Hi, everyone!
It’s snowing this morning, and that helps put me in a holiday mood!
Grandma saw a chart that said the leaf shape of my cactus friend meant it was really a Thanksgiving cactus, not a Christmas cactus. Guess what? It started blooming just in time for Thanksgiving! Then it finally got cold enough for the impatiens in the front window box to freeze. Now I can see out again, just sitting in the rocking chair!
The weekend before Thanksgiving, we went to the bay. Grandpa finished shoring up the north foundation of the boathouse, where it had shifted. Now, if the contractor gets the steel for the shoreline repairs, the boathouse is ready! When we got back from the bay on Saturday afternoon, I discovered that the robot stump grinder had come to grind the crabapple stump. I wish I’d been home to watch! Grandma raked out the big root pieces so we can grow grass there in the spring. On Sunday, I helped Grandma record her performance for the virtual choir Christmas Eve anthem. Then I helped pull another pork shoulder. It was a busy weekend!
There was no baking at church on Election Day because of the bad virus, but Grandma knew Harlan-san always likes cinnamon rolls for Thanksgiving. On Monday, I helped her make one batch of dough. Then, while we were waiting for the dough to rise, we made a batch of goat cheese biscuits, too!
When the cinnamon roll dough was ready to shape, I helped with that, too! While we were doing that, the town came to pick up our great big leaf piles! Grandma and I took a break from making cinnamon rolls to watch!
Moose-san and Tilly invited me to have Thanksgiving dinner with them. Grandma and Joe-san figured out how to split the meal preparation and I helped Grandma with her part. First, we baked an apple pie that Grandma and I made and froze in October. Then, we cut up a butternut squash to roast. Grandma decided to roast an acorn squash, too. After that, we baked the dinner rolls. Grandma tried a new recipe made with Japanese milk bread technique that could be started a day ahead. I made sure the rolls got lots of butter on top when they came out of the oven! The last food we made was macadamia nut, shallot and bacon stuffing for shrimp. Joe-san and Nancy-san and Grandma and Grandpa ate that dish at a restaurant on Watson’s Bay on their Australia trip together.
When we got to Tilly and Moose-san’s house, there was a nice surprise! The dinner table had a reserved sign for me! Tilly and Moose-san and I helped serve the shrimp appetizer. Then we made sure the turkey was roasted just right. Of course, we always help serve the apple pie and plum pudding for dessert!
The Friday after Thanksgiving was dry and not too cold. Grandma said it would be our best chance to get the holiday lights put up on the apple trees. I helped put them all up — eleven strings of lights! My Thanksgiving cactus friend got more blossoms.
Right after lunch, Grandma got a video text from Thomas. He asked her to make him some goat cheese biscuits, because he was all out of the ones they had made together. Luckily, Grandma had all the necessary ingredients, so I helped her make another batch of goat cheese biscuits right away. I’m getting good at blending butter and goat cheese into the flour mix! When they were baked, we texted Thomas back to come get his biscuits. When he did, he took time out to climb an apple tree to inspect the lights!
We went back out to the bay for Saturday and Sunday. Grandma and I went to check on my pumpkin. She was afraid the animals wouldn’t eat it because it wasn’t smashed open. All we found were a few dribbled bites of pumpkin in the leaves and a seed or two! Meanwhile, Grandpa cut up most of the marine railway rails. The ones that spend all summer underwater every year were getting weak and need to be replaced. There were a lot of sparks involved in cutting them up! Now we have a lot of scrap metal on the deck that we need to recycle.
Grandpa went to a holiday meat sale and brought home a big piece of beef strip loin. On Monday I helped Grandma and Grandpa cut it into steaks and package it for the freezer. We’re sharing it with Uncle Steven’s family.
Yesterday, I started my reverse Advent calendar. Every day until Christmas, Grandma helps me put a food item that our local food shelf needs into my Advent box. Right after Christmas, we’ll take all the food to the town collection point. The first item was condensed soup. I hope somebody enjoys the flavor I picked!
Love,
Lion-san
That macadamia nut, shallot and bacon stuffing for the shrimp appetizer sounds divine! Yum! Yum! Yum!
We enjoyed having you over for Thanksgiving dinner! The appetizers were great so was the baked squash and rolls. We are glad you had good weather for putting the lights up. We got ours up in the greenhouse on Dec. 4. We look forward to getting the rest of the decorations up and making cookies.