All posts by sz1044

Thanksgiving Assessment

Deep Thoughts and Musings, SherrieZone Quotes,

The table cloths and flowers worked beautifully. You know how you try to picture in your mind what the colors will do to each other…will they play nice and  make each other shine?  Well this is a combination I’m going to use again.  We planned to eat dinner about 3:00 p.m.  The day before was bright and sunny so I didn’t put candles on the tables. But, Thanksgiving  Day was grey and low light. So, I slipped on some votives at the last minute.  Candle light with yellow roses is like being in Tuscany in the late afternoon.

IMG_0214

The turkey was gloriously golden.  Basting really is key to moist turkey and crisp skin. The mashed potatoes were to die for and made delicious fried potato cakes the next morning.  The steamed green beans with almonds, spinach salad, yam soufflé, Rachel Ray’s apple, onion stuffing, rolls and (of course) our traditional cherry jello “salad” were all delicious.

Pie was a different story.  We made two pumpkin pies the day before.  And….you know how you turn down the temp for the last 40 min…???  I turned the timer on but didn’t turn down the temp.  Then I left to pick up a few last minute things. Thankfully, my husband discovered the problem 20 min. in and lowered the temp to 275 degrees. The lesson was learned for this year:  finish one task before rushing off to do another. “Slow down and actually enjoy the process.”  Then your crust won’t be burned.

Then, consider the banana cream pie..  If you haven’t made one since last Thanksgiving,  and haven’t made a note on your recipe card, be sure to make it a day ahead.  Yes, put the whole thing together the day before and refrigerate.  It needs to SET.  If you put it together right before you are going to serve it,(so it will be fresh, what other reason?), you are doomed to sloppy banana pudding in a crust.

Plus…we talk about miracles around Christmas, but, Thanksgiving?  We had three babies under 18 months all asleep during the entire dinner.

Other than a last minute surprise guest, rushing the turkey out of the oven to accommodate guests needing to leave for another scheduled dinner and other guests arriving late, everything was lovely.  If this doesn’t even remotely sound familiar to you, that’s okay, around here, it’s perfectly normal. Thankfully, we won’t have to do that again for another year.  That’s my Thanksgiving Assessment.

 

Thanksgiving already?

Deep Thoughts and Musings, , ,

Wow!  I find myself asking where the time has gone more and more often lately.  I think  it has to do with the hours I’m spending in frustration trying to figure out how the #”$/# to write this blog and add media and on and on.  I just get one thing down and five more things pop up.  I think I understand one click…or two clicks…and where did this blankety-blank page come from?  The ether.  My husband has no patience for my learning curve problems.  My son just smiles and reminisces about his frustrations in class on his way to an IT degree.  I’m lucky to have his help.  I’m thankful!

Again, where is the time going so fast?  We went to see “Interstellar”, the movie with Matthew McConaughey.  So…I’ve decided that time is definitely slipping through the cracks between dimensions.  That has to be it.  Otherwise, Thanksgiving wouldn’t already be here.

Thanksgiving always brings so many holiday memories.  One tradition that is bittersweet this year is making cranberry sauce.  Roberta, my mother-in-law, started this one.  She made the prettiest cranberry sauce by adding blanched whole almonds.  Those almonds look like jewels in the ruby red sauce…just beautiful! IMG_0211[1] She passed away this year.  She was 94 years old.  Last Thanksgiving, she beat a homemade drum to accompany her boyfriend, Hugh’s, harmonica.  They entertained us all weekend with such beautiful music.

Yup, this year has just raced by…and yes, it is Thanksgiving already!

We all need a little witch!

Deep Thoughts and Musings, SherrieZone Quotes, , ,

There are days when in just a few seconds everything changes.  I can think of a few in my life that involve accidents, phone calls advising of deaths and births and even a conversation at what  was supposed to be a lovely lunch.

The whole month of October,  the hills all around me were so stunningly beautiful,  I couldn’t stay inside.  Every errand I started out on ended up sidetracked by some vignette that begged to be recorded.  A wild gang of turkeys was so intriguing that my husband and I stalked them for half a mile for some good pictures.  The deer sauntered in and out of the turkeys totally uninterested in them or in us.  Magical.

Then, there was the day right before Halloween when I gave in to the pleading “can we go to the park”.  It was afternoon.  The sun was low in the sky.  The light was hazy.  The shafts of light coming through the trees looked like spotlights here and there.  We moved in and out of groves of trees taking pictures.  Then all of a sudden a little witch darted in and out of the bushes laughing and screeching “look at me”.  I laughed and laughed.  What a surprise!  The murky shroud of loss that I had allowed to cover me had lifted…and evaporated.  I need to laugh more.  We all need to laugh more. ” We all need a little witch!”

sherrie's flowers 173

Freeze Frame Fall, Please

Beauty of Nature,

FallOakTreesIt’s October in Utah. That means spectacular oranges, reds and yellows against the rich dark green of the pine trees. On the sunny days, it sparkles. I’ve been out taking pictures of the scrub oak in the foot hills.

The air is so crisp. The blue of the sky has high, thin clouds stretched across it like the cobwebs decorating the local stores in celebration of Halloween.

I want to freeze frame fall.