Gratitude

For Thanksgiving I plan to practice being thankful.  My family of origin used to go around the table and "let" each person say something they were grateful for.  Some were grateful for the food, for each other, and there was a certain amount of foot dragging and groaning from the teens at the table accompanied by "I'm grateful my sister is not sitting next to me," and the like.  Sometimes you heard surprisingly wonderful things.

I'm grateful because it is not, for us at least, a shopping holiday. We get to visit, talk, catch up.  Sometimes some of us go for walks, play games, or take some kids to a movie.  And we eat many tasty things though now there are more salads and green veggies than there used to be and more diabetics at the table.  I bring a green bean casserole made of green beans of course, almonds, grilled mushrooms, and bacon.  No sauce.  And I am the bringer of deviled eggs.  With 30 people at the table I have borrowed every Pampered Chef or Rubbermaid egg carrier I could.  It's like Easter at my house the day before with all the eggs boiling away. Last year I added a plate of eggs with avocado in them.  Some people said "eww!" and some loved them, they were all eaten up.

I'm grateful we are not Black Friday participants.  We hang out and bother each other all weekend without help from malls or shopping.  I'm grateful we are not a family who battles on holidays.  I am grateful that both my sons will be with us.

I plan on keeping all my gift buying local.  We are lucky that we have many small shops in our little downtown area. We still have several small bookstores here.  For the teens in the family I get some small thing and a card with money, the gift card that's good everywhere. Sometimes the temptation to buy from the big A and have it wrapped as well as mailed is too much for me to resist and I don't.  I have already ordered something I couldn't get here.  I will get out and shop the many artists in and about town to. Many artists, poets, and authors live here.  Art is for sale here in all the coffee shops, wine shops, and two of the book stores.  I remember trying to make a living selling my art, never could get beyond needing a part time job.  I'm grateful for all the arts people here and much of their work is marvelous.  Saturday begins an event called a "Pop-up" art sale.  Pop-up because the local arts organization rents a room or hall for only three days (sadly we have many empty store fronts) and sells the art of local artists.  Shopping and a chance to see a galley of local artists combined.

Photo Nancy Fox

Here's my barley-chicken soup recipe.  I like my soup thicker than the picture above but it looks similar to mine.  It makes about 8 servings.  Good for using up left over Turkey too.

In your favorite soup pot:

This is approximate as I am kind of a fling-it-in cook when it comes to soups and stews.
2+ cups chopped chicken (I use a roasted chicken from the grocery)
The amount of chicken can vary depending on how meat I want at the time.
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped carrots (I slice them in slivers)
6 cloves of garlic (you can of course use more or less, I'm a big fan of garlic)
4 tsp olive oil, add more while cooking as needed.
5+ cups of chicken broth as needed (I use low salt broth)
1/4-1/2 tsp garam masala depending on your taste, I love this stuff, use it a lot.
  (or combo of cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg & mace)
1 tsp dried basil
1 cup barley
Salt as you wish.

Heat the oil and saute the carrots, garlic, and onion in the pot.
Add the chicken, barley, herbs, and half the broth.  Bring to a boil.
Turn to simmer, adding more broth as needed and cooking until vegetables and barley are tender.
Adjust seasoning to taste.  I don't usually use salt and I add more pepper or tasbaco sometimes.
The time to cook the barley varies depending on how dry it was.  Eat it up yum!