Monthly Archives: November 2012

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Mid-week adventure – preparing for Thanksgiving!

. Food, Holidays, recipes . , ,

This year I’m not having Thanksgiving at home, but instead will travel to California to celebrate the holiday with #1 Daughter, #1 Son-In-Law and my grandchildren. They live south of San Francisco, in the Palo Alto area, and this has become one of my favorite destinations. First and most importantly, my family lives there. But almost as important to me is the scenery, which is always beautiful. Beaches and rolling surf and tide pools and golden hills and fields full of produce we just don’t grow in Texas. I have developed a fascination with the artichoke plant. Who knew it got so big?

I will be in California for almost a week and plan to post a full report of our adventures after I return home. In the meantime, I seem to be dreaming of Thanksgiving recipes, even though I won’t be doing as much cooking as normal. For some reason, that doesn’t seem to matter. Late at night I find myself immersed in cooking magazines and cookbooks and my binders full of favorite recipes. And what is my most favorite Thanksgiving recipe? Hands down, it’s Sausage, Cranberry and Cornbread Stuffing, which was published in Epicurious in 1997: 

I’m a huge fan of lots of cranberry sauce with my dressing, and since this recipe includes fresh cranberries in the dressing, it’s just perfect (at least in my humble opinion!). Plus it has sweet Italian sausage and pecans. Heaven! It’s the only side I will probably insist on for Thanksgiving dinner. Perhaps I should share this link with #1 Daughter!

Note: there is a link within this link – the recipe for the cornbread. You’ve probably already figured that one out, but I will confess it took me several years to find that hidden recipe. Silly me! Also, instead of the seven leeks called for in the recipe, I usually just use a whole yellow onion.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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My trip to Houston – Part 2

. College Reunion, History, Life, Rice University, Travel

Fall is reunion time, and this year Rice University celebrated not only its annual reunion, but also its Centennial. The first class at Rice was held on October 12, 1912, and conveniently, this year our reunion weekend started on October 12, 2012. To get an idea of the scope of the celebration, check out http://centennial.rice.edu/home/

For months before the reunion I followed the Rice historian’s blog and learned interesting tidbits about Rice and about Houston. My father and his sister and brother all attended Rice during the Depression, because they lived in Houston, their family was broke, and Rice was tuition-free at that time. I will never forget their stories about driving to Rice in an old, beat-up car whose right passenger door flew open every time they turned a corner, and whose floorboards in the back were a bit rotten and let them view the street flying by beneath them. Rice didn’t charge tuition until the 1960’s. I gladly followed in my father’s, aunt’s and uncle’s footsteps, even with the tuition!

I drove down to Houston on Thursday, so I could enjoy the festivities on Friday and also take a tour of the campus. I had not been to campus for a number of years and was amazed at all the new buildings. Here’s some of the older buildings, with which I am most familiar:

Lovett Hall — the first building on campus. The pictures of its construction show mules dragging the building materials through the mud up to the construction site.

The tomb of William Marsh Rice, with Fondren Library in the background.

And the other buildings making up the academic quadrangle. All of which stand in stark contrast to the newest structure:

The James Turrell Skyspace, built this year. I was not able to stargaze at the Skyspace, but I suspect the night-time show is amazing. There are benches at the top of the structure, and if I were still a student at Rice, I suspect the Skyspace would seriously affect my studies. The ground-floor view through the structure is also interesting:

The fountain is in the courtyard of the new business school buildings. And in the distance you can see the food trucks that gathered for a Centennial lunch for all.

On Friday night my classmates gathered for our own mini-reunion, and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with people I hadn’t seen in years. I don’t know if we’ve all mellowed or just gotten tired, but our conversations were friendly and interesting and lacked the competitive edge I remember from our college days. Such a nice change!

When I left Houston to start the drive back to Dallas, I had only good memories to keep me company on the road home. Another successful adventure!

Until next weekend!

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My trip to Houston – Part 1

. History, Life, Travel . ,

Hello, Gentle Readers!

I’m back after a short time off necessitated by a bit of surgery. All’s well now, and I’m back to sharing my adventures outside the office.

In October, I journeyed to Houston for my reunion at Rice University and for a bit of nostalgia. I grew up in Houston, and even though I have lived in Dallas for 20 years, I always get swept up into a tide of longing when I go back to Houston. What do I long for? Probably the simplicity of growing up in another era, of playing kickball for hours in the cul-de-sac in front of our house, of going to the community pool every day in the summer, and of just being with my family. We spent hours at the pool all summer – from 10 to 12 each morning, then home for lunch and the mandatory rest time, then back from 3 until 6 each afternoon. One of the “games” we played when we went back in the afternoon was seeing who among us (me and two sisters and two brothers) could walk barefoot the longest on the hot sidewalk. Hey, I didn’t say we were smart — this is just what we did! Everything was so uncomplicated then. And we had such good summers!

But I digress. Before I left for Houston, I stopped by my favorite nursery and bought $60 worth of pansies to plant among the headstones at my paremts’ graves. Our family plot is in Glenwood Cemetery, which is one of the oldest cemeteries in Houston. My grandmother’s sister died in the influenza outbreak of 1919, and my great grandfather bought a huge family plot at that time. I’m always struck by the history that lives in that cemetery.  For example, the graves of the Allen brothers, the founding fathers of Houston, are in Glenwood.

I also learned on this trip that Charlotte Allen, who married one of the Allen brothers, was known in some circles as the Mother of Houston.  I took a picture of the side of the Allen monument dedicated to her, and of the historical marker dedicated to her, both shown above.

Glenwood is a peaceful place – one that I don’t mind visiting. My family has lived in Houston for generations, and so the genealogic opportunities here for us is endless. My mother spent a good deal of time at Glenwood researching our family history, and I’m saving all her work for what might be a book someday. In the meantime, I just enjoy the beauty every time I get to Houston. Here are some of the pictures I took on this trip:

And, last but not least, here is a monument that caught my eye during this trip. Wouldn’t it be nice to know the story behind the bicycle on top of this monument?

So that’s it for Part 1. In Part 2 I’ll let you all know about the reunion!