Sunday, November 11, 2012

Company Sweet Potatoes




As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, a most talked about side-dish in salons and bridge club luncheons is what to do with the Sweet Potatoes. To bake or mash, marshmallows or not? light or yams?  



This is my own recipe for "Company Sweet Potatoes", we have it often and throughout the year!






Peel and slice 2 Sweet Potatoes (we like the light ones) and one Onion
Alternate in a buttered Pyrex pie plate or 10 x 14 pan (double the  recipe and place in rows or layers)


Mix 1/4 cup heavy cream & 1/4 cup Pure Maple Syrup (pour over all)


Top with French Fried Onions & fresh ground Black Pepper
375 degrees BAKE ~ 45 minutes

Set the table extra pretty this year. 
Happy Thanksgiving!




Thursday, November 8, 2012

November

November, the essence of Autumn insists a change beckoning us inside the same way that Springs calls us to come outdoors.  The Harvest is in and the bounty stored.  This month often shows a variety of conditions like no other.  The clear starry nights, crimson sunsets, ominous cloud-scapes and grey foggy mornings can happen with only days that seem like moments in between. This is the time of year that a tree loaded with leaves of every color will show barest branches by month's end.
Laura's Sunflowers


Until the last grapes are cut from the vine and the last  nuts are swept off the orchard floor is the Harvest Season allowed to wind down. And then, the quiet... the waiting... as the Season will shift toward a peaceful calm. Contentment to be inside, behind closed doors replaces hours of scurrying about form place to place.  The wind whips through the air and the rain beats against the window.  Was it just last week that you stood alone in the orchard and could actually hear the falling leaves softly hitting the ground?


Donna's Peppers
Antoinette Celle Vineyards













This shift happens each year in November when it's time to gather in, slow down and get out fuzzy socks and warm blankets.  Books and knitting needles will sitting by the favorite chair and cookbooks are strewn about as the planning for Holiday baking has begun.  Soup is simmering on the stove in a huge pot permeating the air with smells of steamy vegetables somehow reconciling the fact of short days and dark evenings.

Year's end is so close that reality insists attention to the details that come soon enough... oh so soon enough... but for now - it is November. Beautiful, Glorious November.