Thanksgiving Weekend

I love holiday weekends, being able to sleep late and eat a lot, friends coming over for dinner. I wish there were more of them.

This year was the first time ever that Richard and I were spending Thanksgiving day alone. It was quiet but also nice that I did not have to get out of my pajamas the entire day.

I had been craving some old fashioned ginger-molasses cookies. After some digging I found the recipe I wanted. It was from the great-grandmother of one of my Girl Scouts and our troop had won a cookie bake-off with this recipe a long time ago. We munched on these babies all weekend.


Our table was set for Thanksgiving dinner for only the two of us.


We had our standard brined turkey, stuffed with onions, carrots, celery and thyme, all tossed together with butter. Adds some nice flavor to the soup we usually make with the carcass.


Friday morning I finished switching out all the regular glasses for our Christmas ones. It takes me the entire weekend to decorate the house for Christmas.


Here are our "kids", dozing and wondering what mom is up to.


Friday morning Richard had built a fire to take the chill out of the house and decided to take Morgan out with him to get a load of firewood off the front porch. Gives new meaning to taking out the dog.


Later on Friday morning we heading over to the tree farm where we choose and they cut our Christmas tree. Here is Richard and Floyd, the farm owner, following me as I hike through the trees looking for this year's tree.


Once we got the tree home and I had decorated it while Richard watched TV and napped (standard operating procedure)Richard got out the vacuum and cleaned up the needles that had fallen off. I love a man who knows how to use a vacuum.


Our Christmas tree, all decorated for the holidays.


On Saturday Fred, Iris and Felicia all stopped by on their way back to Louisisana. We invited our neighbors Doug and Wanda to join us for a dinner gathering. Left to right is Wanda, Fred and Iris.


I also snapped a picture of Doug engrossed in a conversation with Richard. (Sorry Wanda, bad timing on my part)


On Sunday I worked on finishing my son in-laws Christmas and birthday gift. I had been working on this stocking off and on for the better part of this year. My daughter said he was amazed when he opened it and couldn't believe that I had made it.


By Sunday night we were relaxing in front of the fire, watching TV and enjoying a martini. I had Morgan snuggled next to me and Kele was right up against my feet. What a great weekend we had.

Another Chapter of Life in The Mountains

To start off, our heroine wishes to extend her regrets that it has been so long since she has last posted anything. Such things happen as the holiday season draws near.

On this beautiful, brisk November weekend her friend Angie drove up from Jacksonville, FL for a quick visit.

Since the weather was so beautiful a hike a Linville Falls was in order. Here is a view of the upper falls.


Angie was enjoying the weather and the time away from Jacksonville.


Here is Angie and our heroine at the upper falls overlook. Everybody was asking every one else to take photos.


The lower falls are beautiful any time of the year.


Kelekona was camera shy and did not want to be hounded by the paparazzi.


Angie brought our heroine a wonderful gift. A cookbook from the Charleston Junior League. There are lots of wonderful recipes to be tried in this gem.

Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp

Angel Hair Past with Shrimp
(Capellini con Gamberetti)

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tblsp chopped garlic
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/2 pound angel hair pasta
1 1/2 tblsp chopped fresh basil

In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and saute the garlic until it is light brown. Add the shrimp and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper, and cook over low heat for 4-5 minutes.

While the sauce is cooking, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the pasta, cooking until al dente. Make sure to stir the pasta so that it does not stick together. Drain the pasta and add the sauce, toss well and garnish with fresh basil.

For best flavor do not use any grated cheese on this dish.

Serves 2

I did not have any cherry tomatoes so I chopped up a regular tomato. Whiel this dish was still very good the right tomatoes would have made it much better.

Salmon With Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze

We love salmon and I really love smoked salmon, even have an entire cookbook on using smoked salmon. But again, I digress.

I have always loved this recipe and it does very well on the grill but since it is near Thanksgiving and I am not going outside to grill in the dark I made this under the broiler.

One thing I like about this cookbook is that it gives pairing suggestions with each meal whether it be beer or wine. In this case it said "a ripe Pinot Noir gives an impression of sweetness to complement the glaze on this salmon, yet it will stand up to the rich fish and spicy mustard". Not being one to disagree I opened a nice bottle of Pinot Noir to sip while preparing and eating my meal.




Salmon With Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze

1 tblsp brown sugar
1 tsp honey
2 tsp unsalted butter (I use regular)
2 tblsp Dijon mustard
1 tblsp soy sauce
1 tblsp olive oil
2 tsp grated fresh ginger (I substitute dry ground ginger)
1 whole salmon fillet, skin on, about 2 1/2 pounds and 3/4 - 1 inch thick.

In a small saute pan over medium heat, melt the brown sugar with the honey and butter. Remove from the heat and whisk in the mustard, soy sauce, olive oil and ginger. Allow to cool.

Place the salmon, skin side down, on a large sheet of aluminium foil. Trim the foil to leave a border of 1/4-1/2 inch around the edge of the salmon. Coat the flesh of the salmon with the brown sugar mixture.

Grill the salmon indirectly over medium heat until the edges begin to brown and the center is opaque, 25-30 minutes. The internal temperature should be about 125 degrees. Turn off heat and serve fish directly from grill or, using a large baking sheet, carefully transfer the salmon with foil to a cutting board. Cut the salmon crosswise into 6-8 pieces, but do not cut through he skin. Slide a spatula between the ski and the flesh and remove the salmon pieces to a serving platter or individual plates. Serve immediately.

My salmon ready to go into the broiler.


Dinner time.