It's the Most Wonderful Time

For me it is the most wonderful time of the year.  The cold air and a few snowflakes have moved in just for hunting season.  Bear opens Monday and the following Monday will be opening day for deer.  Thanksgiving is less than a week away and cooking is on my mind.  The menu doesn't change much for Turkey Day but "Hunter's Supper" the Sunday night before deer season always changes.  This year I am thinking roast beef, pork roast, potato skins stuffed with bacon and cheese, vegetable platter, cheese and meat platter (with pickled heart), rolls, steamed cherry cake and chocolate pie.  Ya gotta fill the hunters up for the big day.  The more they have to eat the more stories they tell and the bigger the story gets every year.  This tradition has been going on since I was a little girl.  Thanksgiving and Hunter's Supper is my favorite holiday.  No worries on gifts, what to buy, who wants what, just a good honest time to enjoy family and friends.  I would say it has been over 10 years since our Canadian friends started attending the supper.  This year his wife will be here which makes me happy!  We will take a day out and about for lunch and check out Coudersport.  The next few days will be preparation and organizing my thoughts to make sure everything goes on schedule. 

The day started out with sun and temperature up to 63............then the wind started to blow the warmth away and bring the cold in.  Rain turned to flakes and soup was on my mind.  It was a cheaters beef and veggie soup.  Instead of  using roast beef I browned a couple pounds of ground chuck, threw in carrots, celery, cabbage, potatoes, beef stock and a cup of tomatoes topped off with enough water to cover everything. Oh, the bay leaf, I always put a bay leaf in.   It simmered for an hour and done.  It was a soup and crackers supper.  For later I made cranberry walnut brownies using my Toll House cookie dough recipe  with a 1/2 cup butter and a 1/2 cup shortening instead of 1 cup butter.  No chocolate chips so dried cranberries and walnuts and baked in an oblong cake pan.  Once it was out of the oven I laid some white chocolate on top to melt and spread a thin layer around.  A cold fall evening with a cup of Jamaican Me Crazy coffee and brownies.  I'm thinking..........who needs supper?  If so, go to the neighbors and see what's cooking over there.  I'm done for the day.

Supper is ready!

The violet that just keeps giving us beautiful
blossoms.  I can not believe how it just keeps on!

I have one violet and for some reason it is a strong one.  It would have to be to survive my green thumb.  Of all the violets I have tried to raise this one is defying all odds, it is the only one that has lived more than a month or two.  This big beauty is over a year old. Happy, happy, happy I am.  With all the outside flowers long gone it is nice to see the violet blossoms and the Christmas Cactus in full bloom, even though it is only Thanksgiving.  As long as they blossom I'm doing something right.  I think it may have a lot to do with the window they are by.  A friend told me the Christmas Cactus should be facing the east and once I moved it to the east it has blossomed every year.  The violet is happy to be in a window facing the south.  Who would have thought....not me.  Thanks to two friends that gave me the heads up on plants and windows. 

Speaking of the outside flowers gone, so is all the porch furniture, the pizza oven is covered and not a leaf left on a bush or tree.  Looks kinda bare around the house.  Maybe that is why I like snow to come.  Even though it is white it adds a little beauty to the valley.  Until the ground freezes we will have mud and a gray/brown view.   Once it gets good and cold the snow will stick and winter will set in.  Then we will be getting out the skis and taking our little jaunts up the valley to see what animal tracks we can see and have a winter "hot dog roast".  For every season we wait patiently to do our favorite things.