Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family in the U.S.
And here we have some Montana turkeys,
looking for presidential pardons….
Category Archives: Thanksgiving
Good to Eat?
Imagine being known for your good flavour on the dinner table. The godwit was known, several hundred years ago, to be a “god whit,” a good creature (for the dinner table, it is presumed).
It was netted and sold at market, fetching even more than a snipe might have sold for in those long ago days.
These marbled godwits were dabbling around at the beach, poking their long bills into the sand in search of any small invertebrates they might feast on.
Their long legs help to keep their bodies from getting wet unnecessarily, but these birds do swim. For foraging though, they have more luck near the shore in waters shallow enough to walk around in without getting their bellies wet. Their long bills can easily probe the sand or mud there without having to dive for what may or may not be there.
They are no longer considered a target as a gamebird. Luckily for them, it is too much work to hunt and prepare these birds for the small amount of meat they offer for the table.
And like the turkeys that the president pardons each year, these godwits are thankful for their own version of the “Passover” at Thanksgiving.
Thankful on Thanksgiving Day
Since those unfortunate fat white turkeys have been raised in a domestic poultry setting, these wild turkeys have a lot to be thankful for every Thanksgiving Day. American Thanksgiving Day is on Nov. 28 this year. It’s still a few days away. Time for us to think about how blessed we are.
“Darlin’,” Mr. Turkey said,
“Sleep in trees or we are dead.”
“I see no coyote near,
Therefore, we have naught to fear.”
“But your night sight isn’t great,
Mildred learned that; she got ate.”
“You mean ‘eaten,’ don’t you love?
Fine, we’ll watch from up above.”
“Thank you, Lord, for common sense,
Otherwise, things could be tense.”
“We can roost up in a tree,
Count our blessings, you and me.”
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And yes, let’s count our blessings. There are way more than you think.
Cranberry Upside Down Cake
Just in time for Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law sent me this recipe. As it happens, it’s a great recipe for any time of the year and any occasion. It was my first time making this cake, but it wasn’t that hard to do, and because it tasted SO GOOD, I have to share it.
I used my Kitchen Aid mixer but it occurred to me that it might have been even easier with a regular handheld mixer because you can just stick the beaters into a different bowl rather than wash the bowl and reuse it to do the two steps of mixing (you’ll see what I mean).
Step One
Take an 8″ square cake pan and put two tbsp. melted butter in the bottom of the pan. Then spread 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the bottom of the pan.
Set this aside to put in the oven at 350 degrees for a couple of minutes just before it’s time to add the batter. (You need to have time to make the batter before heating the butter/sugar mixture).
The recipe says to add about a cup and a half of fresh cranberries (or even two cups) to this butter and brown sugar mixture. I always have frozen cranberries for my baking so I put them into a big measuring cup and add hot water to thaw them, draining and replacing the hot water a couple of times to thaw the cranberries. These will be added later to the heated up sugar/butter combination.
About 1/4 cup of pecans will also be sprinkled onto the bottom of the pan after the cranberries are added.
** I heated the oven and put the pan in to melt the brown sugar into the butter when I was finished making the batter in the next step.
Step Two
Now let’s make the batter.
Put these ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix after each addition:
3 tbsp. softened butter
1/4 cup white sugar
2 egg yolks (save the whites in a little bowl for mixing later)
1 tsp. vanilla
Step Three
In a separate bowl, put the rest of the dry ingredients together:
1 1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp.
Step Four
Add the flour mixture to the batter, alternately with 1/2 cup of milk, ending with the flour mixture. If the resulting batter seems a bit too stiff, add a couple more tbsp. milk.
The second time I tried baking this cake I did add a bit more milk (say, almost 3/4 cup altogether) and it was better.
Step Five
This is about the time when I put the pan into the preheated oven, because the next step takes about the right time while the brown sugar is melting into the sugar.
In a clean bowl, put the two egg whites you have saved from when you put the egg yolks into the batter. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff.
Fold the egg white mixture into the batter. (Don’t stir it in. Gently fold it in.) The batter should look slightly foamy.
Step Six
Take out the pan with the heated butter and brown sugar, sprinkle the warmed up cranberries evenly over the brown sugar. Then sprinkle a few pecans over the cranberries. If you have a nut allergy you can easily skip this step.
Pour the batter over the cranberries in the pan and spread it evenly.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
When it is done, let the cake sit for a few minutes; then loosen the sides by running a knife along the sides of the pan. Put a plate over the pan upside down and invert the cake onto the plate.
Step Seven
Make a pot of tea or coffee and cut the cake. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or just have it plain. It’s really good all by itself.
The photo below is from my second try, where I added a tiny bit more milk and used 2 cups of cranberries rather than 1 and 1/2 cups. Better, I think.
I want to add that my five novels are now available on Amazon for Kindle for only 99 cents in time for the holiday season. Just click on the cover images on the side of the blog post.
If you have another kind of e-reader, you can visit smashwords.com where you can download my books for the same price of 99 cents for your type of e-reader.
Happy Thanksgiving
I hope you’ve been as lucky as Lincoln has been in storing up food for his Thanksgiving feast. He has a message for you.
Hello, my friends and family brood,
I hope you’re keeping well,
Have you been saving up your food,
So supper will be swell?
We all work hard to make ends meet,
And put some food aside,
Then once a year we meet and greet,
Make happy our inside.
And as we sit around the feast,
We’re thankful for so much,
We’ve shared with those who have the least,
And lend a loving touch.
Our troubles may be huge this year,
But if each person shares,
We’ll face the future without fear,
And live with fewer cares.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American
friends and family.
Gratitude
With Canadian Thanksgiving coming up this weekend, I decided to read some background on the origins of this holiday and found that the information was a jumble of ideas and beliefs, historical evidence, and a lot of surmise. This holiday celebrated everything from a reunion of Martin Frobisher’s scattered windblown fleet in northern Canada in 1578 to Champlain’s feasts of thanksgiving for the harvest with the Mi’kmaqs and the French in 1606 (at which time the Mi’kmaqs introduced cranberries to the pioneers’ diet and helped prevent scurvy).
The American influence brought the North American turkey, pumpkins, and squash to the Thanksgiving feast in the 1750s.
On January 31, 1957, the annual harvest time feast became an official holiday. In Canada it was to be held on the second Monday of October. An earlier November date was changed so it would not interfere with Remembrance Day on November 11.
Whatever the historical reasons for dates and for celebrating, it is commonly accepted that it is a time to give thanks for our many blessings.
These blessings may differ from one person to another, but the feeling of gratitude is the same.
Some traits to consider, one for each letter of Happy Thanksgiving:
Humble
Aiding
Providing
Patient
Yielding
Thankful
Helpful
Active
Noble
Kneeling
Satisfied
Gracious
Inviting
Volunteering
Innovative
Natural
Goodness
I hope you all have a million things to be thankful for this year. I know I do.
American Thanksgiving
Just when you think things are so bad that you have nothing to be thankful for, along comes the Thanksgiving holiday to remind us of so many blessings in our lives.
I won’t begin to name any of the thousands of things we have to be thankful for. Each of us has a perspective uniquely our own. Some might be thankful for good health, while others in failing health are thankful for other things that they have come to appreciate. Some might be thankful for having lots of money, while others are just as happy with much less. My own thought on that is ,”Money isn’t everything, but it sure helps.”
Whatever your circumstances allow, it’s important to make the most of the good things in life.
If you are lucky enough to be with friends or family on Thanksgiving, why not share some of the things you are truly thankful for.
H Home for holidays is fine,
A Appetizers, and some wine,
P Pie dessert is understood,
P Pumpkin’s always pretty good,
Y Yams and taters fill the plate,
T Turkey dinner would be great.
H Happy family, sisters, brothers,
A Aunts and uncles and their “others,”
N No one needs to be left out,
K Kinship’s what it’s all about.
S So much to be thankful for,
G Guests and family we adore.
I It’s a happy time of year,
V Valued friends that bring us cheer.
I It’s a ritual affair,
N Nothing else can quite compare,
G Giving thanks for all we share.
In case you have trouble getting a turkey this year with all the supply chain problems just choose one of these Merriam’s wild turkeys I “shot” for you by the Missouri River.
To all my American friends and family, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving holiday.
wordsfromanneli 