A Place Like This......

Feast from the Middle Sea

Before we were even married my sweet man from Lebanon had to endure the traditional meal of Thanksgiving. I say endure because I had never cooked a Thanksgiving meal in my life. We were living in Switzerland and I had become quite close to the little village I was living in and decided to cook this wonderful Thanksgiving meal for them as a way of bringing us even yet closer. My guest list included the chef of the 3 star village restaurant and my neighbors across the hall because you see I didn't even have a full kitchen  in my apartment but my neighbors across the hall did. Along with them came the friends I had made at school and other people I had met along the way. Everything went fine except it took forever for this bird to cook. My new Swiss friends mentioned that it was too early for a Turkey when everyone knows that you only get Turkeys in December. Well in my little mind, a turkey's a turkey any time of year.

Many years later after "This man from Lebanon" and I were married he had a confession to make and that was he couldn't stand Thanksgiving food. Nothing about it grabbed him as tasty. If you know anything about my man from Lebanon, it's that if it's not Lebanese it's not food. So I have spent the last 22 years putting Lebanese twists on French,Indian,Italian and Swedish dishes, oftentimes just placing an olive in the mouth of a pickled herring and saying"Voila, look a Lebanese herring." He is always appreciative at my efforts of learning how to cook Lebanese cuisine and turning other types of food into Phoenician wonders. But folks......not Thanksgiving.......or could I?

As the children have come along we have slowly but surely added "Lebanese" family favorites. It started with the compromise of Tabbouleh, a very famouse Lebanese salad. Daughter #1 asked if we could have grape leaves along with our tabbouleh and "traditional"Thanksgiving dinner. Daughter no 2 asked if we could have her favorite lebanese food of spinach pies. This is how our ethnic Thanksgiving started. It adds two days onto the cooking time of this feast but it has become our favorite holiday. Our young son asked us why we call it "Med Thanksgiving". "

"Well it stands for Mediterranean"

"What does Mediterranean mean?"

"The Middle Sea".

So year after year we cook and gather with friends and share combined traditions and celebrations. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weeked. I'm so thankful for the friendships I've met here on this blog. Our times together mean so much to me.

 Now it's on to one of my favorite seasons Jul. To get yourself in the mood Gardenmama is having a great giveaway. Not to be missed.

 

Stuffed Grape Leaves

· One 16 oz jar of grape leaves, Orlando or Ziyad brands are the best

· 11/2 cups of uncle Ben's rice

· 2 onions

· 3 large tomatoes or 1 ½ pounds of roma tomatoes

· 6 cups of chopped flat leaf parsley

· 3 tablespoons of dried mint

· Tablespoon of garlic powder

· 1 ½ cups of lemon juice

· 1 cup of virgin olive oil

· 1 ½  tablespoons salt, or to taste

· 1 tablespoon of black pepper

Layer at the bottom of the pan (Prepare this pan before you start rolling)

· 2 tomatoes sliced into ½ inch rounds

· 1 onion sliced into rounds

· 3 potatoes sliced into ½ inch rounds

To prepare add a layer of potatoes to the bottom of the pot. Continue with a layer of tomatoes and then a layer of onions. This insures that your leaves will not burn.

1.    Rinse and soak the grape leaves. Place in a colander.

2.    Combine the rice, onions, tomatoes, parsley, mint, garlic powder, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl and mix it well. This is your stuffing mixture.

3.    Take a leaf and place it with the wrong side facing you. Stem is facing towards you. Cut off the stem and place a cereal spoon full of stuffing on the leaf.

 

4.    Fold the bottom of the leaf up and over the stuffing and tuck it in a bit.

 

5.    Take the right side and fold it over and then the left side and fold it over.

 

6.    Tightly roll it up to the top of the leaf. Yea! You did it! That’s one now you only have about 60 to go. Place it in your cooking pot seam side down. The rolls should fit snug and tight next to each other in the pot. When one layer is done start stacking the grape leaves on top of each other to make another layer.

  

7.    Add slightly salted water to just cover the top layer of grape leaves.

8.    Invert a large plate to cover the grape leaves on top of the pot.

9.    Bring the pot to a boil on high heat and cook for about 30 minutes.

10.   Turn the heat down to medium and add about 1 cup of lemon juice to the boiling water. Cover the pot and cook for 1 hour more. There should be just a little bit of water at the bottom of the pan. I left my grape leaves cool before I take them out of the pan. Place them on a platter and serve with lemon wedges.

Tips:

Rice: If you use a different type of rice such as short grain your cooking time becomes longer. First the 1//2 hour, cover pot at medium heat for an 1 ½ hours and then place on low for another hour of cooking.

 

Happy Eating!!!

  

View from the Sofa

 

After all this there is only one place to go and that is the sofa. Today is a continuation of sharing time with family and friends as well as resting up at our cabin at Lake in the Sky, on top of the world. May you find a comfy sofa wherever you are. I'll be back Monday with tales of a happy Turkey, Ruth the pie lady, and a little craftsation. Until then, have a great weekend...... Now where's that sofa?

 


 

Postcard from Thanksgiving

 With gratitude we wish peace in your place, joy in your heart, and may you have an abundant and blessed Thanksgiving. Happy Day of Thankfulness!

From yesterday, acts of readiness and preparation for the big day, I proudly present the kitchen crew and homecoming crowd.

 

How to Lasso a pumpkin

The lead story on the evening news was" No canned pumpkin on store shelves in Knoxville". So this is where I left you yesterday ........Looking For Pumpkins,real ones.

We conquered and divided, that girlfriend Ruth and I. She was going out to the green grocers and pumpkin farms to see what she could find. While I left her heading towards a pumpkin farm for the tractor ride of her life, I headed towards our local grocery store.

Now when one is on such a mission you have to have a plan. I casually got a large shopping cart to reinforce my positive thinking. I headed straight for the pumpkin and Thanksgiving display. There wasn't any pumpkin. So much so that they took the display down. I, on the other hand was sensing pumpkin. So I asked myself,"Self,if you were a pumpkin where would you be?" The answer came with the soft voice in my head,"pie filling shelf." So I rolled over in that direction. 

There they were, every pie filling known to man and an empty bottom shelf which said pumpkin.

 

 

Desperate times require desperate measures. What happened next is only heard of in the annals of Thanksgiving desperation. I got face down on the floor, snapped by head to the left, in the direction of the cans on the shelf, and there they were  4 cans of pumpkin. With a quick left hook I snagged all 4 of them. Yea!!!! I hollered.

After my purchase I made a quick call to Ruth to get her off the tractor and cut short her visit to the pumpkin farm.

Last evening I preceded to make many little pumpkin muffins for the Mission Smile fund raiser tonight. It's a local children's charity started by two of my favorite high school students Nell and Cody. Since many of you won't be able to be there tonight, I'm leaving you with the recipe so you make yourself some of these lovable little bites.

And that friends is how you lasso some pumpkin. Next year I will be growing my own and canning them. Live n' learn, live n' learn.

Pumpkin Muffins

3 1/3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
3 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Mix dry ingredients and add:

1 c. oil
4 eggs
2/3 c. water
2 c. pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Prepare muffin tins by greasing with vegetable oil or butter and sprinkling lightly with flour. Shake out excess.

Fill muffin tins three-quarters full and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Found a writer now searching for Pumpkins

Greetings and Happy Monday to everyone! My writing retreat went wonderfullly and I got so much accomplished. I took part in a virtual writer's retreat with Donna Kozik ,"Write your book in a weekend" leader. Many of the participants were writing books to market their businesses's ,like a big business card.I on the other hand am I writing an very inventive book which will take longer than a weekend. About a year ago Donna and I became facebook friends and I noticed that her writer's were all publishing books and some in a big way. One of the items on my life list is to publish a book, so I decided to take part in this wonderful weekend and it was just that,.... wonderful, incredible and productive.

Donna has all of these templates that help to organize all the information in one's head. She has this rapid fire system to get everything into place. You might be thinking,"That's not real writing, real writing takes sweat and suffering." Well I'm here to let you know that it is real writing, which all of us were sending to Donna throughout the entire weekend. One of the greatest discoveries for me was the actual writing process. It all started with my power outline where I discovered that I actually had been holding an entire book in my head for about 10 years. From my outline, I gathered all of my notes and references and then I started writing the parts I wanted to write first. By the end of the first day I had the first 3 chapters of book written. By the end of the second day I had 45% of the second part of my book written. A huge unveiling for me was that I hadn't realized how easy this was going to be. In my head I had always put it off. My little cerebral voice would say,"One day when you have all the time in the world you can write a book." This weekend was proof enough that I didn't have all the time in the world, just a weekend's worth and I can see the end of this project in sight. To finish this project I have set up some more writing days to get this project done. When it is, I will absolutely let you know about it.

So now that I'm back from my retreat, it's Thanksgiving week. It's time to get ready for the big cook-off that my friend Ruth and I do every year for all of our friends and families. We usually have anywhere between 20 and 30 people depending on the year. I arrived home to the evening news stating "Knoxville has a canned pumpkin shortage. All stores have been sold out." Not to worry we told our panicked children. We're from Oregon and Michigan respectively and we know how to take an actual pumpkin and get it into a pie.

7:30 this morning.......went to store.......no pie pumpkins. We are now calling farmers and I will spend the rest of my day hunting pumpkins. I think we found someone who has a barn full. It just feels so dramatic to say that we are going to fetch some pie pumpkins. If the fog would lift it would be a beautiful drive.

I'll be back tomorrow with cheerful tales of our adventures in the pumpkin patch as well as if my house got clean . Probably not. Oh well, we do what we can.

This sweet little cat is saying"Where you goin mom?" To the pumpkin patch katten.

Write Off

Welcome to Friday,it's Joy Diet time. This week was about making connections. Throughout the course of this book Martha oftentimes catches me off guard with her innocent chapter titles. I know her premise is that by chapter nine, we are hip happening people so why not share the wealth. Maybe she is getting us ready for the feasting part and didn't want us to be alone. The truth of the matter is that many of the dieters are still trying to wrap their brains around skill number 1, and that is to master doing nothing.

Honestly this chapter felt like it came out of nowhere. Maybe she was trying to catch us off balance after the chapter on laughing but the truth of the matter is that I don't feel fit for humanity just yet. Connecting with people is really easy for me. The harder connection has been with myself. What I've greatly appreciated about this book is that I've had some new insights along the way, even using my own pick and choose style.

So continuing on is the light of choosing what I want off of the joy diet smorgasbord, I've decided to take the weekend for myself and have a writer's retreat. I want to connect with the memories of my family and write them down for my children. I want to start all of those books that are constantly running in my head. The Joy Diet has taught me how to create a safe haven to do this. So dear dieter friends I'm off to the Smoky Mountains to write for the weekend. I'll tell more about it on Monday.Next week is the last week of the Joy Diet and I can hardly wait for our feast call. Have a great week and a happy Thanksgiving next week.

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Today's photos are from Pen to Paper online. I first ran into them when I was in Brighton and now they have this sweet little online store with all of the favorite journals,ink pens, and ink. Just a perfect gift for the writer in your life.

A fairy village rebuild

Last week I did mention that the fairy tree was moulting right on top of the fairy house. Starting with sticks,moss and stones it was time to give our garden fairies something to live in for the winter.

 

Using moulted pine material the walls filled in nice and quick.  Approaching from behind the village it looked like little mounds of pine needles. All to camouflage nicely our village of fairies.

Now how to solve the village water problem?

These lovely shoes were made for walkin or better yet to outline the aqueduct system for the village. The night before many straws were taped together to make a pipe system that would provide a water supply for the village, complete with well or......

 

....was it for the cat? Well he tried it out for it and reports it was very tasty well water. There is actually a cistern which catches the rain water and runs it through the pipe system into the well. All with straws and recycled cups.

The rest of the morning was spent finishing up this wonderful place to winter away in. Made even better was the visit of a best friend to put his two cents in. 
  
 
 
 Oh Happy Day! Nothing is better than a moment shared in creating. May you have a marvelous day creating the visions in your mind.

 

Ancestor Day

The second weekend in November has been marked as the traditional day of our gathering.We pretty well fasted all day knowing the feast which was to come. Everything else of importance was diverted. Teenage children stated clearly to friends "that they were busy on Saturday night". Why you ask? It was our 4th annual Ancestor's Day.

It was started four years ago as a joke against me and my endless ramblings about my Viking heritage. My husband,who doesn't talk about his Lebanese ancestry at all, corralled our best friends to set me up for a screamer of an evening.

I was told that we had been invited for a great Chinese feast at the Deng's to celebrate Ancestor Day. Part of the tradition is not only to eat great food but to tell of our ancestors. Everyone must come wearing a hat that represents their heritage. That right there should have been a give away but I bit the bait ,.....hook, line, and sinker.

 

That first Ancestor's Day I wore a Viking helmet and kept asking questions about how the holiday was celebrated. I kept getting very evasive answers. Finally as we were eating dinner someone stated that it was time to tell of our favorite ancestor. I was opening my litany of Eric the Blood Ax, our favorite family Viking, when my best friend Susie gently touched my arm and said,"Valli....it's a joke. There is no such thing as Ancestor Day." The whole table groaned in disappointment that Susie had given away the joke. "I wouldn't be your best friend if I didn't save you from yourself". True,I thought. Isn't she a very good friend?

Flash forward to this year. The table was set with the anticipation of a great celebration. No longer a joke, but a cherished time to get together with friends to celebrate our friend like family relationships.

 Over 10 different dishes were served and all 18 of us sat around the table enjoying each other's company and recalling that very first ancestor's day 4 years ago. Our friend Shaoqing cooks this meal for us every year. Spending his evening in the kitchen cooking each dish right then is an amazing feat. At the very end he sits down to listen to the moans and groans of his very full friends. The Deng's love and care leave all of us in a state of prosperity. Thank you for such a great evening and blessings to your ancestors.

Things are busy at the Treehouse

There are things to be done. Leaving the house with his humble flag he walks towards his creation.

Through the yard and into the woods he goes.
 
 
 
  To arrive at the clubhouse of his dreams,The Compass Treehouse. Long a drawing on a piece of paper, and then turned into a reality,Compass Treehouse is lovingly referred to as the 'tree villa" among family members. Though the outside has been finished for about a year, it has taken little "O" some time to figure out what was the next step for the inside of his happy home.

Over the last two weeks there has been a lot of hammering,sawing, and configuring before his big reveal.

And now for the big ta duh.

 

A lovely workbench, complete with peg board and three lovely stools which he picked up during the monthly curb trash dive. Next a lovely table and sitting area. The table top was also part of the same trash pick up, lovingly restored to all of its table glory.

 
 
 
 All that's left is for mom and Aunt Ruth to sew some cushions for this great corner. More plans are being made for banners and bookshelves and a place for a bulletin board. We promise to keep you updated with all of our improvements.  Happy Day to all of you.
  
   

The Blue Plate Special

It's Friday and you know what that means......The Joy Diet. This week Martha had us laughing up to 30 times a day. "It's like a mental Drano" she says. It releases and purges our mental function. Did you know that children laugh 300 times a day?  Yep, I can believe that. I have a bunch of laughing kids.

So my fellow dieters I thought I would leave you laughing today. For my entire high school career my father packed my lunch and in it he would always leave a little written message called the Blue Plate Special. Each day was either a funny fact or a very cornball joke. No matter what though, my friends and foes would gather round in the cafeteria to hear the Blue Plate Special. I saved every single last one of them.

In this box that my sister made for me when I was 10, lies 4 years worth of humor. Don't worry, I will only share a few of them with you but I hope you laugh to meet today's quota of 30 laughs. I think its probably alright to laugh more than 30 times. So here's to your ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing)  moments.

The Blue Plate Special

Old Sayings:

She is only a junk dealers daughter, but boy could she scrap.

She is only a bootleggers daughter, but I love her still.

Jokes:

Q: Do you know what one shoe said to the other shoe? A: Let's get going we're being followed by a couple of heals.

Q:What goes wiggle,wiggle burrrrrr,wiggle,wiggle burrrr? Give Up? A: a catepillar crawling over an ice cream cone.

Q: What do you get if Batman and Robin get smashed by a steam roller? A: Flatman and ribbon.

Q: When is a car not a car? A: When it turns into a garage.

Q: Why did the scientist install a knocker on his door? A: He wanted to win the No-bell prize.

Q: Why did the atoms cross the road? A: It was time to split!

Ok, are you laughing? Here's one last old fact to send you into the weekend.

If you took all the aspirin taken in 2008 and put them end to end, you would get a headache picking them up.

Happy Weekend and keep laughing. :)