Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I'm just grabbing a couple minutes between cooking to wish you all a blessed day! We are having a great day- the weather is crisp and the children are all outside- some playing in the forest- a pleasure they have had to forgo while there were crops in the field, but now that the corn has been harvested, they can now cross the field and play in the 5 acres of woods in the middle of 250 acres of corn. They make bases and do all those universal things children do when they have the world as their playground. Several of the older boys are helping their Dad make a new porch on the house- the old one is barely worthy of the name. Next year, we plan to enclose the new porch so that we can have a new dining room- it's a tight fit around our rather long and narrow kitchen table! That leaves me in the kitchen, cooking. And running up here to blog and running to the quilting room while uploading pictures, to mend some curtains that didn't much appreciate the time they had in the clothes washer. I take down most of the curtains in the summer, but when cool weather returns... it just feels a bit cozier with the curtains rehung.

Here is a picture of the children at their big breakfast yesterday. It wasn't easy to get them to all look up at me- they had their little noses pressed to their plates! 8 of mine and the one girl is our "adopted" daughter- a young nursing student here at the university. It was a perfect morning- the children were so surprised and so sweet in thanking me for fixing their favorite things. Frost was thick on the ground and it just sparkled in the morning sunshine. Oh guys, how couldn't I be happy? It is so easy to get worried about silly things- things I can't control and it can make you cynical- like where in the world are we headed with wars and polution and people being so unkind and cruel? But when you see the joy in a child's eyes when they lift their sweet little faces up to the snow floating down all around them... it just tells your heart, "It's OK." There are still beautiful, pure things in this world and it's OK.

Forest Jane- Creamed tomatoes- it's a poor folk, mountain food. And if you like tomatoes, well, I think you'll appreciate it. I use tomatoes that I've canned during the summer, but you can use store- canned tomatoes with good results. Just empty a can of diced tomatoes into a saucepan, a pinch of sugar and salt and pepper to taste- bring to a simmer. While that's heating up, mix some flour with some milk and add to the tomatoes to thicken- thicker than gravy, but the same idea. Spoon over hot buttered biscuits. mmmm...