die full of pie...

... in which our plucky heroine realises that when almost the entire Blue Cedar House clan descends on Acorn Cottage, it becomes "House Of Beds"...

bedding in condensed-for-travel arrangement:::

The cooking preparations, intended to begin the night before the feast, were delayed 'til the morning, since time with friends is not about adding stress. The turkey, after three and a half days in the fridge, remained mostly frozen. I guess I have a good fridge. The turkey was transferred to a tubtrug in the bath, floating in cold water. All would be well, since our dinner is planned for evening, not midday (note: the turkey was still not fully defrosted by lunchtime, necessitating radical kitchen sink and tepid water action) Despite all that, it roasted up quite successfully, and yielded several quarts! of drippings for gravy (must google uses for extra turkey gravy!!)

Lard for the piecrust, instead of butter (or shortening... shudder the thought) - the pecan filling was made with Lyles Golden Syrup instead of corn syrup, and with rum instead of vanilla, before the ravenous horde descended... (could have used an additional cup of nutmeats, remember that for next year)

Look at the amazing flakiness of a lard crust... Mindy J Robertson decided that my idea of using homemade lard from New Seasons instead of shortening in her ancestral piecrust recipe was more than acceptable!

The holiday feast for Blue Cedar House and Acorn Cottage: roasted turkey, turkey gravy, spinach bake, mashed orange kabocha squash, baked cauliflower florets (still in oven), cranberry sauce, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, whipped cream (made fresh before we ate the pie, which was quite some time after the rest of the feast) All homemade and everso tasty...

so... after our holiday feast the Blue Cedar House folks decided that their new household motto needs to be "If you're going to die - DIE FULL OF PIE." I need someone to translate this into bad Latin for me...

:::

Friday there was some planning of the next batch of indoor projects, to begin after 12th Night - a plinth on locking casters for my wee fridge, and some solid window valences for the bedrooms. The least crowded place I know of on Black Friday is the lumberyard, if there were two other customers in Mr Plywood besides myself and Mr Robertson, I'd be surprised... Our intention was to scout materials and prices, so there will be more clear thought and less surprises when it comes time to build these helpful additions to the cottage. We also went over the linen fabric that had been sent down by the aunties for possible Blue Cedar House clothing, and looked at the progress that happened since last month. Saturday was mostly taken up with packing everything back into the vehicles, and most likely will not be together in one house again 'til sometime next year..

Now however, it is time to put my feet up, maybe knit a row on my FoxPaws shawl, and think about what to do next... I am truly grateful for this chance to extend hospitality to my dear friends, and to three generations - my longterm friend Sharon, who has been in and out of my life since tenth grade in school, her daughter Heather, who I helped homeschool, and Heather's daughter Ellie... it has been a long strange life, and praise all the powers that be, it isn't over yet!

thanksgiving

... in which our plucky heroine considers the twin blessings of fellowship and food, and gives thanks to Dame Fortune for the gift...

...from all of us here at Acorn Cottage and Blue Cedar House, wishing to you and yours a taste of the abundance and sweetness in the bright world, with much gratitude for the gifts of friendship and love, and an everpresent sense of how lucky we are to have both a roof overhead, food to eat, friends and family, and a life that however difficult it may seem, still allows us to discover joy and adventure...

wishful Wednesday

... in which our plucky heroine wishes she had six arms, or a clone, or a wife....

Almost the whole Blue Cedar House clan is heading this way for the holiday, and while it will be a real delight to have such a full house, is also means that there is a lot of Chinese puzzle to make room for everyone to sleep! Am currently moving various project-piles of fabric around, with the aim of both moving furniture around and therebye freeing up floor space where sleeping pallets (aka tourney beds) can happen. Fortunately the weather has moderated quite a bit, and between that and the masses of baking that are planned, the house will not be it's usual ice-boxy self.

My pal Eva up in Seattle first showed me Spotify, a year or so ago... Slowly I am making up playlists of the music of my youth, at least the more common things that they DO have in their archives, and my kitchen work is much improved by the additional variety of tunes. After all, cannot sit in front of screen watching videos and get anything else done at the same time! Today I found the "shuffle" button. I may be slow but I do get there eventually...

I have no words... this is one of the songs that has carried me when nothing else was there... Actually Quah (Jorma Kaukonen) and Souvenirs (Dan Fogelberg) together will make things right when nothing else will; those albums brought me home from some pretty far places... back in those days of long travel inner space journeying... the music still feels like a warm arm around these untouched shoulders letting me know it will be okay...

:::

November SMART goal challenge

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Norse collar embroidery	3 bubblepack windows	broken cot
2	Mindy cuffs embroidery	*	bag to Goodwill
3	Quince syrup - 5 jars	*	bag to Goodwill
4	Quincemeat - 7 jars	*	----------
5	Mindy yoke embroidery	*	----------
6	candied peel	*	----------
7	Quincemeat - 7 jars	----------	----------
8	*	----------	----------
9	*	----------	----------
10	*	----------	----------
11	*	----------	----------

:::