Indio, California: We were lucky to have the kids visit us for five days over the Thanksgiving holiday. Leo and Lucy didn’t have school all week. We were unlucky with the weather. It rained so hard on Turkey Day, there was a little flooding/water-pooling inside our casita. (Leo thought this was great fun, as DT swept water out from under the sofa, while furniture re-arranging occurred.) It didn’t reach 60 degrees any day they were visiting. The fireplace and ceiling heaters were going constantly in the evenings and early mornings.
There were several puzzles to work and many Thanksgiving sticker-crafts to keep the rugrats occupied.
Wednesday night I cooked dinner, making my newly-finalized Beef Lasagna recipe with Impossible Burger for our vegetarians. Lenny requested my Cloverleaf rolls.
For a change-o-pace, we decided to attend the Thanksgiving buffet at our clubhouse this year. We’ve never been, and Lisa thinks the last time we went to a Thanksgiving buffet we were in Mazatlan when she was in high school. (I think she is right.) The only available time slot was for lunch, so I didn’t even get out of cooking dinner on Thursday!
We dressed up for our luncheon. Lucy posed:
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The restaurant, Top of the Falls, really put on a spread:
The kids eat fish, so enjoyed salmon picatta for their Thanksgiving feast. DT and I were able to have turkey, but the chef put pork sausage in the stuffing. I will make stuffing for him next week.
For dinner I made something new (and I made it up as I went along) – Mushroom Wellington. There was a recipe for this on the New York Times food pages last week, but it seemed very complicated with layering different types of mushrooms. I’m sure their version would have been prettier when sliced, but I was strapped for time. I just sauteed a few different varieties of sliced mushrooms with onions, garlic, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, drained it well and put it in the fridge overnight. To assemble, I rolled it up in puff pastry (Pepperidge Farms!) and made a fancy lattice cut with another sheet of puff pastry with a lattice roller. (Doesn’t everyone have a metal lattice roller in their RV?) Well, dang, if it wasn’t pretty, and pretty delicious as well. It was served with a mushroom sauce I had made last week and froze for such an occasion.
Even Leo and Lucy liked it. Not as much as they liked making s’mores after dinner though.
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Nearly every photo of Leo is blurry. Dude will not stay still.
Except for a moment when they were both in our bed watching a movie at bedtime.
Thursday (Thanksgiving) was the night we had all the rain. It poured. The desert does not always do well when it pours. So much water in such a short time can lead to flooding and road closures. With such low temperatures, it also can lead to snow in the surrounding mountains.
I can’t recall when snow has fallen to such low elevations. So pretty. Neither of our grandchildren have ever been in/seen/touched snow before (except for the stuff they bring-in to a school carnival – which doesn’t count). Fine with me. I never need to experience snow again. Ever.
Bike riding between the rain showers:
Lisa, Lenny, and the kids drove back to Los Angeles Saturday – in time to watch the Ducks beat the Oregon State Beavers in the annual Civil War game. Since the first game in 1894, the Ducks lead the series 66-47, with 10 ties. Oregon currently holds a 3-game winning streak, giving us serious bragging rights.
What a great long weekend we had with our family – rain and cold temperatures forgotten.
Until my next update, I remain, your thankful correspondent.
PS: What did you do on Thanksgiving? Please comment below.