A Note to Eve

Dear Evie:

Thanks for wishing me a Happy Thanks-giving. As for your question, did you kill your own turkey? The answer is: no, turkey season is in the spring. :o)

But, if we had been stalking an unlucky turkey, this is what his "track" would have looked like. I took this picture on our "farm" on October 25th.

Much love, Leslie

BANG BANG...An Untraditional Thanksgiving

In my old life, a traditional Thanksgiving meant going to church, hearing the people in the congregation give thanks for blessings received during the year, followed by a yummy turkey and friends and family at my parents' house.

In my new life, everything is different. Thanksgiving means...shooting? That's right.

Today, instead of going to church, I called in to a church service broadcast by one of my former churches in Connecticut. It was fun to listen in...I could recognize many voices.

As is true with my new life, it was a day packed with adventure. My husband and I took a glorious bike ride around the plantation. On the way, we stopped at a car that was parked in the middle of the road. What were they doing? Give up? Why...seeding oyster beds, that's what. Of course. :o)

Then we came back to start the next adventure of the day. A little background...Jeff, my husband's best friend, passed on right before our wedding, and we have stayed close to his family ever since. His wife still lives next door for part of the year. So, today, we spent our Thanksgiving with her, and her daughter and son-in-law and two grandsons.

We took all of them -- minus Sara who was cooking -- to our "farm". Jesseca and I picked while the guys did "boy things." Here's a picture of me pickin'.


And, here's a picture of what we picked!


Then, she and I walked part of the grounds, ending up at the pond where the guys were fishing. Lots of fun, not a lot of fish.

Later on, we went shooting...that's what you can do when you live on a sporting plantation. Even the ladies shoot, usually not to kill, just to hit the sporting clays. I'm not there yet, but will let you know when I take my first shot.

A different Thanksgiving, for sure, but it was a great day.

Check out this sunset!

Check out this sunset -- I took this picture from our backyard. Gorgeous!

New Day Tomorrow!

After days of rain, I see a clearing. Here is the view off of our backyard.

Tomorrow will be a new day!

Halloween

Yep, that's me.

Can you guess who I am? Yes, Glinda.

We've Got Okra!

Check this out...have you ever seen red heirloom okra? Here it is. I love the flower.

And, for those of you bubba-ettes who have more experience cooking with it than this Connecticut Yankee, I'm open to recipe ideas. Thanks. :o)

PS. Here is the Star of David okra. Pretty cool, no?

Pickin' Pecans

This is what a pecan looks like when it falls off the tree. Isn't is splendid? This pecan is about 2 inches long. Now, that's a pecan!

It's one of the many gifts of the Lowcountry's bounty...pecans.

As a born Yankee, I learned to say "pee-CONS'", with the accent on "cons." Here we say PEE-cans...unless it is in a pie and then it becomes "pee can" pie, with equal emphasis on the "pee" and the "can", go figure.

So, here's a picture of my husband pickin' pecans under one of our favorite trees. Look at the size of the basket. We've got a bunch of baskets full. How many? More than 3. They should last us awhile!

And, we are going to comb over every inch of the earth and pick up every pecan because here's something you might not know. Pecan trees yield fruit every other year -- so next year, no pecans. You gotta get them while you can.

There is nothing quite like a fresh pecan. True, they are difficult to crack, but that makes it more fun.

We have a special device in our kitchen just for shellin' pecans. You can adjust the back to hold the pecan, located on the left hand side, depending on the length of the nut, then grab the lever on the right hand side and swing to the left...CRACK! The sharp point on the right hand side, pierces the shell and it cracks perfectly in half, if you do it right. And, if for some reason, it doesn't crack quite right, you can still use the pick, which looks like a utensil you might use to remove the hard-to-get pieces of a lobster. Lots of effort, plenty of reward.

There it is. The meat of the nut. And, when it comes right off the tree, like in the above picture, it will be supple and moist and ... absolutely yummy. I've gotta go...am going to go crack a PEcan.