Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.

I was looking for my order from Atlantic Spice.  I got home from my massage appointment and there were several packages waiting.  TWO from Atlantic Spice.  One huge heavy one and then a little teeny one.  Odd.  Well I opened the teeny one first.  Saffron, pistachios and citric acid.  Hmmmm.  I didnt order any of these things.  So I dug a little further in the box and there was an invoice.  An invoice with another person’s name and address.  I looked on the outside of the box again.  Yep, my name and address on the UPS label.  So I googled the name and town (in VERMONT- MY FAVORITE STATE!) and found a phone number.  I rang up this very nice lady in Vermont and said “Is this Ms. S?”  She asked who was calling and I told her (like she would know who I am!) and asked her if she had placed an order from Atlantic Spice.  Indeed she had.  I explained to her that I had received it.  We had a nice chat about Vermont and Louisiana and my upcoming trip to her part of the world and she said to call her and she would tell me all the best places to eat etc.  How sweet is that?

Anywho, I am mailing her goodies to her today.  We passed a few emails back and forth last night.  And I look forward to meeting her for coffee (or tea) in September.  Ms. S, I hope you read this!  She gave me permission to tell our little story - even suggested it!  But I left out the part about her being “a nutty old lady from Vermont” ~ her words not mine!  I think I have made a new friend across the miles! Sweet Serendipity.

We had a very nice supper last night with some of Husband’s family.  Roast, carrots, potatoes, fresh asparagus and German Chocolate cake made my moi! We drank wine, ate, visited and had a lovely time.  Our house is clean, the laundry is done and today will be a quiet (hopefully) day of relaxing, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, watching movies and finalizing the plans for tomorrow’s preparation kickoff to a huge meal on Saturday. Thankfully Rachel is off until Sunday so she can do most of the desserts.  I know for sure she is making a pumpkin cheesecake.

I hope I have all the boo-boos fixed on my website.  If you find more drop me a note.

I wish you all a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We have Husband’s surgery scheduled for December 10.  Hopefully it will be a quick and fairly painfree recovery.  The holidays are upon us and we will just work this in!

The giveaway packages are going out today!  So much going on just couldnt get to the p.o. during open hours!  I am still waiting to hear from one winner…yoohoo where are you???

So much to do today I must run.  A family dinner tonight  - then the BIG dinner on Saturday…I am trying to drag this out arent I?

If I dont get another post made before Thursday…HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

Oldest Daughter and I were looking at magazines this past weekend and we came upon a biscuit recipe with “stuff” in it.  Well, when I decided to fix them last night to go with our Chipotle Fried Chicken, I couldnt locate the recipe so I just reworked my biscuit recipe to great success.  Here you go:

Preheat oven to 475. Chop a half a cup or so of shallots.  Add these and 1/2 cup finely grated Asiago or other flavorful cheese to 2 cups White Lily Self Rising Flour, 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, 1 tsp salt mixed with 1/2 cup lard (or shortening if you insist) to resemble coarse cornmeal (usual biscuit dough prep).

To this add 1 cup more or less cultured buttermilk. And mix to make a soft dough - as usual DO NOT over handle this! Fold it over a couple of times onto itself to form layers.

Cut with 2 inch sharp biscuit cutter and remember DO NOT twist your cutter…this will seal the sides and you wont get the rise you want.

Bake for 15-18 minutes at 475.  Brush with melted butter and serve.

I served these with Chipotle Fried Chicken and Fresh Asparagus.

Ellynanne over at Apron Memories has created a free download for you to enjoy! You can either send it via email or you may download and print it.  It is just so lovely.  It reminds me of my Great Aunt Ada’s house SO much.  So may memories. Thanks Ellynanne!

Today Husband is making meat pies (yeah like the famous Natchitoches meat pies only better). I will see about posting his recipe soon.  Of course you could have it and a bunch of other great recipes if you wanted a copy of my cookbook. And then he and I are going to the grocery store to do our Thanksgiving shopping.  We will have our big feast on Saturday.  We try to accommodate the other parts of the family if we can.  HUGE menu planned.

Tomorrow  is Husband’s appointment with the surgeon about his nerve thingy.  I am sure surgery will be scheduled for between the holidays.  If I have my way he will be home until Mid February but I am not holding my breath.

We had a WONDERFUL time last night over at the Whitakers. We did the bonfire thing, roasted hot dogs, ate smores, drank homemade wine, campfire coffee and laughed until we hurt…you know the usual stuff.  Seriously we always have such a great time with this family.  Ours is one of the truest friendships I have ever had.  You know the people who come through your life (and hopefully stay a very long time) who you can truly, honest and truly be yourself with them.  No judgements, no secrets, just everything out there on the table.  Plus our kids are best friends.  So that certainly ads to the harmony.  Anywho, hopefully they will post some pictures of the festivities since of course I forgot my camera.

Have a wonderful day.  Follow my lead and try to get something accomplished.

Photo of the day from Rachel’s file:

one of our pumpkins from this year’s patch

For those of you who write in html - BLESS YOU! It isn’t easy for an old bird like me.  Even though I have been doing it for about 10 years now it is definitely not my first language!  I have been doing it 10 years just not WELL! So I had one tiny little < > in the wrong place and had cut and pasted my template so it was incorrect on ALL pages.  I woke up this morning thinking, I am going to figure this out!  And so I called husband over to the computer and pulled up the scripts and said “I know you know nothing about HTML, but please look at this and see if you see something amiss.”  Immediately it jumped out at me!!! I thanked him profusely even though he hadnt had a chance to even ask “What am I looking for?” YAY for me!!! So I suppose those who have tried to look using IE just might now be able to view the pages.  PLEASE remember to delete your cookies and refresh.  That should work…unless you have given up and in that case I am very sad…see my sad face?

Now just a couple more things: Apron Tutorial.  You have to take a look at these.  A-dorable!

And a picture for today: