Thankful greetings from Plum Cottage

 Hello friends, sorry for the long absence, I hope to be blogging on a more regular basis. I just got a larger monitor which is a great help for aging eyes. I have many photos to edit, lots of flowers, etc. Fencing is still coming along. ;-) House projects are ongoing.

It is hard to believe that our celebration of Thanksgiving here in the US is this Thursday. This year has zipped along so fast. I will be celebrating with a sweet family from my church and am looking forward to a day of laughter, love, good food and thanksgiving.

 I have so much to be thankful for. This little cottage, lots of flowers, butterflies, bees, birds, including several fast flying hummingbirds, two outdoor feline visitors, food to eat, a comfy bed to sleep in, hot and cold running water, friends, family, a Bible believing church, and much more.

I am learning to be thankful in all circumstances. To be found in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, (NASB) is the following:

Rejoice always,
pray without ceasing,
in everything give thanks;
for this is the will of God
for you in Christ Jesus.

Last night I watched a you tube video about being thankful and part of the msg was about how when we praise and our hearts are filled with gratitude to God, we are energized. 

When we dwell on negative things in our life, we become filled with 'dis-ease' in body, spirit and mind. The more we are thankful, the better we feel even though our circumstances may still be the same. Our hearts grow lighter, our faith stronger in The One who loves us deeply.

Below are some other scripture verses about being thankful.

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God. 

Psalm 136:1
Give thanks to the Lord,
for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever. 

Colossians 3:15
Let the peace of Christ
rule in your hearts,
since as members of one body
you were called to peace.
and be thankful. 

Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do,
whether in word or deed,
do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Psalms 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him,
and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

Psalms 95:2-3
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.

2 Corinthians 4:14-18
We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead
will also raise us with Jesus
and present us with you to himself.

All this is for your benefit,
so that the grace that is reaching more and more people
may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart.
Though outwardly we are wasting away,
yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light and momentary troubles
are achieving for us an eternal glory
that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
but on what is unseen,
since what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal. 

******

What we see can weigh us down, or draw us closer to Jesus our Great God, as we thank Him in all things. We as believers in Him are not promised a life with no problems. We are promised that He will be with us always. We are to take heart.

 Psalms 27:14
Wait for the LORD;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the LORD.

 Joshua 1:9
Be strong and courageous!
Do not be terrified nor dismayed,
for the LORD your God is with you
wherever you go.

Psalm 31:24
Be strong
let your heart take courage,
All you who hope in the LORD.

 ******

Here is a new song we have been singing in church the past few weeks. This is a you-tube version. The other night is was going through my mind all night, but, what a great song to be being repeated in my mind.

 My pastor shared an interesting tidbit yesterday. He was talking about being happy and a list of the most thankful people in the world. The Jewish people, in spite of all that they have gone through and are going through, are at the top of the list.

Americans celebrate thanksgiving once a year.

Jewish people celebrate thanksgiving once a week, on Friday, with their shabbat.

As Christians we have the privilege and the choice to celebrate thanksgiving each and every day for all that God has done and is doing in our lives.

It is our choice.  Do we choose to be thankful?

Because of God's great love for His creation, He took on flesh, came as a babe into this world, His name is Jesus. He gave His life to pay for our sins, past, present and future. He rose from the grave, defeating death, so that we may live with Him forever, made perfect and pure by his great sacrifice.  Each day we are blessed with is a gift. God loves each of us and wants a close relationship. He is lovingly waiting for you to call out to Him if you haven't done so already. 

******

Enjoy all of the prep work for celebrating this Thanksgiving. Enjoy the day whether you are by yourself or with others.

May you be inspired to be thankful every day.

Count your blessings. 

Happy Thanksgiving ~ every day.

FlowerLady

 

 

A Quiet Thanksgiving

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving.

We puttered around here Thanksgiving morning. (I had already made the pecan pie with struesel topping the day before.) I got the turkey giblets, and heart simmering along with the neck so that I could make gravy later. Then got the turkey in the oven, and made the green bean casserole. That was such a yummy casserole. I will definitely make it and the pecan pie again.

While I was puttering inside, DH moved a heavy bit of concrete that had been in the ground and had had a 4x4 post embedded for a fence post. The post had rotted and broken off, so the cement was dug up and just sitting around until we could figure out what to do with it. I thought of using it as a mushroom next to our huge frog out front, so that's where DH dug a hole to for the 'mushroom'. This morning I found a piece to put atop the square hole in the cement and like the look. Click on picture for a larger view.



~ Back to food preparation ~

For something to snack on to keep us from starving before dinner was ready, I cooked up the turkey liver in a bit of butter, mashed it all, added a tad of dry sherry, onion and garlic powders, and 4 oz of cream cheese. Mixed all together and refrigerated it until time. I served it with a little sherry and that was nice before the meal.

The spread was served on homemade garlic/onion bread that was cut into squares and triangles and toasted.


This was the best green bean casserole I've ever had. To the recipe I also added sliced water chestnuts and diced celery. I think I'm going to do up a batch of onion rings like in the recipe to have with wine before dinner some evening, as it's much less fattening than battered and fried onion rings. These were delicious.



The pie was made using 2 c. of processed fresh pumpkin, that I'd made up from a pumpkin we bought at the veggie market for $1 the day after Halloween. It was so good and then that struesel with the bits of candied ginger in it. Oh my. The recipes can be found here.



May we all have thankful hearts each and every day,
for our many blessings.

******

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude,

a quiet joy.

Ralph H. Blum

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

It's the time of year when we're reminded to give thanks.

Instead of waiting until next year to be reminded,

Let's make every day one of thanksgiving;

After all, each day is a unique gift.

So, give a hug for no reason;

Say I love you, just because;

Share a smile with a stranger;

Take the time to count your blessings;

Don't take anything or anyone for granted;

And end each day with no regrets.

Thank you, my friends and family,

For sharing, caring, laughing and crying with me.

I'm truly blessed to have each and every one of you in my life

And I am thankful you have allowed me

To be a part of yours.

May you and yours have a safe and memorable Thanksgiving.

Author Unknown

May all of you have a happy, love filled Thanksgiving day whatever you do.
I'm going to start doing some cooking/baking today,
more tomorrow and the bird on Thanksgiving.
So, this is my last post until after.

FlowerLady

Spiced Pumpkin Tiramisu Recipe

Here it is almost Thanksgiving once again, and my mind has started thinking about recipes for that 'looked forward to' dinner. For dessert, I think I'm going to fix Spiced Pumpkin Tiramisu. It's been a few years since I made it and it popped into my mind while thinking about what to fix this year. If you have never had it, you are in for a real treat. It is a relatively easy recipe and you will just love the result of your labors.

The recipe calls for Fra' Angelico but this year I'm going to use some Southern Comfort that we have, as we are out of Fra'Angelico. DH and I liked SoCo when we were younger, now it is a bit sweet and strange to us, so after looking it up on line yesterday to see if it would go with pumpkin, I will use it in this recipe. You just drizzle a little on the ladyfingers so it ought to be alright.

Here is the recipe. If you try it, I don't think you will be disappointed.

FlowerLady


SPICED PUMPKIN TIRAMISU

1 package Italian Ladyfingers (Soft, not hard cookies)
1/8 cup Frangelico liqueur
8 oz. Mascarpone (or cream cheese)
1/2 cup canned Pumpkin Puree
1 tsp. ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground Ginger
1/4 tsp. ground Mace
1-1/2 cups Confectioner's Sugar
1 tsp. Orange Extract
2-1/2 cups Heavy Cream, whipped and chilled, divided

Arrange ladyfingers on the bottom of a 9-inch square pan. Pour the Frangelico liqueur over the soft sweet ladyfingers. (You may substitute the same volume of Orange Juice for a non-alcoholic preparation.)

In a mixing bowl, blend together the mascapone with the pumpkin puree. Add the cinnamon, ginger, mace, confectioner's sugar and orange extract.

Fold in 1-1/2 cups of the whipped cream. Pour the mixture over lady fingers.

Gently spread remaining whipped cream on top of pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle the top with a dash or two of additional cinnamon, if desired.

Cover and refrigerate at least two hours before serving, or overnight.
Slice to serve.