Website Jo Castillo Art




Back to my website:

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Gobble, Gobble...

It is turkey day.  Happy Thanksgiving to all.  I'm pretty sure I've shared these stories here but my mind is remembering the good old days today.

 
 
I painted this many years ago.  My dad's first paying job away from home was a cook on a cattle drive in New Mexico. I dreamed up this idea that he was going to cook a turkey on the campfire.   Did he need a littler turkey? or a bigger Dutch oven?  He was always a good cook and Thanksgiving was a big day for us.  When he was in town he spent a great deal of time at the local taverns.  He would invite everyone, especially those with no place to go (no family) to our house.  We usually had a crowd.

It was traditional fare with turkey, dressing, homemade rolls and everything good.  If we didn't have Thanksgiving at our house we sometimes had it at other homes.  Did they rotate in a group of friends?  I don't recall.  It was at the Lamb's one year and they forgot to turn on the oven so we had an evening meal, probably about 8 p.m.  A long day of cooking and drinking!

Another time it was the first year of whipped cream in a can.  The Danley's had remodeled their kitchen dining and it was the first celebration there.  Beth sprayed the cream all over everyone and the ceiling!  And the stories go on.  

When we were in South America, probably Bolivia, we came home on leave.  We were planning a big Thanksgiving at my folks.  My mom had had emergency surgery and left it to me to bake the pies and help my dad with the dinner.  She had been "famous" for her pies at all the past Thanksgivings.  I asked her where her recipe for pie crust was.  "What?" she asked.  "I never made pie crust.  I use the Pillsbury pie crust sticks."  She had never told her great pie crust secret.  I haven't seen those sticks anymore.  I think pie crusts are in the freezer section now.

It was Jennie's birthday yesterday.  Larry is working this morning.  So we are celebrating our thankful day and the birthday tomorrow at Jennie's and Brandon's.  We will have traditional pies that I make.  Brandon is cooking a brisket on the grill and we will have all the trimmings with that.  Joanna is doing the birthday cake.  It will be a great day.

We have many things to be thankful for.  We have a wonderful family, live in a great place for us.  Our Kentucky bunch are under the weather but we are wishing for the best.  They will have a delayed thanksgiving.  It will be exciting with all the kiddos around.

We are invited to our neighbors for pie after their dinner today.  Yummy.

I hope your day is great.  We are thankful to live in the good old U.S.A. and hope our troops and first responders the best on this day and thank them for taking care of us.

Happy Thanksgiving all around!


Here is a prayer from Johnny Cash, thanks to Roger for sharing this.


https://youtu.be/vz8zDEmQhfQ



12 comments:

Joanna said...

Happy day, Mom. It’s always fun reading your memories.

Jo Castillo said...

Thanks, Joanna. Happy day back at you, see you tomorrow. Hugs.

Joan Tavolott said...

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday to Joanna!

We are having a small Thanksgiving with just us. Jerry's sister was planning to cook if she was home but ended up going down to DC to meet her new grandson. My turkey thighs are in the oven and should be ready soon.

Growing up my mom hosted Thanksgiving dinner for all of us and quite a few relatives. I know it was a lot of work for her and she did it with a little help from us. Everyone always came to our house because that's where my grandma was. It was that way for most holidays. We had a "kids table upstairs in Grandma's kitchen and we always had a great time since there were no adults up there with us to keep us under control. But the parents always sounded like they were having a good time downstairs too.

Jo Castillo said...

Joan, thank you!! Hope your meal was good and you and Jerry had a good day.

I love your kids table in a separate area. Good memories, eh?

R's Rue said...

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Jo Castillo said...

R's Rue, it is looking good. We evidently have a 3 day celebration with our big meal today. Hope you had a good day.

Bag Blog said...

It was just Bo's family and Jesse this year. It made for a nice time. Hours cooking and 20 minutes of eating. Well, then we all grazed the rest of the day on pies and dressing and turkey. Jesse bought some Christmas ornaments to paint for the kids. It was a big hit.
I use Pillsbury pie dough and roll it out. It is super easy and really very good. If I had to make pie dough for myself, I would rarely make a pie. Hope Jenny had a good birthday. And I hope your day was great.

Jo Castillo said...

Bag Blog, your Thanksgiving sounds nice. Ornaments were a great idea. We had our day at Jennie's and Brandon's yesterday. I ended up buying the frozen pie crusts, Pillsbury, and used them. Not bad and memories of Mom. We had chocolate cake and much more. Yummy day, finished off with some Telefunken, the progressive rummy game and home about 8 p.m. Nice.

Debbie Nolan said...

Oh Jo what fun memories you shared here. Johnny Cash was my dad's favorite singer and the song you shared here filled my heart with blessed memories too. Thank you for this lovely post. Hope you had a great celebration with all your family. Hugs!

Jennifer Rose said...

I guess you could cook a turkey on a campfire, just would need a really hot fire and a lot of time to kill while it cooks lol


the sticks dont seem to be a thing any more, but they make pie crust so its prob the same thing

Jo Castillo said...

Jennifer Rose, you would put hot coals on top to make the oven effect. My dad made biscuits and cobbler, so he could have made a turkey. Ha.

Jo Castillo said...

Debbie, thank you. Johnny Cash was a favorite of mine,too. Good memories. Our day was super. Thanks.


About Me

My photo
Bastrop, Texas, United States
I Grew up in a small town , Magdalena, New Mexico. I enjoy art and the pleasure other people get from my work. I always donate some of my sales and art to charities, especially for children. That started in Bolivia with Para los Niños. "I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns." -- Winston Churchill

Labels

#inktober (48) #inktober2019 (27) #inktober2023 (20) #inktober21 (11) abstract (1) Acrylic Paintings (75) Arizona (3) Art House Project (14) artist (88) artist blogger (355) artist blogger  instruction (3) artist blogger  instruction (20) artist blogger  instruction (17) artist blogger instruction (40) artist friend (7) at (1) Balloons (1) Baseball (204) Bastrop Sketchers (11) Bastrop TX (34) Bolivia (5) Calendar (1) Canada (3) Challenge (5) Charity Events (74) chile (4) classes (3) coaster sketch (9) colored pencil (58) computer art (5) DailyPaintworks Auction (3) demo video (4) Digital Painting (14) doodle (1) dphotos (1) exhibit (154) Figure (4) Fine Art Friends (3) Floweb browsing (1) Flowers (33) food (10) Footwork (1) fused glass (3) Gallery (3) gluten free (5) Golden Open paints (2) Golf (12) House Concert (1) iMac Sketch (1) Inktense (2) inst (1) instruction (75) iPad Sketch (90) iPad sketches (102) iph (1) iPhone painting (3) iPhone sketch (24) jo (1) Jo's Notion (9) Jo's Thoughts (298) Joanna (2) Joodles (2) Landscapes (137) Marines (29) marketing (3) meme (6) Music (68) New Mexico (130) Nonsense (2) Oil Painting (72) Oil Pastel (1) painting buddies (1) PanPastel works (3) Pastel (29) Pastel Demo (60) Pastel Paintings (408) pastel sketch (129) Pastels (12) pears (3) Peru (1) Photo (83) photography (1) Photos (970) Plein air painting (56) podcast (1) poll (1) pottery (2) Powwow (3) Recipe (6) restaurants (6) scenery (17) Sculptor (7) sculpture (4) seascape (2) sketch (4) Sketches (1784) snow (2) Still Life (36) Stu (1) Studio (26) Texas (69) Trees (36) tribute (5) under painting (1) Unsorted (7) videos (4) watercolor (178) watercolors (9) web browsing (262) web page (11) wetcanvas (1) WIP work in progress (15) workshop (8) World Blog Hop (2) Yesterfest (2) zentangle (2)