Category Archives: binge

Turkey Day, Comfort Food, and Why I’m Grateful

binge, comfort food, generosity, mermaids, Susan Jeffery, ,

   Hey, friends, welcome to a very festive, happy and grateful lagoon!

Why? Maybe I’m just blown away by the mega-words flowing from our mermaids’ talented fingers during the Month of Nano. Or, maybe it’s the new titles falling from the sky keyboards in the lagoon this year (too many to list here!) Maybe it’s Pintip, who will emcee the 2018 Golden Heart Awards at RWA in Denver!

Congratulations, Pintip!

And those Nano totals? YOW. Denny, Kim, Carlene, Alethea, Pintip. You finny sisters are my inspiration.

If I could just stop doing this in my own writing:

 

Eventually I’ll get to do something like this:

This is not getting us to the topic today, however!

We’re talking Comfort Food in this post, and a big shout-out to those of us who will be in the kitchen. Not me, friends. My only job on Thursday is to bring brownies to the home of my friend Colleen – who is also going twenty-first century with her Turkey Day feast. She ordered it from DeCicco’s in Yorktown, NY, and my plate will be heaped with those trouble-free dishes. No sweat here, we’re kicking the roasting pan to the curb!

I think this is the third year I haven’t made a Thanksgiving dinner, and I admit – there are a few things I miss.  Things I learned from Mom, recipes I love to make, share and eat. Smell and taste are tremendous memory triggers. When I make these dishes, she’s a little closer – in spite of the years since she sat at the kitchen table with the newspaper while the timer ticked away. Here are two of my favorite recipes for the Thanksgiving table:

Sweet Potato Casserole

You haven’t lived until you’ve had mine: fresh sweet potatoes (or, in my house, yams) are peeled, sectioned and microwaved until tender (but not mushy). Wield your vintage potato masher until the (yams) are broken down, but retain character (lumps)(chunks). Blend in a carton of evaporated milk. Add some melted butter. A teaspoon of vanilla. Break up some walnuts or pecans into the mix, if you like the texture and flavor. A teaspoon of cinnamon! And lots of brown sugar. Don’t be shy, toss in a handful or so. Turn it out into a buttered casserole dish and give it 30 minutes or so in the oven at 350°. Yum. 

Cranberry Sauce

I miss my homemade cranberry sauce more than anything. You’ll want just three ingredients: a bag of cranberries from the store, a cup of white sugar, and 3/4 cup orange juice. Dump the berries into a colander and rinse, then pick them over to find the icky ones. Toss those out. Now, in a medium saucepan (2 quart or so), blend the orange juice and sugar. Set over medium high heat, and wait for some drama. When the sugar/juice starts to boil, toss in the cranberries. Stir, then settle back and wait for the mixture to boil again. Boil for FIVE MINUTES. Set a timer, woman, and watch that your heat is high enough to boil and low enough to keep from boiling over! The fun is hearing the cranberries pop and crack as they cook. Move the pan to a cold burner when the timer dings and stir it for a few minutes. Set it aside to cool completely. A pretty crystal dish will show off the jewel color of your creation.

Other family favorites include dressing (not stuffing), made with herb bread baked in our bread machine, and a rice pudding recipe from the Southern Living Cookbook (Mom never made that one, but the cookbook was a Christmas gift soon after I married, and I treasure it – p. 77, Best Banana Bread Ever).

Some dishes became standards over the years as times changed and my own children grew up. Cup Salad (five ingredients: open, dump, stir, chill) replaced the Ambrosia (tediously hand-sectioned oranges and coconut) Mom made for my father.  A church cookbook I bought on a North Carolina beach vacation yielded a recipe that became a favorite each year at our transplanted New York table: a strange mix of lemon and lime Jello, mayonnaise, cottage cheese, chopped walnuts, and canned pineapple tidbits. When I set it on the table the first year, the assembled company recoiled at first. After their first tastes, however, they decided it was too delicious to have the plain-Jane name, “jello salad.” A raucous Turkey-day debate finally re-named it: Martian Salad.

And so it goes. Every generation finds its way to a new variation on the meet/greet/eat/drop theme of the day. In our own home, Andrews standards (creamed onions, creamed potatoes, turnips) never made it to the table. Hosford (maiden name) traditions like mince pie and green bean casserole were also set aside in favor of the new tastes and habits of our generation and our children’s.

One theme that remains, solid and unchanged, is the yearning for connection. Travelers make their way cross-country, clog highways or simply cross town to seek family and friends. New families form for the day, when distance and budget prevents travel. In another town, a church sets a table for “anyone who lacks a family today.”

This is why I’m grateful. In spite of the past year’s trials, I have friends who are eager to see me, and my brownies. My children will call home. One will probably celebrate with friends and his father; another is moving into a new home, and sitting down with her sweetheart’s family.

That connection, that love, those memories. They keep us grounded.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours this week, and blessings to you who set a place for “one more.”

 

 

HORSES, HORSES, HORSES, HORSES

binge, Motivation, Susan Jeffery, , ,

Hi! Susan Mermaid here! First, a moment of truth: it’s been a couple of years since my last post for my beloved Mermaids in our always-sunny lagoon. I’m making time today, though, to slip on my fins again and take a dip in these balmy waters. Isn’t it wonderful the Mermaids chose such a lovely tropical hangout for their blog?

Our topic today: What are you watching this summer?   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been binging on one particular show since June (well, after ANNE WITH AN ‘E’ finished).  Every chance I have (and there are plenty of chances with three months of vacation), I queue up another episode. It’s not the wrestling (GLOW) or the wars between royals (GoT), or even seductive mystery sleuth (VERONICA MARS).

There are lots of horses in this program (no, not a documentary series…). Lots and lots of horses.

A brief digression here: I loved horses when I was younger. What little girl didn’t crave her very own Breyer horse, her own flock of plastic ponies to train and groom and stable? I did. My family, however, being poor as mice, didn’t have $$$ for horses, either real or pretend. My friend, Maureen, did, however. We both “owned” our favorites in her “stable,” and our horses romped across her bedroom floor many afternoons. We might take a break to play a card game (War was a favorite), but mostly it was horses.

When we tired of the perfectly sculpted plastic bay or appaloosa, we took our horsey game to the next level. We snuck into the barn on the estate at the end of the street, where a lone horse was boarded. We looked and petted and fed it carrots from Maureen’s mother’s fridge. Once in a while, the owner was present. And, very rarely, only once or twice, she let us ride her horse. Bareback, with only a halter, we rambled across the fields behind our subdivision. I’ve never been more scared, or excited. I definitely was not saying ‘no.’

What a thrill! One at a time, we climbed the fence so we could scramble on top of this beast (my mother’s words running in the back of my mind: don’t go playing around up at that barn! And stay away from that horse!). Holding the rein, I steered the animal this way and that, knowing my legs were too short and barely strong enough to hold on. I didn’t know what I was doing. Mostly, I sat. Perhaps the young woman who owned the horse was giving it verbal cues and all I had to do was concentrate on not falling off. I never told. And, if my mother knew (she probably did), she never let on.

child_sits_on_a_horse-2560x1440

Years pass, and I don’t do much riding (twice, in college?). Horses were always fun to look at and think about, but oh – the money I would need! And, then:

HEARTLAND… The longest-running one-hour drama on Canadian television has ten (TEN!) seasons to feast on. They’re doing Season Eleven now! Laugh if you want, this is my binge jam for 2017.

Sure, the stalls always need cleaning, but that’s usually the fate of a secondary character (Hi, Mallory! Hi, Caleb!). It’s like Horse Central, without the manure. And, because it’s TV, our heroes, heroines, and supporting cast are never, ever dirty or unattractively coiffed. (Note: I watch rodeo TV when it’s on. Bull riding TV is almost as good as watching golf – high stakes for them, no stakes for me.)

I find myself marveling at the intricacies of Mallory’s hair. Her parents are always on the road for Dad’s country singing career, so who fixes her hair in the morning? How do her braids stay put with all that shoveling of manure? I never see the characters sweat. They might be feeling uppity which boy is taking them to the dance. Or, they might not have gotten up the courage to apply to vet school. But, when these folks have a problem to solve, they don’t just lie around and engage in fruitless mental gymnastics. Nope, they saddle up and ride out to look at the mountain scenery and Think It Over. Somehow, they nearly always manage to work it all out.

            I like that approach. Don’t you?

My practical questions are many. What about the feeding of these equine heartthrobs? I looked it up (and every other question that occurs to me as I watch one episode after another.) A horse needs to eat 1 to 2 percent of its body weight every day in hay or forage. If the beastie is let out in a healthy field to forage, that’s one thing. Otherwise, it needs a quarter to a half bale of hay. Every. Single Day. And the poor horse-loving dopes on Heartland still need to consider additional feed (Grain? Pellets or cubes? Quick, let’s look that up, too!). Note to self: you’ve never seen them write a check to Maggie’s for all the supplies they pick up on their trips into town to Stock Up.

Scene-stealing vistas of the Canadian Rockies give me a break from all that equine riding, roping, and stall-cleaning activity (did I say the horses are pretty?). Amy and Ty are a shoo-in for Best Couple, Mallory wins for Cute While Annoying – or maybe it’s Lou. Jack is Best Dad – and he’s conquering his fear and flying to Paris to woo his beloved, Lisa, away from her evil ex-husband!

Other questions: Is Katie the cutest baby ever? Or not? And when will we see the house Miss Bell gave Lou and Peter? How will it be refurbished? Will Ashley ever show up again (hope not).

Yup. This show has lasso’d my heart. I’m on Season Five and doing all the watching I can before September 8, when my school librarian job starts again. Amy just made a Significant Discovery, and Tim is falling for Miranda! Excuse me, while I watch the rest of the episode.

Swoon!