During this season of gratitude...

During this season of gratitude, I encourage each of us to remember the community that we are...fellow humans.

As we focus on the end of the year and all of the additional responsibilities that come along with the holiday season, let's place a high priority on our own self-care and that of others in our community.

Take breaks, connect with friends, breathe, plan ahead, continue healthy habits, reach out to someone, share a cup of coffee, or even a simple smile. It’s the small things that sometimes have the greatest impact.

With gratitude daily for those in this life, near or far, past or present, here but gone, and those yet to cross the path.

Attaching a Tradition in Different Ways

I recently reminded a friend that the individuals and occasions we consider holiest to holidays must at times shift their emphasis from some past rendition to a currently relevant condition. 

Thanksgiving has as much a certainly historic point of view for those of us in the United States as it does a familial focus.  For me, the holiday is those things, but also a symbolic calendar notation of when my family tree grew to create me.  My parents were married on Thanksgiving Day some fifty odd years ago and no matter where I find myself in life, my thoughts turn to my parents and their union this particular day.  A day when two families gathered to celebrate a union, but also to enjoy a very large traditional holiday meal. Obviously I was not there, but there are photos capturing the essence of what transpired, just as all wedding photography tends to do in making a moment linger into perpetuity. 

Some years we were able to celebrate this Thanksgiving/ Anniversary together as a family, some years we were not.   The later more true after my mother passed away. If I was honest with myself we'd not found a way to reconfigure ourselves as a family successfully after my sister died just ten years prior. So in some ways the familial Anniversary/Thanksgiving I cling to so reverently is but a fading memory of what I wished it to be, the original two plus their offspring, under different circumstances and all in good health. 

However sad that may sound it actually has provided a leaping point to establish new  traditions over the years that incorporate many outside the familial bloodline.  Thanksgiving is more about friendships and the family-like structure they provide when your own is disconnected or deconstructed.  David Brooks, New York Times Op-Ed columnist expressed it best in a recent column The Age of Possibility, "We are inevitably entering a world in which more people search for different ways to attach." I would add to Mr. Brooks well crafted words, that attachment may for some not come from a mind set of keeping their options open, but from a strong desire to resemble what they hold dear.

So I gathered with friends at Thanksgiving with my cranberry sauce contributions: 1) Mingled (cutie oranges, blueberries, craisins~dried cranberries, Agave syrup, Cointreau and cardamon); 2 & 3) Homemade berry relish and jellied (prepared from a grocer fresh berry bag, mashed and strained); as well as 4) Ocean Spray's canned.  A single Thanksgiving side dish prepared in multiple ways intended to appeal to an assortment of personal desires.  In other words, multiple options to attain that singular cranberry sensation.  

Thankful for attaching in meaningful ways.

Where is, rather here is the Beef

I personally loved the catchphrase "Where's the beef?" when it was introduced as part of a promotion for Wendy's restaurants back in the 1980's and appreciated it's application again when it was revived this year in a revised catchphrase as "Here's the beef!" With both catch phrases in mind, I've always been rather amused that during Thanksgiving there are those that ensure a beef dish makes it to the table when Turkey takes the main stage. And this year I choke back my amusement as I find myself answering the question "Where's the beef?" on my own Thanksgiving line up. A foodie friend suggested Beef Wellington which initially sounded daunting, but as luck would have it during a recent wine tasting via a Wine Shop At Home party a Wellington recipe pairing was suggested (and provided as a recipe card) to accompany a Sommersville Cellars 2008 Red Meritage (which by the way is also touted as an excellent pairing with dark chocolate). The recipe is linked here. I prefer the plating suggestion using the whole tenderloin for the presentation factor one grasps for in family-style dining, but do appreciate the individual filet preparation found at the AllRecipe.com link. Here's the beef folks, though a beef dish is provided, I for one will be strictly talking turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry relish and pumpkin pie as I feast and give thanks this year.