November: The Norway of the Year

“November always seemed to me the Norway of the Year.”
– Emily Dickinson

Frosty leaves in the gutter

Icy raindrops on these frosty leaves look like peas in a pod

“November is Autumn’s burial . . .”
– Donald Hall, Seasons at Eagle Pond

“Winter starts in November, whatever the calendar says, with gray of granite, with russet and brown of used leaves.”
– Donald Hall, Seasons at Eagle Pond

It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s gray and brown.  Yes, it certainly feels like mid-Winter already, though it’s not even December yet.

In Thanksgiving for a Seat at the Common Table

One of my sister's transferware turkey plates

Ceramic turkeys

Here’s wishing you a seat at a laden harvest table for your Thanksgiving feast this year.

Te Deum
by Charles Reznikoff

Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.

Not for victory
but for the day’s work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.

“Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.”
– William Shakespeare

 

Making Stuffing from Scratch

Cubed bread for Thanksgiving stuffing

I don’t always have the day off before Thanksgiving, but this year I do.  I am enjoying having an extra day of prep time for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.  This morning I made the cranberry sauce, boiled yams for the sweet potato pie that I will bake first thing tomorrow morning (I’ll save the liquid for gravy), and prepared the ingredients for my homemade dressing.

It occurred to me that I’ve never written instructions for making my Thanksgiving stuffing.  My daughter sometimes asks me how I make things, such as macaroni and cheese or cream-cheese frosting, for which I don’t use a formal recipe.  So this post is for her, for that future date when she makes turkey and dressing.

I often make dressing on Thanksgiving morning while the pie is in the oven, but today I completed several of the steps in advance, leaving just the final assembly and stuffing the turkey for tomorrow.  I actually prepare for making my dressing months in advance by saving crusts of bread in the freezer.  A day or two before Thanksgiving, I also make corn bread so that I can use the leftovers in my dressing.  (This year I put a few cranberries in the cornbread.)

So the first step in making dressing from scratch is to cube the bread:

I toast my frozen crusts of bread and then cut them into cubes.

I like a little cornbread in the mix.

Next, I dice a couple of sticks of celery and some onion.  These will add flavor to the giblet “slurry” which will moisten the breadcrumbs.  I toss these vegetables in a pot with the turkey’s heart, liver, and gizzard, then cover with water and boil until the meat is cooked through.

You can add celery and onion to taste.

Toss celery, onions and giblets in a pot to cook on the stove top.

When the giblets are cooked, I pour off and save most of the liquid.  I put the cooked vegetables and meat in a food processor and process everything until I have a giblet “slurry.”  Then I combine the slurry with the reserved liquid.  At this point, I put the slurry into the refrigerator until I assemble the dressing on Thanksgiving morning.

Giblet slurry

This will be tossed with the bread cubes on Thanksgiving morning.

The final steps, on Thanksgiving morning, are to toss the cubed bread, slurry and one egg together in a big bowl.  I add salt, pepper, rosemary, sage and thyme to taste.  I still stuff my turkey, and if I have too much dressing, I put the rest in a pan to heat in the oven with the turkey, an hour or so before it will be done.

Fresh rosemary from my garden

Mincing the rosemary

 

Waving and Saying Thanks

One of the turkey plates from my sister's collection

The dark days of late autumn remind us that sometimes we must give thanks even during our darkest moments.

“One act of thanksgiving made when things go wrong is worth a thousand when things go well.”
– Anonymous

“Who does not thank for little, will not thank for much.”
– Proverb

“Cold and chill, bless the Lord.
Dew and rain, bless the Lord;
Frost and cold, bless the Lord.
Ice and snow, bless the Lord;
Nights and days, bless the Lord.
Light and darkness bless the Lord . . .”
–  from Canticle of the Three Youths (Daniel 3:67-72)

Thanks
by W. S. Merwin

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

And I’d like to extend a personal thanks to you, for taking the time to read my blog posts and for giving such insightful and generous comments.  Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving decorations

Let us prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday with a thankful heart.

Thanksgiving
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Being Conscious of Our Blessings

From my sister's collection of turkey things for Thanksgiving

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
– Thornton Wilder

“Thanksgiving Day comes by statute once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.”
– Edward Sandford Martin

I’m working to hold gratitude in my heart, a daily practice, and especially so as we approach our Thanksgiving holiday.

The Signature Mark of Autumn

“The signature mark of autumn has arrived at last with the rains:  orange of pumpkin, orange persimmon, orange lichen on rocks and fallen logs; a copper moon hung low over the orchard; moist, ruddy limbs of the madrone, russet oak leaf, storm-peeled redwood, acorns emptied by squirrels and jays; and mushrooms, orange boletes, Witch’s Butter sprouting on rotted oak, the Deadly Galerina, and of course, chanterelles, which we’ll eat tonight with pasta, goat cheese, and wine.”
– Gary Young, “The Signature Mark of Autumn”

Fallen leaves in yellows, golds, and browns

Fall colors at Molbaks Nursery

The signature colors of fall at Molbaks Nursery

Chanterelles, a gift from my sister and brother-in-law

Chanterelles for supper

Great “V”s Defecting from the Alphabet

“This fall ducks flew across the sky in great ‘V’s as if that one letter were defecting from the alphabet . . .”
– Gretel Ehrlich, “The Smooth Skull of Winter”

Migrating geese on the wing

I love musing about Vs defecting from the alphabet!

Here is someone else who obviously muses about letters:

“Doesn’t it strike you as strange that we have a letter in the alphabet that nobody uses?  It represents one twenty-sixth of the possibility of our language, and we let it languish.  If you and I really, truly wanted to change the world, we’d invent more words that started with x.”
– David Levithan, from The Lover’s Dictionary: A Novel

 

 

 

To Give Myself Utterly

Blazing red maple tree

Maple leaves in reds and yellows

Reflections of red trees in plate glass windows

“I want to give myself
utterly
as this maple
that burned and burned
for three days without stinting
and then in two more
dropped off every leaf . . .”
– Jane Hirshfield, from “Lake and Maple”

 

November

Looking down the street where I live

No!
by Thomas Hood

No sun–no moon!
No morn–no noon!
No dawn–no dusk–no proper time of day–
No sky–no earthly view–
No distance looking blue–
No road–no street–no “t’other side this way”–
No end to any Row–
No indications where the Crescents go–
No top to any steeple–
No recognitions of familiar people–
No courtesies for showing ‘em–
No knowing ‘em!
No traveling at all–no locomotion–
No inkling of the way–no notion–
“No go” by land or ocean–
No mail–no post–
No news from any foreign coast–
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility–
No company–no nobility–
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member–
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds–
November!