Thanksgiving Recap

It’s the last night of Thanksgiving and I’m feeling pretty chipper.

We started the run with a surprise visit from Mark, Parker, and Austin. Parker is my young friend with cancer. I used to work with his Dad. Parker and Austin’s mom makes a great pumpkin roll. What a treat it was to see them! And, the pumpkin roll added something special to the holiday.

On Thanksgiving, my walking buddy Sally and I walked for over two hours. We walked all the way to Lake Mercer. What a terrific walk! Gorgeous views and full streams from the prior day’s rain. We were sore when we were done. Thankfully, we both have husbands who like to cook!

Jim and Erin spent most of Thanksgiving with us in a day with a great meal and lots of fun. Erin and Katie were inseparable. We all played a fun game of Scrabble at the end of the evening. The brothers jumped in to make it more competitive.

I also spent a good deal of time, cleaning OUT this weekend. We took an SUV-load to Salvation Army. The best part of the deal is that all the Barbies left the house! We thought about sending them back to the relatives in Atlanta who shipped them to us a few years ago, but we’ll save our spite for a better prank.

Internet commerce has had a good run with me recently….Lands’ End, McFadden Farm, Amazon (of course), Plow & Hearth, Clinique, LL Bean, Jos. A. Bank, Hollister, Ballard Designs, Olio2go. We were successful in our first attempts at using Constant Contact to send a marketing newsletter to our customer. I’ve logged in several times over the weekend to respond to customer service queries and to check on the orders.

Tonight’s Olive Oil Cuisine included Broccoli Rabe in a recipe from the Williams Sonoma San Francisco book. It was similar to one in two other cookbooks. Cook a shell-shaped pasta (or the designated orecchiette, if you have it). Save 1 cup of cooking water before draining the pasta. In another pan, sauté chopped garlic and red pepper flakes. Add broccoli rabe and cook until wilted. Drain pasta, add broccoli rabe. Add the cooking water as needed to keep it a little saucy. Top with a great Italian Olive Oil. We used Frantoio di Sommaia in the pasta dish and to sauté the Italian sausage that was cooked in a third pan. Tomorrow….risotto….and back to work.