It was gorgeous, clear, and mild.
It was a heavenly drive, as I made an early morning trek to the Farmer’s Market – fall foliage ablaze with reds and golden yellows.
Until.
Until a short stretch of road through a small but bustling commercial area, complete with iron lamp posts decorated in shiny bows, berry-bedecked wreaths, and already – retail windows displaying silver bells (and cockle shells?) along with fake snow.
We’ve only just survived the Pumpkin Patch, people!
When will we allow our holidays the pleasure of a breath between them, and us – weary consumers and worried shoppers – a more reasonable approach to what ought to be a spectacular time of year?
I am not a “bah humbug” woman, with or without little ones around the house. On the contrary. I adore the holidays. All of them! You have only to glance at my feather boa wreath for proof!
Home, Hearth, and Heart
I love prepping the turkey and all the trimmings. I delight in our relaxed celebrations – whether at home, or occasionally with neighbors. I savor the process of selecting the thoughtful “something” for my boys, a few necessities they wouldn’t buy themselves, and picking out a trinket or toy for close friends.
All without breaking the bank, but generally garnering a smile.
I festoon my mantel (with greenery from my backyard), and I take enormous pleasure in small touches around my home.
I bake, I trim, I wrap, and lap it all up. But not when it smacks us in the face while the Halloween candy container still sits by the front door, and the thermometer outside my window is dancing around 60. Couldn’t we wait until our turkeys are gobbled before Christmas comes calling?
Food, Glorious Food
Lest this little rant otherwise fail to offer up something worthy of your consideration, permit me to suggest a few recipes – easy to prepare, easy on the wallet, and all (save dessert) hearty and healthy – inspired by my kitchen counter, currently covered with Autumn vegetables.
On tonight’s menu – Red Cabbage Soup (see below). And for the weekend, Fireside Love Potage!
Incidentally, I’m considering paella for Thanksgiving. You heard me. And why not? It’s healthy, organic, delicious, budget-friendly, and I won’t have to relive the horrors of the (hysterical) Sarah Palin video clip on turkey decapitation that I saw a few years back. As for dessert, well, that would have to be French Twist Mini-Pecan Pies!
What do you think?
And might I mention that the indomitable Team Gloria was up early this a.m., hard at work making soup as well?
Red Cabbage Soup
Soup for a song! (No need for carols.) Here’s the recipe, and it’s a, well… piece of cake.
- 1 head of red cabbage
- 2 32-oz. packages of organic chicken broth
- 2 cloves garlic (optional)
- 2 to 6 medium red potatoes (optional)
Slice the cabbage. Mince the garlic. Chop the potatoes. Dump it all into the pressure cooker!
Add the broth, and season to taste (I add a few bay leaves and black pepper.)
It’s 10 to 15 minutes of chopping (I’m slow), and roughly 20 minutes in the pressure cooker (including the time for the top to start its manic spin). Check timing for your pressure cooker.
Total cost (all organic) – $7 to $9 (depending on the size of the cabbage, and type of potatoes). Garnish with a touch of parsley and a dollop of light sour cream, should you wish. And it serves a small army!
Comfort Food
Just to be clear, while I’m eating extremely healthy foods, I haven’t given up everything I love. You know, those comfort foods when we’re feeling down and out – a great piece of bittersweet chocolate, warm bread, something – almost anything – that carries with it aromas (and memories) of home – wherever that may be.
For me?
Cookies and cakes in the oven provide comfort. The increasing number of soups I’m able to prepare are wondrously comforting. Add warm bread, and what could be better?
- Your comfort foods as the temperatures drop?
- Your unusual cravings?
- Your opinion on holiday festivities so soon?
Your post today reminded me of one of our first e-mail exchanges from two years ago when I told you that we would be eating vegetarian chili for Thanksgiving. To this day, it – with a hearty chunk of cheddar corn bread – remains one of my favorite comfort meals.
As for Christmas carols before Thanksgiving? Not a fan. To paraphrase Pete Seeger (who paraphrased Ecclesiastes, I think):
“To Everything There is a season
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven”
hello!
oh we love that you were chopping and stirring and seasoning and getting steamy windows from Soup too!
am updating our blog post to link to yours dear one.
enjoy more soup. and more time. and more smiles.
_tg xx
How lovely, tg! Je te remercie. Please do enjoy these recipes – and share some of yours.
The holiday retail “rush” is one of my pet peeves. I always feel Thanksgiving gets shorted its own significance because Christmas displays are already popping up everywhere. We do have to do some early shopping this year since we are dividing our holidays with our two families (turkey with D’s family, Christmas with mine) — I just wish we could anticipate each holiday separately.
I couldn’t agree more, CT. Thanksgiving does indeed feel “shorted” by the retail crush toward Christmas. Good luck with your early shopping – and your holidays spread between the two families. xoxo
Oh, how you are preaching to the choir! I guess there really isn’t any commercial value to Thanksgiving. No reason to rush to overspend and max out the credit cards. I heard Christmas music in some stores before Halloween!
Sigh… although I look forward to the holidays to once again spend time with the family and extended family, I understand these words. It truly is the retailers and the shoppers and the greed and overindulgent world… which brings it all on too early and loses some of the luster of the holidays for me.
I love a traditional thanksgiving dinner which I do not necessarily see as unhealthy if it is not an overindulgence and there is a nice crisp air walk afterward and much belly laughing. I think that your soup recipe looks fabulous for the night of the first snowfall. I am hoping you all your wishes to come true and that you get some time with your boys over the holidays…. in due time.
NAS, you’re a sweetheart. Hope the new job is going well!
There’s some progress. Nordstrom has actually announced they won’t be putting up Christmas decorations until November 27.
You just gave me a reason to take a stroll through my local Nordstrom’s, Wolf!
I bought Christmas candy on Halloween at my local store. I’ve never done that before. It was a delicious peppermint bark by Dove.
I was just moping about my dearth of cabbage recipes because it is big here. Big. And other than cole slaw, which I don’t particularly like, what do you do with a cabbage?? Now I have another recipe to try … And only four ingredients? That’s my kind of cooking. =>
Also, there is nary a Christmas tree in sight here in Romania. No carols, no wreaths, no tinsel bedecking the grocery store aisles. It’s quite refreshing!
Ah Stacia… I used to love Xmas-time in Europe with the in-laws. Simpler, closer to the actual holiday, and more hand-made everything. (Keep us posted on how it looks 4 weeks from now!)
And by the way – sweet & sour cabbage and meatballs is another 4 ingredient dish – and very tasty! (Will send you the recipe.)
Where I used to live there was a radio station that played a Christmas carol every night at 7pm to remind us throughout the year to be kind, to be generous, to be loving. To remember the “reason for the season” all year ’round. I don’t have a problem with that. I like it, in fact. But to jump from Halloween directly to Christmas – completely ignoring Thanksgiving? – is insane.
Generosity on a daily basis. Wouldn’t that be lovely, Jane?