speaking of the kitchen

thanks for all of the kitchen love.  i'm enjoying the space so very much.  and this week, i even took two kitchen photos, trying to embrace the light - which wasn't nearly as bad as i had feared.

i have been - and will be - spending lots of time in the kitchen this week, as we're having 14 people for thanksgiving dinner.  this is my favorite holiday.  (you've probably heard me say that about other holidays.  i love each one more than the next.)  the food, the family, the universal feeling of gratitude.  it's all so good.

 

i took out my thanksgiving file last weekend.  my brother and my husband (and some of my friends) make terrible fun of me for keeping a thanksgiving file, but i suspect that some of you will appreciate my desire to preserve memories and notes about who was here and what we ate and how the table looked for from thanksgivings past.  what a treat to open the folder and find menus, notes about what people were thankful for, marketing lists, place cards going back to b.'s first thanksgiving - he was two months old, and there is a single place card bearing both of our names.  and the leaf-print place cards, the photos of flower arrangements, place settings.  none of it fancy, most of it forgotten, all of it lovingly remembered as i flipped through those pages.

two items of particular interest from the file this year.  the first is a note to myself following the last thanksgiving we hosted, three years ago.  it's attached to the menu for that meal, which includes a cornbread stuffing we had never made before.  the note reminds me how many pounds of potatoes are enough and how much sugar to cut from the sweet potato recipe (i'm thankful to myself for thinking that i'd want to know those things in the future, because of course i wondered).  the note also reads, "DO make the cornbread stuffing again!"  but there is no recipe for the cornbread stuffing.  alas.  it seems that i kept some notes, but not others.

the second item of particular interest is a page torn from a white letter-sized legal pad.  it's been folded many times.  the words on the page are scribbled in my father's handwriting - there are probably only three people in the world who would be able to read it anymore.  it's from my dad's last thanksgiving, the words he wrote in preparation for sharing at the dinner table that night about all that he was thankful for; he passed away four months later.  that was ten thanksgivings ago, and we have read from that piece of paper at every single thanksgiving since.  his words are eloquent, they are universal, and they remind me exactly how much i have to be thankful for.  (reason enough to keep a thanksgiving file, don't you think!?) 

before i go off to wash the dishes from the pie crusts i made this evening, let me recommend that you check out heather's recipe for pumpkin muffins.  that's them in the photo there, and they are delicious.  i can't say enough about these simple treats - light, fluffy, moist, tasty as can be, and easy, easy, easy to make.  i learned today that grace makes pumpkin muffins as a breakfast treat on thanksgiving morning, it's a tradition in her family.  well i'm borrowing her tradition this year; i'll be making these again on thursday morning, enjoying them warm with a bit of butter as we peel and boil potatoes, truss the turkey, and give thanks.  and i'll be adding this recipe to my file, for sure!

Comments

[bigbucketgirl]

I keep a 'laughed at by husband and sister' scrapbook of christmas-es past (we don't have Thanksgiving) and so I nodded in agreement about keeping the bits and pieces, the notes, the placecards etc. and cried when I read about your dad's words. That seems such a wonderful tradition to have kept. My late father wouldn't have spoken as such at our gatherings, a man of few words, but he would have ensured that he said to everyone around the table, as he raised his glass of red wine, a thankful, heartfelt "Cheers!".

"Cheers!" to you on your Thanksgiving...

[heather]

oh emily, not only are you a genius for having such a file, but it's contents made me all teary and anyone who stumbled upon your file many years from now would know it belonged to a very beautiful soul. you are such a dear.

i've been meaning to email you... about you noticing my apple pie sliced nicely. that pie in the picture - it was cooled COMPLETELY! we all love those warm from the oven slices, but fruit pies slice one hundred times better if they are totally cooled to room temperature. hope this helps.

happy thanksgiving to you and your family! xo

[Tracy]

What sweet memories. I like that you keep a thanksgiving file. It's so appropriate. I'm imagining you eating those muffins tomorrow morning starting on the meal, and wishing I could prepare it with you. Thanksgiving is a toss up for me this year, I may need the time to work. But at the same time, I may need the time to relax. I wish we had such pretty traditions as you have, though.

[Mama Urchin]

Seems to me that a thanksgiving file is just the thing to have. Have a great Thanksgiving Emily, I hope your heart overflows with thanks.

[Mary Jo, Five Green Acres]

Thank you for the link to the muffins! It's been on my To-Do list for awhile now. I've already got the pie pumpkin roasting in the oven...
Happy Thanksgiving - hope your get-together is a smashing success!

[Grace]

1. sob.
2. sob.
3. a file is a GREAT idea.
4. sob.
5. i'm glad you'll be joining us in our tradition this year. such good company to be in.
6. i love the final image you leave us with in this post.
7. sob.
8. sob.

[heather smith jones]

yes i have tears too after reading this, especially about your dear father and his note of thankfulness. i love what you are sharing with us here.

i am so thankful for you this year em. so thankful.

have a blessed time with your family :)

[maya]

beautiful. how amazing to have your father live like that - for his words to even still be inspiring knew conversations & thoughts & gratitude. what a fabulous idea to have a Thanksgiving File. Of course, I'll have to have a Christmas one, too.

[ani]

i am quite touched by this one. i'll second what heather so sweetly said, you have a beautiful soul. happy thanksgiving to you and yours...

[Alicia A.]

Happy Thanksgiving my sweet, sweet thoughtful and blessed friend.

[rachel]

Happy happy thanksgiving em. I am thankful to have a friend like you. (and I think a thanksgiving file is genius.)

[MyLand]

This is so sweet. How I wish we had something like that from my father to read on this day! I'm thankful that I had him while he was with us though.

Enjoy your day. Happy Thanksgiving!

[Brittany]

This is a really nice post with a lot of food for thought. Thank you for sharing such personal, yet universal, thoughts and feelings.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Brittany

[erin]

you have a file?
oh, honey, that is the best thing i have ever heard! i hope your celebration was lovely. i am thankful for so much, including you. xo.

[amisha]

the file, and the memories in this post, touch my heart so much em. thank you so very much for sharing them. i am coming to this late, of course, but i think i will take a page from your book and start a file of my own, because you are right... these are the things we want to remember, always.
xox