Have started getting ready for Thanksgiving. This morning a friend of DH's gave him a mess of collards early this morning. By six a.m. I was washing them. I pull them from the big center stem, bunching the leaf up tearing it and dropping it into five gallon stainless steel pot my family shipped oysters in back in the 50's & 60's. In the pot is a ham hock. Not just any ham hock but one from Darden's Country Store over Smithfield way. It's the old Virginia style of curing hams that the Smithfield area is famous world wide. I add a few seasonings and let them simmer and simmer and simmer. . .
We used to always get the Old Genuine Smithfield Hams and I'd soak and cook those babies. But, ten or fifteen years ago or so another friend who worked with DH told him of their cousin who cures hams and his wife cooks them, slices, and packages them for a reasonable fee. These hams are cured using their family recipe. So, we decided to try one and since then I have not cooked another ham but get them from the Darden's.
Now, my family would disown me if I did not have turkey and ham both for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We also get hams from them for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, special events such as christenings and baptisms, showers for a new baby, etc. Sometimes in the summer we get a hankering and get one for the Fourth or Labor Day.
Today, we packed the SUV with four of the seven grandkids the oldest is almost 16 then the youngest three of the seven and went to get our Thanksgiving ham. On the trip back home we sample the ham, have a Moon Pie, cold Coke from a glass bottle, some chips of some sort, peanut candy, etc. Another must have from there are chunks of cheese they cut from a big round of cheese. Here is a picture I borrowed from
DARDEN'S COUNTRY STORE website of their hams curing. . .
Click on
DARDEN'S COUNTRY STORE and go visit them and this wonderful tradition we Virginians love.
Tomorrow I'll be cooking the turkey breasts. . . there will be four of them. . .our family likes white meat so I stopped doing the whole turkey as I was only one who ate dark meat after my grandparents and mother died. There will be green beans seasoned with ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pudding with marshmallows, corn pudding, stuffing, homemade yeast rolls, gravy, cranberries, etc. . .
She lives in America Samoa and she has a web-store which has yummy Samoan and Hawaiian fabrics at delightful prices. Look at these seven beauties I ordered from her.
Coming all that distance you'd think it would take weeks but I got them in just a few days.
Don't know where the past four years went but Laura is four today!!! We gathered and celebrated family and friends making her day very special.
Laura and sister Rachel who will be three in two weeks.
Great-grandmommy Campbell watching Laura open her gifts.
New clothes..
Earrings...
There were coloring books, crayons, Campbell Barbie Doll, Books, lipstick, candy, Little Pony, and the last gift was a beautiful princess bike from Mommy and Daddy.
The two kitties stuck their noses out and looked at me as to say I was CRAZED if I thought they would go out in that cold white stuff and hightailed it back inside to fill their tummies and eat.
Emily still isn't sure about snow but she at least wasn't crying while out in it today.
Today the sun is out shining bright and even though it is below freezing it is melting. So the grand-babies and their cousins got busy this morning with sliding down the hill in the grand-babie's back yard.
Rachel hiking back up
Laura and Rachel picked out the decoration for his cake.
Their Momma said he was very lucky it wasn't a princess cake!
was ill. Doctor was afraid of lymphoma and she had early stages of kidney disease. But she perked up and was back to her usual self for almost a year. And it was decided she didn't have lymphoma. Then all of a sudden she started acting strange. I took her in and she was full of lymphoma tumors and nothing to do but send her to heaven for healing there. Picked up her ashes after Christmas. This was the same veterinarian who had to send our precious Beau (Black Lab) to heaven on the 23rd of December nine years ago and had not forgotten.
Tradition has it that we go buy our Christmas Tree Friday of Thanksgiving Weekend. I put the lights on it this year as I did few years as DH isn't able to do that any longer. This year the three
.and two year old granddaughters did the decorating.
The two year old has just hung an ornament her mother made in preschool or kindergarten which has her mother's picture on it.
The three year old up on the step-stool hanging ornaments.
Sampson their dog supervising their work as the three year old comes down off the step-stool.
The finished tree just as they did it. I did put a few on at the very top. Each day they move a few around but I haven't touched it. You may say there are clusters and bare spots but Nana says it is beautiful just as they did it!!
And I've done some baking. The two year old
and three year old granddaughters have been helping
Now I must get back to my wrapping and put on a double batch of fudge...
We used to always get the Old Genuine Smithfield Hams and I'd soak and cook those babies. But, ten or fifteen years ago or so another friend who worked with DH told him of their cousin who cures hams and his wife cooks them, slices, and packages them for a reasonable fee. These hams are cured using their family recipe. So, we decided to try one and since then I have not cooked another ham but get them from the Darden's.
Click on DARDEN'S COUNTRY STORE and go visit them and this wonderful tradition we Virginians love.
