There’s no way around it: the holidays can be tough right now. Due to the economic crisis, some far-flung families can’t afford to get together. Others can’t swing the traditional feast, and they’re dialing it back.
Other families have lost people over politics or another cause, and there are heart-breakingly empty seats at the dinner table. Still others simply have nobody to share the day with for any of a number of reasons.
In 2022, we started a new tradition with our first online OP Friendsgiving. This community is like a family (complete with grouchy uncles and a few members who make us shake our heads with their political beliefs.)
But truly, we have such a lovely community of people here from so many different backgrounds. The conversations are enlightening and ever-interesting. Let’s “get together” here!
I realize this isn’t a substitute for truly being with the people you love, but I hope it helps the day go by a little more easily, just knowing that someone out here cares about you. We’ll be keeping this post front and center on Thanksgiving Day.
I’m going to post a bit about our Thanksgiving and a couple of recipes to get things started, and the things I’m grateful for this year. Please take a moment in the comments to do the same if you feel so moved. And let other commenters know that they’re not alone.
Our Thanksgiving menu
We have a smaller get-together this year and decided to do things a little differently. I don’t know about you, but our favorite parts of Thanksgiving is the sides. We really don’t care that much about the turkey. So we decided to have a Sidesgiving Dinner.
We’re having:
- Charcuterie board with fruit
- Stuffing muffins
- Fresh-made cranberry sauce
- Sweet potatoes
- Garlic green beans
- Dinner rolls
- Gravy
- Sweet corn with butter
- Baked brie
- Pinto beans with onion
For dessert, since I’m not really on my feet this year, I got an assortment of mini-pies from the bakery and a carton of vanilla ice cream. That way we can all have a little bit of each kind.
Aden contributed a Thanksgiving poem for preppers.
Aden wrote the most beautiful poem that I have to share with you. As a prepper, it will really hit home. It’s called Comparison, The Thief of Joy. He’s so creative.
What I’m grateful for this year
Dealing with a long-term injury has been tough, but I know I still have things really good.
I’m incredibly grateful for my family. My girls and I have such a beautiful relationship, and it’s a priceless treasure. The fact that they are adults (24 and 29) and they still want to talk to their mom nearly every day just brings a glow to my heart every time I hear the phone ring.
My friends are wonderful. I’m an introvert. I have very few friends. But the ones I do have…holy cow. They’re just incredible. They’re so supportive, so loving, and so encouraging. They never let me feel lonely during an entire year of barely being able to leave my apartment. They called, visited, texted, and sent memes. It seems like no matter what I’m dealing with or how “crazy” my latest idea sounds, they are there with suggestions, love, and cheerleading. They even tolerate my quirky need for solitude with unrelenting affection. They’ve got my back every step of the way. Y’all know who you are!
I have the most amazing readers in the Bloggerdom. My work is such a privilege. I know everybody says this, but I really never expected to be a blogger with lots of readers. The fact that I’ve gotten to know such a wonderful, supportive, and caring community through the work that I do is a gift that constantly amazes me. I’m going into my 12th year of blogging on The OP and I feel endless gratitude that you all help me do what I love every single day. I always wanted to write, and your visits to my website make that possible. How could I get any luckier than this? You guys mean the world to me.
My recovery is going better than expected. Last year was tough, with two surgeries and a terrible prognosis. But I continue to improve and am already well past the point of expected improvement. I know that in the new year, things will continue to get better, and I really look forward to rejoining the world again.
I’m thankful for the election results. I have been so concerned about the crazy culture taking over our country. I’m thrilled with the outcome of the election and I hope for real change and a step back from the insanity. I deeply hope that our new leadership will pave the way for greater peace, prosperity, health, and happiness.
What about you?
What’s a dish that you make every Thanksgiving without fail? Would you share the recipe with us in the comments? Is there a story behind the recipe? If so, please tell us!
What are you grateful for this year? What makes your heart sing? Let’s talk about it.
And if you are struggling, tell us. Hopefully, a burden shared is a lighter burden.
That being said, we here at the OP love our readers, and we’re so glad that we can provide information and entertainment to you.
Happy Friendsgiving, from my family to yours.
We are of the family are too far apart to really get together. And that is fine.
So, we do friendsgiving with friends in the immediate area. While we did do a traditional turkey dinner one year, with a organic turkey that I processed, we try to change it up. We did a standing rib roast one year. Another, I made three pizzas of different kinds.
This year the wife is making a pork loin that is wrapped in a sweet dough with par-cooked apples in cinnamon and nutmeg and a few other things. Slow bake it.
We will have some of favorite sides we all like, like green bean casserole, stuffing, etc.
I am making a onion dip for an appetizer and curing a salmon filet in a beet and maple syrup cure.
I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!
Oh my gosh, that pork sounds delicious! Enjoy!
The pork sounds wonderful. Any way you could share the recipe?
Could you put up the recipe for the pork loin wrapped in sweet dough with apples? It sounds good! I just looked online, but couldn’t find any recipe for it. Thanks!
Yeah, well, you have a hundred or thousands of friends on here who dearly love you, Daisy, and we all pray for you. That’s how come you are already past the expected improvement.
And you other regular posters–I love you ,too. May the Creator bless each of you with long healthy life full of service to God and Man.
And you quiet readers who rarely or never post anything–you are precious as well, and God Bless you every one.
Lady Life Grows, thank you for that very kind and lovely comment!
❤️
I’m thankful that your surgery went well. Hopefully you’ll be be able to walk and hike to your hearts content. God, health, and family are the Big Three things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving (and every day).
Remember, they’re ALL beautiful days…the weather just changes!
Woke up to a few inches of snow. Some may say, “Ugh!” But it looks lovely.
Fresh snow is cool…..and quiet ! Happy Friendsgiving everyone, and best wishes for your recuperation Daisy !
We had fresh snow yesterday. It is always beautiful. Roads were bad last night but cleared today.
I struggle with holidays. Lost my two adult children because they are Woke, while hubs and I are Bitter Clingers. They cancelled us, so here we are.
Still, we are blessed with good friends and good neighbors. We are relatively healthy, we are able to follow Jesus wherever He leads. We have a good life.
God bless each and every one of you today, and every day. May your needs – physical, emotional, and spiritual – be met in amazing ways.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
I am sorry to hear your children have treated you in such a way. Good to hear you have found support with friends and neighbors.
You are being true to you, and if others want to cancel you because of it, that’s their loss. I hope you have an amazing day with your friends and neighbors.
MsPony,
I sympathize and empathize what you are going thru (my details of the how/why are different, if you will, but the end result is the same) especially the “I struggle with the holidays” (this has pretty much been the case more or less since the pandemic started). My older brother is for sure brain-dead and woke (he acts like a negative-stereotypical Gen Z/Gen alpha then a prototypical Gen X). He is and I don’t use this term lightly,
PERSONAL NON-GRATA to me (there is not enough bandwidth right here to get into this as to why I despise, deplore, resent, don’t like him [and because of this initiative here, I don’t want to really anyways even if there were enough bandwidth here so to speak]).
I am sorry to hear about that, but good on you for staying true to yourself for not selling out, for standing up for your principles!!!! like you there are people that are good, decent, sympathetic/empathetic, unfortunately they are not the neighbors (I basically have to go to campus to interact with the people that admire/complimented [so different, but the same, and the end result is what ultimately matters]). Like Daisy, I am (technically-speaking) an Introvert (have some friends but not a massive clique or entourage) and I like being by myself and love independence (which for reasons I will not get into) complicated for me at the moment.
I love your last two sentences/clause/”line” (before your HAPPY THANKSGIVING statement)!!!! I need that badly these days and I need to see that (especially the last line).
Take care and thanks your post!!!!
Sorry about how the kids have acted. My fiance’s blood family is woke and rarely ever speaks to him. Thanksgiving has been good contact with family but none are close. The best visit on the phone was from my mid-20s grandson who called this evening. December will be harder. My 2nd son died last December 22nd. But I’ll talk to his daughter and widow and I’m grateful for them.
Just the wife and me this year. I’m not a big fan of turkey, and the wife isn’t much on eating leftovers, so this year I’m stuffing a chicken. The stuffing is a recipe I got from my Mom years ago (probably 50 years ago) that she made every year. Turns out that my memories of the recipe has one flaw in it, so it’s a modified recipe that I make every year. I make a big batch and freeze blocks for throughout the year.
The recipe is really simple, and it’s easy to scale to any size you need. You’ll need:
1 lb white bread, cubed and dried (still pliable, not like croutons)
1 lb breakfast sausage (hot, regular, or some of each)
1 egg, large
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 T butter
dried, ground sage
salt
chicken broth or stock – the amount varies due to bread dryness, but plan on 1 cup.
Pre-heat an oven at 325°F.
Saute the celery and onions until softened, but not browned.
Put the bread cubes in a large bowl. Add the cooled onions and celery. Break up the sausage and ‘dot’ the top of the breadcrumbs (this helps it to be mixed evenly). Add the egg, dust the whole thing with sage.
Mix by hand until reasonably mixed. Add chicken broth slowly and keep mixing until the stuffing is like bread dough. You do not want it to get soupy.
Take a tablespoon of the mix and either fry it or run it through the microwave for a taste sample. Adjust seasonings (salt, pepper, I always need to add more sage).
Put the mix in a bread loaf pan, covered, and put it in the oven until reaching an internal temperature of 165°F (This temp is good, but if you have concerns about doneness you can easily go to 175°F.) Time varies but start checking with a good meat thermometer after 45 minutes. If you added too much broth, baking at a lower temperature, uncovered, for a longer time will help dry things out – ask me how I know…
Serve warm, but it’s also good cold the next day or warmed in the microwave.
To freeze, just cut blocks that would serve a family meal, wrap in freezer paper, label with name and date. I’ve found some a year old that got lost in the freezer, and it was as good as the day it was made.
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. I wonder if it would cook well in a crockpot?
Could you put up the recipe for stuffing muffins?
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. And special thanks to Daisy for this blog, her well researched and reliable writing and her crew of contributing writers. You al inspire me.
I’m having 12 head here at the farm. Like 1MJH, I woke to a beautiful 5” blanket of snow this morning.
We’re going the traditional route this year. Turkey and all the trimmings. As I write this I’m roasting the bird in my wood fired oven that I finally got finished and hooked up this week. Then the rolls go in, then we eat.
Nice ! Hope you take lots of pics while you make memories ! Only a few at our place this year for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner….everyone is a bit spread out due to traveling and living far from us. We also invited a veteran who is a good friend and has been going through some life turbulence over the past year.
Heading to the spouse’s family for the yearly reunion. Never know how many will show. Sending Love and blessings to all.
I’m grateful to have my sister here. She’s been here over a month cleaning my house to get rid of mice. She went home for 2 weeks and came back 3 weeks ago when I broke my leg and has been taking care of me and my son. I don’t know what I’d do without her she’s a special blessing and I don’t know what I’d do without her. We cooked dinner together and she will go pick up my best friend who lives alone.
It’s going to be us and one son.
So grateful to be blessed with good friends
Happy Thanksgiving to Daisy and all! We are going to a friend’s house for a turkey dinner this afternoon. I’m bringing rolls, cucumber salad and home made boursin so I have it easy this year! Oh, and we’re supposed to bring some singles for a game. Hmmm, wonder what that’s all about!
Daisy, wishing you and your daughters a very happy Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving. Your feast of sides sounds delicious. Enjoy!
I am thankful to the search engine that brought me to the OP several years ago. I am so proud to be a part of this remarkable and supportive community of thinkers and writers.
Most of all, Daisy, thank YOU for leading this community and inspiring us all. I am grateful for your excellent recovery and continue to pray for you. Wishing you the best for the rest of 2024 and beyond.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING Daisy and all! first, I’m thankful that I know God and He’s always with me; thankful to be alive another day; for every blessing I have; my family/friends; my rescue kitties; the still beautiful world we have; all the folks who have, are still helping folks and animals; and also for you Daisy and your friends, for posting true info/tips we can use, we’ve all had a rough 4 yrs, here’s praying the next 4 will be better for all. I pray everyday for all those who have suffered by floods, grief, lack of basics, illness, storms, snows, etc. that they may receive the courage, strength and determination to look forward with hope, and know they are not forgotten. God bless all, stay well, safe.
Happy Thanksgiving from central Ky, all! I don’t post much but I keep up regularly. Daisy, I’m still praying for you and your recovery. I can’t imagine how much your patience has been tested! I’m glad for a steady mend. We’re making turkey and sides here, along with a sad-looking Black Forest cake that didn’t turn out as well as last time. Stepson is making roasted Brussels sprouts and hubs is frying the turkey. Kids and grandkids are on their way. No snow, sadly. Maybe next year!
I am grateful for your columns, Daisy…and all the many, many tips and helpful information you provide.
My husband is strictly a “one-day-at-a-time” guy (which got him through nearly 40 years of rotating shifts, so that’s good) and contributes little to my prepping efforts.
Reading your blogs, purchasing some of your very reasonably-priced books and getting ideas about prepping economically have all been amazingly helpful.
So…many, many thanks to YOU, Daisy!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your girls!
💜🦃💜
What a lovely post, Daisy!
Hau’oli La Ho’omakika!
We are hosting family and doing a spatchcock turkey, mash potatoes and gravy, and brussel sprouts with bacon. I’m not sure exactly what everyone else is bringing, but in Hawaii pretty much everything is a potluck on some scale, and I know there will be far too much food!
I’m thankful for my family and dear friends, our good health l, our home and good food on the table, and that while we are not rich we do have “enough” and my heart is full.
Happy Thanksgiving!
My spouse and I are having a quiet day, as usual, just us and our two cats. I feel fortunate to have a job with a fairly generous time off policy so it’ll be a mellow four day weekend. We’ll probably spend it doing art, watching videos, doing a little woodworking (her) and gardening (me). I called my folks today, despite the results of the election they are still speaking to me though it was a near thing with my Mom.
I am not much into big parties and gatherings and I love leftovers, so todays dinner will mean we don’t have to cook for a while. Dinner will be the biggest free range turkey I could reserve at the local natural foods store, mashed gold potatoes and homemade gravy, stuffing from scratch, pumpkin pie, homemade wine. All things we love, simple foods made with the best ingredients we an find, and I’m very thankful for that, too.
Here’s a recipe for everyone, I’m not making it this time but often do. The ingredients are pantry stable too!
Pumpkin Muffins
2 cups flour of your choice (I like spelt)
1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup, or half cup brown sugar
1/3 cup powdered milk of choice plus 1/2 cup water OR 1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
1-2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, to taste
2 eggs (could also use egg whites, or powdered egg)
1 can pumpkin puree (not pie filling, can also use frozen pumpkin)
Mix dry ingredients. mix wet ingredients until you have a batter. Scoop into muffin tin. I like using silicone muffin liners or else they stick like heck.
Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, let rest for ten minutes before eating. Can also be baked for about 45 min in a loaf pan.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and thank you Daisy for hosting this!
There will be just two of us to eat this year. He doesn’t care too much for turkey, but I will fix one to suit me for Christmas. I fixed a nice large spiral-cut ham that will become many future meals and skin and bones for future pots of beans. I was given some very nice zucchini squash So I made calabasitas with squash, a yellow onion, chicken bone broth, and a bit of green chile. It’s a typical New Mexican dish. Baked fresh sweet potatoes with just a bit of butter and a sprinkle of salt. Desert and dinner both used a bit of homemade cranberry relish. 2 lb cranberries, 2 oranges, 1 peeled and 1 stem and flower ends trimmed off. Cut as needed to blend with 1/4 cup water. Blend till nearly smooth and season with sugar to taste. Then pour it all into a strainer and drain off the juice. The thick relish is then served as is. The juice is mixed 1 part juice to 2 parts ice water. This is what we drink with the holiday meals. I guess it would be ok 1 part juice, 1 part ice water, and 1 part vodka but we aren’t drinkers. I served cheesecake with cranberry sauce on it as dessert. So a pretty easy but tasty meal. Enough for 1 more full meal and lots of ham for later on.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I had to work, so I missed dinner with the family, but there was plenty left! I made my homemade stuffing (very similar to Ray’s shared recipe!), corn pudding, and devilled eggs yesterday, as my contribution to the meal. I am thankful for family and friends-including all y’all here-, I have a job and a roof over my head. And hope for the future, now.
Thank you, Daisy, for your beautiful message! Spent the holiday with some family members and good friends. I made the green bean casserole this year, and had to use a crockpot for lack of an oven…they were delicious (used a can of cream of chicken in place of one of the cans of mushroom, and added some freshly grated Parmesan and Worcestershire!) Sauteed the onions in a dry skillet to crisp them before adding on top. I am grateful and blessed because my cat walked in today, four days after going missing…we thought she had been taken by a predator! God is good and answered my prayers! God bless you and your girls, Daisy, and I will continue to pray for your recovery~
Glad you got your cat back! A Thanksgiving gift!
My wife and I are about to celebrate (in March) 2 years of post Escape From WA. Our children are there, our grandchildren are there. The kids have their own struggles, personal and spiritual. We were invited again to a church member’s home for dinner and it was great. Our house in WA which has been an albatross for over a year sold/closed yesterday. The financial bleeding has stopped and we can finally relax, heal and start moving forward – the pastor and his wife’s eyes widened when they saw the tithe (it’s a small church)! We are grateful for God carrying us through that hard time. We are grateful for the possibility of some sanity and additional financial relief coming with the new Administration but don’t ‘worship’ him as some have accused us of. It’s a small community with a few blue hairs (and I don’t mean older folks), far more in the big cities nearby but still peaceful and relaxed here. To everyone with family conflict, stick to your principles. If that means as mentioned earlier going No Contact, that is the choice of those who refuse to communicate. Above all, pray for guidance and comfort based on His leadership and His awareness of the situations around us and get ready for a new and interesting year ahead.
Glad your house sold and that you have a good church (you didn’t say that exactly, but I’m hoping that it is). We also go to a very small church. 15 is a big Sunday; it’s one of the things I’m thankful for.
Family estrangement is rough, but one thing I’ve learned in life is that I can’t make my family do anything, including getting along. We have 2 family members who literally hate each other; one of them is willing to attend family gatherings and tolerate the other one. The other refuses to even be in the same building as the first one. (It has nothing to do with politics. They both supported the same candidate.)
I agree with your assessment of President Trump. I didn’t vote for him to be my pastor or Sunday School teacher, but to lead America. Hope you have a Blessed Christmas.
Every year, my family has home-made pumpkin pie. This year, my sister (the hostess for the family gathering) asked me to make a pumpkin spice cake. I’d never made one before, so I searched the internet for a from-scratch pumpkin spice cake recipe which used ingredients I already had on hand.
I found a wonderful recipe at The Pioneer Woman’s site (). Because I had no cream cheese on hand, I had to eliminate the multitude of recipes which required that for icing. The Pioneer Woman’s recipe uses a delicious and easy caramel glaze. I also compared the photos shown with many recipes, and I liked the fine-grained “crumb” (texture) of the recipe linked herein (I’m hoping links are permitted).
Because I’m at high altitude (7,000ft), I used 1/2 the baking soda. I used half white sugar and half light brown sugar in the cake, and I used a bit of maple syrup in the glaze. The cake came out looking exactly as shown in the photo online, and everyone raved about it. It’s firm, moist, and the pumpkin flavor and spices flavors are nicely balanced, neither overpowering the other.
I’ve never shared a recipe online like this until now, but I appreciate Daisy and her warm writing style so much that I’m sharing this one with the OP readers. I suspect many others here cook from scratch, at least sometimes.
Good morning! For some reason, the link didn’t go through but I found this using your description. Please let me know if it’s the right one! 🙂
https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a36984465/pumpkin-spice-cake-recipe/
I am incredibly grateful for my friend Julie who, due to her multiple health issues which devastated her financially, took us up on the offer to move in with my 90 Yr mom. She does the yeomans work of caring for her despite her own health struggles. She has been an amazing answer to prayer and Mom is still living in her own house because of Julie.
My go to recipe is cornbread dressing. I use boxed chicken or turkey cornbread dressing, add chopped walnuts, diced tart apple, and dried cranberries, and chopped onion and celery. Cook the onion and celery in butter til soft, add apples and cranberries and walnuts, then add the dressing and follow the box directions. You can eat it like that, or bake it in the oven to make it better.
Happy and blessed Thanksgiving everyone!
Your dressing sounds really delicious. We’ve already run out of leftovers, so I might make that this week.
Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We all have much to be thankful for – family, friends, food, a home, etc. Blessings to everyone.