Thanksgiving in September

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. The reality is that I've had a sort of writer's block, not to mention I've been obsessed with the conventions.

We had a little break in the action last night when Robbie and Claudia, with baby Jonas, came for dinner. They are in the US from Germany, to visit Rob's family in Salisbury and Claudia's Brother Joe ( the owner of Jim's Company) for a few weeks.

Robbie works for NASA and has traveled around the world extensively, been on both poles, Alaska, South America. Part of his mission is measuring the ice caps. He also invented something that has become part of NASA's equipment.

Claudia is a Master of Resolution which is the area of law that she specializes in. They live in Ravensburg Germany.

Theirs is a love story that we watched develop. They first met when we went to the Black Forest in 1995 to close the sale of East Coast. We could see that they hit it off right away, but they were very young and still in school. Robbie received his BS from Salisbury and proceeded to work on his Masters in Germany where it cost something like $100 a semester, while he was able to continue with NASA. They were married last September but with my broken leg we missed the festivities.

The Germans know how to party and are wonderful hosts. The Schanz family in particular have always kept us entertained with lots of activities and fun local traditions. We once visited a schnapps distillery, which is nothing more than a fruit tree farm where the pears and peaches are distilled. It was 10 AM and we laughed for the entire day after sampling the product. The farmer who owned the place looked like Roman Polanski after spending the night with Dracula, very scary!!!

Anyway, last night I entertained them with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, only because I had bought a fresh turkey the other day. I was grateful that they had called us as I was wondering how we would manage the whole bird ourselves. I also had a cryo-vacced pan of oyster stuffing and some gravy frozen, so it wasn't as much trouble as it looked. We had some delicious fresh corn and I even made the dreaded *green bean casserole*, and of course mashed potatoes. We also had a pumpkin pie, yes homemade except for the crust and absolutely delicious, if I must say so myself.

We enjoyed seeing them. Jim feels close to Robbie and is the one who first got him his job with East Coast and later talked him into going to college. I liked Claudia from the first time we met and we keep in touch via Email. Robbie is so upset about the up coming election that I had to turn the TV off. He is embarrassed about the past 8 years and sees how the US is now perceived by the European nations. We have lost our allies and it has affected our standing in the world.

***The famous Green bean casserole incident***

This was never a part of our Family holiday feast, but I think the Sanders liked it so the Christmas of the year the MomMom and Lou had died I decided to make it

Despite the recent losses we were fortunate to have most of the families with us. Pru and Wil, Zak & Tess, Gabe & Amy,Betty, Jim and I and our friends Scott & Jody and their neighbors. Jody had stopped by on Christmas eve to see what she could bring, so I gave her a bag of fresh beans, the mushroom soup and onions I had already bought. She said Scott would take are of it.

The next day Scott handed me a casserole and said it needed to be heated. When we started passing it around the table, we quickly discovered that the beans had never been cooked. Gabe was the only one who was brave, or hungry enough, to eat it. The beans became the ice breaker and the rest of the dinner was hilarious. We were passing plates around calling out what we wanted and hoping to get the right order back. It was a most memorable meal, and even our grief we laughed out loud.

I won't even bother to print this recipe. Come Thanksgiving, it will be in every newspaper with a coupon for Onion rings