Being Truly Thankful

We are so excited that our daughter and her husband are planning to host their very first Thanksgiving celebration at their beautiful new home in Sumter, SC! My cousin, Sandi, and her husband, George, will be joining us from Elgin. It will be a small group, but I'm so grateful that we have family to enjoy over the holiday, and especially grateful for little 2-year old Mary, who will keep us all very busy!

Working in food service, there was no way our son and his fiancee would be able to come home for Thanksgiving and we resigned ourselves to that. Yesterday, however, Rob gave me a call to tell me that he and Kelsey were able to get today and tomorrow (Monday & Tuesday) off work together and they are coming up from Sea Island to be with us! Of course, we're going to have a special Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at our house and Lyndsey, Daryl, and Mary will come join us for that. (We'll still have Thanksgiving Dinner at Lyndsey's on Thursday, too.)

Yours truly has been cooking up a storm of holiday favorites, sides only because Kelsey has brined a turkey and is bringing that along with some things her chef made. She also made a pumpkin and pecan pie. She said she hasn't had a Thanksgiving celebration dinner with family since she left hers back in Oklahoma and started working in restaurants years ago, so this will be a special time for her with her "new" family.

What a joy it is for me to have my family together for any occasion. There are few guarantees in life, so if this holiday finds you sharing with family and friends, I hope you count every moment as a blessing.

Now I must clean the house (and the collards!) but in the meantime, here is our family's favorite sweet potato casserole. I always just throw it together (as many of you probably do, too), but in case you want to try something "measured," this recipe adapted from an old Southern Living is what we enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet Potato Casserole

5 pounds sweet potatoes
Finely grated peel of one large orange
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk, or enough to moisten potatoes
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups cornflakes cereal, crushed
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Miniature marshmallows

Line a large baking sheet with foil. Wash and dry sweet potatoes and place on pan. Cover tightly with another layer of foil and bake at 400° for about 1 hour or until tender. Let cool to touch; peel and mash sweet potatoes.

Mash sweet potatoes, orange peel, sugar, and next 5 ingredients, first with a potato masher, and then stirring in the other ingredients with a woooden spoon. (I like mine to be a bit lumpy.) Spoon potato mixture into a greased 3-qt. baking dish.

Combine cornflakes cereal and next 3 ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. (Will take longer if you've made this ahead of time and the potatoes are cold.) Remove from oven; let stand 10 minutes. Sprinkle with marshmallows; bake an additional 10 minutes or until marshmallows soften. (Have someone watch the marshmallows or they will go from soft to burned in just a minute!) Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 6 to 8 servings. Make ahead: Make the casserole, but package the topping in a little zippy bag for storage. Allow to come to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe as written.

A Pinot Party

This year our holiday party at Fox Trot Farm is going to be a "Pinot" party. Of course we love to entertain during the holidays and have our friends and neighbors share the season with us, but this year the theme is partly out of desperation.

We must have lost track of how much Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris we purchased at the wineries during our October wine tour of Oregon, but were reminded a couple of weeks after our return when UPS and FedEx made daily visits to our front porch and the bottles of liquid bliss overwhelmed our wine console! Oh, what a dilemma!

I've been in the kitchen developing recipes to pair with our wonderful wines and thought I'd share one with you here. Maybe you'll enjoy a bit of Oregon Pinot during the holidays, too!

Meatballs in Pinot Noir Sauce

2 pounds lean ground beef
1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs (not the dry from the box)
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 eggs
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Pinot Noir Sauce (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a large shallow baking dish or pan.

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, bread crumbs, celery, onion, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, and pepper: mix well. Shape into 24 (1 1/2-inch) balls. Place in one layer in prepared baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile make sauce (see recipe below).

Remove meatballs from pan and discard fat. Place meatballs in bowl and pour sauce over. May freeze or refrigerate.

Before serving heat in microwave at 70% power, stirring frequently, until heated through. Place in a heated chafing dish or a slow cooker and keep warm while serving. Serve with appetizer toothpicks.

This is also great served over rice as a meal.

Pinot Noir Sauce

1 (16-ounce) can whole cranberry sauce
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup Pinot Noir
2 teaspoons hot Chinese mustard

In a medium-size saucepan over medium heat, add cranberry sauce, brown sugar, pinot noir wine, and Chinese mustard; stir to combine. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat; set aside.

The Sun is Shining in Sun City and the Village of Marvin

Lyndsey (my daughter and chef's assistant) and I are sitting on the couch, quite unwilling to get up for any reason (thank goodness for the remote control!) because we both had wonderfully busy days today. I held two cooking classes at Sun City Carolina Lakes and Lyndsey respresented us in the Chili Cookoff Fall Festival in the village of Marvin.

For me, I just think it's hard to beat being with a group of retired folks living in beautiful Sun City. They are always there to have fun and share. Some were seasoned cooks and some, after having worked for years, were interested in taking up cooking now that they have the time. All were there to enjoy what I had to teach them. They especially enjoyed the tasting part of the class!

Lyndsey really enjoyed the all-American atmosphere of the festival...good, clean fun, families, and friendly, friendly folks! She's a real people person and we know she was in heaven this afternoon with that endless supply of people to talk to!

I think we'll just sit here a while longer. I need to build up the reserves to be able to make it up the steps to fall into bed! What a great day!

The Bounty of Oregon

We're back from the wonderful week we spent exploring the bounty of Oregon. That's actually the name of the month-long festival celebrating the harvest...land and sea. Our thanks go out to the friendly folks in Oregon for making our visit so enjoyable!

If you get the opportunity to visit this beautiful state, please try to go during harvest time. You'll get to see the grape vines in the orchards heavy with berries, road stands full of apples and pumpkins (there is even a map of these called "The Fruit Loop" and trees bursting with color.

Did I mention the seafood and the wine????? Wow!

The Joys of Eating from the Farm Market

Yesterday my husband, daughter and two year old granddaughter joined me for a trip to the farmers market in Waxhaw to drop off some of my recipe cards for Donna and Bill to hand out with their home-grown butternut squash (it was so beautiful that I couldn't leave without a bag-full!), and we ended up gathering the ingredients for a late breakfast from the vendors there.

Fast food? Yes! Healthy and delicious? Most definitely! We bought a package of the most deliciously fresh organic whole grain pitas, then a container of Bosky Acres soft goat cheese and couldn't resist some giant oatmeal cookies.

We all piled back into my Forester and off we headed for Northlake Mall and a day of shopping. I sat in the back seat with Mary and spread the pitas with goat cheese and we all enjoyed that and the cookies more than anything we would have found at a fast food restaurant!

Mexican Spaghetti Recipe

While in Mexico City, my friend Manuela prepared Sopa Seca de Fideo, which she called Mexican Spaghetti. She told me the recipe is in the the cookbook "Frida's Fiestas," which is a cookbook honoring the famous Mexican artist wife of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo. Of course, I had Manuela help me find a copy in English! Here is the recipe. It is delicious!

Sopa Seca de Fideo

1 lb. thin spaghetti noodles
10 medium tomatoes
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
Salt
3 parsley sprigs
2 c. chicken broth
Pasilla chiles, fried and chopped, to taste
2 avocados, peeled and sliced
1 1/2 c. heavy cream

Saute noodles in hot oil in a saucepan until golden. Drain off all but 3 T. of oil.

Puree the tomatoes with the onion, garlic, and salt to taste. Add the puree to the noodles and simmer together until the mixture has thickened. Add the parsley and chicken broth to cover. Cover the saucepan and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the noodles are tender and the broth absorbed; add more chicken broth if needed. Discard the parsley.

Pour the noodle mixture onto a heated serving platter and garnish with chiles, avocados, cream and cheese. Serves 8

A Celebration in Mexico

We just returned from one of the best experiences we've ever had in a foreign country and I had to share some of the culinary discoveries we made. We visited Guadalajara, Mexico City, Acapulco and Taxco in Mexico.

Just feast your eyes on the display of fresh fruit in the picture! This picture was taken on a narrow street in the colonial silver mining town of Taxco in the mountains of Mexico, where the native farmers set up their colorful displays of home-grown fruits and vegetables along side hand-made crafts. It's customary for the vendors to offer their fruits for tasting before purchase, and we enjoyed tasting sun-kissed fruits that were new to us.

In Mexico City, we visited the large and bustling market where everyone was friendly and helpful....and the displays of produce, cheeses, breads, and fresh meat and seafood were dazzling. Although I wasn't there to purchase, the vendors seemed delighted to introduce me to new tastes and to pose for pictures. The language of food (and sales) is global!

While we were traveling, we tried to eat as many dishes as possible that were typical of the areas where we were. The food was fabulous and nothing like what we find in our local Mexican restaurants in Lancaster County. We had oysters on the half shell that were as large as dinner plates, tender and so sweet! Tortas Ahogadas (drowned pork sandwiches) were one of my favorite fast food items, and a late night visit to a taco stand introduced us to delicious soft corn tortillas topped with savory meat, beans and cheese. Poblanos stuffed with a sweet and savory pork mixture, topped with a creamy walnut sauce and garnished with pomegranate seeds was one of the most beautiful and delicious dishes we had. The waiters were so helpful; many spoke English and those who didn't were patient with my broken Spanish.

We were introduced to "tequila completo" in the Mexican state of Jalisco, a tradition of sipping smooth premium tequila alternately with the tomato-citrus beverage called Sangrita. This was so delicious that I wonder why that tradition hasn't followed migrants across the border into our area! The non-alcoholic Sangrita is so healthful that I made some when we got back home and even my 2-year old granddaughter loves it!

Mexico is a country filled with history, natural beauty, and friendly people. With a government filled with corruption, no social "safety nets" for the poor or disabled, high unemployment and extremely low wages, there is a huge chasm between the classes. As industry moves south of our border, however, the middle class is growing and there is hope for many. What an educational experience this visit was for us and also served to remind us of all that the American people have to be grateful for here in the United States.