Thankful

[klondike]

Kilt: Again I apologize since I was speaking in plurals - kilts, plaids, socks. I've often heard the term tartan plaid and obviously the person speaking was unaware that plaid was an unnecessary word addition. When I saw The River Dance, the stockings were all at the knee, not between the knee and ankle. Some people, you never know what they will do, do you?

No apology needed, Anne; although "River Dance" was of Irish origin, you've certainly got the right idea, for the most part, and a good eye for detail; I shouldn't have used the descriptor between, as that sounded like a measurement - I meant it as in from & to; kilt hose are long, mostly wool, & ribbed, and are indeed worn right up to the bottom of the knee and then cuffed over, usually hiding the garter-portion of the flashes (the little tartan wool "pennants" that hang a couple inches down from the cuff over the body of the stocking, on the outer calf).
Speaking of what some people will do, or as my grammy used to say: "what folks get up to", the only Scottish garb no-no that really bothers me is when I spot men who can't seem to wear their kilts where they belong - i.e., with the apron hem level with the middle-to-top of the kneecap, & no higher, and the girth (the front topline) crossing directly over the navel, or no more than an inch above it.
And trust me, it matters not how "good" a guy's legs are, or what his personal style might be there are just no excuses for wearing a kilt "mini" style - whether from ignorance or arrogance, it's insulting to those who take their heritage & history seriously, and misleading to the public who genuinely desire to understand us better.

Artichokes:. . . I hope you liked them, and I also hope they were stuffed like we Italians make them.
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Nope, Cait had them served to her by her Cherokee mentor who hailed from Louisiana, so they were simply steamed to tenderness & slathered with olive oil, so that was how she served them to us.
Don't worry though; I've got a tour of Lambeau Field on my Bucket list, so come that year, I'll just detour from Amtrak and come over to your place for artichokes italiano, OK?
Don't worry, I'll email you first!

[Birdy]

Thank you to Alison and Uncle Stevie's recipes...sounds like a great weekend to me!

I have been offline for a bit, but glad to be back and hear about all your Thanksgivings. My heart goes out to those who had a rough time and those who were missing family members. My husband's family didn't get together at all, due to the loss of our brother-in-law this year. His kids Thanksgiving hopped between their friend's houses; they didn't want to do the traditional thing and just miss him more. We plan to have a Christmas get together at a restaurant. We ate at my 94 year old Grandma's. Just pull out your memory-filed Norman Rockwell and you've got the picture.

I've already had several Christmas celebrations and it's so cold. Yesterday I went on my niece's field trip to an outdoor Colonial village and ice skating. 25 degrees. It was less miserable than surgery but more miserable than an all day wedgie in too-small long johns. Still, I plastered a smile on my face and made the best of it because I am a Great Aunt! (And I carried about a pound of chocolates for us to sneak all day!)

I AM THANKFUL to be on the couch all warm and cozy and back on line with you all! BIrdy

[JackFavell]

It's good to have you back, Birdy! We missed you.

I am very truly and especially thankful this morning, because Andrew's car caught fire in the driveway last night, while we were sitting down to dinner, we are all fine, thank goodness. It started in the little heater that the Subaru company installed, meant to keep the car warm enough to start the next morning, when it is cold wintertime. I am actually glad to know that was the cause, because my mind was racing back to the fact that my husband had just brought my daughter home from dance class fifteen minutes before the fire. We were also lucky that it wasn't in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping.

Here in New England the houses are old, tindery and very close together, so we were pretty scared. My daughter was taking a shower at the time, so we got her wrapped up in a sleeping bag, grabbed clothes and took her to the neighbors on the other side. The house was untouched and we are all totally fine, a little shaken, but nothing was damaged except the garage door and floor (from water damage). The truth is, we could have probably stayed in the house for the whole thing, but I'm glad we took precautions, it could have been so much worse. The hamster and fish are totally fine, no smoke got into the house at all. There was only a tiny bit of a smell of smoke in the kitchen afterwards (those new windows were a good investment). No neighbor's houses were touched either, in fact, the whole thing was pretty small. The tires popping was pretty much the only real dangerous event. We spent 45 minutes at the neighbor's, my daughter and me, while the wonderful firemen put out the fire and then checked every bit of the house and garage and surrounding area for embers. It was pretty small in retrospect, we are relieved, but still a bit weirded out this morning.

It could have been so much worse, but thanks to the neighbors who called 911 faster than us, and to our great fire department, very little was actually burned. Even the interior of the car was completely undamaged. We're giving thanks for living where we do with such great people around us. Thanks for listening.

[movieman1957]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. I'm glad you and the house are ok. The car is much easier to replace.

[JackFavell]

Yes. That's true. Andrew was so freaked, he takes things so personally, as if it was his fault, even though the heater was defective. I have spent the entire night making sure he didn't have the slightest feeling of guilt creep in. He was terribly upset at what might have happened, that Alice might have been hurt, when the reality is that we were not in much danger, even if it had happened in the middle of the night we would have heard the tires blow and been able to get out of the house in time. Chance are that the garage would have caught which is not attached to the house anyway. He is a half glass empty person and I am a glass half full type, generally speaking, so I am trying to keep him from personalizing things. Plus, he is very much a car person so that's another painful thing for him to deal with.

On the bright side, Alice is excited that we will be getting a new car.

[movieman1957]

Here is a little perspective. A lady told me this story at a class yesterday. A customer of hers had a four car detached garage. He had four cars and all of them were rather nice. They were all in the garage when it caught fire. Burned down his garage and destroyed all four cars.

All of you are safe and there was not a thing Andrew could have done. (And just as well he didn't try.) Is Alice going to help pick it out?

[JackFavell]

Andrew likes the Subaru cars, so most likely he will get one, but I am willing to bet that Alice will get at least a voice in what color we get. We'll see. Right now, lime green, purple and black are her favorite colors. If we could get one with all three colors, she'd be a very happy girl.

[knitwit45]

Wendy, I am thankful you and your dear family are all ok. Things can be replaced, but not people. My prayers this morning are of gratitude, for you, for the firemen, the neighbors all being in the right places at the right time.

[JackFavell]

Thank you, Nancy. We really appreciate your prayers and good wishes. We are shaky, but basically fine and it was a small fire, luckily. it's just a wake up call for us to have a better plan in place for the kind of thing you really can't prepare for. You think as long as you are careful with your dryer and stove, you won't have to deal with a fire, but it could come out of the blue like this, through no fault of your own, and it's best to know what to do beforehand as best you can.

We needed a new car anyway.

[pvitari]

Wow, JackFavell, that must have been terribly scary!

I'm very happy that you're all right. Plus you get a new car. :)

I totalled my car once with the opposite element. During a huge downpour one dark November evening, I drove into a pool of standing water that had flooded the right lane of the road (the lane I was driving in) and my car immediately died. When I stepped out of the car, the water was up to the top of my thigh. This was on a busy four-lane road, it was already pitch black, the rain was pouring down and the traffic was zooming by (except for my lane, which was now completely blocked.)

The car was declared a total loss, which upset me as it was my favorite car ever, in a hunter green color that is impossible to find these days. (They don't seem to make green cars any more, only a taupe/khaki with a greenish tinge in the right light) and leather seats.

I recommend fire extinguishers in several rooms in the house.

[JackFavell]

It is sad that they don't make more colors available in new cars - you'd think they could now, too... When I was last in Europe everyone had individual colors and designs on their smart cars, why can't we be more like that? Now cars all look alike anyway. I wish there were different shapes too.

With flooding like that, it's fortunate you were not washed away yourself - I'm glad you are here to tell your story!

We'll see how much of a new car we can afford after everything is said and done.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm so glad you are all alright, how scary but it sounds like everyone had great presence of mind.

Alice will probably remember it as an exciting night. I hope she gets her lime green and purple car and that daddy particularly will like driving a car of that colour.

[JackFavell]

Yes, I think she has been the quickest to bounce back.

The man who came to look at the garage for cleanup said we are lucky our house didn't go up in flames. He said that if the fire trucks had taken any more time than they did (two minutes), it probably would have caught fire. Nice guy, but not very reassuring.

Lets all move on to some different "thankfuls" now...I didn't mean to take this thread in a different direction.

I am thankful that we live in an area where Greek pizza is the norm. ChiO, I am learning to make my own pizza crust, and wonder if you have a recipe for good Greek crust, nice and chewy with the flavor of good olive oil?

[charliechaplinfan]

You don't need to apologise for changing the direction of the thread, we're friends and here to listen and help.

I would love a recipe for Greek pizza crust, Chio.

[ChiO]

Greek pizza? Never heard of such a thing. Gyros instead of pepperoni, feta instead of (Italian cheese of choice), and Kalamata olives instead of those canned black monstrosities?

Of course, if an establishment serves food at a reasonable price -- even if it's a pizza joint -- then it's probably owned by a Greek.

Vasilopita (St. Basil (Vasili) New Year bread) and Easter bread -- now those are recipes we have.

Hold it! By "Greek pizza", are you referring to "Chicago deep dish pizza"? As I recall, the creator of that was a Greek restaurateur in Chicago, owner of Pizzeria Uno. It has thick chewy crust.

We never touch the stuff.