HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

What was I thinking? This is the "butt" of my turkey from last year, which I actually posted on my blog last year! Now, I feel like I must have been the "butt" of the turkey jokes...yet, everyone was nice with their comments to me. No "butt" jokes! I still don't understand what was the reason behind this "turkey pose!" with yet, a scar on it's backside...what a turkey...turkey! The turkey was moist, and delicious...perfectly stuffed, and roasted to a golden bronze color! I will share with you our friends' turkey, after Thanksgiving, where we are invited for a feast!

Actually, I decided to upload the other photo of my beautiful stuffed turkey from last year...not to be rude, and just show the backside! I kind of miss, not baking a turkey for the first time, in over 30 years!

At any rate, I do have my lovely cranberry sauce with
vanilla, from last year...the more I look at those weird twigs (vanilla pods) the more I'm trying to figure out why I used it for decoration...the one pod looks like the letter U...for "unknown" perhaps, and the other pod is just uselessly leaning behind it! Just an observation from last year, but the cranberry sauce was so delicious, and just the right texture!

Cranberry Sauce with Vanilla, Maple Syrup, and Cassis


6 cups (about 1-1/2 lb.) fresh or frozen cranberries, picked over and rinsed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup fresh orange juice (from 1 orange)
1/3 cup crème de cassis (black-currant liqueur)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 Tbs. finely grated orange zest (from 1 orange)

Half a vanilla bean, split and scraped
Put 3 cups of the cranberries and all the remaining ingredients in a 3- or 4-qt. saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce the heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries have popped and broken down and the juices look slightly syrupy, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the remaining 3 cups cranberries and cook until these have popped, 3 to 5 minutes more. Remove from the heat, discard the vanilla bean, and let cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate if not serving right away.

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I have so much to be thankful for, this year... and you, my food blogger friends and my other blogger friends, facebook, and Twitter friends, are on top of my list this year!

I have spent way too much time on my blog this year, but the rewards were worth every minute of it getting to know more people, and actually making friends on a personal level that will be remembered for a lifetime I learned a lot from other cultures, and feel that I have traveled around the world, just by reading their amazing stories, and to learn about the foods of their region. You get to learn so much just by sharing your ideas, opening your homes, and kitchens, talking about families, friends, trips, but mostly food...good food, and that is what food blog is about, making friends, laughing, crying, but mostly sharing!
I have a beautiful family; children, grandchildren... which I am blessed with and I am thankful for, every day of my life!

As for social networks... Twitter, and have just recently joined facebook...but haven't delved into it yet as much as I would love to!
Every day, I check comments, and comment back as much as I can, and/or find new blogs to comment to, and make friends...hopefully! It is so important in our foodie community to support one-another, and through Foodbuzz, I have experienced just that, by joining the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival, for the first time this year, which was the 3rd annual event.

I have not joined hardly any...actually "none" of...social networks, other than Foodbuzz! All the other ones, which I did join, I forgot my password, or even the name of the site! For instance, just recently, I signed up for YELP...which is about restaurant, and business reviews. I did upload some restaurant photos, but have not posted a review yet. Also, Taste Spotting...I forgot my password there, as well!...and there is another site...Foodieview.com! Well, I signed up for that too, but have abandoned it, and forgot all about it. There's Etsy shop, and on that one I'm still trying to figure out how to copy and paste a logo!

There's Stumbleupon where I would get all those blogs to my e-mail, to stumble it...when I'm still stumbling here on my own, trying to figure out all these social networks. I actually joined FoodieBlogroll at the same time I joined Foodbuzz, but there, I felt lost...did not know how to connect with other food bloggers. I guess Food Gawker, is the biggy of them all where you have to have impecable photos, or else it gets rejected...I heard. (did not try out for that one either.) One very good networking I did sign up for is the Very Good Recipes, where you just register, and they do all the work for you to upload your posts!

A little preview of  my Hungarian Kifli that I made today for Thanksgiving to take to our hosts' house

So, I wish you all, here in the United States, and in other parts of the world where you reside,
A Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving, and may you have a safe one as well, if you are traveling!
Hugs, to all!
Elisabeth