Whether you’re cooking for 10 or for 2, a special Thanksgiving dinner takes a lot of time and energy! We’re pooped today. But we did have a lovely meal; a vegetarian holiday roast which is scrumptious (comes with gravy and stuffing), mashed potatoes, vegetables, cloud biscuits, and sugar-free apple pie.
We ate too much, of course.
Today, I’m taking it easy. So is Don.
I hope you had a lovely holiday. If you were alone, I hope you had a chance to connect with friends and family. I know that this particular holiday was very different from the norm and I suspect Christmas will be, too. But we’ll hang in there, won’t we?
I’ve marked December 1st as the day we get our tree. We need some sparkle around here.
Stay safe.
Happy Friday.
yes I agree
It was the two of us and we were exhausted
Settled down and watched “Narnia”
Love it one of our favorite movies
Good choice, Linda!
Stay safe.
agree! the only benefit to cooking for one person, in my opinion and as someone who doesn’t enjoy cooking or baking except for other people, is that there are leftovers. i am fine with leftovers as they are, could and do eat the same thing several days a week. plus with leftover, i then don’t need to do a whole bunch of cooking for a while. :)
i would much rather cook and bake for my family and be able to hug them all, of course, so yesterday was bittersweet. more bitter than sweet, but still lots to be grateful for. and done for the greatest good … the health of my family.
glad you and don had a good day. hope everyone did.
claudia, i smile every time i see your kitchen. there’s stella, of course, but (sorry, stella) she’s not the only star! you have that happy yellow paint, sunlight streaming in from all those windows (especially those over the sink … a long-favored design feature, something i am blessed to have where i live now), a work table that is neat in more ways than one, so much space and those wooden arm chairs … that’s plenty to love, but then you’ve added another personal favorite of mine … metal picnic/lunch boxes that look like very-faux wood!!! love!
as always, thanks for sharing such pretty photos and inspiration, parts of your life, parts of your heart. much enjoyed and appreciated!
i wrote myself a note just before going to bed last night, put it on my nightstand. it reads “today is friday. you have to work today”. ha ha. i am grateful that today is indeed friday!
hope you all have a safe, easy day today.
kathy in iowa
oh! just came back to smile again over your kitchen … and add that i see where you put the cattails pitcher … on stella’s shelf. what a great combo they are! :)
kathy in iowa
Yes, that pitcher looks good there!
xoxo
I love leftovers and nothing makes me happier than to know I can reheat something for lunch or dinner.
Thanks for the kitchen love, Kathy!
Stay safe.
I am so glad that you and Don had a lovely meal and enjoyed yourselves yesterday.
I know just what you mean by needing some sparkle. I felt that way early last week and took my little tree out of the condo storage room and brought it upstairs. It is shining quite brightly in front of my balcony window. It is one of those pre-lit trees and these lights twinkle! It did my heart good! It is so peaceful to sit in the living room with my cup of tea and just soak in the sparkle.
We deserve some Christmas spirit now. This one will be different than anything we have ever had before but we can make it lovely for ourselves. I think this year is not about what we want but for
being grateful for everything we have.
Don’t those lights make a huge difference? So glad you did that, Lyn.
Stay safe.
Well your charming kitchen looks like a Thanksgiving extravaganza was lovingly cleared away. I’m going to have to try a veggie roast next year. It sounds very good. Looking forward to seeing your tree. Til then, rest and relax and take care.
The Holiday Roast by Gardein is really delicious – much tastier than turkey.
Stay safe, Nora.
It sounds lovely. You deserve a good rest!
Thank you Jeanie. That’s what we’re trying to do.
Stay safe.
I can just imagine the wonderful smells in your kitchen. I love it for it’s light.
and for Stella!
I have my little ‘table’ tree up too. and a bowl of beautiful natural pine cones.
they have all come from the old pine tree beside my door!
the little tree has only white tiny lights and is perfect. I feel very cozy.
hoping you and Don have a GREAT and restful weekend. XO
I love tiny white lights, Tammy. That’s what our tree has, as well.
Stay safe.
XO
Yes! This year it seems that many of us need a little Christmas, now!! Our tree has been up for a few days and is finally decorated. Loving the glow in the evening. Anything right now to soothe our weary souls.
We have lots of leftovers, also. And that isn’t a bad thing at all. No daily question of what is for supper? I don’t know, what do you want? I don’t know what do YOU want? We will just pull out leftovers and we can each construct our own vision of the perfect dinner. At least for a few days! One more little thing that is soul-soothing. We have a nice sunny day here, and the temps are into the mid 40’s. 50* for tomorrow!! Yay! We will send it your way when we finish with it. Only supposed to last a day or two and then back to the 30’s. Take care!
Leftovers are the best. They make life so much easier!
Enjoy your warmer weather, Chris.
Stay safe.
I love your pretty yellow kitchen.
The thing I enjoy most about a Thanksgiving dinner? The sides. The thing I like least? The dishes; so much clean-up mess and too many pots & pans.
We’ve been riding out the Santa Ana winds here in SoCalif. Very relieved when we could see we were removed from the mandatory power cutoff for wildfire protection, such that when we retired for the night, only 300 families were still affected in my town, but I do feel for those whose power was off for 12 hrs and more (what a way to wreck a holiday; and all the food in the frig/freezers; like how to even prepare a meal when you don’t want to open the frig and let out the cold). Today, we have a very clear, warm day and the wind is dying down. (It was a gusty one, not a howler/screamer wind.) Such a coincidence: I watched an old movie on TV yesterday called “How to Make an American Quilt”. Hadn’t seen it in years (90s era). Was such a line-up of terrific female actresses/ensemble cast (Jean Simmons, Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Alfre Woodard; more); the stories of six or seven female characters. I love the film score and the cinematography. But the noteworthy thing is that the movie was in good part filmed in my area; I know very well the house of the film (is very much a ‘real’ ancestral, Victorian-style home). And indeed in the story, a big Santa Ana wind comes up, so it was just weird, watching this movie with the wind, while the very wind was also blowing outside my window.
I wasn’t a Black Friday shopper-in-a-store person even before Covid. You can HAVE those crowds; not for me, ever. But my husband just read that the brick & mortars are down fifty percent of shoppers although I imagine it’s also because of limited capacity allowed in any retail store (at least that’s the way it is here) but you have to hope, too, that even though it’s so difficult for those retailers, that people are staying in, as we’ve been encouraged to do by the medical/public healthy community.
So much to look forward to with your holiday tree!
Auto-correct drives me nuts. We can’t find a way to shut it off. It’s largely always wrong, as in this case: I did not type, “medical/public healthy”, obviously it’s public HEALTH.
Also, by the way, I didn’t mean to infer I personally had electricity cut off by the power company. We were lucky; on the list, but it didn’t happen. We, any of us here, have to always be prepared for that inevitability now; it’s for our own protection to curb wildfire spread or start.
I really need to proof before I hit ‘send’ (‘post comment’). Sorry.
Did you happen to see the “Lincoln Project Gives Thanks” ad? Brian Williams ran it at the end of his Thanksgiving Eve news show on MSNBC. Very poignant; beautiful, heartbreaking accompaniment of music to words and (black & white) images. Such emotion-inducing images. I think I’ve watched this ad ten times and I only stopped blubbering over it at about the fifth viewing. It really shows what this country has gone through in less than a year; what has been asked of its people. And so many good people. When they spoke of patriots, and flashed up the photo of Alexander Vindman (the Army officer who defied Trump), it got me every time.
Yes, I saw that on Twitter. It’s lovely.
xo
Not being a meat eater, the sides have always been the best for me.
I’ve never been a Black Friday shopper. The last thing – even in non-pandemic times – is to go out and wrestle with crowds of people.
Stay safe, Vicki.
Any way you slice it…it’s a lot of work to make a holiday meal, period. We are pooped today as well. I always thoroughly clean the house before a holiday…even if there is no one coming. And then…I put out lots of battery operated candles, and bowls of ornaments that I’ve collected, to bring some cheer. I think it worked! We ate too much of course…it there are plenty of leftovers.
Stella looks lovely, especially when she is adorned with your new shed find. As long as the weather is nice, we’ll add some outdoor lights tomorrow, and by Monday or Tuesday we’ll be putting up the tree.
Take care! ;)
Thank you so much, Donna.
Stay safe!