Giving Thanks

At Thanksgiving, I remember one year in high school, eating cold creamed onions in my grandmother’s dark kitchen, sitting awake late into the night in front of AOL with my cousin Marie.

This year, the day began with three inches of snow and ended with berry crumble from my grandmother*. In the middle, I ate Thanksgiving dinner in jeans that I haven’t been able to wear since the summer after I graduated high school.

After I had folded white paper napkins neatly and lay them out on the table, my mom insisted on taking them back and sent me for the nice cloth napkins. The dark green did not go with the blue placemats I’d set out earlier, but I was not going to ask questions when the woman was brandishing the carving knife. When we sat down to dinner, my mom somehow managed to say grace even as she bit back fits of giggles at the motley table I’d set. My grandmother just kept saying, “This is the new style, nothing is supposed to match.” The dog stared at the leftover turkey without blinking for four whole minutes.

* Not to be confused with this Applejack Cobbler recipe for a Thanksgiving themed cocktail, featured today in the NYT.

November 23, 2005
Adapted from the Pegu Club

1 cup sugar
12 ounces cranberries, washed and picked over
1 orange slice 1¼-inch thick, cut in half
2 ounces applejack
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1/2 ounce apple schnapps
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses.

1. For the cranberries: add sugar to 1 cup water in heavy-duty pot and simmer over low heat until sugar dissolves. Add cranberries, and stir frequently until berries are soft, about 10 minutes. Cool before making cocktails, which require about two tablespoons per drink. (The rest can be used as sauce or refrigerated for several weeks.)

2. To make one cocktail, put two tablespoons of softened cranberries (about an ounce) and orange slices in a cocktail shaker and muddle together. Add ice, then remaining ingredients. Shake vigorously and pour into a cocktail glass.

3. Garnish with something decorative, like an edible flower, an orange twist or a gooseberry with skin peeled back.

Yield: One drink.

Multiply recipe as needed for family events.

Maybe My Second-Ever Entry About Crafts


Lamp Close-Up
Originally uploaded by EmLocke12.

I bought the lamp and shade at IKEA for about $11, and 30″ of beaded trim for around $3, and this is what I ended up with! The light really catches the faceted beads just like I wanted it to. There are a couple of spots where the ribbon didn’t stick smoothly along the edge. I’m going to have to fix that because the imperfections are distracting when I’m pretending to study.

Some of the beads won’t hang straight either, depending on how tautly I pulled the ribbon in an effort to straighten it out. The fifth strand from the left is just a lone wolf. All of its neighbors hang in orderly rows, but that one warps out and curves at the end. It insists on defying gravity.


New Bag
Originally uploaded by EmLocke12.

I have about two inches of the tail of the trim left over, with five strands of beads on it. I’m thinking about cutting off the faceted ones and sewing them on to my new ‘evening bag’ in place of the lame white doughnut beads, which totally don’t go with the gothic class of the gold stitching and emerald [faux] silk. Unfortunately, I need nine replacements, not five.

Grill Lines

Feeling guilty for eating absolutely nothing festive yesterday, I was determined to grill vegetable kebabs for dinner last night. I used sliced zucchini and summer squash, chopped red and green peppers (capsicum, as they say in New Zealand), wedges of onion, and mushrooms to cap off the end of each skewer. Don’t cut any of the pieces too small, or they’ll dangle off the skewer and right into the fiery depths of the grill! I envision orange or yellow peppers and maybe some eggplant in the mix for future attempts at colorful and symmetrical patterns. It’s all about the marinade. Well, it’s about fresh veggies grilled over charcoal, but the marinade is runner up.

Marinade:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt, to taste

Brush it on to both sides of each skewer and grill ’em for 3-5 minutes on each side, or until they’re lightly browned, tender and you see those grill lines. Here are ours right after they hit the grill.

“When somebody loves you, it’s no good unless he loves you all the way” – Sinatra

if summer were a fruit

it would be a strawberry. i love those fragrant, fleshy fruits. this morning i made the most delicious strawberry smoothie (the french consider the strawberry an aphrodisiac, you know) for breakfast and i swear i could smell and taste summer even after i’d washed the blender. it got me thinking about vacationing in belgium (the world capital of strawberries) or mansikkala, finland (which means ‘the place of the strawberry’ in finnish) or in strawberry, ca. for those with watering mouths, the recipe:

summer in your mouth – a delightful strawberry smoothie (4 servings)

16 fresh strawberries, hulled
1 cup skim milk
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
12 cubes ice, crushed

in a blender, combine strawberries, milk, yogurt, sugar and vanilla. toss in the ice. blend until smooooth and creamy. pour into glasses and serve. (em locke’s summer fun tip: sip it through a twisty straw)

quote of the day: “pick out your favorite traveling music, ’cause we are headed for the sun…take me away, take me away” – flying lessons

fa-fa-fa-feeling crafty

this week has been productive in many ways. domestically, i have washed, dried, folded and distributed enough laundry to clothe my family for two weeks, grocery shopped, post officed twice, and baked brownies. yeah, mom let me play in the kitchen, even though i was officially banished after i decimated two consecutive batches of slice & bake cookies. my brownies were so successful that i may consider attempting jello later on this week. watch yourself!

organizationally, i have been inspired by my new favorite show, tlc’s clean sweep. catharsis is my middle name. i went through drawers and shelves and shoe boxes and suddenly discovered a new perspective on what ugly pants and skirts and shoes i have been collecting over the years. i had a couple of ‘what was i thinking?’ moments and sent it all off to goodwill. and then i put everything else on matching hangers. there’s nothing i hate more than the moral dilemna of giving away books. i used to cry for hours before our annual girl scout book exchanges. but i filled a whole shopping bag with old books to give away. and it just occurred to me, that only leaves room for new books, like the wonderful, treasured autographed copy of beloved that chelsea gave me for christmas.

by far, my best project was tackling my photograph drawer. i bought two black photo boxes with silver label frame and started sorting through all those pictures. of course, there were plenty to throw away; people whose names i don’t remember or who i don’t care to remember, fuzzy pictures of nameless landscapes, and a few copies of the random portrait of the kitchen sink in my old house (this one seems to haunt me.) some of the best photos were early birthday parties, where my dad wore pointy paper hats, ballet classes and recitals and our first trip to long beach island. with a little help identifying dates (thanks to mom and to meryl!) i turned a whole drawer of scattered photos into a classy, chronological box. and while we’re at it, let’s reminisce about what an adorable baby i was.

in crafts, i used leftover fabric from my duvet cover to reupholster a french memo board that i loved, but didn’t match my room. i got to use a staple gun, my hammer and nails, new ribbon and, best of all, the hot glue gun! and now it’s purple and glittery and is the perfect display spot for some old pictures of yours truly. what else?

this weekend, my whole family sat down to watch lord of the rings. it was a two-night event here in the family room. dramatic, suspenseful, thrilling, yes. cinematographic and stunning, of course. scary? you’re telling me! so i haven’t been sold on the lord of the rings phenomenon yet. but i did discover that my elvish name is itarildë séregon. i can’t promise that i’ll answer to that.

quote of the day: “in answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.” – edward p. tryon