Mindless Monday, Cranberry Relish, A (New-to-Me) Thanksgiving Tradition

Good Monday morning!

RANDOMNESS #1 - The Thanksgiving Basketball Tournament didn't end well Saturday, but we're hoping for a different outcome today and tomorrow.

Until then...


Intense Claire and Roxie...


Intense Joy...


And Intense Mallory.

But don't forget...


Pretty Ponytail Roxie...


Polite Joy...


And Smiley Mallory.

I've got a feeling, today's going to be our day!

RANDOMNESS #2 - Many of you have asked me what I'm going to change our "family name" to when Melia and Austin marry next October.

Acutally, no one has mentioned it, but it has been bothering me a little.

I've come up with the following solution:

We will become The Fabulous Faulkners, since The Faulkner Six doesn't have the same flow as The Faulkner Five.

Also, we can add as many Faulkners to The Fabulous Faulkners as our heart desires and it fits... perfectly.

"But what about when Roxie marries? She'll have a different last name. Her husband will have a different last name. What will you do then?" you mak ask.

Don't worry.

After I finally figured out The Fabulous Faulkners, I spent a few nights tossing and turning trying to figure out what we would do when a new name was thrown into the mix.

My solution?

Right now, I've decided to call the group ____________________ (Roxie's future husband's first name) and The Fabulous Faulkners.

It has a 50's band name feel to it, doesn't it?

Of course, we may just end up being called Mikie and Belinda.

And that would be okay.

It's how we started out, after all.

RANDOMNESS #3 - This year, The Faulkner Five and The Lovely Melia will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Oxford at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

That means, my side of the family got together this past weekend for an early Thanksgiving.

And that means more Fall pics.


The Chick was hungry.


Bev and Tommy.


Katie (with a new do), Roxie and Grandmother.


MamMa and Katie.


Austin and Melia.


Going up the stairs in no specific order... Austin, Brad, Grandmother, Josh and Zac.


Me and Mikie.

And if you aren't bored enough, these are some of the dishes I prepared for this year's feast...


I copied this from Pinterest. It was cute... and I was the only one that saw it on the Thanksgiving Buffet.

Roxie was near the front of the line, and instead of taking a few apple slices and dipping caramel sauce from a FULL BOTTLE OF CARAMEL PLACED STRATEGICALLY BESIDE THE TURKEY APPLE PLATE, she took the little caramel-filled TURKEY FACE BOWL!

All anyone else in the family saw was a bunch of sliced apples PLACED STRATEGICALLY ON THE TOP HALF OF A GREEN PLATE!

They didn't understand!

But unlike my usual self, I refuse to be bitter or fussy.

It is what it is... and Roxie will never be allowed to be in front of the Thanksgiving Buffet line again.

So there.


I made Cranberry Relish again, and even though I've given you the step-by-step recipe before, I'm going to do it one more time below.


As always, I made my Deviled Eggs. I make them four times a year (Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas).

Bev eats the yellows and Mikie eats the whites.

And everyone else acts normally and eats the combo.

I also contributed corn and rolls, but I'm almost certain everyone out there knows exactly what corn and rolls look like.

I'll spare you the 8" x 10" glossy!

RANDOMNESS #4 - The grandkids and Grandmother read their Thankful Letters after we ate. (This was the 20th year... we think. Grandmother has the makings of a very sweet Thanksgiving Thankful Letter Book, and hopefully, we will work on putting that project together some time in the next year or so.)

This year, I sent a message out to everyone in the family (Facebook, text, smoke signal, etc.) asking them to bring any and all spare change from their purses, bags and vehicles. (I told you about this a few posts back.)

We emptied all the change into bags after lunch and the Thankful Letters. Austin, Melia, Roxie and Katie made the trek to Walmart to the Coin Star machine.

When they returned, we had $88.35 to send to the Red Cross Philippines Relief Fund.

Mom and I were talking about it this morning, and we're already making plans to implement a new service project next Thanksgiving.

I'll tell you more about it ten months from now.

Right now I'm trying to wrap my head around the week ahead!

Cranberry Relish

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.


You'll need a 12 ounce bag of cranberries from the produce department of your grocery store. Rinse them well, and place them in a square baking dish.


Mix one cup of sugar with the cranberries in the baking dish.

Bake the cranberry/sugar mixture for 30 minutes (COVERED) or a little longer if the berries haven't popped when you remove it from the oven.


Add a jar of Apricot Jam or Apricot Simply Fruit AND 1 cup of chopped pecans when you take it out of the oven.

Mix both new ingredients well.


Refrigerate the Cranberry Relish for a few hours before serving.

Spoon relish on top of an 8 ounce block of cream cheese.

Surround cream cheese and relish with Triscuit crackers (or some other HEAVY cracker).

Eat and eat and eat.

Have a fun-filled Thanksgiving Week. I'll be back for a few minutes Friday morning with Weekend Happenings, pics from Thanksgiving #2 and more.

Take care, and I'll talk to you the end of the week.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda