Thanksgiving Day and then it's Advent!

Thanksgiving dinner preparation began Tuesday with "that" cranberry relish.  Those who listen to Morning Edition on NPR know that it's Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish.  Susan Stamberg repeats the recipe every year.  Here is the  2015 version.

I discovered the recipe about 1991.  My colleague Pam came into the library saying she'd heard a great recipe and story on the car radio. She quickly copied the directions on a catalog card and made a photocopy for me.  I still have the photocopy in my recipe box. (Recipe box? That's a story for another post.)

Years later Stamberg said it turned out that her mother-in-law had gotten the recipe from her daughter who had clipped it from Craig Claiborne's column in the New York Times.  Stamberg had Claiborne as the annual recipe-reciter one year. He said he'd gotten far more mileage out of that recipe than any other.

I made side dishes using two recipes from the Chicago Tribune:  parsnips and beets with citrus aioli and butternut squash roasted with maple syrup and topped with feta.  Dessert came from a recipe in Parade magazine:  sweet potato cheesecake (spiced with cinnamon and chile).

We use a roasting bag for the turkey.  Purists may scoff, but it keeps the oven clean and the turkey turned out nicely.  I boiled down the bones and made turkey soup.

We didn't go shopping on Black Friday but we did go to the movies -- we saw Brooklyn.  It is a charming love story and we recommend it!

Stevens provided pulpit supply on Sunday at Memorial UMC in Zion.  (Gee, without his preaching robe, and with the flag behind him, he looks like a politician.)

I have accumulated a lot of Christmas cards -- the leftovers from boxes and this estate sale.  I was determined to use them up this year.  I nearly did!  We put up the wreath, the tree, and the Nutcrackers.  I am hosting the AAUW board meeting this week and wanted the holiday decor up, even if it seems too early.