The lonely walker?

OK - he wasn't really lonely - I was behind him taking pictures of the beautiful morning. DH was finishing up our walk about two mornings ago - it was in the low 40's type cold so we don't linger on our 2 miles. I liked the look of this picture (after I cropped out all the vehicles,trailers and stuff to the side!) Nothing earthshaking here - we've had a good week and I'm so grateful that my husband is a person who likes to exercise. We are aging (beats the alternative) so it takes more work to keep things working.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

The beauty of nature and the joys of a good husband - those things I see - but what is unseen is our blessing in Buhlaland.

Goatishness all around - Ho Ho HO!

I'm too delighted - I was mentioned in a blog! Not even MY blog! Woo Hoo! Clever Pam at Kids Kitchen posted a picture of two tiny goats in a Christmas parade (goats are wearing antlers - very ungoatlike - goats have horns or not in the case of most of OUR goats). Remember - fame only lasts for maybe 15 minutes - check it fast or I'll be gone -

http://kidkitchen.blogspot.com/

Woo Hoo y'all are going to be glad!

Maybe not - I may be overstating but due to the lethargy induced by a 3 day food frenzy - I'm working on hype here. Our sweet mother in law gifted us already (she really doesn't like that wait until Christmas morning thing and we don't do the lots of gifts for Christmas thing) for our Christmas/wedding anniversary (which is January 1). We're getting a new camera! Yep - it was a compromise camera -not the total bells and whistles and "we'll never need another camera because this one upgrades" but definitely not just a point and shoot cheapie on sale everywhere. I have great hopes for publishing some pictures of birds - pictures in which you can see something more clearly than the tree in which a bird might possibly be sitting. Also will have zoom features so will get those "deer in the back pasture" issues straightened out. Exciting final note - we'll have movie capability -so perchance I can learn to post short snippets of our exciting lives! End of this tirade is that we will have a nice digital camera I can use and we both will enjoy. Other than pictures for real estate and blogging - we don't take many pics. But I bet in the coming weeks - it'll be shutterbugging time on Buhlaland. Woo Hoo!

Thanksgiving food and memories

Don't panic, of course we spent time praying in gratitude for the OVER abundance of our blessings - we had a great walk early,just as the sun was coming up. DH and I are delighted with the beauty of where we are living.

That being said -

I hate to shock people, but for those in the south or raised by southerners - Thanksgiving is about the food, well the food and the football. Unfortunately for my "adoring public" - not much of the food turned out great. I tried several "low fat, no cholesterol, super healthy" recipes due to our current need for cholesterol lowering, fat reducing getting fittedness (not bothering to use spell checker today!). Mashed potatoes were excellent, cranberry sauce was good, gravy was OK, green beans were simply a vegetable. BEST part was the turkey breast. For 3 of us - a whole bird would have been too much. Earlier in the week, a tv chef did a herb and olive oil mixture under the turkey breast skin before cooking it and I decided to try her method. WOW - very moist, lots of flavor and the best we've done. I semi brined the breast ( for the last 2 hours of thawing it was in a huge bowl of lukewarm water salty water and seasonings). After drying off the turkey, loosened the skin to make a pocket in which to put the herbal essences (that sounds like I used hair products doesn't it?) In a Cuisinart,finely chopped onion,olive oil, fresh rosemary, fresh sage, flat leafed parsley, sea salt and a mixture of freshly ground peppercorns (white, pink , green and black - available at WalMart ). Put prepared turkey in a small roaster - in oven around 350 degrees for an hour, put the roaster cover over it for another hour. After the second hour timer went off - I began testing with digital thermometer until it reached about 175 internally. Just delish and will do this again for sure - you could use any kind of seasonings and make it totally different.

My Mom was a great cook - she made everything from scratch and our holidays were amazing meals, we'd wake up to the smell of sage, onions and celery on Thanksgiving. She usually baked the dressing separate from the turkey. Drier dressing makes a great receptor for gravy!

Dressing in my household is artery clogging level of fattening because it is made with a couple of sticks of butter,6 or 8 whole large eggs and lots of rich cornbread. To go low fat , used healthier recipe for cornbread and whole wheat bagels - added usual sauteed in broth chopped celery, onions, parlsey, pimento and mushrooms, generous measure of poultry seasoning - then eggbeaters instead of real eggs with low fat chicken broth to moisten. Turned out to have a lot of texture (euphemism for a little grainy) and plenty of taste.

Thanks Mom for teaching me to try new things (even some that definitely went in the trash )- if you don't try you don't find great new foods or for that matter new people, adventures or ways to remove facial hair.

The smells and work of a holiday definitely create nostalgia for being at home with my parents and brother - watching the Macy's parade on TV, nibbling on whatever goodies were already on the dessert table and being together as a family with inside jokes and eye rolling lame stories- all the stuff you don't know you'll ache for and miss until much later in life.

Here in Buhlaland, we ate well, too much and talked a lot about memories. It is good.