Monday, November 21, 2022

Cranberry Sauce and Thanksgiving Day Cards

 

I love getting cards in the mail. Do you?

And they're rarer than hen's teeth in 2022. I used to be a prolific card-sender and always sent Thanksgiving Day cards to our adult children and my parents. I think I got that gene from my mother who was a card-sender extraordinaire.

And I always addressed all my Christmas cards on Thanksgiving Day night after the cleanup was finished, personal messages to be added in the following weeks. Just me and a good Christmas movie and several boxes of cards, my address book, and always the current USPS Christmas stamps. 

But now? It's been two years since I've sent Christmas cards and I don't know how many since Thanksgiving cards. And I'm ashamed of that. Maybe if I get out all my leftover Christmas cards from over the years and send them no one will remember they got the same one many years ago.

But I do have a stack of Thanksgiving cards set around the house. All sent us by our one and only daughter, another prolific card-sender, even as busy a career woman as she is.  She sent us the card in the first picture last year. I love a pop-up card as much as a three year old! This year the card is sitting in the living room instead of on my kitchen shelves but I need to dust that table before taking a picture of it. 

I've exhausted that subject (and my readers) so I'll make short shrift of the subject of Cranberry Sauce.

Simply put, making the first Cranberry Sauce of November makes me happier than makes good sense. 

From the time I wash them and put those ruby red jewels in the pan...


 And watch them gel, smelling spices from the cave of Ali Baba...


 To Open Sesame! they go into the fridge to be used on omelets and entrees long before Thanksgiving Day that requires a fresh batch.

No can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce for me although one of my most pinned pictures on Pinterest is this ad in my Ads That Sold board by the iconic company showing Mother serving Grandmother slices of cranberry sauce on a silver salver while Father carves the turkey for four generations gathered at the dining table.


 There, I've paid homage to the second in my trinity of Thanksgiving favorites, Cornbread Dressing, Cranberry Sauce, and Pies (Chess and Pecan being my favorite although I make some darn delicious Pumpkin Pies too).

My recipe for the Cranberry Sauce included here at a post at Dewena's Window back in the day, when I also showed a new haircut.

That's all for today. Please don't underestimate the joy that a card in the mailbox brings your senior citizens, and please forgive said senior citizen when she has a mental block about sending out cards herself. Just remember that she did it for many a decade. Thank you. I love you! 

[Day after Thanksgiving 2022: including a picture of this year's Thanksgiving Cranberry Sauce that was so much prettier than the one above--I cooked it at a lower temperature because I wanted it more saucy and less gelled. So good!]


 


 

15 comments:

  1. I like sending cards, too, and of course, receiving them! Fewer and fewer arrive each year. If you send me your address, I'll send you a Christmas card! My email contact is on my profile page.

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    1. Why, thank you, Lorrie! I'll be thankful for yours and you'll be getting one of mine, from past years at least!

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  2. Oh, and cranberry sauce is a favourite here, too, although some in our family do not like it. Can you imagine? I make it every year for Thanksgiving in October and seal a few jars for use throughout the year. Homemade is definitely best!

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    1. I didn't realize you could seal jars of it for use later! Do you still need to refrigerate the jars or do they sit on a shelf like preserves? I'll email you about that too!

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  3. I love to make (and consume!) homemade cranberry sauce. However, my family was raised on the canned gel variety, so that's what they prefer. I was, too, and it was served in a cutglass dish like the one in the photo. Which I still have, and that's how I serve it. I come from a family of card-senders, so I like sending and receiving them, for all holidays. If you send me your address, I'll surprise you on a holiday and send you one;) My email is in the 'About' section of my blog page. And no pressure to send me a Christmas card! lol!

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    1. How sweet you are, Karen! I will sit down tomorrow and contact you and Lorrie and be delighted to send you my address. (This afternoon is a doctor appointment to find out in full report of a MRI I had recently for a suspected compression fracture of all things.)

      You know, I think you're right, that is a cut glass serving plate the can of cranberry sauce slices are on. I just assumed it was silver but I always used to put my cranberry sauce in a cut glass bowl my mother gave me and was warned not to put it in while hot. I also just remembered a pot roast recipe I tried a time or two that called for a can of cranberry sauce stirred into the broth before making gravy. It did give it a little tang.

      A blessed Thanksgiving to you!

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  4. How great is that... sending cards. I love getting cards. I would also be happy to send you a card... across the pond... it will be on the road for a very long time...
    blog@barwitzki.de
    I love the cranbeerys, we get them freshly packaged in small portions in the fall... and I always try very hard to get some. This fall I baked them in a cake with apples... great.
    Your cranberry sauce is sure to be delicious.
    Many greetings to you from Viola
    Hug

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    1. You ladies are so nice! Thank you so much, Viola! I would love receiving a card from across the pond from you and tomorrow will follow up on exchanging addresses with all three of you gracious friends. And I dearly love cakes with cranberries and apples together, you've made me crave one of those.
      Hugs to you!

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  5. I do like sending cards, and of course it is lovely to receive them too :)
    Your cranberry sauce looks good.

    All the best Jan

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    1. Thank you Jam and all the best to you too!

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    2. Oh dear, Jan! Should have put my reading glasses on and proofread my comment. But I guess people probably say you're they're jam anyway!

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  6. Ahhhh, this blog is more current. Actually, I think, you had stopped blogging, and certainly had stopped allowing comments, last time I was here. -smile- Whenever that was. So I am happy to see you are blogging, and accepting comments.

    I am one of those people you surely do not understand, because I never liked sending Christmas Cards! Years ago, I finally said... Enough is enough. If this does not bring Joy, why do it?

    So I let everyone know, and ceased sending cards!

    The world didn't come to an end, and I had much more relaxing Christmas Times! -smile-

    Let everyone have the Holiday Time, which makes them the most content, is my view.

    Gentle hugs....

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    1. Oh yes indeed, life is too short not to celebrate the way you wish to! I apologize for not posting more frequently at the Window. I am trying to pull some posts together for there soon. This old blog of mine seems more like a journal that could be updated more often but even here time gets away from me. And it was so silly to turn off comments as I did. Not the best way to blog. I see you've left a comment at the Window so I'll go there now. How did I lose track of you? Will have to see if you're still on my blogroll there. Do you still blog? I'll click on your name right now and see if you do!
      Best to you!

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  7. For the first time, this year we received TWO Thanksgiving cards. One from old friends who live across the country whom we haven't seen in decades, and the other from a young woman I met through blogging ages ago. Such a lovely surprise, and they mean so much to me.

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    1. That was a nice surprise, Nan. I have promised myself that I'm going to try to be much better about sending cards!

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