Thanksgiving
Hello everyone- sorry I've been a bit behind posting.
Had a lovely Thanksgiving. In my much-divorced family, Thanksgiving is the holiday set aside for maternal relatives, and the Langhaar clan is a pretty tight one, largely because the Langhaars in this country can be counted on one hand. It is probably my family's most important holiday, and, delightfully, my mother was at it.
Due to work, lack of money, and her move to Arizona, it is also the first time I have seen my mother in the flesh for two years.
There are few Langhaars, but we host a large and motley group of unrelatives, many of them folks from other countries. This year there were my mom, my aunt Sally, and my cousin Kay representing for the fams (yes, that really is all of us, since my other maternal aunt and cousin are estranged from us), plus adopted family members Katie and Greg and their two adorable girls Sophie and Emma. Non-fams included Laura and Marcello (a brace of Aussies) and their two little boys Ryan and Aiden.
Langhaars can cook. By God we can cook. (Which is largely responsible for the avidity of the attendance of the non-fams. Once they get a taste, they come back every year, though we have suffered some attrition due to folks moving abroad in recent years.)
So this year there was turkey, stuffing, veg stuffing, gravy (veg and otherwise), sweet potatoes with rum and bananas, garlic mashed potatoes, cranberry-ginger sauce, creamed onions, spinach casserole, pumpkin flan with ginger whipped cream, and mushroom turnovers. Mmmmmm. I was particularly fond of the sweet potatoes, which were from a new recipe. Generally my aunt makes them, and they are too sweet to my taste, but this year my cuz took 'em over, and they were fabulous.
Emma and Sophie helped me make the mushroom turnovers, which was pretty cute, if less than entirely helpful.
Jeremiah, alas, was not with us, as he headed up to Buchanan,MI for his family's feast.
Anyway, I hope most of the rest of you had a good holiday with friends or family.
-K
Had a lovely Thanksgiving. In my much-divorced family, Thanksgiving is the holiday set aside for maternal relatives, and the Langhaar clan is a pretty tight one, largely because the Langhaars in this country can be counted on one hand. It is probably my family's most important holiday, and, delightfully, my mother was at it.
Due to work, lack of money, and her move to Arizona, it is also the first time I have seen my mother in the flesh for two years.
There are few Langhaars, but we host a large and motley group of unrelatives, many of them folks from other countries. This year there were my mom, my aunt Sally, and my cousin Kay representing for the fams (yes, that really is all of us, since my other maternal aunt and cousin are estranged from us), plus adopted family members Katie and Greg and their two adorable girls Sophie and Emma. Non-fams included Laura and Marcello (a brace of Aussies) and their two little boys Ryan and Aiden.
Langhaars can cook. By God we can cook. (Which is largely responsible for the avidity of the attendance of the non-fams. Once they get a taste, they come back every year, though we have suffered some attrition due to folks moving abroad in recent years.)
So this year there was turkey, stuffing, veg stuffing, gravy (veg and otherwise), sweet potatoes with rum and bananas, garlic mashed potatoes, cranberry-ginger sauce, creamed onions, spinach casserole, pumpkin flan with ginger whipped cream, and mushroom turnovers. Mmmmmm. I was particularly fond of the sweet potatoes, which were from a new recipe. Generally my aunt makes them, and they are too sweet to my taste, but this year my cuz took 'em over, and they were fabulous.
Emma and Sophie helped me make the mushroom turnovers, which was pretty cute, if less than entirely helpful.
Jeremiah, alas, was not with us, as he headed up to Buchanan,MI for his family's feast.
Anyway, I hope most of the rest of you had a good holiday with friends or family.
-K