Friday Five: Pie-ola!

Songbird at RevGalBlogPals writes: “We had three pies planned for a six-person Thanksgiving dinner, and there was some anxiety on my part about the need one had for gluten-free crusts. I worried, you see, that we would have pies no one liked, or run out of the one "good" pie (you know, with gluten). There was a last-minute trip to buy more pie crust that failed (sold out!). Then early on Thanksgiving morning, the phone rang. It was my neighbor, saying she wanted to bring something over. It was a beautiful maple pumpkin pie!
Now we were all set.
Later in the day, the doorbell rang unexpectedly. Someone said, "It's a pie delivery!"
And sure enough, it was a relative stopping by, and he had a pecan pie for us. Pie-ola!!!
Please answer these five questions about pie:

1) Are pies an important part of a holiday meal?

Yes, especially at Thanksgiving. In my childhood, pie was also an important part of Christmas and Easter, but lacking my mother’s skill with piecrust and for other reasons, here’s what we have at Christmas: ris à l’amande with raspberry sauce, and later cookies, on Christmas Eve; and bûche de Noël for Sisterfilms’ birthday on Christmas day. And at Easter, if I’m at home, citronfromage (a very fluffy dessert with lemon, egg white and whipped cream.) By the way, it appears that Songbird’s family started out the day somewhat under-pied, as my grandmother’s rule was one pie for each person at the table. Yesterday at my aunt’s house we had: pumpkin, apple, mince, chocolate cream, coconut cream, butterscotch cream, maple walnut, pecan (for the seven diners) and when two more friends arrived they brought a “scrumpkin” pie (I was too full to try it) and a sweet potato/orange pie.

2) Men prefer pie; women prefer cake. Discuss.

My father used to say, “Cookies are for children. Cake is for ladies. Pie is for men.” I certainly like all three far too much, but given my druthers I’d choose pie.

3) Cherries--do they belong in a pie?

Why not? Especially in February. I’ve also had and enjoyed date pie and pineapple pie and just yesterday heard about Jell0 pie. I guess there’s not much that can’t be improved by putting it in a piecrust.
4) Meringue--if you have to choose, is it best on lemon or chocolate?

Lemon. Both because I will choose lemon anything over chocolate anything on any given day, and because to me, whipped cream is what goes on chocolate pie.
5) In a chicken pie, what are the most compatible vegetables? Anything you don't like to find in a chicken pie?

It depends on the season. In fall and winter, I usually go with carrots and potatoes. But in spring I make “chicken pie primavera” with asparagus, new peas, little carrots, new potatoes – whatever looks good. I would not like to find beets in my chicken pie. Or anywhere.

A Real Maine Pumpkin Pie

Even though Libby is a fine old Maine name, I don’t think much of their pumpkin pie recipe – too pale and bland. I also like to buy local products when I can, so since we’ve moved to Maine I get One-Pie canned pumpkin (they also have canned squash), from West Paris, Maine. In Minnesota, we used Festal pumpkin from Owatonna, Minnesota. I like the recipe on the One-Pie pumpkin can, so here is my rewriting of it.

“One-Pie” Pumpkin Pie

1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
1 cup sugar
½ tsp. Cinnamon
½ tsp. Nutmeg
½ tsp. Ginger
scant ½ tsp. Salt
1 can One-Pie pumpkin (or your favorite local brand, or whatever)
2 eggs, beaten
1 ½ Tbsp. Butter, melted
2 Tbsp. Molasses (I like Crosby’s, which comes in a paper carton like milk, but other kinds would be fine too)
1 12-oz. Can evaporated milk, or 1/12 cups milk (I’m dubious about using regular milk, never have. However, you can use evaporated skim milk with no problem)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Mix in the can of pumpkin (a wire whisk works fine). Add eggs, melted butter, molasses and mix together; add milk and mix until evenly mixed. Line a 9-inch pie plate with pie crust, pour in the pumpkin mixture, and bake 15 minutes. (You may want to cover the edges of the crust to prevent over-browning.) Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake 50 more minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle of the pie comes out clean.

And here’s a picture of the pie I made today:

For a nod to Minnesota, here’s the great recipe for Festal Pumpkin Bars. “Bars” are a fixture at almost every Minnesota social event and there are many delicious ones, but you can’t go wrong with these.

Festal Pumpkin Bars

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 12 x 18 x 1 inch pan (jelly roll pan)

4 eggs
1 c. salad oil
2 c. sugar
1 15 oz. can pumpkin

Mix above ingredients in a large bowl. Sift the following and add to above, then stir:

2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups flour

Mix well and pour into pan. Bake 25-30 minutes.

Frost with:

1 6 oz pkg cream cheese (Neufchatel or low-fat cream cheese would be fine, but don’t bother with the fat-free stuff)
3/4 stick butter
1 tbsp. cream or milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 c. powdered sugar

Beat cheese, butter, vanilla and cream together until soft. Add powdered sugar until correct consistency to spread. Cut the bars into 2 x 3 inch bars. Makes 36. Can be frozen.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

A Recipe for Thanksgiving

As a make-up for missing yesterday’s blog, here’s a recipe I mentioned earlier today that some people asked for. It comes from, I think, the 1975 edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, with a few alterations.

SWEET POTATO-CASHEW BAKE

2 lbs. sweet potatoes (recipe says “2 medium,” whatever “medium” means)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup broken cashews (a little more wouldn’t hurt, you’re just going to buy a can and use the rest for snacks, right?)

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1 15-oz. can peach slices in juice (original recipe called for a smaller can which is now hard to find)

3 tablespoons butter

Cook the sweet potatoes (see below for instructions). Cool, remove skins, and cut crosswise into thick pieces. Combine the brown sugar, cashews, and ginger in a small bowl. Drain peaches well. In a 10x6x2 inch backing dish, layer half each of the sweet potatoes, peach slices, and brown sugar mixture. Repeat layers until done. (Since everything is already cooked, don’t worry about size of pan if you don’t have the exact one called for.)

Dot with butter. Bake, covered (aluminum foil is fine if your dish doesn’t have a cover) in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Uncover, bake 10 minutes longer. Spoon the brown sugar syrup that has formed over the potatoes and peaches before serving. Serves 6 to 8.

Cooking sweet potatoes: for some reason I’ve always boiled them for this recipe but this year I may try baking. Anyway, to boil, wash the sweet potatoes and cut off ends and any obvious woody parts. Boil in lightly salted water to cover, 25-35 minutes. If you want to bake instead, it’s 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes. In either case you’ll want to allow yourself enough time for the sweet potatoes to cool before you peel and slice them. This recipe is a fine one to prepare the day before Thanksgiving up to the point of putting it in the oven. When traveling to someone else’s house I’ve had good luck either bringing it fully baked and reheating in microwave or, if arriving just before dinner, just doing the last 10 minutes of baking at the destination.

For another sweet potato variation, I tried this recipe from the Penzey's Spices catalog recently. It was good, but it made a huge amount so you’d have to reduce the recipe unless you have a real crowd, I think. Here is the link:Orange Spice Mashed Sweet Potatoes.

Friday Five: Thanksgiving

Thanks to Jan at RevGalBlogPals for this Friday Five:

The Cure
Lying around all day
with some strange new deep blue
weekend funk, I'm not really asleep
when my sister calls
to say she's just hung up
from talking with Aunt Bertha
who is 89 and ill but managing
to take care of Uncle Frank
who is completely bed ridden.
Aunt Bert says
it's snowing there in Arkansas,
on Catfish Lane, and she hasn't been
able to walk out to their mailbox.
She's been suffering
from a bad case of the mulleygrubs.
The cure for the mulleygrubs,
she tells my sister,
is to get up and bake a cake.
If that doesn't do it, put on a red dress.
--Ginger Andrews (from Hurricane Sisters)

So this Friday before Thanksgiving, think about Aunt Bert and how she'll celebrate Thanksgiving! And how about YOU?

1. What is your cure for the "mulleygrubs"?

Baking something is a pretty good cure; also cleaning out cupboards, organizing things and general tidying up.

2. Where will you be for Thanksgiving?

We’re going to my aunt and uncle’s house, and their daughter and her two teenage sons will be there too. I expect much hilarity.

3. What foods will be served? Which are traditional for your family?

Turkey from a local farm, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy; I’ll probably contribute homemade cranberry sauce, and my sweet potatoes with peaches and cashews; probably one or two other vegetables at least; several different pies! My childhood Thanksgivings are memorable for the abundance of two things, vegetables and pies. We also had a turkey probably twice the size of the one we’ll be eating next week. In Minnesota we had that green bean casserole, but that is not traditional here (and I don’t really miss it, but my kids would.)

My grandmother in a photo taken November 1942, very possibly preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

4. How do you feel about Thanksgiving as a holiday?

I think it’s a great holiday, and even people who aren’t especially religious seem to get the spirit of gratitude on this day. I recognize that some American Indians have trouble with the historical part of it, on the other hand they have taught us much about how to be thankful for the bounty of this land and how to use it respectfully.

5. In this season of Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for?

My family, my home, my dog, my friends, the Internet, my local public library, farmers’ markets (and farmers, and fisherfolk), hope for a partial solution to the healthcare mess…that will do for a start.

BONUS: Describe Aunt Bert's Thanksgiving.

After her usual morning chores and making sure Frank was comfortably settled, with the parade on TV, Bert started preparing Thanksgiving dinner. This year they would just have a nice fat chicken roasted; even a small turkey would be too much for the two of them. She remembered the days when Frank would go out to the woods and bring back a wild turkey for Thanksgiving; sometimes he’d have time to go duck hunting and there’d be two or more birds on the table. Taking out the pan of cornbread she had prepared the day before and frying up a bit of Joe Smith’s homemade sausage for flavoring, she began preparing the stuffing, then put it aside when she remembered that she needed to bake a couple of pies first. Luckily, although he couldn’t be up and around any longer, Frank still had all his teeth so he could enjoy his favorite pecan pie with nuts from their own trees. She recalled fondly how her nieces had visited earlier in the fall with their children, and all had helped with the tree-shaking. It’s good for kids to learn that food doesn’t just come from the grocery store. She’s looking forward to their visiting at Christmas time; she told them not to try coming down from Chicago for the short Thanksgiving holiday. Now that the pie was in the oven, she could start peeling potatoes and making the creamed onions. And she mustn’t forget Frank’s favorite, the fried okra. Good thing she had plenty of okra in the freezer.

At last everything was ready, and at just the right time, since it was half-time of the Lions-Packers game Frank was avidly watching. Ever since his brother Earl had moved to Detroit to work on the line at General Motors, Frank had followed the Detroit sports teams along with him. Earl had died a couple of years back, and maybe it was just as well, with all the trouble his old employer was having; but Frank still rooted for the Lions, Tigers and Pistons. But, being a country music fan from childhood, Frank wasn’t too interested in the big Motown salute during half-time, so Bert could get him to turn off the TV and say grace. After the prayer, they had always gone around the table saying what they were thankful for. Frank says he’s thankful for Bert and all her care of him. Bert says she’s thankful for Frank too because he’s still good company after all these years. Then they tuck in to their Thanksgiving dinner.

Prioritizing

is one of my problem areas, and another is not getting distracted from one task by another. So I'm going to blog today about some of my upcoming tasks and maybe by writing them down so publicly I can prioritize or at least check them off. I used to visit a website called www.organizedhome.com. There were people, and probably still are, who would post daily to-do lists that started with "Get up. Shower. Brush teeth. Get dressed..." I'm not making fun of them. I have been, if not quite there, pretty darn close at times in the past. But there is something a little funny about stopping to post the list on the Internet....As there is with what I'm doing. But I have an ulterior motive, as I realized I hadn't blogged today and it's after 11.

So, before December 1st (and in some cases quite a bit before) here's what I want to accomplish:

Write, compile, and send out a Thanksgiving issue of Speedwell Stories, my (mother's side) family history newsletter. (I do it by email.)

Complete acquisition, wrapping and mailing of Advent presents for Cordeliaknits and Sisterfilms.

Choose and record Christmas stories on disc for SF and mail them.

Mail the 2006 stories on disc to my niece for her daughters.

Prepare December blogposts (about the stories from 2007) in advance.

Have a potluck dessert party for family on Advent 1.

Finish getting ready for the church Christmas fair this Saturday -- I'm co-chairing the book room.

Seriously begin Christmas shopping; organize namedraw for Christmas Eve festivities with the extended family.

Clean my office. Do laundry. Organize guest room so that it will be hospitable for Sisterfilms and The Traveller when they come for Christmas.

Finish the library books I have out, then go on a library fast for a few weeks and read books I already own, including more of the Guardian 1000 Novels.

Catch up with my movie reviewing on Queuing Up.

Keep a few other promises I've made to various people.

I guess I'd better get some rest so I can get busy tomorrow!

Thanksgiving Thoughts, tending toward randomness

Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. readers, and I hope the rest of you have a good day too!

I've just put the Sweet Potato-Peach-Cashew Bake into the oven and cut the Exquisite Chocolate Mint Sticks into bars(see above). The cranberry sauce appears to have jelled nicely and reposes in the refrigerator. In about half an hour I'll wake up Onkel Hankie Pants, who worked last night, and we'll get ready to go to Bowdoinham, where we will share Thanksgiving dinner with Uncle Nepco, Mama's Baby Sister, and their daughter, Monkees Fan.  I used occasionally to babysit for Monkees Fan when I was in town, and Mama's Baby Sister used to babysit for me.  Although MBS is a grandmother, and Monkees Fan still has children at home (they're with their dad today), we are more or less functioning as contemporaries now. It's funny, and good, how that goes.

I took Rusty for a walk down Maine Street just now. It was odd, and nice, to see everything so quiet (and also to know that that's not a permanent condition!) If I had gone a little farther, I suppose the 7-11 would have been open, and perhaps Dunkin' Donuts? The German restaurant where we had Easter dinner was advertising that they would prepare your meal, I know, but I can't recall if they also were going to be open -- I think not. The coffeehouse down near the supermarket is hosting a Thanksgiving meal by donation, to make sure people don't have to eat alone, and to benefit young adult programs at the library. And there will be a potluck Thanksgiving at church. I saw only three people not in cars -- one of the smokers at the assisted living place down the street exchanged Thanksgiving greetings with me, and one of her co-residents was being escorted to a car for a trip to dinner, probably by a sister. 

I wonder, if I end up in a place like that, will there be as many smokers clustering outside? I heard on the radio that smoking among adults is down under 20% of the population; unfortunately among teenagers it's a little higher than that.

My Exquisite Chocolate Mint Sticks turned out a little oddly. They taste fine (I am sampling one right now, "to see if it's fit to eat" as my mother used to say). But some are thicker than others. Put it down to astigmatism, I guess. We cleaned the (self-cleaning) oven yesterday, and when I put the racks back in, I got them tilted. Somehow I didn't notice that when I put the pan in. Fortunately it doesn't show as much once they are cut up and arranged on a nice plate I got from Brother #1 and The Herbalist last Christmas.  By the way, although these are a family favorite, from Marjorie Standish's Cooking Down East, they are not a traditional Thanksgiving treat. Monkees Fan specially requested them after tasting one of the leftovers from the last time I made them. We will have pies as well. (I am expecting there will be more than one pie, although only 5 at dinner. It's traditional. When I was growing up, in a family of seven, my mother always made at least a dozen pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas).

Well, Onkel Hankie Pants is up, humming "Over the River and Through the Woods" in the shower. We will cross at least two rivers, the Androscoggin and the Cathance, on our way to dinner. The Cathance had flooded fields on the Bisson farm yesterday when we went to pick up the fresh turkey; they're used to it, they say. The Androscoggin was roaring loudly as water rushed over the dam near our house on its way to the sea. We are fortunate today to have electric power, drivable roads, and no flooding; others in Maine are not so lucky. We also must stop to remember all those affected by the terrorist action in Mumbai, all those who do not share the bounty we enjoy, and all those far from home today, especially our servicemen and women overseas.

Friday Five: Fall Equinox Edition

I took this photo last year on September 19, and yesterday this same tree looks just about the same.

Over at RevGalBlogPals, Songbird (who lives not far from me) posts:

It's that time of year, at least north of the equator. The windows are still open, but the darned furnace comes on early in the morning. My husband went out for a walk after an early supper and came home in full darkness.  (Auntie Knickers says: I just went around closing windows so the furnace wouldn't come on, as it's after 9 am and the temp is only about 40 degrees, which is the lowest setting on our thermostat).

And yes, where we live, leaves are beginning to turn.

As this vivid season begins, tell us five favorite things about fall:

1) A fragrance: When I was small, it was burning leaves. We don't do that any more, but especially here in Maine, more people are using woodstoves and the fragrance of woodsmoke can sometimes be discerned. It brings happy memories of my grandmother's woodstove.

2) A color: Red - the red of new apples and the "Irish setter red" of maple leaves. But then what about the gold of the leaves of other trees, and of the grasses I remember from the Midwest? And who can forget orange, pumpkins, leaves, and Halloween decorations?  

3) An item of clothing: Fleece jackets and vests -- I'm wearing one already as I write this for the chilly morning. 

4) An activity: Buying and planting spring bulbs -- always looking ahead.

5) A special day: Thanksgiving - all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin (or at least we hope so!) Making special food for special people. I only wish there were a special morning church service to attend near me; I miss the one we had in Minneapolis.

A brief rant about turkey liver

So, if you are dealing with a turkey and want to make giblet gravy or turkey stock, every recipe you will find tells you not to add the turkey liver until very late in the process, as it will make the product of your labors taste bitter. BUT! Does ANYONE tell you how to recognize which of the three (in the case of my recent turkey) small items in the paper bag IS the turkey liver? They do not. I performed a Google(TM) search* for images of turkey liver and was sadly disappointed. One site from Dorling-Kindersley had a lovely photo of various kinds of turkey "offal" (the wonderful old term for such things) but at least on the website, they were not identified. Other sites had photos so murky and taken from so far away as to be quite useless.
Now, I know what a human liver looks like (more or less, shapewise), or a beef liver. One might assume that a turkey liver looks similarly shaped but smaller, but of my three items, one looked like a heart (2 chambers) and the other two both looked as if they COULD be livers. So, this time, I used chicken broth for moistening the stuffing, etc. and put the turkey neck and giblets into a bag in the freezer. But tomorrow I plan to make turkey soup with the carcass and it will be Use It or Lose It time for the innards. Can anyone help?
*A friend of Cordeliaknits works in the legal department at said search place and she says this is the proper terminology. She also says the amenities are all they're cracked up to be.

RevGalBlogPals Friday Five:

Courtesy of the RevGalBlogPals, here is the Friday Five, oddly enough, pretty much what I was going to blog about anyway!

1. Did you go elsewhere for the day, or did you have visitors at your place instead? How was it?
We were at our house and had visitors. My sister and cousin came for turkey and then my brother, his wife, daughter and her husband and son, my nephew's girlfriend (nephew is in Congo with his NGO), my aunt and uncle and their daughter and her two sons came for dessert.
So here's what we ate:
mixed nuts, little pickles and olives, (no shrimp cocktail as all shrimp available were farm-raised "drenched in petroleum" -- Maine shrimp season starts Dec. 1 so hope to have it at Christmas), roast Maine turkey with standard sage and onion dressing, gravy made by my cousin, mashed Maine potatoes, homemade Maine cranberry sauce, sweet potato/peach/cashew bake, carrots glazed with an orange-ginger sauce, classic green bean casserole, a mixture of buttercup squash and another kind I don't know the name of, dark orange with deep orange flesh -- with a little Maine maple syrup stirred in -- and the traditional brown-n-serve rolls. To drink we had sparkling apple-cranberry juice from the Pajaro Valley in California, not far from Monterey where Onkel Hankie Pants and I first met.
Then we cleared up and washed dishes.
When the others arrived we had: pumpkin pie (two kinds, one I made with eggs and one my niece made with no eggs); apple pie (niece); chocolate spice cake (niece); pecan pie (I made); cranberry chocolate cheesecake (Onkel H made); and for me, the piéce de resistance, butterscotch meringue pie made from scratch by my cousin. Coffee, tea, and cider. Looking at photo albums, talking, playing Set, younger people playing hide and seek. The dog behaved reasonably well (he did have to be sequestered during the actual eating of dinner).
Nobody got shot, my definition of a great family gathering!


2. Main course: If it was the turkey, the whole turkey, and nothing but the turkey, was it prepared in an unusual way? Or did you throw tradition to the winds and do something different?
It seems everybody has a different idea about the best way to cook turkey. We got a local turkey through our meat market, didn't brine it, cooked it according to directions in the book Thanksgiving 101. Unfortunately I forgot to remove the tinfoil from the breast so it was not photogenic, but delicious nonetheless. I also used my trussing needle and kitchen string with great skill.


3. Other than the meal, do you have any Thanksgiving customs that you observe every year?
Our new custom is to sing the grace I posted a couple of posts ago, which we did.



4. The day after Thanksgiving is considered a major Christmas shopping day by most US retailers. Do you go out bargain hunting and shop ‘till you drop, or do you stay indoors with the blinds closed? Or something in between?
We definitely opened the blinds as it was a beautiful sunny (read: free heat) day. But didn't go anywhere other than as necessary to walk the dog. I celebrate Buy Nothing Day and it is very relaxing.


5. Let the HOLIDAY SEASON commence! When will your Christmas decorations go up?
Sometime before December 21 when Sisterknits arrives! I noticed a few folks in the neighborhood had very tasteful, subtle decorations up -- minilights on evergreens, candles in the window kind of thing. It's such an early Thanksgiving this year that it doesn't seem like time yet. However, I did spend a few minutes on the computer making a pre-Advent music playlist -- it's mostly secular winter-type music, with a few numbers such as "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" and then some Ave Marias and "A Winter's Solstice" music themed to snow, etc.

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving too! Leave me a comment if you don't already participate in the Friday Five.

A Thanksgiving Memory

Here is a picture of me and my parents, Thanksgiving Day, 1952, Camp Stewart, Georgia. We may have eaten dinner in the mess hall that day, too, as I think my mother and I had only recently arrived in Georgia. Under Mama's peplum is my brother, who was born about 4 months later.

This Sunday our local paper ran a feature in which several Mainers reminisced about disastrous Thanksgiving dinners in their pasts -- the sort of thing that's very funny in retrospect but at the time -- not so much. I'm not sure whether my favorite was the one where the grandma broke the chandelier, sending shards of glass into every bit of the dinner, or the story about the college boys who tried cooking their turkey in beer. However, the article brought to mind a semi-disastrous Thanksgiving dinner in my childhood.

As far back as I can remember, our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners began with shrimp cocktail. Now, it's true that my father grew up "on the shore."

[Brief digression for an absolutely true remembered conversation:
Daddy, pontificating: "Yes, Knickers, your mother's people were all farmers, but your Father's people were fisherfolk."
Mama, with perfect timing: "SIMPLE fisherfolk."]

It was not in Cundy's Harbor that my father learned to begin a holiday meal with shrimp cocktail, but in the Army. Then as now, no matter what you may have heard about Army chow, the mess sergeants did their best to provide a special meal at holiday time for young men far from home. At least in the 40s and 50s, a shrimp cocktail starter was de rigueur for a festive meal. So that's what we had at home, too.

At Thanksgiving of 1957, we were about to leave Wiesbaden, Germany, for my father's new assignment in Connecticut. We weren't leaving until early December, but our household goods had already been packed and sent on ahead, including the more specialized pots and pans. So my parents decided we would have Thanksgiving dinner in the unit's mess hall. On the day, my parents herded the five of us, ranging from 9 down to 3 1/2 years old, into the hall and we sat down with the soldiers to await the feast. The first course arrived, shrimp cocktail, as expected. But there was something strange, and we were quickly warned by our parents not to eat the shrimp.

Evidently, the mess sergeant had assigned his rawest recruit to prepare the shrimp cocktail, one of the simplest dishes on the menu. And evidently, said recruit was from Kansas, or some other inland state. He did know that people eat clams and oysters raw, and must have thought one kind of seafood was much like another. Instead of the lovely, firm, pink shrimp we had been expecting, there before us sat, artfully arranged around the goblets of cocktail sauce, grey, translucent, raw shrimp. I hope they collected the shrimp and cooked them later, but I don't know. It was certainly an odd beginning to an otherwise good dinner. We never ate Thanksgiving dinner in the mess hall again, but for many years afterwards, as I helped my father taste-test the cocktail sauce, we would remember the infamous raw shrimp cocktail.

Here is a picture of my mother, many years later (perhaps in the early 1980s as it is a Polaroid photo) with two tables set for a family Thanksgiving. By this time I was living "in exile" in City of Lakes and going to Onkel Hankie Pants' parents' home for Thanksgiving. No shrimp cocktail, just green bean casserole, but good.

Tunes for November, Part III, and something special at the end

Here we go again...

25. All People That On Earth Do Dwell -- The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge -- A Vaughan Williams Hymnal. This verse and tune for Psalm 100 (hence its name "Old Hundredth") may well have been sung by the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony. (Although not in this arrangement by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with organ music!) William Kethe, to whom the words are attributed, was a Scots clergyman who lived in Geneva, Switzerland and helped translate the Geneva Bible, the Bible used by the Pilgrims (Separatists). The Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1561 includes 20 of his hymns. The tune, by Louis Bourgeois, is often used for "THE" Doxology, the song many Protestants sing upon the receipt of the offering. Of course a Doxology is "a short hymn of praise to God" and can take many forms. In my current church we sing one to the tune Duke Street. But if someone says "Let's sing the Doxology" (as we often did as a grace before meals in Onkel Hankie Pants' parents' home) this is the tune they will be thinking of.

26. Better Than Blessed -- Louise Davis -- Malaco's Greatest Gospel Hits, Vol. 1. Well, when you've got a good sermon illustration, it's hard to use it just once. This song also references the "no shoes/no feet" story alluded to in Just Look at the Blessings. The singer says, "Many times I had to learn my lessons, For I did not always appreciate my blessings." I can relate to that.

27. Bless This House -- Bryn Terfel -- Simple Gifts and Perry Como -- Christmas Songs. I'm not sure if I'm remembering this correctly, but I think I remember my late mother-in-law telling me that a cousin sang this song at her and my father-in-law's wedding. It certainly could have been, since it was written in 1927; the only thing that raises a doubt in my mind is that their wedding was conducted in Danish. Perry Como was one of Mom's favorite singers, and this song is very much associated with him; I think he sang it every year around this time on his TV shows and specials. I'll have to include his version as well, but I just can't resist Bryn Terfel. (You can probably tell that I like baritones better than tenors, though I can appreciate tenors. I like mezzos and contraltos better than sopranos, too.)

28. Dayenu (Diana) -- Michael S. McCown and the New England Conservatory Chorus -- A Taste of Passover. Passover? But I thought that was in springtime? I hear you asking. But Dayenu, one of the songs traditionally sung at the Passover Seder, is definitely an anthem of gratitude. "Dayenu" means "It would have been enough" and the song traditionally goes on for 15 stanzas starting with "If he had brought us out of Egypt...it would have been enough" and ending with the gifts of Shabbat, Mount Sinai, the Torah, the Land of Israel, and the Temple. It's a statement of God's extravagant love if ever there was one. In this recording, Paul Anka's tune Diana ("I'm so young and you're so old, This my darling I've been told") is used, with a little bit of Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow thrown in for good measure. It's a delicious bit of reverent irreverence. It reminds me to be thankful for my years at A Host at Last University, where I may not have made the most of all my opportunities, but where I did learn a respect and love for the culture and ethics of the Jewish people.

29. It Is Well With My Soul -- Antrim Mennonite Choir -- Amazing Grace. This is one of those hymns that was written after the hymnodist experienced a horrific loss. You can read the story here. It also brings to mind a very good book that you should read if you haven't, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. The title of the book comes from this hymn, and not from the church camp song I've Got Peace Like a River (though that is a fine song too, in its way.) Since I grumbled about the New Century Hymnal a couple of days ago, I should in all fairness praise it for including many more of this type of hymn (Sweet Hour of Prayer would be another example) than we had in the Pilgrim Hymnal. And finally I should tell a little story about how I got this recording. When Cordeliaknits was in college, preparing for seminary, working as a chapel intern, one day she was out shopping in Women's College Town with a Chocolate Shop on Every Block, when she was approached by some missionaries (presumably Mennonite, but I'm not sure). They pressed upon her a copy of the Gospel of John and this very nice CD of hymns. I got the CD for Christmas. I hope neither of us will burn in hell for taking it under false pretenses. College students do what they gotta do; one year when I was in college, my family all got books for Christmas, review copies I had scored as an editor of the student newspaper. Things don't change much.

30. The Harvest Home Suite: Autumn (Thanksgiving Hymn) -- Jay Ungar -- Harvest Home. Taking off from We Gather Together, Jay Ungar of Ashokan Farewell fame crafts a beautiful piece of music. The lower line evokes a melancholy autumnal feel, while the higher one expresses joy in the harvest. At least that's what I think. You may have noticed that I mostly talk about lyrics. That's because I don't really have a vocabulary to talk about the music, not because I don't appreciate it (I'm just not a trained appreciator!)

31. Danish Table Grace/I Jesu Navn Går Vi Til Bord -- Grand View College Singers -- Songs of Denmark: Songs to Live By. This was probably the table grace used most often in my in-laws' home, at least during the years I was privileged to visit there. The English words we used were not a direct translation, but are:
In Jesus' name we come, O Lord,
Again to this, our humble board,
Accept our thanks, in word and deed,
For daily bread and all we need. Amen.
The tune is (to my ears at least) the same as the Danish Christmas carol, Det Kimer Nu til Julefest (The Happy Christmas Comes Once More.) It reminds me of how thankful I am that, through marriage, I was able to "culturally appropriate" the richness of the Danish Grundtvigian tradition of my husband's family and their extended community, and that this community welcomed me so warmly and continues to be an important part of our lives and those of our children. It's a lot more than just æbleskiver and frikadeller!

32. Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep) -- Rosemary Clooney -- White Christmas. Also by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Peace Like a River, and Diana Krall, Christmas Songs. This song by Irving Berlin doesn't really say anything about Christmas, but since it was written for the movie White Christmas, it is featured on a number of Christmas albums. Rosemary Clooney was also part of the soundtrack of my childhood in the 1950s. There's also a fine old gospel hymn called Count Your Blessings -- if you don't know it, you can read the words and hear a MIDI rendition of the tune here. Oddly enough, in church today we heard a sermon with some of my own ambivalence about counting blessings as mentioned in a previous post. I still like the songs, though.

33. De Colores -- Baldemar Velasquez and Aguila Negra -- Classic Labor Songs from Smithsonian Folkways. De Colores, a Mexican folksong said by some to have been brought from Spain as early as the 16th century, is a song that has been used as an anthem by Cursillo and other Christian retreats, is in the New Century Hymnal, and which I first heard as a children's song on a Raffi album when my children were small. But I chose this version for inclusion here because of its association as the unofficial anthem of the United Farm Workers (UFW), César Chavez' organization, as well as for its beautiful words and music. The United Farm Workers and their grape boycott, for many in my generation, were probably one of the first promptings to us to think about the food we eat and where it comes from. Sure, we had sung the Woody Guthrie songs and read Doris Gates' Blue Willow as children or Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath a bit later. I suspect many of us in urban or suburban settings thought that was all in the past, and then Chavez opened our eyes. Many years later, we are thinking about eating locally, buying fair-trade, shade-grown, bird-friendly coffee, and otherwise interesting ourselves in a more sustainable lifestyle. This Thanksgiving, let's honor those who grow our food, those who harvest our food, and those who transport our food.

And now for two songs that I don't have in a recorded format -- in fact to the best of my knowledge they don't exist in recorded form. That's because they were both written (the lyrics) by Onkel Hankie Pants. The first is a Thanksgiving hymn he wrote to be used in church some years ago.

Join Hands, You Fearful Pilgrims

Psalm 46 Aurelia 76.76 D (“The Church’s One Foundation”)

Join hands you fearful pilgrims,
Embarking on this ship;
We face a roaring ocean,
A spirit-testing trip.
May Jacob’s God protect us
On this deep, troubled sea
That swells against the mountains
Of faith and piety.

We go to build God’s city
Amid the wilderness;
Through it will flow a river
With streams of righteousness.
And we will know each morning
The comfort of God’s might,
Which guards us like a rampart
From tempters in the night.

We go to found a new world;
Old kingdoms melt before
God’s holy flame, advancing
To burn the tools of war.
The sinful earth will tremble
At God’s consuming voice;
And in the peace that follows
God’s Saints will all rejoice.

Be steady, then, you pilgrims,
The Lord of Hosts is here;
God is our lofty tower,
Our refuge when we fear
The raging storms around us,
The tempests deep inside,
For God is God, exalted -
In God we will abide.

Copyright H. C. Strandskov

Anyone reading this who has authority to choose hymns for a church service may use this freely provided the copyright notice is printed and you let us know when and where it was used.

The second is a newer song written just last year as a Thanksgiving grace to be sung at our table; it can be used any time of the year. As Onkel Hankie Pants wrote on the Hymn Society website, the tune is a familiar one: Silver Bells by Livingston and Evans, from the movie The Lemon-Drop Kid. (My Christmas music collection has 20 renditions of this song, so I'm sure you know it.) Here it is:

FOOD ABUNDANT (a sung table grace for festal meals)

Text: H. C. Strandskov, 2006

Tune: Silver Bells

(Here�s a table grace to sing for Thanksgiving dinner, the Christmas Eve meal, or Christmas dinner. Everyone should know the tune, but it would be especially fun if someone can accompany on a piano or keyboard. If you try it, send me an email and let me know how it went and what the occasion was.)

Food abundant, festive table, fellowship's healing warmth:
Here we gather to savor God's goodness.
Bless the sunlight, bless the rainfall, bless this bountiful earth -
And for this joyous feast we will sing:

'We give thanks, thanks for food,
Thanks for our families and friendships;
We give thanks, thanks to God,
Thanks for the gifts of our world.'

I'm thankful to have a poet in the house, and for poets and songwriters everywhere and in every time.

Tunes for November, Part II

Now begins the section of the Thanksgiving playlist that has some hymns, but also some songs you probably won't hear in church.

13. Turning Toward the Morning -- Gordon Bok, Ed Trickett, Ann Mayo Muir -- Keepers 2 and The First Fifteen Years. This is a good song for November, when the world seems to be getting darker each day, especially here on the eastern edge of the Eastern Time Zone. Hunker down, get through the winter because "The world is always turning toward the morning."

14. The Thanksgiving Song -- Fred Holstein -- A Tribute to Steve Goodman. The song was written by Bob Franke as Thanksgiving Eve and has been recorded by him and possibly others. "What can you do with each moment of your life, But love till you've loved it away."

15. Thanksgiving -- George Winston -- Thanksgiving. Another nice instrumental for a little meditation time.

16. Day by Day -- The Joslin Grove Choral Society -- 100 Best Loved Hymns. No, this is not the one from Godspell. Not being Swedish, I only heard it for the first time a few years ago when I worked at an erstwhile-Swedish Lutheran church. It was written in the 19th century by Lina Sandell Berg, a Swedish pietist hymnwriter perhaps best known for Children of the Heavenly Father. (And if you aren't from the Midwest or Scandinavian, you may not even know that one.) There is a very good retranslation by Gracia Grindal in one of the newer Lutheran hymnals. Berg's point is that we should be grateful for what seems bad in our lives as well as what seems good, that God gives us toil, pain and sorrow as well as rest, peace and joy, and it is all for our good. It reminds me of a poem I learned in German class in high school, by Eduard Mörike (he was born in Ludwigsburg, where that particular one of my three high schools was located). You can read the poem and a translation here.

17. Thank God for Mama -- Fantastic Violinaires -- Malaco's Greatest Gospel Hits, Vol. 1.

Here's mine, in her garden in 1982. She's been gone for 20 years now and I still miss her. I know some people have or had much more complicated relationships with their mothers, and maybe this song would not resonate the same way for everyone. I'm thankful that I had this mother, and as the song says, "I hope that I'll see her in heaven some sweet day."

18. Bringing in the Sheaves -- Mountain Singers Male Quartet -- How Can I Keep From Singing? Vol. 1.
At my old church in City of Lakes, we had an informal service on Thanksgiving morning. We always sang this song (which is not in either of our hymnals). Nobody around here has a service on Thanksgiving morning, so I'll have to sing along with these guys. There's lots of good harvest imagery. This is another one that I need two versions of -- the other is by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Ol' Ern' was a big star in my childhood; I think he had a TV show and always signed off "Bless your little pea-pickin' hearts." And Amen to that!

19. Now Be Thankful -- Fairport Convention -- Meet on the Ledge: The Classic Years (1967-1975). Although I had certainly been aware of Fairport Convention back in the day, I wasn't a huge fan at the time. I bought this album for their recording of Matty Groves when I was reading Deborah Grabien's wonderful "woo-woo" mystery of the same name, based on the Child ballad. I was really pleased to discover this song, which expresses thankfulness in a more modern idiom -- "for the rose, the red rose blooms for all to know."

20. Magnificat (Canon) -- Taizé Community -- Alleluia! You may think this is looking ahead a week or so after Thanksgiving to Advent, since it is the song of Mary at the Annunciation. But when you look at the words, it is definitely a song of thanksgiving and also one that has lessons for us at this time -- "He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away." Don't forget to donate to your local food shelf or soup kitchen! I love the great canon singing by this community, too.

21. Look at the Blessings -- Willie Banks and the Messengers -- Malaco's Greatest Gospel Hits, Vol. 1.
From 4th through 7th grade, I attended a little Sunday school in the local fire station in Milford, Connecticut. An elderly couple had made this their mission, and with the help of a few other volunteer teachers and a student from nearby Yale Divinity School, they provided a Protestant religious education for kids on the outskirts of a town where all the churches were still downtown. We'd have a little service first (I even got to sing in the choir!) and then separate into classes. Sometimes the old gentleman preached the little homily, and one of his favorite sayings was "I wept because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet." (My kids have heard that one more times than they want to count -- usually as we were passing some expensive shoe store!) Now, I don't think this is really the greatest theology. Yes, we are grateful for what we have, but do we have to compare our fortunes to those who have less? And who is to say that the man with no feet isn't feeling sorry for us, that we are placing so much emphasis on inessentials? (But maybe that's what was meant? This exegesis is rough stuff!) Anyway, this Great Gospel Hit seems to reference that very same story. I also have a soft spot for that sort of song where the singer stops and talks for part of the time (the Ink Spots did that a lot).

22. How Can I Keep from Singing? -- Gordon Bok, Ed Trickett, Ann Mayo Muir -- The First Fifteen Years, Vol. 1. I first heard this song when I was in college, sung by Pete Seeger, I believe. In recent years it's gone back to its roots in the church and appears in several hymnals. It's been sung at at least one funeral I've attended. It's hard to listen to without singing along and feeling uplifted.

23. Uncle Dave's Grace -- Anne Hills, Cindy Mangsen, and Priscilla Herdman -- At the Turning of the Year. A little comic relief -- or is it? "Thanksgiving Day Uncle Dave was our guest, He reads The Progressive which makes him depressed." Uncle Dave points out all the unsustainable features of our Thanksgiving feast, from the mahogany table to the turkey to the very clothes on our backs. What to do? Well, we can try to buy locally or fair-traded food, clothing and furnishings, and recycle a lot. Still, it's a pretty funny song. Written by Lou and Peter Berryman, of Madison, WI.

24. Great Is Thy Faithfulness -- St. Olaf Choir -- Great Hymns of Faith. This has been one of my favorite hymns for a while now. The line "Morning by morning new mercies I see" says it perfectly (of course, the Psalmist said it first.) All we have to do is look! Although Onkel Hankie Pants went to the Other College in Northfield, Minnesota, I think even he would agree that the St. Olaf Choir (or choirs, to be exact) is a national treasure. My first years in Minnesota we lived in the southern part of the state and our public radio station was the late, lamented WCAL out of St. Olaf. I'd never heard of St. Olaf before I arrived in Minnesota but quickly grew to appreciate their contributions to choral music. If your public radio station carries it (or if it's broadcast on PBS) don't miss their annual Christmas concert.

So, more tomorrow....

Tunes for November

One of the nice things about the month of November is Thanksgiving. (BULLETIN! They've got 6 inches of snow in Dixville Notch! None here though.) One of the things I like to do with my computer is to put all my music on it and then make playlists for various occasions, feelings, etc. Here is some of my annotated playlist for Thanksgiving. In most cases I have the whole album, but I've recently discovered Amazon's Digital Download service. For some reason it seems easier for me to use than iTunes (maybe because I don't have an iPod?)

1. Many and Great, O Lord, Are Your Works - The University of Notre Dame Folk Choir -- Crossroads of Praise. This is one translation of The Dakota Hymn (Wakantanka taku nitawa tankaya qaota) -- Dakota words and tune translated by Joseph Renville, a Minnesota missionary. This hymn is said to have been sung by the 38 Dakota executed on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota after the "Sioux Uprising" earlier that year. In the last 20 years, there has been a lot of effort at healing relationships between white Minnesotans and the Dakota (as well as the Ojibwe) and this hymn is often sung at gatherings promoting such healing. It's good to remember the American Indian at this time of year. I like this hymn so much that it is on my playlist twice, the second time in a recording by the Holy Trinity Bach Choir from Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in New York City called With One Voice: Joining Hearts and Voices and available from Augsburg Fortress Press. Not to take away from the musicianship of either group, but I'm not quite satisfied with their renditions. I'd like to hear it sung by a small congregation accompanied only on drum.

2. For the Beauty of the Earth - Bread for the Journey -- Global Songs, Local Voices. The familiar hymn (I swear we sang it once a month in my former church) to a different, Asian tune, sung by a Twin Cities-based group who do a lot of great multicultural, peace and justice-themed music. One of many songs in this list that is itself a list of things to be thankful for.

3. Come, Ye Thankful People, Come -- Joyfull Strings -- Celtic Hymns. A hammer dulcimer duo from Nevada City, CA plays the Thanksgiving hymn I've got to have every year. I like the imagery of the soul as grain: "First the grain and then the ear, Then the full corn doth appear, Oh, Our Father, grant that we Wholesome grain and pure may be." A choral version is also on my list, performed by the Festival Chorus and Hosanna Singers on a disc called 50 Church Classics.

4. All Things Bright and Beautiful -- The Mormon Tabernacle Choir -- Peace Like a River. Another one of those "list" songs, and it's by Frances Alexander (who also wrote Once in Royal David's City). This is not the tune that's in most hymnals, but a newer one by John Rutter. (And, will someone who knows something about music tell me why I can instantly recognize something by John Rutter even if I haven't heard it before?)

5. Over the River and Through the Woods -- 52 Key French Gasparini Carousel Organ -- Gypsy Queen. Now, you've got to have this on any Thanksgiving playlist, but it's hard to find one that's not (a) sung by a bunch of reedy little children's voices and (b) changes "For it is Thanksgiving Day" to "For it is Christmas Day." Back in 1844 when Lydia Maria Child wrote the words, it was still Thanksgiving, not Christmas, that was the big winter holiday in New England. The carousel organ is a lot of fun to listen to, and you can find the words here.

6. This Is My Father's World -- The Mormon Tabernacle Choir -- Peace Like a River. In the New Century Hymnal there are more inclusive words to this, but I can't seem to remember them. My wish is that there will come a time when we can sing some of these old songs, and some new songs about God the Mother, and everyone will be OK with all of them. This may not happen in my lifetime. The thing I do object to is that the new version took out "the music of the spheres." Yes, I know the earth is more or less elliptical and that the stars, being made of burning gas, are not exactly spheres. But the image of the stars, moons and planets all singing and making music together is a powerful one that should not be lost to scientific correctness. (End of rant.)

7. Simple Gifts -- The Armstrong Family -- The Wheel of the Year. A good reminder from the Shakers that not all gifts (things to be thankful for) are tangible. Apparently, the Armstrongs often sang on Studs Terkel's radio show in Chicago, and as far as I can discern, this is their only recording. I wish there were more.

8. What a Wonderful World -- Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong -- All-Time Greatest Hits. I've heard a story that Armstrong really didn't want to record this -- it was one of those "B-sides" that becomes a bigger hit than anyone could imagine. The line "I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, They'll learn much more Than I'll ever know" has a special resonance as we have just welcomed another grand-nephew into the family. What will his world be like 60 years from now? I hope the things he'll learn will be good ones.

9. Now Thank We All Our God -- Huddersfield Choral Society -- The Hymns Album. Love those British choral societies! This is a classic hymn of thanksgiving that is sung all year round, whenever the person choosing the hymns feels we have something to be especially thankful for. It's a good rousing recessional. May we soon have "blessed peace to cheer us."

10. Blessings -- Liz Story -- Thanksgiving. Yes folks, my eclectic tastes extend even unto New Age instrumental arrangements and meditations. This one is good for letting the words inside speak for themselves -- a useful corrective for me as I tend to get too caught up in the felicitous phrasing of others.

11. Wondrous Love -- Chanticleer -- Wondrous Love: A World Folk Song Collection. Love is a wondrous thing, and something we should all be thankful for, no matter whence it comes. If you are not of the Trinitarian Christian persuasion, there is a version in the Unitarian Universalist hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, without the Fall-Redemption theology.

12. We Gather Together -- The Dale Warland Singers -- Harvest Home. Despite the warlike and triumphalist words, this hymn means Thanksgiving to a lot of people. I'm more used to singing an updated version of "We Praise Thee, O God, Our Redeemer, Creator." I think the most important words in this hymn are the first three. For many people, Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday because it is largely about gathering together with those we love.

More tomorrow!