Happy Thanksgiving. Living well always includes gratitude.
“Here we touch on… one of the secrets of the spiritual life that also is one of the laws of happiness. The more we cultivate gratitude and thanksgiving, the more open our hearts are to God’s action, so that we can receive life from God and be transformed and enlarged. By contrast, if we bury ourselves in discontent, permanent dissatisfaction, then our hearts close themselves insidiously against life, against God’s gift” (The Way of Trust and Love, p. 112).
From my comment at Stella’s Place, on her recipe post, here’s our family’s sweet potato casserole recipe, with a pecan topping.
It’s not Thanksgiving for our family without a good sweet potato casserole. I wouldn’t eat sweet potatoes until I was in my twenties, but now I love them. I became the person who brings the huge pan of them to our big family meal long ago.
My husband’s huge extended family goes all out for the day, with all his siblings trying to show up with kids and grandkids. There may be one very elderly but super active and fit aunt to come. The members of that oldest generation are sadly almost gone.
Everyone who comes brings their specialties, and after so many years, we don’t plan a menu. We show up before noon, and there will be maybe a dozen or so sides, more than a half dozen desserts, two or three turkeys, several hams. A bouncy house in the huge yard for the kids, which makes for a much more peaceful day, and good fun all around complete the day.
I don’t have a recipe anymore, so these are approximations. You can find recipes for similar casseroles, but the topping ingredients always include flour. Don’t add flour! It ruins a good crunchy topping, makes it cakey.
About 3# sweet potatoes, half stick of butter, 3 large eggs, pinch of salt, cup of milk, quarter cup of sugar. Mix cooked sweet potatoes with all ingredients and beat well.
Mix about 1/4 cup butter, softened, one cup brown sugar, and one cup pecans into a crumbly topping and drop onto the sweet potato mixture. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes until topping is browned.
I tried to reduce quantities to make a smaller, normal size casserole. To adjust according to taste, etc., don’t add all the ingredients at once. For example, start with a quarter cup of sugar, and check the tast after you mix the other ingredients in. You may want more sugar. Add milk gradually. You want the mix to be a little thicker than a pudding. If topping has too much butter, add a few more nuts and a little brown sugar.
You can also add vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon if you wish.
Also posted over at Stella’s, here’s another family favorite.
For those who’d like to try a true Southern cornbread dressing, here’s my favorite recipe, my Aunt Gay’s dressing. She was one of the best cooks I’ve ever learned from. She loved to give out her recipes, and kept index cards with her favorites, ready to gift to anyone who asked, so unlike me, she measured!
I have a lot of her recipes, and may share more later. She made the best, the most addicting Chex mix I’ve ever had. I often make a quad batch to give out during the holidays. And she gave me a cookie recipe, not originally hers, that is far and away the most delicious cookie I’ve ever tasted.
The family does some underhanded and dirty dealing to steal, yes, steal, as many of those cookies as they can. Let’s just say that you can’t turn your back on them, and not one of them can be trusted to deliver cookies to an absent friend or family member. Although they will solemnly swear to deliver them, they never do. Learned my lesson.
7” pone of cornbread, cooked, cooled, then crumbled one day ahead 10 biscuits, also cooked and crumbled ahead 5 slices white bread, laid out the day before. Note here, I like 3 slices thick French bread, torn in pieces, instead of white bread. 5 eggs 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper (I use a lot more) 3 tsp sage, or less. I like less. 2 cups chopped celery and one cup chopped onion, sautéed in 3/4 stick butter 4 cups chicken or turkey broth Aunt Gay notes that she used Ketner’s Mill cornmeal, which is from a local mill, and you may not need as much broth if you use a store bought brand.
Bake at 350 1.5 -2 hours until very brown. My own note here. Although she was pretty careful about measuring, you want this dressing to go in the oven sopping with the butter from the vegetables and the broth. When you assemble it all, if you don’t have broth slightly covering the cornmeal mixture, you don’t have enough.
Oh, so good with fresh turkey and cranberry sauce. I can eat dressing for days after Thanksgiving, and never get tired of it. I love both kinds, our cornbread dressing, and the wonderful bread varieties. Maybe I’ll spare some of my sourdough bread or rolls to make some this year.
I like to buy fresh sage, which I also use in the cavity of the turkey, when I cook a whole one.
Here’s to you Aunt Gay, in gratitude for all you taught me, and the wonderful recipes you left me. May you rest in peace.
And finally, my favorite turkey recipe. One of our first commenters posted this at the prior blog we all hung out at, and I tried it the next day. Hard decision for me, because I’d always used Aunt Gay’s super easy no fail recipe, and man, was it good. So, it was a big risk, and I still use this method to brine and prepare the turkey. Nowadays I smoke my turkeys, but the recipe stays the same.
If you’re interested in a much easier way to cook a great, super moist turkey, here’s Aunt Gay’s recipe.
Place the prepared bird in the roaster. Generously salt and pepper the bird, and stuff the cavity with at least half a stick of butter.
My own exception: use some of the aromatics from the Alton Brown recipe instead of just butter in the cavity.
Depending on the size of the bird, put 2.5-3 cups of water in the pan. Use a double layer of wide heavy duty foil and crimp tightly all around the pan. Essentially, you are going to slow steam the turkey.
Cook at 200-225* overnight. Again, temp and length of time depends on how big your bird is.
This will not give you a beautiful bird you can platter up and make the center of your table. It’s going to fall off the bones into the juices. It will be very moist, and delicious, but not pretty. You must really get the foil tight and sealed in order to keep the juices in. If you don’t, the water will evaporate and your turkey will dry out.
You’ll wake up starving due to the wonderful smells all night, and have the oven available for all your sides and desserts!
Posted originally on the CTH on November 18, 2023 | Menagerie
Bacon Turkey
From my comment at Stella’s Place, on her recipe post, here’s our family’s sweet potato casserole recipe, with a pecan topping.
It’s not Thanksgiving for our family without a good sweet potato casserole. I wouldn’t eat sweet potatoes until I was in my twenties, but now I love them. I became the person who brings the huge pan of them to our big family meal long ago.
My husband’s huge extended family goes all out for the day, with all his siblings trying to show up with kids and grandkids. There may be one very elderly but super active and fit aunt to come. The members of that oldest generation are sadly almost gone.
Everyone who comes brings their specialties, and after so many years, we don’t plan a menu. We show up before noon, and there will be maybe a dozen or so sides, more than a half dozen desserts, two or three turkeys, several hams. A bouncy house in the huge yard for the kids, which makes for a much more peaceful day, and good fun all around complete the day.
I don’t have a recipe anymore, so these are approximations. You can find recipes for similar casseroles, but the topping ingredients always include flour. Don’t add flour! It ruins a good crunchy topping, makes it cakey.
About 3# sweet potatoes, half stick of butter, 3 large eggs, pinch of salt, cup of milk, quarter cup of sugar. Mix cooked sweet potatoes with all ingredients and beat well.
Mix about 1/4 cup butter, softened, one cup brown sugar, and one cup pecans into a crumbly topping and drop onto the sweet potato mixture. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes until topping is browned.
I tried to reduce quantities to make a smaller, normal size casserole. To adjust according to taste, etc., don’t add all the ingredients at once. For example, start with a quarter cup of sugar, and check the tast after you mix the other ingredients in. You may want more sugar. Add milk gradually. You want the mix to be a little thicker than a pudding. If topping has too much butter, add a few more nuts and a little brown sugar.
You can also add vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon if you wish.
Also posted over at Stella’s, here’s another family favorite.
For those who’d like to try a true Southern cornbread dressing, here’s my favorite recipe, my Aunt Gay’s dressing. She was one of the best cooks I’ve ever learned from. She loved to give out her recipes, and kept index cards with her favorites, ready to gift to anyone who asked, so unlike me, she measured!
I have a lot of her recipes, and may share more later. She made the best, the most addicting Chex mix I’ve ever had. I often make a quad batch to give out during the holidays. And she gave me a cookie recipe, not originally hers, that is far and away the most delicious cookie I’ve ever tasted.
The family does some underhanded and dirty dealing to steal, yes, steal, as many of those cookies as they can. Let’s just say that you can’t turn your back on them, and not one of them can be trusted to deliver cookies to an absent friend or family member. Although they will solemnly swear to deliver them, they never do. Learned my lesson.
7” pone of cornbread, cooked, cooled, then crumbled one day ahead 10 biscuits, also cooked and crumbled ahead 5 slices white bread, laid out the day before. Note here, I like 3 slices thick French bread, torn in pieces, instead of white bread. 5 eggs 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper (I use a lot more) 3 tsp sage, or less. I like less. 2 cups chopped celery and one cup chopped onion, sautéed in 3/4 stick butter 4 cups chicken or turkey broth Aunt Gay notes that she used Ketner’s Mill cornmeal, which is from a local mill, and you may not need as much broth if you use a store bought brand.
Bake at 350 1.5 -2 hours until very brown. My own note here. Although she was pretty careful about measuring, you want this dressing to go in the oven sopping with the butter from the vegetables and the broth. When you assemble it all, if you don’t have broth slightly covering the cornmeal mixture, you don’t have enough.
Oh, so good with fresh turkey and cranberry sauce. I can eat dressing for days after Thanksgiving, and never get tired of it. I love both kinds, our cornbread dressing, and the wonderful bread varieties. Maybe I’ll spare some of my sourdough bread or rolls to make some this year.
I like to buy fresh sage, which I also use in the cavity of the turkey, when I cook a whole one.
Here’s to you Aunt Gay, in gratitude for all you taught me, and the wonderful recipes you left me. May you rest in peace.
And finally, my favorite turkey recipe. One of our first commenters posted this at the prior blog we all hung out at, and I tried it the next day. Hard decision for me, because I’d always used Aunt Gay’s super easy no fail recipe, and man, was it good. So, it was a big risk, and I still use this method to brine and prepare the turkey. Nowadays I smoke my turkeys, but the recipe stays the same.
If you’re interested in a much easier way to cook a great, super moist turkey, here’s Aunt Gay’s recipe.
Place the prepared bird in the roaster. Generously salt and pepper the bird, and stuff the cavity with at least half a stick of butter.
My own exception: use some of the aromatics from the Alton Brown recipe instead of just butter in the cavity.
Depending on the size of the bird, put 2.5-3 cups of water in the pan. Use a double layer of wide heavy duty foil and crimp tightly all around the pan. Essentially, you are going to slow steam the turkey.
Cook at 200-225* overnight. Again, temp and length of time depends on how big your bird is.
This will not give you a beautiful bird you can platter up and make the center of your table. It’s going to fall off the bones into the juices. It will be very moist, and delicious, but not pretty. You must really get the foil tight and sealed in order to keep the juices in. If you don’t, the water will evaporate and your turkey will dry out.
You’ll wake up starving due to the wonderful smells all night, and have the oven available for all your sides and desserts!
The final quarter is the biggest season for retail. The National Retail Federation believes Americans will continue spending this holiday season despite inflation. Halloween alone is expected to reel in $12.2 billion, with the average participant spending $108.24. This marks a $2 billion jump compared to last October 31.
These figures are based on the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. Around 73% of Americans plan to celebrate the holiday in one form or another. Those cheaply made expensive costumes rake in the most money each Halloween season, and 69% of Americans plan to dress up. Americans are expected to spend $4.1 billion on costumes alone. Pet costumes have become a recent trend that retailers are capitalizing on. Pet owners are expected to spend $700 million on dressing up their pets.
Of the 73% participating, 77% plan to decorate for the occasion, and spending is expected to reach $3.9 billion. About 68% plan to hand out candy to the tune of $3.6 billion. An additional $500 million will be spent on holiday cards.
There are countries with lower GDPs than $12.2 billion. This is a good precursor to overall spending for the holiday season as retailers rely on Q4 to meet their quotas. “More Americans than ever will be reaching into their wallets and spending a record amount of money to celebrate Halloween this year,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Consumers will be shopping early for festive décor and other related items and retailers are prepared with the inventory to help customers and their families take part in this popular and fun tradition.”
Some claim that the stories from the Bible are just stories. Academics have been famous for saying the same thing about Historia Augusta even attributing the fraud to a monk hundreds of years before since it contained names of Roman Emperors they claim never existed. Then, two gold coins were discovered in a hoard in Egypt with the name Saturninus, proving the academic who always seem to put down history but never go out of their offices to verify their claims.
They did the same thing to Henrich Schliemann, even accusing him of fraud, claiming to have discovered the ancient city of Troy. The photo he took of his wife wearing the jewels of Helen of Troy they claimed was costume jewelry.
In the past century, dozens of individuals claimed to have located the ark, but no scientific evidence has been found. The academics have, for the most part, rejected that story as well as being just a story for children, as they said about Homer.
The problem is that the story has also been recorded in that region of Turkey on ancient Roman Coins. This has long raised independent evidence for the “story” of Noah external from the Bible, which the academics seem to go out of their way to discredit as history. The depiction of Noah on Roman coins is struck in Phrygia, which was located in modern-day Turkey. So, the coins come from the very area where Noah’s Ark was supposed to have rested. This demonstrates that this story comes from the very place where Noah’s Ark came to rest.
The Babylonia Epic of Gilgamesh has been of interest to Christians since its discovery in the mid-nineteenth century in the ruins of the great library at Nineveh, with its account of a universal flood with significant parallels to the Flood of Noah’s day. Keep in mind that Abraham also came from this region. Thus, the Biblical account may have been influenced by this story from this region originally.
A team has been excavating a geological formation in Turkey, the place in the Book of Genesis where the mountains of Ararat were. Eastern Turkey is the region in which Noah’s Ark comes to rest after the Great Flood. They have tested the rock and soil and concluded that the site matches the same time frame that the Bible places the Great Flood 5,000 years ago.
These stories also go back to the Sumerian civilization which is one of the oldest civilizations known to mankind, and it is the most developed and advanced civilization, coexisting with a variety of sciences, music, and art. They even had the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, but it was more than just Adam and Eve.
This is not a political post. You may vigorously state and defend your opinions. Do it in a civil and respectful way, or do not comment here. If you cannot abide by this one very clear request, I’ll put you on the blacklist. I have the very strong opinion that people who cannot express themselves with respect do not need to be babysat in moderation. Keep to the topic.
Once upon a time, in the Treehouse long, long ago, this was a well practiced custom. The discourse and exchange of ideas was the better for it. Those of you who cannot give and take in this manner take something away from this fine site, and from each other.
You are not out there fighting the good fight. You are just standing on the sidelines, stomping your feet. And before getting your back up, please go back and re-read my second sentence.
If you aren’t clear on what that means, then I suggest you not only studiously read Sundance’s comments, but also our admin Stella’s. Go look for some of her posts and comments here, or go over to her blog, Stella’s Place. She is a master at clearly presenting logic and defending her position without logical fallacies or disrespect. It’s kind of like a classroom for discourse, in my opinion.
I have been intending to do a venting post. Kind of a rant, if you will, for all of us. No great ideas, or study, or thorough examination of a subject. Just a brief few sentences on things I think are wrong. But now isn’t the right time for that, if it ever is the right time.
Yesterday I did a post requesting prayer for Israel. Apparently, a lot of people had a problem with that. A lot of others made a complete mockery of the idea by praying or wishing awful things for the terrorists.
Terrorists whose actions, whose nature, whose belief system and morals are the most awful example of what a human can be. They do not deserve sympathy. We can’t even put ourselves in their shoes, and try to see their side. They don’t have a side. Hate and evil are not a legitimate platform to examine for worth or understanding. Full on rejection of all they entail is the only logical and moral response, not only for Christians and Jews, but for anyone with a functional brain.
Some of the things I wanted to rant about have a little relevance here. They aren’t unique to me, or original in any way.
I am particularly tired of people who won’t work, who have never worked, and never intend to. Yet each year their lot gets better and mine gets worse.
I am tired of knowing that if I so much as don’t pay a parking ticket, I’ll suffer a trip to court and an expensive fine, while there are murders set free.
I am tired of paying more for goods because a whole group of people believe they are entitled to steal from everyone and suffer no consequences at all. And they don’t suffer any consequences. At all.
And, may I boldly emphasize that the topic and point of this post, and comments, is not about ranting. Maybe another day.
As I said, these few examples, and the others I’d intended to list, have nothing directly to do with my topic. Ah, but indirectly, there’s the point.
I have become so absorbed in my interior rants that I have crossed a line. I’m no longer in a place of righteous anger and seeking justice, justice grounded in God’s law and truth. I am no longer listening as I ought at all times to Christ’s voice inside me. I am no longer looking to him who taught us the both/and way of walking out our lives of faith. The Master who both turned over the moneychanger’s tables and wreaked havoc at the Temple, and rebuked the Sons of Thunder for their thirst for vengeance.
Yesterday was a stark wake up call for me. My own house in not in order. My will is not submitted to Christ. My words do not reflect his teachings. My heart has been given to passions other than that which should at all times be central in my life.
I have failed to carry my cross. I have scorned my cross. I have failed to offer my sufferings to Jesus. I have, through my fault, my most grievous fault, sinned greatly in my anger and pride.
The Confiteor
I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
Posted originally on the CTH on August 13, 2023 | Menagerie
I am grateful that God in his infinite goodness chose me, formed me, loved me, and never gives up on me. I can’t appreciate completely who and what I am, and should be, but I can trust that God made me with wonderful and loving intent.
I am grateful for family, and friends, especially since they’ve played such a generous part in my care and healing these last three years.
I am grateful for my home, not only a haven and refuge for our extended family, but a little place on the edge of the city where I get to watch for meteors, deer in the field, and ducks, geese, cranes, beavers, and muskrats on the little pond next to the house.
I am grateful that I’ve received life changing medical care.
I am grateful for the little church in the country where we worship, the priest who serves there to bring us the Bread of Life, the Word, and the people there who join in fellowship. I am grateful for the patrimony and gift of my faith, handed down and sacrificed for through these many centuries.
I am grateful for my grandchildren, and the opportunity to see the world through their eyes.
Gratitude can change the world, because it will change your life. May we all remember our blessings every day.
Posted originally on the CTH on June 2, 2023 | Sundance
There is a new Jim Caviezel movie coming out on July 4th that deserves some attention. Sound of Freedom is a new Angel Original production, based on the incredible true story of a former government agent turned freedom fighter who embarks on a dangerous mission to rescue dozens of children from modern-day slavery.
Long-term Treepers will remember the deep diving research we did into the issues of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC’s) during the first term of the Obama era. You cannot go into that world without finding the issue of trafficked children; it is a dark and horrific issue that few can truly fathom. CTH had to back out of the research because without professional support it has negative psychological impacts. The depravity is pure evil.
That said, Jim Caviezel is a big-time hero, genuinely surrounded by a manifestation of God’s armor, as he pushes through the horrors and brings sunlight onto the issue. There are approximately 2 million children trafficked every year, and the outcome of what happens to them is beyond disturbing. TRAILER WATCH:
“The movie stars Jim Caviezel (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Passion of the Christ) as Tim Ballard, a man who spent over a decade working as a special agent at the Department of Homeland Security. Sound of Freedom highlights one of his first missions to free dozens of children from sex trafficking and exploitation. It is a story of the fight for freedom and hope, even in the darkest of places.” ~ Visit WEBSITE HERE
The mission of the Sound of Freedom movie is to spark a global conversation about the realities of child trafficking and empower viewers to take unprecedented action to help put an end to this modern-day slavery.
CTH has glimpsed the dark underbelly of the world being described and portrayed in this movie. My hope and prayer are that Jim Caviezel and the entire team responsible for the production of this movie are able to awaken a larger audience to the horrors they outline. Pray for them.
When you truly understand the nature of this issue, you realize the value in very hard men with Viking level fortitude and intensity that will confront and destroy this level of evil. Pray for them also.
Lastly, there is only one force in this universe able to destroy this level of evil manifest, that force is the power of God. Pray for it most!
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 