Don't Mess With Thanksgiving

I don’t mess with our basic Thanksgiving menu. You will NOT find roasted parsnips and other root vegetables in places of the mashed potatoes, NOR will you find butternut squash tossed with olive oil and rosemary in place of the baked sweet potatoes. You will NOT find unfamiliar vegetables on the table…no brussel sprouts or swiss chard at this meal. You will not find any dishes made with fresh herbs unless there are twigs in the refrigerator left over from a dish made the previous week.

Thanksgiving dinner at my table focuses on the traditional seasonings (salt and pepper) and fresh vegetables prepared with a minimum of messing. The meal also focuses on making the meal ahead so that maximum time can be spent talking with relatives and friends.

What can be done early is done early (and you’d be amazed at what can be done ahead).

After years of popping the turkey out of the oven and recruiting Brother Joe to carve…minutes before serving and then slaving over the juices to prepare the gravy at the last minute, I changed my strategy. The turkey is made the weekend before Thanksgiving sliced and frozen in light gravy and thawed and reheated. The potatoes are mashed they day before mixed with plenty of butter, sour cream, and cream cheese and plopped into a casserole for warming the next day. The only dishes actually prepared on top of the stove on Thanksgiving are the cooked vegetables, this year, corn and green beans.

The menu for the Gifford-Hertel Thanksgiving—

Appetizers (Noon)
Crudites with dip
Spreads, cheeses and crackers
Chex Mix (Jackie's special contribution...a favorite of all of us)

Dinner – Served buffet style (2:00 pm)
Turkey and bread stuffing with pecans
Honey Baked Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Baked sweet potatoes with butter
Fresh whole green beans with garlic
White corn in butter sauce
Broccoli Salad with Cranberries
Pina Colada molded salad with cranberry sauce
Freshly baked rolls with butter

Coffee and Dessert (4:00 pm)
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Slices (ala mode)
Ginger Cream Cookies

The meal has many contributors. I don’t want you to think that I produce this by myself. I am always grateful for the contributions that come--and all the guest who share a smile, a laugh, recent stories, and past memories.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Maine-ee-acs

We got an email from Libby. She’s beginning to work on Christmas wreaths. Greenery isn’t cut for those wreaths until after there have been three hard frosts. They have had their first snowfall too (4 inches). Interesting how the weather changes across the country. This weekend in Indianapolis we will be enjoying 60-70 degrees. Dan says his friends on the river are planning on putting the boat in one last time.

We were in Maine close to 8 weeks ago. In early September the evenings were cool and the days a very comfortable 75-80. It rained the first day we were there, but it was virtually cloud free every day. This was our first trip with the whole family (as adults…so to speak).


We rented a “cabin” with pond (Great Pond) access—quite a large inland lake (in Indiana speak). Mollie, Joel and the baby had the upstairs room. Dan and Nora shared the loft, Mike and I had the bedroom on the main floor and Harry had a room in the lower level. We made do with one bathroom pretty well. Our dinners alternated between Lilly and Allan’s and our place.

We flew into Portland and drove to our Great Pond location in the Belgrade Lakes area. Unpacked cooked a meal and planned our tourist strategy. We had decided on spending one night in Bar Harbor so that we could see the sights on Mt. Desert Island and go hiking at Acadia National Park.

The coast was as beautiful as I remembered it. The sky was unbelievably blue and the water clear and a shade darker. We took an easy-moderate trail and then walked along the water. Near Devil’s Punchbowl and Sand Beach. It was hard to believe that the week before 7 people were washed into the water from one spot because of hurricane weather.



Our remaining days were spent with our Maine friends, swimming, canoeing and short shopping trips. Oh, and evening games of Uno. I thought that there would be a dust-up when one evening a two hour game was called at midnight with no winner.

Probably a week that we'll remember and talk about later with pleasure. They don't happen often enough, do they?

One Year Later

Typing on a laptop in the car is difficult. Bumpy riding doesn’t make for a great experience. And then, on this sunny Saturday, it is difficult to see the screen. So here I am almost typing blind.

On my way to Nolan’s first birthday party and remembering his birth day—November 12, 2008.

Mike and I decided that we wouldn’t be there for the baby’s birth, but leave a day or two after so we wouldn’t need to hang around the hospital. Yah, right. We got the word in the early morning that Mollie was in the hospital and that the baby was coming and we were in the car on our way to the hospital by 11:00.

Chicago is on Central time which means that they are one hour behind us. Plenty of time right…not when you consider the traffic. We arrived just as Mollie was ready to go into the operating room. The baby’s head was too big to deliver so it was a c-section.

Joel was in the delivery room and about 7 pm the Nolan was delivered to the grandparents for inspection—Mike, and I, and Joel’s father, Harry. There is nothing like a new baby to remind you of what is important.

So we join family and friends for the birthday party. Aunt Nora and Uncle Dan will be there as will the same grandparents that arrived for his birth one year ago. Now Nolan is almost walking, exploring on his own and beginning to make sounds, pointing, smiling, and just being adorable.

Being a grandparent is so much fun.
More fun than toys is the ribbon and wrapping paper.

Uncle Dan and Aunt Nora guarantee a good time!