Happy Thanksgiving!

Is it just me - or does it seem that Thanksgiving isn't nearly as good as when we were young? I long for my Grandmother's thanksgiving dinner! The moist yummy turkey, pies, homemade rolls, mashed potatoes and awesome gravy - not to mention the apple butter and homemade jelly that she always had! She had a home that was conducive to entertaining and visiting too. Thanksgivings were just better in those days - elusive nowadays. I'm not saying that I didn't have a good holiday because I did. I just miss the Thanksgivings when I was young. I also miss the family that I knew as a child - the family before divorces and deaths and everyone scattering to the four winds. Does it just seem like things were better then - or were they really better?

Any Bitter Thing by Monica Wood

I read about this book on one of my book blogs and the title just seemed strange (negative) to me. But I trust this blog and they did not disappoint! The title doesn't really have anything to do with the book (they should have worked harder on the title) and I kept looking for correlations. I guess I finally arrived at the idea that a lot of bad (bitter) things happen to Lizzie - but she perseveres. Is it just me? I think a title should contain something obvious about the book. I mean let's face it any book could have this title - it just isn't specific enough for me. Okay - I have said my peace - the only questionable thing about this book is it's title - the rest is fabulous!

Lizzie was raised by her priest uncle because her parents die when she is an infant (and by the way I love learning about other religions in this context, not in a book about Catholicism but a book about people who happen to be catholic!). She has an idyllic childhood because he is warm and caring and fun. There are misunderstandings which for various reasons can not be cleared up and he is accused of molesting her. She is taken away from him and has to go and live with a yucky aunt, who lies and tells her that her uncle died. When she is thirty she is hit by a car while jogging. While in the hospital she sees her uncle in what she perceives to be a vision at first but then questions whether it might have been real. That is all I want to say because I want it to unfold as beautifully for you as it did for me. It was very clean, thought provoking and emotional, with moral questions and dilemmas. I absolutely loved it!

New Recipes for Halloween

A couple of weeks ago I had a little get together here at the house. Of course it was Halloween themed, so I wanted all the food to match. I was going for an all orange and black food list which required some research on my part. I found some interesting new recipes that I thought I would share. Also, Cory showed me how to add a link so I needed to test my new skills.

Pumpkin Cheese Ball - there is no pumpkin in this, that is the name because of the shape. It was really good and quite simple.

Golden Wedding Punch - absolutely delicious! I was bloated by the end of the evening because I couldn't leave it alone.

Pumpkin Bars - at the top, Tex Mex Black Bean Dip - which didn't turn out as black as I had hoped. I have made this again just for Cory and I and I doubled the recipe and used one can of regular black beans and one of re-fried black beans and it made it darker. I liked the texture better too because those little black beans are kind of hard to mash like the recipe tells you too. And I left out the corn - I didn't want the yellow. And then Savory Party Bread - which was to die for but doesn't keep well after a few hours. I realize that this did not fit in with the pronounced color scheme - but I wanted something else. I thought about making it with cheddar cheese (for the orange) but didn't think I should veer from the recipe when I hadn't even tried it before.

I served the black bean dip with those dark (blue corn, I think) chips, which were great. I also made just a regular chocolate cookie recipe but added some chopped up orange colored melting chocolate which really looked nice for my color scheme.

The night was a success - the food was a success and I was thrilled with these new recipes!