Happy Thanksgiving Day, to My Fellow Americans!

 

Happy Thanksgiving Day to those of us in the United States of America! 

I don't know about you but I could use a few more days to get ready for it instead of just the remainder of this Wednesday. And our meal will be very streamlined for the two of us. 

I always thought by our 80s that RH and I would be the guests at someone else's home and my only chore would be baking a Chess or Pecan pie but things didn't work out that way with children scattered too far away for us to travel. 

One son may join us but as he's just flying home today after a visit to his sweetheart, I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to stay home and keep our granddoggie company tomorrow.

We love our granddoggie to pieces but he could swallow BreeBree and James Mason in two bites!

Can you see our babies behind the red chair that holds our other two guests, Mr. and Mrs. Turkey? They have a note attached to them where I'm begging they be loved by someone after I'm gone--the turkeys, that is.

Of course I have ten pages of typed notes for instructions of taking care of our dachshunds by a loved one who has promised to give them a home if needed.

I had every intention of blogging throughout November but it will be no surprise anyone to see that I haven't. Lots of pictures taken all month long but no blog posts published. Do any of my blog friends visiting do that too? 

Just in case you don't see another November post from me, please enjoy every single day of the rest of this beautiful month that is my favorite month of the year! 

Happy Halloween and Adieu to October

 

In an attempt to publish at least a monthly blog post at the Window, here is a fairly short and sweet one.

Sweet because these two girls' visit, with their parents, was the highlight of our October.

Mimi and PawPaw were so happy to have them here for two wonderful nights! 

Of all the photos of the weekend, here is one that most grabbed my heart when I happened to see a session of sister hair-braiding in my office, which becomes their bedroom during visits.

Can you see why it made this grandmother's heart go pitter-patter?

Anything else I could share seems unimportant and irrelevant, but I'll throw in a link to the recipe for our entrée one night, my favorite and most used recipe for salmon, Fresh Market's Baked Salmon with Lemon Caper Butter.

I may get an F for presentation but I promise you this sauce is delicious. I double the sauce and I use salted capers soaked in warm water for half an hour instead of brined capers. I order them from Amazon, Sanniti Spanish Capers, about $19 for a really large jar. 

Farewell, beautiful October! 

I hope to see you in November, dear friends and family, in my favorite month of the year.

And for those of us in the U.S., let's all remember that regardless of the outcome of the election next week to keep family and friends our family and friends forever.

And, as Frances Mayes quoted Eduardo Galeano...

"Let's save pessimism for better times."

P.S. Our daughter and son-in-law at a recent costume gala. Can you guess who they went as?

Ronald & Nancy Reagan

P.S.S. My mom (the first Dewena) came to visit me and new baby Zack on Halloween night 1979 as the rest of the family gathered at a party at my sister's house. Wasn't she beautiful?

September

 

 I'm a little surprised to find myself blogging at Dewena's Window again but life has a little something missing without it and September 1st seemed a good time to try. Maybe I can hit publish by midnight tonight even though it's been around Robin Hood's barn to pull it off after my Mac Pro decided to punish me for ignoring it all summer. 

Back in May I made like a flying squirrel who lost her footing and glided to the ground a tad bit harder than intended, which was not at all. Majorly bruised from broken toes to not broken shoulder, my knee taking the brunt of it, I spent three months visiting my favorite physical therapist. Thank you, Patrick! 

But late spring and summer compensations were plentiful, as when our firstborn brought me enough beautiful yellow roses for the whole house.

And even trimmed and arranged them for me!

Our lives have been quiet here this summer but many joys are constant. There's always the fun of cookbooks and cooking.

I'm so sorry for poor picture quality! Not only do I have shaky hands and worsening eyesight but BeFunky decided to make changes too that I can't figure out. 

Judith Huxley's Marinated Olives with Citrus and Fennel (seed) lured me into making them even though I felt a little guilty because I usually only make them when a certain daughter-in-law comes to town.

I think there's a recipe for this in my Judith Huxley label but I'll never hit publish on this post by midnight if I try to find it and link it. After the olives chill in fridge for a week or two I make Alison Roman's Vinegar Chicken with crushed olives. I shouldn't have skipped crushing the olives this time but it was still delicious.

There have been meals to cook and pretty tables to set and I kept taking pictures of them even though I wasn't blogging. And there have been good books to read before bed and books to listen to on my free library app while I wash dishes and fold laundry. 

Right now it's Edith Wharton's The Buccaneers, an old favorite about American heiresses hunting for husbands among the financially strapped British aristocracy.

 Quite a different recent one was Playin' Possum.

It's about the Possum himself, country music star George Jones. The early chapters were frankly depressing due to his cocaine addiction and domestic violence, the book written by Nancy Jones, his fourth and final wife. If I had been actually sitting down reading the book I would have returned it to the library early but listening to it while I worked I kept on listening and was glad I did because it was good to know George and Nancy were happy in his later years.

You see, we old timers here in Nashville love George Jones who was a mighty sweet guy when he was sober. And that voice still gets to me and I agree with writer Julia Reed that George's "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is the "Best Country music song ever made."

I miss George Jones and I miss Julia Reed.

And now that I'm 81 and no longer wish away my least favorite month, August, I'll probably even miss the summer of 2024.

Still, I am more than delighted to welcome September and the hope of cooler temperatures. There's just something promising about September, isn't there? If I could remember how to embed, is that the word for it, videos from YouTube here I would end with a link to Walter Huston singing "The September Song." 

Do you know Walter Huston, Canadian actor of silent films and the talkies? Father to director John Huston, grandfather to Angelica Huston and Danny Huston? And I think there's an uncle somewhere in the mix.

"The September Song" that we love sung by so many wonderful singers was actually written for Walter Huston and he sang it in a play on Broadway and if you go to the trouble to find it on YouTube these September days you might see, as I did that he can tear your heart out with his poignant interpretation. 

I recently fell down the Walter Huston rabbit hole after watching a 1950 movie called September Affair with Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotton. With dresses by Edith Head! And Walter Huston sings The Song! 

Sorry about the length of all this. Rabbit holes are my favorite pasttime now in my 80s and I give myself permission to indulge but I do feel sorry for any reader here. 

 A long long time from May to September,

September. November.

These few precious days I'll spend with you!

      And I'm mush. Every single time.

Can we pretend today is January 2nd?

Can we pretend this is the day after New Year's Day 2024 and I'm publishing this blog post in a timely fashion? 

Only two days before, on New Year's Eve 2023, my pretty Karen Adams calendar was posing for a picture for the last time that year.

December's page was almost too pretty to say goodbye to and I still hadn't opened that green tube holding "Stress Away" that was a Christmas gift from my daughter-in-law, a roll on essential oil product that I've used for at least 8 years. 

Boy, was I going to need it along about January 20th when this happened in our front yard...

That's right, a big salt truck slipped backwards into our yard and wasn't able to get back on the icy road. 

After watching vehicle after vehicle slide into the ditch  of our long road frontage that afternoon we were first very happy to see the salt truck come to the rescue. That is, until he slid backward into our yard and broke our water meter and line and we were not only without water but water began spewing out into the yard, soon giving us an ice rink. Oh, and the white car is where someone in the neighborhood abandoned his car there and walked home. 

The good ending to that night was that three trucks and four supermen from our local utility district came and worked in the dark to restore our water. And as far as we know, in all the vehicles up and down our street that landed in the ditch that day, no one was hurt. 

Now, back to pretending it's January 2nd! I'm going to attempt to embed a video of our family Christmas party on December 23rd hosted by daughter-in-law Court in our old Valley View.

I hope that works! It was a wonderful night with everyone there except for our dear daughter Christy and son-in-law Bryan who now live in northern Florida. But her sons Luke and Alex were there with Alex's family. In fact, we had four generations of our family there including our four great-grandchildren! 

It was such a joy to join together as a family at the house that was our home for over 26 years. While there I couldn't help remembering all the Christmases and Thanksgivings and birthdays that were celelbrated and all the good times in the kitchen cooking and eating together. I'm so grateful to Court for hosting all of us!

Now, on to New Year's Eve. Let's have dessert first, shall we? Last post I told you I was going to make a Boston Cream Pie so I must show you that, but don't expect a cake where the chocolate glaze just drips down the edges because if a little chocolate is good, more is better.

A homemade cake deserves a pretty presentation so my Boston Cream Pie went on my milk glass cake stand and called for damask napkins and my wedding silver and wedding china. The television is set on YouTube's Hobbit House fireplace.

The cake was the best Boston Cream Pie I've ever eaten, including the first piece I ever had, in a Miami Beach restaurant when I was 18.

We did share our cake with our firstborn son and his family but RH and I looked forward all day to our slice at night until it was gone. 

This was a Cook's Illustrated recipe back when my dear Christopher Kimbell was Cook's Illustrated and I subscribed to the magazine for years. If you search for Wicked Good Boston Cream Pie you can find where food bloggers have the recipe for it. I now find Christopher Kimbell on his podcast, Milk Street. 

I did end up making braised salmon with caramelized onions from my Mediterranean cookbook by Nancy Harmon Jenkins.

And made potato salad to go with it. I froze individual portions of the salmon that make delicious lunches.

 That's pickled green beans on the plate too, part of a big gift box from Court.

On New Year's Day we got busy in the kitchen early. RH washed and cut two large bunches of collard greens for me. They do quickly cook down.

I also had black-eyed peas cooking early, soaking them overnight first, and Rancho Gordo's are the only dried beans I buy. Here's my last order from them of dried beans and their wonderful spices. I even gave Rancho Gordo products for Christmas gifts! 

After getting the collards and black-eyed peas cooking, I started on the pork loin roast.

That's prunes and apricots in the final gravy.

 I begged for a break in football games while we ate and got to watch a favorite Christmas movie.

Do you recognize it? I should have cropped out our red sofa. 

I'll end with a quotation that was the inspiration for my pork roast recipe, even though mine did not end up as beautiful as the one in the quotation from a favorite old 1975 book.

The Omars always ate dinner by candlelight. It was restful, provided a cozy atmosphere, and seemed right in the old house in which they lived. Barbara Omar was an expert in bringing forth the beauty from everything she touched, and she never minded the extra work. She was an excellent cook and the dishes she served often resembled magazine displays. He was a lucky man to have such a wife...He turned his attention back to their meal--the pork roast was almost too pretty to carve, he joked, so beautifully decorated with apricots, stuffed prunes, and parsley. This was the life he loved--a dear family which showed its love, good food, and the warmth of home.

                         From The Golden Acre by Thyra Ferre Bjorn 

I want to be Barbara Omar when I grow up! 

I'd like to sincerely thank those who read this terribly long post--even if you just scrolled through, which I wouldn't blame you for doing! 

RH and I wish you a safe and blessed 2024,

Dewena

A post in January, by the skin of my teeth.

 

Faith Baldwin, pictured in the header of Dewena's Window all these years, writes of wanting to express her thoughts but not always being able to:

...to pin the butterfly wing of the valid emotion to paper with the key of a typewriter is usually to destroy it.

If talented Faith Baldwin felt this way can you imagine how often I doubt my ability to put into words my thoughts here? Today as I try to get in one January post after one of my frequent absences from my blog, it seems even more difficult for me. 

And so, I'm starting back with another picture of the current year's beautiful Karen Adams calendar that my sweet daughter has given me each Christmas for a decade. 

 It is always a pleasure to open my new calendar because I know that Christy is opening hers too. You can bet we're thinking of each other every first day of the new month. Both Christy and I love pretty packaging too and Karen Adams' packaging is always a delight. Here's a link to this year's just in case anyone is interested.

Here I'm packing last year's calendar away where it went in the cabinet of my bed table along with those from years past.

I wonder how long it would be before they would fall on the same day and I could reuse them? Probably not in my lifetime?

And to add another picture to this post, here are RH and I at the family Christmas party at a son and daughter-in-law's house.

I hope that all of you had a beautiful Christmas and a happy and blessed New Year's Day. So many friends of mine have gone through another bout with Covid or have had their first bout of it recently. Take care!

I won't go so far as to wish you all the bliss of winter days because I don't think there are many who love January and February as much as I do, but spring really will be here before we know it. So I'll just end with wishing you daily comforts and joy until she arrives.

Here's a picture of our darling daughter taken one Christmas morning that seems like only yesterday:

See you soon! (That's one of my resolutions for 2023!)