Helen's Family Recipe

This is a portrait of my beloved mother Helen.

She has been much on my mind as we find ourselves 

in the midst of the season of family gatherings.

This post will include a tribute to Helen, who was a great cook,

and made a consistent effort to strengthen her family.

But first, an update on our surroundings. 

All the leaves are down, but the rather bleak views

are now preparing for Christmas, with surprisingly

intense red berry bushes visible along roadsides

and in plantings that we routinely encounter. Lovely!

(It is snowing as I type this - another contrast ahead.)

Our Thanksgiving holiday was different and interesting

this year as we serve here in Manchester. 

For many years in succession, the Warner household,

with a subdivision address in Thanksgiving Village,

has been a logical gathering place for the November feast.

(This makes up for the many years when we were

guests at other family locales.)

We opted to celebrate in our little apartment,

just the two of us, with quiet, controlled food prep,

a walk along the trail, and peaceful companionship time.

We still managed to have the regular menu: turkey drumsticks

for Vince and white meat for Jodi; mashed potatoes

and gravy, cranberry relish (thanks Sister Hoke).

And Helen's richly seasoned sausage stuffing!

We have, in fact, been feasting practically all month long,

 and Helen's stuffing had a starring role.

Our zone conferences were scheduled the week before

Thanksgiving, and we agreed that we wanted the meals 
to have that homey, Thanksgiving feeling. 
Since two of these meals fall under my management, 
I have been planning and thinking, wanting a good outcome.

Doubting my own cooking prowess, I knew that if 
I included Helen's stuffing, that would help compensate.
So I reached across the miles to my sister to get
Helen's stuffing recipe. As usual, she came through for me!

Many restrictions and staging challenges face us when

we prepare and plan for a group of adults

that falls in the 72-90 individuals range. We travel
to chapel buildings long distances away, work with a kitchen
than may not have prep tools we expect, with limited
warming oven capacity, the need for counter-top heating,
buffet serving style geared to quick service, etc.
Promptings came that this whole meal could work, but it would
involve a certain amount of cooking at home apartment.

So I began to buy, and slice and chop, saute

and package. Advice from Mission leadership (and above)

recommended "simplicity" and "stream lining", but

I didn't see how that would accomplish my/our vision.

Lots of mushrooms, celery, sausage, seasonings --

and onions (which Vince strongly reacts to and needed

to hunker down in the bedroom with door closed) processed

on Wednesday got us ready for the Thursday ZC in Sharon.

Then we took a weekend off, and repeated the process

for ZC in Nashua the following Tuesday.

Interesting lessons, as usual, in this experience.

My own knives were rather dull as I prepared, and

the result was very sore hands (carpel tunnel) for

a couple of weeks. This picture (below) is from Thanksgiving

morning, early, as I watched a Hallmark Christmas movie

on my phone, and made our own small batch of stuffing.

Should have purchased that knife sharpener earlier!

Our results were even better than expected.

Below you see one table of Elders, posing for me

for family FB posting as I interrupted their meal

(such good sports about this at each ZC meal).

I use this image because you can see the full plates.

This was a meal with which they could get their fill!

Compliments abounded, especially for the stuffing

which even Pres. Beck (who ate his cold and after

the meal had been cleared because of urgencies)

said he had never before tasted stuffing with sausage.

At each 'thank you', I thought of Mom.

She would be pleased to know that her influence

from the kitchen had hit its mark - all those decades

after she had regularly excused me from kitchen prep duties

if I said I needed to study piano in the living room 
or stick with my sewing projects downstairs instead.

My lamp has been filled this week - and longer - 

because of the rich traditions I have shared with my family

around me. I know that is a blessing not everyone can count.

Though far from home, our hearts are warmed

and filled with love for so many who touch our lives.