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.

My Last Thanksgivng thought for 2010: Left Overs

My Dad like I said was a very good cook, he seldom followed a recipe.  I on the other hand didn't get the cooking gene from him.  I am a good cook, I can follow a recipe and I can even adapt a recipe, but that is as far as it goes. 

My Dad use to make Turkey Noodle soup after Thanksgiving.  His was good, but it doesn't rank up their as one of my favorites.  I make Turkey Tortilla Soup and Sour Cream Enchiladas.  

Chicken Tortilla Soup 

4 boneless chicken breasts or turkey left overs
1 large onion
1 can Original Mexican Rotel
2 cans Rotel Tomatoes (I use 1 can and 1 can of diced tomatoes)
1 can Kidney beans
1 can Pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can corn
2 cans chicken broth
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon sugar
Optional toppings: tortilla strips, cheese, sour cream, avocado, black olives


Boil and shred chicken. Dice and saute onion in 1 tablespoon of oil. Drain and rinse beans. Drain corn. Add all ingredients to soup pot and simmer till hot and bubbly. Add salt , pepper and garlic powder to taste. Serve with choice of toppings.
I also use my Crock Pot and let it cook while I am at work. 


My second recipe is from a family cookbook one of my chemotherapy patients gave me back in the 1990s.  This one recipe is a family favorites in my house.
 
Sour Cream Enchiladas


1 dozen corn tortillas soften with oil, I skip this step and they are fine.
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 Cup of sour cream
1 – 4oz can of green chilies
Left over chicken or turkey
Grated longhorn cheese, chopped green onion tops


Heat soup, sour cream, chicken & chilies in a sauce pan. Place a small amount of sauce in the bottom of casserole dish. On each tortilla place a spoonful of sauce cheese & a few onion tops. Roll up each and place in the casserole dish. I do this an easier way, I just put down a layer of sauce and a layer of tortillas, more sauce more tortillas until gone. Cover with the remaining of sauce and cheese and onions.


Bake 350 degrees for 30 mins.


Can you tell I live in the South West and I fit in very well. 
Happy Left overs.

More Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Pumpkin Decoration, No I didn't make it.

Some more thoughts I have had about Thanksgiving how they are different from when I was a kid. 



Sweet Turkey, I forgot to have the kids take the lollipops



When I was a kid the adults all sat at one table and the kids sat at a card table in the living room.  Our house in New York had a formal dinning room and a kitchen.  Now we have all the generations sitting together.  Extra tables are pressed into service but they are in the living room, or here in Arizona out on the back porch or car port.

We use to sit and visit for a long time, now everyone has to run off and visit another family. 



Thanksgiving Decorations



I never remember my Mom having Thanksgiving decorations.  I have several favorite pieces.  On second thought she might have had one of those folded things that you unfold and it forms an item like a paper pumpkin, with a card board stem.  I can see a bell in my minds eye but I am not sure about Thanksgiving.  I don't have any old photos of Thanksgiving, so I can't say.  I guess they didn't like to stop visiting to take pictures any more than I like to stop visiting to take pictures. 

Click Here to see pictures of Thanksgiving present.

Treasure Chest Thursday Thanksgiving Memories

I have been thinking about how Thanksgiving is the same and how it is different from when I was a child.   And a couple of unusual Thanksgivings just for fun.

How is Thanksgiving the same, there is a gathering of family and friends and a lot of good food. There is a lot of work to get ready for the feast as well as a lot of clean up when it is all done. There is a lot of visiting, talking and activity.

The characters have changed over the years by characters I mean the people present. When we were in Whitestone, New York we had lots of family at the house. My Dad’s brother, his family and sister with her family. My Dad was the chief cook at my home when I was a kid.

Since he was a fireman and worked 24 hours on and 48 hours off and if he was off he spent the time cooking for the Holidays. He was a great cook, a better cook than my Mom. If he was working we had our dinner on a different day, like the Friday.  I don't remember any particular Thanksgiving on a Friday but I know it happened.

We had a relish dish with black olives, green olives, stuffed celery, Gherkin pickles.  This was always ready early so we could nibble while we waited for the main dishes.  The main dishes were sweet potatoes, mashed turnips, fresh green beans just done plain,  canned cranberry sauce, occasionally we had creamed peas, turkey and stuffing done in the bird.  I can never remember having a ham. Of course pies, pumpkin and apple for desert with whip cream.   How we loved to clean the beaters after we whipped the cream.  He used a egg beater, not no small electric hand held mixer.

When we moved to Florida and there was no family about we ate with just the six of us.  It wasn't the same but still good.  After my Mom died my Dad would still cook but he used canned vegetables instead of fresh. 

After I became as nurse I seldom had dinner with my family as I usually worked on Thanksgiving from 3 to 11:30 PM.  When my brother Don married his wife would prepare the feast and we would join in with her Dad. 

Thanksgiving Bolivia 1980

I had two unusual Thanksgivings in Bolivia when I was a missionary.  I can't find any pictures of the first one, but here is one from the last one. I went home the following January. I am the one with the cast. Notice the mashed potatoes in the bucket, that is what you need when you feed a lot of hungry missionaries.

You can see pictures of recent Thanksgiving celebrations on mequitler blog with my husband's family. Here is my very first blog post about Thanksgiving.  Also on my quilting blog if you look on the side bar for recipes you will see some of the foods I fix for Thanksgiving and Christmas, just a little different.  I make my own cranberry sauce, never canned, I have baked corn, a yam, apple, cranberry and walnut dish.  But what every you eat and who ever you eat with, enjoy the day and have a happy grateful heart.