By now, for many of you, Thanksgiving is a memory, and I sincerely hope it is a pleasant one, but since I am working on this on Sunday, I am still in anticipation of all the good things to come! And, as has been the case for several years, I will be celebrating with my son and some of his family and later in the day will go out to my daughter and son-in-law’s and enjoy time with that family. It is always a fun time!
The past week was spent getting things together for our craft show. We had a great showing, my daughters came in to help, which was a good thing as I wasn’t able to do as much as usual, and as always, they were a big help. My surprise of the day was a visit from a grandson, his wife and baby. While she was at the craft show with us, he and the baby got to play with his grandpa, and then when we got home, he got all kinds of attention from us ladies. He is such a good boy, all smiles except when the dog would get too close. That only lasted for a short time as it didn’t take them long to become friends. They did not stay the night, but two of my daughters and my son-in-law did. By the time I got home from church, the girls had stripped the beds, had sheets in the washers, and the beds were re-made. Then, they got after the towels and they’ve been washed and dried and the floors were vacuumed and you would never know from looking that there had been six or seven people in the house for the weekend. Thanks to all of you for all the help, it is really appreciated. Now, it’s Sunday afternoon, my house is quiet and after checking in with a couple of friends, it’s time to get to work.
First and foremost, let’s talk a little bit about leftovers…almost everyone has them, some of us have more than others, but…they’re still there!
You are probably ready to eat something other than turkey, but here are a couple of different recipes to try with your leftovers. The one for stuffed peppers came from the sweet lady who was our landlady in Victoria when Sam and I were first married. She said she had made them for many years for her family and everyone seemed to like them.
Dressing Stuffed Peppers
4 to 6 medium-sized green bell peppers
Leftover dressing
Remove stem ends from peppers and clean out inside, disposing of the seeds and membranes. Parboil for about 4 to 5 minutes, drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, keep the green color, and cool them down so you can handle them. Spoon leftover dressing into each pepper shell and press it down enough to get into all portions of the pepper, mounding it up slightly on top. Place in muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees until top of dressing is golden brown. Serve with leftover turkey gravy as your main dish and all you need is a nice tossed salad or whatever other vegetables you want with this.
Turkey Tetrazzini
12-oz package spaghetti
3 to 4 cups chopped leftover turkey
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 can chicken broth
1 cup shredded cheese
4-oz jar diced pimentos
Cook spaghetti according to package directions and drain well. Mix the soups, cheese, mushrooms and pimentos into the hot spaghetti, add the broth and turkey and heat through.
Here is a touching story for you showing true love between brothers as you enjoy your Thanksgiving 2019. The praying hands figure has always interested me, and we used a copy of them several times on our tray favors for our hospital patients, so, when I got this, it answered some of my questions about the “hands”.
The story behind the picture of the praying hands
Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood.
Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of the elder children, Albrecht and Albert, had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy. After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring in the mines.
They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg. Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht’s etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.
When the young artist returned to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht’s triumphant homecoming. After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with music and laughter, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. His closing words were, “And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you.”
All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale face, shaking his lowered head from side to side while he sobbed and repeated, over and over, “No …no….no .no.”
Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He glanced down the long table at the faces he loved, and then, holding his hands close to his right cheek, he said softly, “No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look … Look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother ….for me it is too late.”
More than 450 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer’s hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, water colors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer’s works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office.
One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful
drawing simply “Hands,” but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love “The Praying Hands.” The next time you see a copy of that touching creation, take a second look. Let it be your reminder, that no one – no one – ever makes it alone!