Thanksgiving Review

Well, Thanksgiving dinner is over, the leftovers have been dispersed, the extra chairs have all been returned to their rightful places and the last dishes, and serving pieces have been washed and put away.  All in all, we were quite satisfied with everything this year!  We made all of our usual recipes for turkey, stuffing, etc with a couple of new twists.  We always make cinnamon rolls, a tradition started by my grandmother's sister Alice.  She was one of the best cooks in our family, and we still sit around and talk about some of the meals we had at her table.  Up until this year, we have been experimenting with different cinnamon roll recipes, but I think we can finally stop looking.  We made the recipe from the Pioneer Woman Cooks blog (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/)--they were heavenly!

We also made a departure from our traditional cranberry sauce and made Cranberry Chutney from the Orangette blog (http://orangette.blogspot.com/).  It was fabulous!  But the food was not the only highlight of Thanksgiving day.  Almost our entire family was together with the exception of my youngest little berry of a sister, Margaret.  With the other seven of us and the nieces and nephews, we make a pretty good party! 


Today, instead of giving in to the temptation of going to the mall for some black-Friday blowouts, we took a ride to Monches Farm in Colgate, Wisconsin.  For someone who could pass a pie out her dining room window into the neighbors extra bedroom, going to a place like Colgate is a real treat.  Once you get off the highway, the drive is beautiful.  There are quaint farm houses, fields and even horses!  You just don't see things like that near our house.  (Not that I would trade in my short ride to the loop, close proximity to Super Dog, or lawn I can mow in two minutes flat...)

And, Monches farm....well, it is a place to get ground-hardy perennials, dried wreaths and swags, beautiful Christmas ornaments, and so many other fun 'needful' things for your house and garden.

It has been such a wonderful week--it's going to be hard to get back in the swing of things and back to work on Monday!