Of Thanksgiving and Knitting

I've been busy the past few days getting ready for Thanksgiving. Turkey Day, we spent the afternoon with my parents, Aunt Ellen (father's friend who hosted the dinner), Aunt Dianne, and family friend Charlotte. We had the usual fixings, and the conversation was lively and a bit of a verbal sparring to see who could come up with the wittiest comments. Of course, one of the main topics was Kai, whose appearance was made over at the other grandparents 50 miles south of us.

Meanwhile, I'm knitting away on the vest. Making great progress, and I've finished the desired length and put the stitches on sleeve. Okay. time to sew the steeks and cut. Done. Where's that ball of yarn . . . I know I had 4 balls and used up 3. Look in the corner next to my bed - not there. Okay, I'm thinking, maybe it's in the office. Nope, not there. Look under my bed. Aiiieeee, not there! By then, I'm panicking - I'm running around for 1 hour looking for it before we have to leave for Turkey dinner. We've agreed to leave at 2pm, but departure is delayed till about 2:30 because that ball is hiding somewhere in plain sight, snickering at me.

Today, it has yet to show up, even at this bright early hour. I'll admit, it's a mess . . . I'm not going to take a picture of my bedroom, the office, or the other bedroom because it will make Flylady fans cringe. I would have looked for it some more yesterday, but we were busy preparing our own post-Turkey Day dinner (yes, we cooked our own turkey . . . gotta have some leftovers to make turkey soup, casserole, etc. etc.). We had G. and R. over . . . was supposed to have R.'s friend V. over but V. had other things to do. Oh well . . . it worked out in the end. We gently pushed G. to take R. back to the metro (yes, one is male and one is female and neither are attached at the moment).

I made cranberry relish, which turned out well as always. I made the regular recipe batch, and put half of it into 2 quart bags to put in the freezer. We want to see how well it freezes. Here's the recipe . . . it delivers quite a bit of a bite, unlike those yucky, bland canned cranberry sauce. As G. commented, it has a bit of a Christmasy taste.

Cranberry Relish

Source: Elizabeth Powell (Servings: 8)

1 cup sugar
1 onion, finely chopped
6 whole cloves (I just used 1 tsp. of ground cloves)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 whole cardamom seeds, crushed (I think I used 1/2 or 1 tsp. ground cardamom seeds)
1 pinch cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup vinegar
2 cups cranberries, fresh
1 cup seedless raisins
⅓ cup brown sugar
1 cup water

Combine all ingredients in large soup kettle. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 45 minutes. Serve chilled.