Sunday, November 19, 2006

Grateful My Favorite Holiday Nears




At the office last week, we had our Holiday Feast where everyone brought in delicious food to share for an early Thanksgiving blowout. I love to cook, and here's the cranberry sauce I make in case anyone needs a quick Thanksgiving recipe:

Simply Delish Cranberry Sauce

1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 12 oz pkg fresh cranberries
2 small naval oranges, with the skin grated off and the oranges inside chopped up
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 cup chopped chopped pecans
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 chai spice tea bag from Stash
1 individual packaghe of Alpine (from Krusteaz) Original Apple Drnk Flavor Mix

In a med. saucepan, boil water and sugar with grated orange peel until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and add Chai Spice teabag, the dried package of apple cider, cranberries, chopped orange, apple, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook the fuit and spice mixture until the cranberries pop, about 5 minutes or so.

Add pecans and cool the sauce.


That's it - easy and delicious. Next time I might put my Mother's Mushroom crab appetizers up here.

Back to Gratitude, although many authors and self-help gurus have suggested it at various times in various ways, I believe it was Oprah Winfrey who insisted that whenever she was down, she fixed that by either: volunteering to work for the underprivileged in a soup kitchen. She also makes a regular habit of keeping a Gratitude Journal where she writes down five things daily that she's grateful for. This is a wonderful habit to get into.

A couple of years ago, I kept a gratitude journal and I challenged myself to think of 5 different things each day, with few repeats. Sometimes it was amazing that the things I most appreciated were the little things i.e. finding a missing SOMETHING that I really needed and had misplaced; someone letting me in a busy line of traffic; a clerk being kind and letting me return something when I'd lost the receipt, any number of small things that made me feel good about human nature.

I haven't been keeping a gratitude journal lately, but I really need to do it again. Now that Thanksgiving is nearly here, I'm grateful, DESPERATELY grateful and anticipating the paid days off to spend with my family and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

3 comments:

Carol said...

Your Cranberry Sauce receipe is a lot like ome my Mom makes every year. Our family love it. Unfortunately, with the illness of my Dad this year we did not have the usual big meal so we did not make the sauce this year. I really missed it.

BTW I try to email you and the message bounced back. Have you changed email addresses?

Laura said...

::puffing up like a stuffed shirt::

Why, yes, I saw Chelle today. Yes, very lucky, I know. ;)

Cranberry sauce from Price Chopper (surprisingly good!) is all that's left. I'm the only one eating it, so it'll take me some time.

::back to waiting for the stuffed mushroom recipe::

Elysbeth said...

I like the gratitude journal idea. I have a cute little pocket notebook from Michaels ($.50 but still a little special) and I think I'll do that. Thanks for the good karma.