Thankful Thursday #18

I am so thankful for so many things everyday.

Do you need a November birthday gift or a Christmas gift with November birthstone???


I am thankful for comfort food and the memories that go along with it.  Comfort food is just that, comforting.  But, sometimes the smells and memories make it more special than the actual food.

I am blessed to have been around and raised by very strong, spiritual women who are and were great cooks!

One of my great grandmothers is a legend in our town for her steak sandwiches.  These were steak with gravy and I love when a post gets going on our local city Facebook page about her sandwiches.  My great grandmother who lived across the street from our church and where we spent many, many Sunday afternoons was a great cook too.

My grandmother who passed away 19 years ago used to make a meal that was so good, but the memories of eating it at her house with my aunts, uncles, and cousins is what makes it so comforting to me.  I make this meal once a year for my kids and it is always around this time of year.  Usually, I make it in October at the first hint of Fall.  I am a little late this year, but I made it yesterday.  All of my kids were home early yesterday afternoon.  I don't usually have them all here until bedtime!  They all have different schedules so an afternoon with them all here was all the reason I needed to cook their favorite meal.

I know when they are married and have their own families, this is the one meal I can get them all home for!  Of course they don't have the same memories I do with the meal, but we have made our own and it has just added to it.  We are getting into the time of year that is all about family and making memories so it fits right in!

The main dish that makes it so special is Russian chicken.  My grandmother used a Russian dressing that they don't make anymore, but it is still really good.  I use Wishbone.  I only find it in the small bottles so I have to get two for one recipe, but it seems to be the best and gets that original recipe taste.  This is the french, dark red dressing, not the almost Thousand Island dressing. For a family pack of chicken I mix two bottles of dressing, one can of jellied cranberry sauce and one envelope of Lipton's Onion Soup together and pour it over the chicken.  You can double, triple the recipe according to how much chicken you are making. It is good either in the crockpot or cooked lower and slow all day in the oven.  I used boneless, skinless chicken, but my grandmother used pieces of a whole chicken with the skin and bones.  It is definitely better that way, but my kids love this so much they eat leftovers for 2-3 days so I make A LOT of chicken!  It is great in a sandwich and my goodness the house smells wonderful cooking it so long.

I make sides of broccoli and cheese casserole, a cheesy hashbrown casserole that has butter, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, and cheese.  They like to pour the sauce the chicken makes over the potatoes!  I also bake sweet potatoes and I make a layered salad that my aunt would always make and bring to go with it, but any kind of salad would be great with it.

It is so good, but it also makes me miss my grandmother even more than I already do.

Also, it was our younger little dog Maggie's 2nd birthday.  I got accused of making it for her birthday, but that was just coincidence.  It is so rich, I gave her and Mia a little taste of the chicken and some of the sweet potatoes, but I didn't want to make them sick.  Their tummies are so little!

That face! And, when she looks at you it is like she is looking into your soul it is so intense sometimes.

I made pictures of the dinner.  I use pans that I can throw away and that are easy to keep the leftovers.  By the time I go to the grocery store, prep, and then cook I sure don't want dishes to deal with!

This was all that was left from one pan of chicken!  I have another big one for leftovers!  I think that's why I only make it once a year.  When I do make it, we eat so much of it we aren't ready for it for another year!

I have a necklace with the November birthstone citrine beads that would be great for a November birthday gift!  I have the yellow charm I had made with my original artwork, but the charm can be easily traded for another color.  I can do that with anything you see in my shop.  Just message me on Etsy or at sweetteaandsistersjewelry@gmail.com and I would love to work with you on a look just for you.  That's why I don't like to finish the necklaces until I know the length the buyer would like.  Sometimes it is an odd number of inches or even 1/2 of an inch that makes a difference in how it hangs on someone and I want it to fit the buyer just right.  My pieces are one of a kind and because of the beads, even if I duplicated a design, no two pieces would be exactly alike.

I also have a sale going on Nov.8-Nov.13 in honor of Veterans Day.  It's a great time to buy Christmas gifts!

This November necklace is also in memory of my great grandmother, Nanny, who lived across the street from our church.  The memories from those Sundays with so many family members are just so precious to my heart.

Nanny's birthday would have been next week.  We are having a really cold, rainy day today and it reminds me of her.  She was always cold.  Even in the summer, you would go visit and she would have the space heater on in her bedroom.  She always said it was such a cold November day when she was born. It was so cold she said she never warmed up!


November Birthstone Citrine Custom Charm Sterling Silver Necklace

I hope you have a great, blessed Thankful Thursday!  Maybe have something comforting to you that brings back sweet memories.