1. Just your weekly mid-week reminder that it's fall y'all and it's my favorite. I love nearly all the flavors of fall but let's weigh in with an either or today...pumpkin or cranberry? May I love both, please? I love food made with pumpkin – not fake pumpkin flavoring. I also love cranberries – especially in a recipe we make for Thanksgiving – it is apples and cranberries with an oatmeal topping. Hot apple cider or pumpkin spice latte? I don’t really like hot drinks but if it is really cold outside, I would enjoy a hot apple cider. I’m not much of a pumpkin spice latte fan and the main reason is that I don’t drink coffee. Cinnamon or maple? Cinnamon! Apple or pear? Once again, I love both – apples and pears!! Ginger or sage? I drink a diet Canada dry ginger ale almost every night so I guess I love ginger BUT I love dressing (not stuffing – I live in Alabama) at Thanksgiving and I love that taste of sage!! Carrot or butternut squash? Butternut squash all the way – my husband’s family has a farm a couple of hours away. There was a farmer who used part of their property for his cows and he would plant gardens and share the bounty. He always planted butternut squash and we have always made a casserole with the yummy “meat” of the butternut squash– it is a sweet casserole sort of like sweet potatoes but not so heavy. I read an article last week that Libby's pumpkin is actually butternut squash! I don't know if it is true or not . . .but . . .. Yes you have to choose. What's a favorite dish made with one of the flavors listed here? I have to say turkey and dressing with all of the traditional sides so I would have several of those flavors! The turkey is fine but I love dressing. I love it so much that one year my mother-in-law made it for my birthday in JUNE! Sometimes we bake it in a 9 X 13 glass dish but our favorite way is to make it in individual muffin tins – each piece has a lot of crusty edge! I should be embarrassed that I wrote so much about food but I love food 😊
2. Do you miss traveling? In this season of almost no travel do you think you've grown anxious or fearful about traveling again? Or has all this staying home not going anywhere made you restless to get out and see the world? My husband was able to travel out of the country with me in February and we had a wonderful time. We arrived home about a week before things started to shut down in the US. We had a second trip scheduled for this year to Italy and Germany and that trip was rescheduled for 2022. I must admit that I’m a little fearful right now but I can hardly wait to be able to travel safely again. Mark and I are both healthy now and have the means to travel and I want to be able to do that together. What book have you read or what movie have you watched that has inspired you to travel? I recently read a couple of novels set in Ireland and I’ve always wanted to go to Ireland. The other night, my husband was watching one of those shows set in Alaska and they showed the Northern Lights. Seeing the aurora borealis is on my bucket list and seeing that tv show made me want to go there soon!
3. A time you felt like you were 'flying by the seat of your pants'? Explain. I feel like we’ve been flying by the seat of our pants since March! I had never been on a zoom call and have now taught Sunday school via zoom, facilitated our study with young professionals via zoom, attended meetings and taken lots of notes via zoom. Also, we are meeting outside in a park under a pavilion each week with those young adults and each week I feel like we are flying by the seat of our pants because the weather in Alabama can change in a matter of hours. We've been really lucky so far - the weather hasn't been too rainy nor too cold.
4. Do you struggle with road rage or are you more of a 'Sunday driver'? Do you like to be 'in the driver's seat (literally and/or figuratively speaking)? Road rage all the way. I usually talk to my sister while driving to work (hands free!) and I’m always telling (yelling?) people to get out of the way or I’m saying (growling) something like, “you wouldn’t believe what this person just did!” I prefer driving because I get car sick very easily!!
5. Something you've recently 'put the brakes on'? Well, we haven’t eaten in a restaurant since February. I personally think the hardest “brakes” were when everything shut down and we didn’t see my husband’s family or our kids or grandkids for weeks. That was sheer torture.
6. Insert your own random thought here. We go all out in our neighborhood for Halloween. Our neighborhood is a “destination” trick or treat spot – really! We have sidewalks throughout and people drive into the neighborhood and park and let their kids trick or treat. We have all ages – moms and dads carrying newborns where the whole family is dressed in costumes (with bags for each person in the group – no matter the age) all the way through older teenagers. It looks/sounds like a movie set - sort of like the trick or treat scenes in Hocus Pocus. We usually give out 1200-1500 pieces of candy. This year, I’ve made about 400 individual bags with 3 or 4 pieces of candy in each bag which is sealed with a pumpkin sticker. I’m going to set up a table at the bottom of the steps and put out about 100 bags at a time. I’ll be sitting up at the top of the steps saying “please take just one.” I laughingly told someone that I was a little worried that some person would come through and literally take everything on the table and swipe it into their bag. My friend said I should buy a big watergun and if anyone tried to do that, I could squirt them! I’m still chuckling about that! Will you have trick-or-treaters in your neighborhood even with covid? Will you do Halloween differently this year?
some of the trick or treaters from last year 
Those dressing muffins! That's a great idea. I don't know what we're going to do about Halloween this year. We usually have between 400 - 450 trick-or-treaters each year. And we live in a town with a population of about 3,500, so I guess we're a destination "town." I don't know how many will want to get out this year, though.
ReplyDeleteWe call it stuffing but I no longer stuff the turkey or chicken. I bake it in a casserole dish. I use my mil's recipe but she always stuffed the bird! We use thyme not sage. I don't think I have ever had sage. All this food talk has made me hungry for Thanksgiving dinner :)
ReplyDeleteWe always called it stuffing too.
ReplyDeleteI will have to ask our new neighbors about trick or treating. I hope lots and lots of people show up to trick or treat in your neighborhood.
I'm glad you have all those people to interact with even on zoom.
What a super idea, those dressing 'muffins'! I'm not a fan, but imagine Tom would rather eat stuffing than turkey. I have, however, been obsessed with butternut squash these past few weeks. Never tried making them, but there's no time like the present!
ReplyDeleteYour home looks beautiful!
I use both terms but probably use stuffing more often. I hear ya on the car sickness-ugh! To answer your question-we did sample all those wines (8!) but not a true sample, more like a couple of sips so all in all maybe one glass : )
ReplyDelete