients gave me gifts of food, such as Pumpkin Rolls.  One year one of my patients gave me this wonderful red tin of the thinnest ginger type cookies.  They were wonderful.  The other's ones I like but for the life of me can't remember their name are a anise flavored lacy flat type of cookie, usually sprinkled with power sugar.  I have had patients make those for me also.  They are wonderful.  It is a good thing I don't make them because I would eat them all. 
 

Wassail cooking on the stove

One tradition I learn from some friends when I first moved to Arizona was Hot Buttered Wassail.  I make it every year  and share some of it every year.  It is severed hot and it is smooth and tasty on a cold day. 

Hot Butter Wassail

12 oz Orange Juice Concentrate
12 0z Lemonade Concentrate
6 oz Pineapple Concentrate
8 quarts of water
6 cups of sugar
1 tsp ground cloves
2 TBSP of butter

Yum!

Mix in a large pot and serve warm.

Hints: I cut the sugar to 4 cups. Since I don't have a pot big enough to hold 8 quarts plus, I only mix it with 4 quarts of water and dilute it again when I serve it. Since I can't find 6 oz Pineapple Concentrate anymore I use the whole 12 oz.
 
My other new tradition is to have a Christmas brunch since all my kids have many home to go visit it is easier to have a brunch and not cook the big turkey meal.  I do those do the night before casseroles and put them in the oven in the morning.
 
Here is one I tried last year. So here is the French Toast Casserole, or what is left of it this morning. I forgot to take a picture yesterday. It was good and liked by all.

FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE

Hawaiian Bread (large loaf)

8 oz. cream cheese

2½ cups milk or half and half (I used H&H)

¼ cup maple syrup

8 eggs

6 T melted butter

13 X 9 greased baking dish

Cut bread loaf in half. Cut one half into cubes leaving the other half aside. Place cubes into greased casserole dish.
Cube cream cheese and place on top of bread in casserole dish. Cube remaining bread and place on top of this.

Beat eggs, melted butter, milk and maple syrup in blender or with whisk. Pour on top of casserole ingredients. Smooth down with spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator overnight.

Next AM remove plastic wrap. Bake casserole at 325 degrees for 35-45 minutes until top is golden brown. Serve with warmed maple syrup.

Here is another one I enjoy sorry no picture.

Egg Casserole(Make one day ahead & cook the morning of)   

1 lb.  pork sausage
1 Tbs.  butter
4-6 slices bread (enough to cover bottom of casserole dish)
1 cup  grated cheese
8-10 eggs
1 1/2 cup  milk
3/4 tsp.  dry mustard
1/2 bunch green onions (sliced)
1/3 cup  green pepper (diced)
1 cup  Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/4 cup  milk
1 cup  sliced mushrooms (optional)

Brown sausage, then set aside to cool.  Remove crust from bread.  Butter 9 x 13 casserole dish and line with bread.  Top bread with cheese and sausage.  Beat eggs and add milk, mustard, onions, and green peppers.  Pour over sausage and bread mixture.  Cover and refrigerate this portion over night. 

Next day:  Dilute soup with 1/4 cup  milk.  Pour this over top of casserole.  Sprinkle with sliced mushrooms and bake uncovered.
Bake at 300 degrees for 1 ½ hour  I do my soup the night before and hold the mushrooms, I am the only one who would eat them.

Enjoy your Holiday foods!

Advent Calendar: The Christmas Tree



Christmas Morning 1949

Here I am at age 22 months running gleefully towards the Christmas Tree.  Looking in amazement at the tree and enjoying my very own rocking chair.  That is my Dad's writing, he made the photo albums.

As a child we always had a real tree and I loved the smell of the tree.  I still do but I have had an artificial tree since I brought my first home in 1989.  I didn't want to deal with the mess of the water and needles. 

The year Richard and I married we lived in my little town house which was a 950 square foot.  His boys slept in the living room and his daughter in the second bedroom.  Since the boys slept on the hide-a-bed sofa there was no room for a tree.  We took a card board box, covered it with blue wrapping paper for the background and cut a green tree shape out of wrapping paper and put that on the box.  We put holes into the box and push mini lights into the holes at the edge of the green shape.  It wasn't much but we enjoyed it.  If I can find a picture of this tree I'll add it later. My sister in law as brought us a little pine tree from the drug store, table top tree since we weren't going to have one.

I can remember as a child going to the Christmas tree lot and buying a tree, we usually went in the evening and we were all bundle up to stay warm.  This was when we lived in Whitestone, New York.  It was an adventure to go out in the cold and to see Christmas light.

In Florida we didn't have to bundle up and I think we started going in the afternoon to buy the trees.  It was not a much fun for some reason.

My Dad was in charge putting the lights on the tree.  I use to want to help him and I would get right behind him on the step ladder and he would yell at me to get out of the way, and he added, "If I fall you will become an ink spot."   Luckily he never fell and I never became an ink spot. 

Mom did the fine points of decorating like the ornaments and tinsel.  My Mom would get upset if the boys threw the tinsel on.  I was usually patient enough to put it one one strand at a time.  I don't do tinsel any more, I have cats.



Christmas Tree 2008

 My favorite lights were the bubble candles and I was really glad when they came out again.  So I do have large lights on my tree.  A few years ago I purchased a pre-lite tree and it was fine for two years but now I have a full section where the lights don't work and I have to add a string of lights anyway, what a drag.

Merry Christmas
Christ is the Reason for the Season

Wordless Wednesday - Almost

This Picture reminds me that through out all generations there are family gatherings.  As the season of Thanksgiving approaches I hope we all remember the things we are grateful for.

Christmas 1939 to 1942

My Aunt Em couldn't remember exactly what year this was.  My Dad is standing by the window.  My Grandparents Hartmann are at the head of the table.  Uncle Richie youngest child is on the right at the head of the table.  Aunt Em is on the left second from my Dad.   This is the house my Grandpa & Dad built and I lived in until I was 11.