November Traditions

Besides Thanksgiving and turkey traditions

November holds traditions of it's own.

For years it was the month that we shelled a big bag of pecans for winter baking

(Now I buy big bags of shelled pecans at Costco!)

But it's still the month we make pomanders

A big bowl of oranges from he market,

a big bowl of cloves

And my old ice pick

are the tools I need to make pomanders

I buy bag oranges -- they are cheaper

And grocery store cloves -- sometimes I'm lucky and can find them in a bigger bag

If not, several of the little jars come home with me.

This year

Seems the German pyramid has made it's way up from the basement to the breakfast room table --the only part of Christmas that has come out of hiding so far!

The sunny breakfast room

was the perfect place to make pomanders

My first one -- half done!

In between baking cookies, dinner and television watching, I managed to 

get five done before I ran out of cloves.

Sigh -- back to the market today!

And dinner?

It's November --

It's after Thanksgiving

Shouldn't it be turkey?

Turkey and noodles -- one of my favorite turkey leftover dishes.

This year I roasted the carrots, celery and onion and added shards of garden sage.

Husband Ji thought it was the absolute best!

And I thought it was pretty tasty as well.

(For those of you out there who think noodles are a part of Thanksgiving Dinner, they're not at Linderhof --

they're one of the after Thanksgiving dishes that help use up the leftover turkey!)

The pomanders?

They're just half finished

For after all the oranges are filled with cloves,

They're dunked in a mixture to cure.

Besides great Christmas decorations,

they make good gifts,

and they're also good to stick in drawers

to scent "unmentionables", socks and such.

I still have some I made "eons" ago

For they do last although I have found that their scent diminishes over time.

The "secret" dunking mixture?

More spices. 

I just put it in a bowl on the kitchen counter and add the pomanders.

The fragrance reminds me so of Christmas!

POMANDER MIXTURE

1/4 c. ground cinnamon

1/4 c. ground cloves

2 T. ground nutmeg (it doesn't have to be freshly ground!)

2 T. ground allspice

1/4 c. powdered orrisroot*

Mix all together, roll cloved balls in mixture and allow to cure (harden)

* if you can't find orrisroot, you can omit it -- it just makes the scent last longer.