Thanksgiving Without Turkey

     Who says you have to eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day? I have many years' worth of holiday memories of meals with large groups of family and friends. But this year Linda and I celebrated our blessings with King Ranch Chicken, refried beans, and tortilla strips. And Scottish Eggs. And peach slices for dessert.

      I had enjoyed Scottish Eggs at Arrowmont in October and was curious about how they got that egg inside the sausage ball. It was actually pretty simple--they boiled the eggs first. The egg is then covered with bulk sausage and rolled in seasoned bread crumbs and baked. Here is my successful first attempt. I found a Betty Crocker recipe called Baked Scotch Eggs here.

     The King Ranch Chicken recipe has been in my family since we lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, near the King Ranch. There are hundreds of variations and I'm sure they are all good, but I think corn tortillas rather than flour ones must be used.

     This overcast chilly day was perfect for staying inside and making Christmas stockings my quilt guild, Pine Belt Quilters, will give to children. Shirley Wiltshire had prepared kits with instructions, and the project was easy on my serger. Well, it would have been easy if I had not left the serger unattended a while, giving Elizabeth an opportunity to bite and swallow the thread. She is my almost perfect cat, with a fascination for taut thread being her only character flaw. Rethreading the serger was a several hour task even with the help of the manual, the diagrams on the machine, and multiple YouTube videos. 

Stocking layered and ready to sew

:Finished stockings

I finished an abstract stitched art quilt (The Apothecary Shop) that I started at Arrowmont and have made some more progress on The Conversation, featuring Tarbaby, Rahrah, and Elizabeth.

The Apothecary Shop, 18" x 18"

The Conversation (in progress)