Talking Turkey

Thanksgiving Thoughts With and Update

Fall in New England is by far my most favorite time of year. I will endure the piles of dirty snow all long winter long, the endless cold spring  rains and the hazy, hot humid long summer daze just to be able to enjoy the glorious, golden days of fall. I live for the memory invoking smells of hot chocolate, homemade bread, pumpkin spice and crackling  warm fires.  This time of year calls you to the kitchen to create comforting dishes to share around the hearth with loved ones after a Sunday afternoon of leaf raking, apple picking or pumpkin carving.

For Thanksgiving it has been a 20 year tradition to spend the night at the restaurant camped out and preparing the Thanksgiving dinner for forty some other families who are tucked in and dreaming of buttery mashed potatoes smothered in rich turkey gravy with no dirty pots and pans to scrub. The boys hook up the video games and pump up the air mattresses while the grown ups rotate turkeys through the ovens through out the night. At the break of dawn the stuffing is basted and bronzed in the oven while the chef potatoes are boiled and ready for the mashing. Every family has their own traditional method of preparing turkey, stuffing and side dishes. For some it is not complete without the cranberry relish. My mom makes this crazy frozen cranberry ice and would never open a can of jellied cranberry.  I can still see my Dad tenderly shredding or pulling apart the Pepperidge Farm white bread without the crusts in front of the tv watching football. The pulling of the bread makes for a fluffy light dressing seasoned with sage cooked inside a capon, never a turkey. Which brings up the question to stuff or not to stuff?

 Stuffing your turkey is likely to cause stomach cramping. The internal temperature of your bird must reach 165* Packing the cavity of the turkey leads to the increase of bacteria that will make you ill. This culinarian recommends you cook your bird stuffing free with aromatics such as celery, onion and oranges lightly layered in the bird to promote flavor and moisture. Cook your stuffing in a casserole dish and baste it with the drippings from the cooked turkey. This method will also hasten the cooking process and prevent the need for cooks across America from having to rise before dawn to get that feast in the oven in time for the post football game chow down.

With Thanksgiving on the horizon and my staff Talking Turkey, I pause to offer up my thanks for enough leaves in my own back yard for the kids to jump in. I am grateful for children who are healthy enough for me to drag myself from bed at predawn five days a week to get them off to school with a hot breakfast and a bagged lunch. I am blessed with a loving husband of 20 years who is willing to complete my honey do list no matter how many times I revise and edit. I am lucky enough to own my own business complete with its own endless list of things to do. That in itself was a monumental undertaking these past two years.




 As you gather your loved ones around the table remember it is Thanks Giving. Take stock in all you have to be thankful for and pay it forward. Up your gratitude and perform a random act of kindness for someone or some organization in your community. At Rainbow Gardens we have spent the last 20 years preparing a Thanksgiving feast for the staff at the emergency room and the firefighters at Central Headquarters. The gratitude from these hard working people spending a day reserved for families away from their own is  boundless. The true gift in this spirit of giving is the lesson my children have learned over the years. They are not aware, but we are shaping their character... shhh do not tell them as they tend to resist any parental imposed self improvement projects.

Update Hurricane Sandy Damage

Before

During day time high tide

 After see link

u tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvhJw8o0eFg&feature=relmfu

I started this blog back in the beginning of October to Talk Turkey.

I had no idea what was in store for our small seaside community. When I wrote about paying it forward and being Thankful at Thanksgiving I had no idea I would be sitting here today in a snowstorm reflecting on this past week. Most fortunately my family home and business suffered no loss or damage. As most of you know, this was not the case for many people across the Tri- State region. In a minute my husband and staff and I decided to open our restaurant to the victims of Sandy to give back to our community. We served a free dinner buffet and collected storm supplies while most of my staff had no power. The City of Milford gave instantly. We decided to chronicle the events on our Facebook page and serve a breakfast on the following Saturday. I underestimated the power of social media; not the first or even second time in my life and a local tv station posted the details of what we were doing. This set off a flurry of giving that I was not prepared to receive. Complete strangers from hours away began to reach out to us and mail checks to cover costs and help complete strangers. I am happy to report that we kept none of that money and are continuing to make a difference right here in Milford Ct. with gift cards and suppliesdelivered directly to families in need.

 

This woman is from another town a good distance away and she just wanted to help.

People logged onto our new website and bought gift cards and mailed them to us. Others came in for dinner with gift cards of their own and gave them back to us. Friends passed out coffee and soup and helped others clean up.

Power companies came from other states to lend a hand. Slowly the power came back on and people who were frustrated being without power felt guilty as they started to watch footage of New Jersey, Rockaway Beach NY, and Staten Island. 

The boardwalk

A week later people continue to drop off supplies and give us checks. I am blessed. I have posted my Thankfulness one day at a time on my Facebook page. People have lost tremendously. Just because the power is back on for most of us, this is not over for a long time.

Like Doll Houses

 So what does it all mean? I am still trying to figure it out. Life is full of surprises. It is what you choose to do with challenges and set backs that define your legacy. Before this blog was posted I hinted about shaping the character of my children without them knowing. What I did not know was that I had accomplished just that. One thing that caught me off guard this week was when my oldest son texted me several times to say how proud he was of what we were doing. I didn't think he would even take notice, but he must have  been paying attention all these years in spite of all my nagging. 

I love my family, I am proud of my staff, I am grateful for all the wonderful friends in my life I will always love fall in New England. I am Thankful for this week of HOPE and I will still continue to pay it forward throughout the month of Thanksgiving and beyond. I ask you all to do the same.

Bee El