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Many of the women dissatisfied with being sent home stated that receiving specific written instructions about when to return to the hospital may have made them happier about going home. However, there was evidence that women did receive prenatal instructions about latent labor, according to the study, "Perceptions of Care in Women Sent Home in Latent Labor," published in The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing.
Another finding was that comfort is a major aspect of satisfaction with care in latent labor, said study corresponding author Mary Ann Faucher, Ph.D., C.N.M., F.A.C.N.M., associate professor of LHSON.
The study was based on a telephone survey of 100 low-income pregnant women at term presenting for care in latent labor. Faucher noted that no previous studies about the latent labor experience have included disadvantaged populations of women.
Findings were consistent with similar previous studies of more affluent women inside and outside the United States, researchers said.
The study took place in a 968-bed teaching hospital that provides care to approximately 22,000 women a year. Forty-seven percent of the patients are Hispanic and 31 percent are African-American, with a "payer mix" that is 30 percent Medicaid and 26 percent charity care.
In the survey, done from Oct. 12, 2011, until Jan. 2, 2012, women were asked 12 questions. One sample question was whether they were happy being sent home in early labor. If a woman answered "No," a follow-up question asked why they were unhappy and offered a list of reasons. The women could choose more than one answer.
"Eating, drinking and comfort measures were the most common ones women cited that would have made them feel better when in the hospital," the report noted. "A recurring response from women was their desire for very clear and specific written instructions about how to stay comfortable at home and when to return to the hospital."
The study also showed that:
• 97 percent of the women felt that they received enough attention before being sent home.
• More than 60 percent reported that they would have felt better if they had been able to eat (68 percent), drink (95 percent) or walk (72 percent).
• 44 percent would have liked better pain management
• 36 percent wanted clearer instructions about when to come back.
All the women were asked what would have made them happier about going home and given a list of choices. Answers show that 86 would have liked a follow-up phone call after discharge; 66 wanted written instructions about what to do at home to stay comfortable; 47 women wanted instructions about when to return; and 36 wanted pain medication before being sent home.
Eighty-two women stated that keeping them in the hospital longer would not have improved their perception of care.
There are three stages of labor: beginning labor to full cervical dilation, the pushing phase ending with the delivery of the infant and passage of the placenta. Latent labor is the preparatory phase of the first stage. During latent labor, contractions become more frequent, stronger and regular, with thinning of the cervix. Latent labor may take a few days or be as short as a few hours, Faucher said.
Previous research has established that clinical diagnosis of labor is challenging, with no laboratory tests or procedures that definitively characterize the difference between latent and active labor. Multiple studies have reported that women are conflicted about care in the latent phase of labor. Some women may be more satisfied with care by spending the latent phase of labor at home rather than in the hospital because they are free to move about, eat and drink freely, as well as feeling more in control. Other women feel insecure about staying home and want the care of a health professional. Research also has shown that early labor admission practices can increase the likelihood that care will include more technological interventions, many of which have been reported to decrease maternal satisfaction and increase complications.
Researchers in the Baylor/Parkland study noted that customer satisfaction is an imperative for businesses, including the health care industry.
The study concluded: "Even with the best prenatal instructions, some women are inevitably going to present to the hospital in latent labor. Therefore, hospital best practice should consider policies of ambulation, light nourishment for these women and expanding and diversifying comfort measures while these women are being assessed for admission. The voice of laboring women is calling on care providers to listen to them, inform them about what is going on in their bodies, provide them anticipatory guidance and offer them comfort in all ways possible."
Other researchers included lead author Claire Hosek, DNP, CNM, a graduate of Baylor's nurse-midwifery program, and Janice Lankford, MS, CNM, and James Alexander, MD, former chief of obstetrics at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and former professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Health Science Center.
Baylor University is a private Christian university and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having "high research activity" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 15,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating university in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 11 nationally recognized academic divisions. Baylor sponsors 19 varsity athletic teams and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference.
The Baylor Louise Herrington School of Nursing was established in 1909 as a diploma program within Baylor Hospital in Dallas, which is now Baylor University Medical Center, and in 1950 became one of the six degree-granting schools of Baylor University. The first Bachelor of Science in nursing degrees were awarded in 1954, establishing the school as one of the oldest baccalaureate nursing programs in the United States. In 1999, the School was renamed the Louise Herrington School of Nursing after Louise Herrington Ornelas, a 1992 Baylor Alumna Honoris Causa, made a $13 million endowment to the school. The School offers a bachelor of science in nursing degree and a master of science in nursing degrees in advanced neonatal nursing, nursing administration and management and family nurse practitioner programs, which are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The School also offers a nurse midwifery doctorate in nursing practice.


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E! News has exclusively learned Seth Rogen and his wife have been granted a permanent restraining order against a man who tried to get inside the couple's home last month.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted the permanent restraining order by stipulation against Yasin Ajani this morning.
Seth Rogen's wife gets temporary restraining order against aspiring friend of the family
U.S. & World
Rogen's wife, Lauren Miller, secured a temporary order of protection for the couple back in July against the 30-year-old Ajani, who allegedly tried to gain access to the inside of their home twice when the couple were out, both times saying he had a package for Miller and that she had said he could go inside.
"I live in fear that he will return," Miller stated in her petition. "I have difficulty sleeping and look for [Ajani] whenever I come and go from my house."
E! News has reached out to Miller's attorney for comment.

subset: commoncrawl


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Authors: No authors specified.
Date: December 12, 1855
This muster roll listed men who served in the Wakarusa War from November 27 to December 12, 1855. The fifth regiment was commanded by Col. George W. Smith. This company was recruited from the area around Osawatomie, Kansas Territory. The information provided included name, title if an officer, and age. Officers, in addition to Captain John Brown, were William Updegraff, Henry H. Williams, James J. Holbrook, Ephraim Reynolds, R. W. Wood, Frederick Brown, John Yelton, Henry Alderman, H. Harrison Updegraff, Daniel W. Collis, and William Partridge. William Partridge furnished one keg of powder and 8 pounds of lead that were used by the company. Ages of the company ranged from 19 to 55 years old. This was a small company and the other members were Amos D. Alderman, Francis Brennon, William W. Caine, Benjamin L. Cochran, Jeremiah Harrison and John Brown's sons John, Jr., Owen, and Sallmon
Keywords: Brown, Frederick; Brown, John, 1800-1859; Brown, John, Jr.; Brown, Owen; Brown, Salmon; Free state activities; Free state militia; Kansas Volunteers; Lykins County, Kansas Territory (see also Miami County, Kansas); Miami County, Kansas (see also Lykins County, Kansas Territory); Militia; Osawatomie, Kansas Territory; Partridge, William; Smith, George W.; Updegraff, W. W.; Wakarusa War, November-December 1855; Williams, Henry H.
List of participants and casualties at the battle of Black Jack
Authors: Brown, John , 1800-1859
Date: June 2, 1856
According to this document listing the participants and those "men wounded in the battle of Palmyra or Black Jack," son-in-law Henry Thompson was "dangerously wounded."
Keywords: Black Jack, Battle of; Black Jack, Kansas Territory; Bondi, August; Brown, John, 1800-1859; Brown, Oliver; Brown, Owen; Brown, Salmon; Carpenter, A.O.; Free state militia; Militia; Missourians; Palmyra, Kansas Territory`; Pate, Henry Clay; Proslavery supporters; Thompson, Henry; Whitman, E. B.
Letter, John Brown to Dear Wife [Mary Brown]
Authors: Brown, John , 1800-1859
Date: March 6, 1857
During his funding raising tour, Brown wrote his wife from Hartford, Connecticut, regarding family matters and finances, and about the press coverage he was getting: "I shall send you some Newspapers soon to let you see what different stories are told of me. None of them tell things as I tell them."
Keywords: Brown, John, 1800-1859; Brown, Mary Ann Day, 1816-1884; Brown, Owen; Hartford, Connecticut; Newspapers
Letter, Owen Brown to Dear Mother [Mary Brown]
Authors: Brown, Owen
Date: August 27, [1856]
On August 27, 1856, from Tabor, Iowa, Owen Brown wrote to tell his mother that according to all accounts "Father is the most daring courageous man in Kansas" and to relate other happenings in K.T. involving Jim Lane and Governor Shannon. Another invasion from Missouri was rumored, but free state recruits were assembling and "the Missourians are trembling in their Boots."
Keywords: Border disputes and warfare; Brown, John, 1800-1859; Brown, Mary Ann Day, 1816-1884; Brown, Owen; Crops; Free state militia; Lane, James Henry, 1814-1866; Lawrence, Kansas Territory; Leavenworth, Kansas Territory; Missourians; Shannon, Wilson, 1802-1877; Weapons (see also Guns); Woodson, Daniel
Letter, L. F. Parsons to "Dear Friends Redpath & Hinton"
Authors: Parsons, Luke F.
Date: December 1859
Parsons, "a soldier under John Brown" in Kansas, who fought in the battles of Black Jack and Osawatomie (see, Twenty-fifth Biennial Report, KSHS, 135-136), wrote this letter from Osawatomie to James Redpath and Richard J. Hinton in response to their "notice in the Republican in regard to publishing the life of John Brown & associates at Harpers Ferry & your request for information." In addition to his Kansas activities, Parsons was with Brown and company in Iowa during the winter of 1857-58 and mentions, as did Kagi and others, the "Lyceums" conducted by Brown around their evening campfires and the "thorough course of military instruction under Col. Whipple as Drillmaster." Parsons, who was obviously proud of his association with Brown, apparently just missed being in on the Harpers Ferry raid--he had returned to KT during the long wait and was not recalled.
Keywords: Black Jack, Battle of; Brown, Jason; Brown, John, 1800-1859; Brown, John, Jr.; Brown, Owen; Cleveland, Ohio; Cook, John E.; Coppoc, Barclay; Coppoc, Edwin; Forbes, Hugh; Fort Scott, Kansas Territory; Fugitive slaves; Harpers Ferry, Virginia; Hinton, Richard Josiah; Kagi, John Henry; Kansas City Metropolitan; Kansas City, Missouri; Leeman, William H.; Moffett, Charles; Osawatomie, Battle of; Parsons, Luke F.; Pate, Henry Clay; Quakers (see Society of Friends); Realf, Richard , 1834-1878; Redpath, James, 1833-1891; Rice, Benjamin; Springdale, Iowa; Stevens, Aaron Dwight (see also Whipple, Charles); Tabor, Iowa; Tidd, C. P.; Topeka, Kansas Territory
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November 18, 2012 by Paul Kerlinger
Filed Under:
About Paul Kerlinger
Paul Kerlinger, Ph.D. is a scientist, author and nationally known expert on bird migration. He's done extensive studies on hawks, Snowy Owls and neotropical song birds. Kerlinger is the former director of the Cape May Bird Observatory, His books include How Birds Migrate and Flight Strategies of Migrating Hawks. He's an ardent fly fisherman and organic vegetable gardener.


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Eye-witness accounts of Monday's shooting attack on the Ozar Hatorah School:
A man riding on a scooter open fired on the school at around 7:46 am as the students were arriving for the school day. Jonathan Sandler was the first one to be shot at short range. He was holding his 3-year-old son Gabriel in his arms. Gabriel was hit and fell to the ground and then Arieh, age 6, followed.
The gun then jammed, so the killer swiftly changed weapons and headed into the school. He grabbed Miriam Monsongo (age 7) and as she tried to escape, grasped her hair and shot her. Then, as she bled to death on the floor, he lifted up her head and fired two additional bullets.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
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The topic of retirement income is on the top of most advisors' minds these days. With large percentages of investors moving into their retirement years, advisors are wondering how they're going to meet their clients' needs for consistent and rising income.
While bonds are traditionally thought of as a good source of retirement income, in today's markets, you'll likely find much better income opportunities on the stock side of the market. Ten years ago, however, this wasn't the case. But market metrics have changed substantially, and you'll have to change your strategy if you want your clients' money to last 30 or more years.
Retirement Income From Bonds
In general, I'm a big fan of bonds. In today's markets and for the next decade or more, bonds will provide an important element of principal protection and some modest income payments, but they won't solve your clients' needs for meaningful and growing income.
At the time of writing this article, 10-Year U.S. Treasury notes are yielding about 2.3%, and 20-Year U.S. Treasury bonds are yielding about 3.3%. If you had a client retiring today, with a $1 million portfolio, and you laddered the bonds between 10 and 20 years, you'd have an average yield of about 3%, give or take a tenth of a percent. I don't expect your client would find a fixed $30,000 taxable income stream a workable solution, especially since the client had to commit a good percentage of the portfolio to longer term bonds.
With the longer term nature of the bonds, the portfolio could look really ugly if inflation picks up. While you can't predict future inflation rates, if we have inflation of just 2% over the next 20 years, that income stream is reduced to only about $20,100 in today's dollars. If inflation ran at 3%, the income stream is reduced to $16,600 in today's dollars.
With interest rates this low, the best you can hope for is low to no inflation. Otherwise, the rising cost of living will ravage the income stream, and if interest rates increase, the portfolio could get hammered by declining values. On the one hand, that's not a big deal if your client is willing to hold the bonds to maturity, but on the other, it is a big deal because your client can't do much to adjust to higher interest rates. Given the history of volatile interest rates and inflation cycles, the odds are that your client would experience one or both of those scenarios.
The Cost of Liability Matching
There is another option available with bonds called liability matching that would require you to buy a fixed income security today that will match your client's anticipated spending needs in the future. For instance, let's say you think your client will need $75,000 of income 15 years from now. If you wanted to fund that obligation with a zero coupon U.S. Treasury bond, it would cost you about $45,000 in today's dollars. A 15-year zero coupon bond has a yield to maturity of about 3.5%, so if you invested $45,000 in the bond, it would be worth about $75,000 in 15 years. You could do this sort of matching for every year of your client's anticipated retirement.
The problem is you can't be sure how much income your client will need in 15 years. Why? Because you can't predict inflation rates, and you probably can't accurately predict your client's lifestyle needs. If clients need to plan for 30-year retirements, the odds of predicting inflation and lifestyle needs 30 years into the future are pretty small. Plus, who knows how long your clients might live? If they live longer than anticipated, you may well have fully depleted their assets because you didn't expect to have to match liabilities that far into the future.
Since inflation is an issue, you might think, "Well, I'll use TIPS to help protect against inflation." In a normal interest rate environment, that might be helpful. But today, 10-Year TIPS actually have no yield and on some days a negative yield, meaning your client will lose money in TIPS over the next 10 years, excluding the inflation adjustment. So if we were to have low inflation over the next 10 years, the return would be paltry.
In general, the fixed income market is so expensive that trying to fund your client's unknown, future retirement liabilities with fixed income assets is a gamble on a number of fronts. So an asset that looks safe, poses lots of risks for investors in need of an inflation adjusted income stream.
The next question is, are there better opportunities today? In my opinion, yes; and they are found in the equity markets.
Retirement Income From Dividends
With stock prices declining for the last 11 years and earnings and dividends growing, investors can now secure meaningful yields from a select group of stocks that provide both a higher income payment than bonds and opportunities for growing income.
There are many "blue chip" companies today that have dividend yields above 3% and that have prospects of growing those dividend payments at 5% or more a year into the future. While dividends are by no means guaranteed, if you construct a well-diversified portfolio of dividend-paying stocks, you have fairly good odds of maintaining and growing your dividend income stream into the future. Plus, as the income grows, you're likely to see price appreciation down the line. Compare that to bonds where you won't get any income growth or any capital appreciation (assuming you hold the bonds to maturity).
Let's say you could buy a stock for $100 that paid a $3 dividend and that dividend payment was expected to grow at 5% per year. Twenty years from now, that stock would be producing almost $8 in dividends for the $100 invested, or an 8% yield on your cost. If you created an entire portfolio of companies with this type of dividend structure, you could have a $1-million portfolio that produced $30,000 of dividends today growing to $80,000 20 years from now.
Now, if you had a $1-million portfolio of stocks producing $80,000 of dividends, what do you think the odds are that the price of those stocks would have increased over those 20 years? Pretty high, because as the income grows, it tends to pull up the stock price over the long term. Investors would see the growing dividend and bid up the price of the security to match other income opportunities in the market. Now, this is not a one-for-one move, but over extended periods of time, rising stock dividends are highly correlated with rising stock prices.
In today's market, a well-diversified portfolio of dividend-paying stocks may be less risky from an income standpoint than a portfolio of high-quality, longer term bonds.
You might be wondering what the history of dividends looks like for some blue chip companies. Here is one example to help illustrate the point. In 1993, Johnson & Johnson paid a dividend of about 25 cents a share and traded at about $12 a share, for a then-current yield of about 2.1%. Over the next 17 years, JNJ raised its annual dividend per share from 25 cents to $2.11 in 2010, or an increase of about 750%, well outpacing the increase in inflation over those years.
Now, if the JNJ stock price had stayed at $12 a share, it would have been yielding about 17% given the $2.11 dividend. But over the years, the stock price has risen such that today JNJ trades in the mid-$60s range and has a dividend yield of about 3.6%.
There are many other examples of companies that meet these historical dividend metrics. And if you focus on acquiring these types of companies for your retired clients, you can build an income stream that has a high probability of being both stable and growing, plus tack on the opportunities for capital gains.
Northstar Retirement Income Stock Index
Several years ago we started focusing more heavily on building retirement portfolios with a specific type of dividend-paying stock. We were looking for companies in all of the 10 major market sectors that paid both meaningful dividends and had a high probability of growing their dividends faster than the rate of inflation. We felt so strongly about the approach that we created the Northstar Retirement Income Stock Index (NRISI) to track the returns of stocks that we felt retired investors could live off of. We enlisted the help of Standard & Poor's to create and run the custom index for us.
The Index was created on June 30, 2008, and we of course had no idea what the markets were about to experience over the next three years. As it turns out, that market cycle was about as good a stress test as we could have imagined. Over those three years, our NRISI had an annualized return of 9.4%, compared to the S&P 500 at 3.3%. The Index also has a healthy dividend yield of about 3.5% today, and the dividends for the stocks in the Index have been growing on average at about 7% per year over the last few years.
The NRISI consists of 48 different companies in all 10 of the major market sectors, and the holdings are equally weighted. The diversification and equal weighting have helped provide both more pricing and income protection for the securities in the Index than the S&P 500.
While we in no way are abandoning bonds for our retired clients, we view them primarily as securities that will provide clients with principal protection in down markets and a modest amount of income. We see certain aspects of the equity markets providing better long-term prospects for growing income and capital gains. With all of the uncertainty modern financial markets pose, coupled with the uncertainty of a client's joint life expectancy and future spending needs, opportunities for growing income and capital gains are critical for our clients' long-term odds of retirement security.
Charles Farrell is a principal at Northstar Investment Advisors LLC. He can be reached at email@example.com.


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Things to take care of in December.
� Use trimmings from landscape evergreens for holiday decorations. Avoid removing too many branches from one side or distorting the natural shape of the plant.
Keep the evergreens fresh with an occasional misting from a spray bottle.
Be sure not to pair fresh greenery with lighted candles. That could create a fire danger.
� Spade or till shredded leaves, compost, peat moss or well-rotted barnyard manure into vegetable beds to enrich the soil for spring planting.
� Avoid piling salty slush around plants or on beds. Accumulations of salt can compact soil and injure roots. Use calcium chloride, sand or other salt substitutes.
� Protect salt-sensitive plants such as yews and pines with a screen of burlap to reduce the amount of spray from passing cars.
� Mow the grass as long as a third of the blade is cut. Sometimes this means mowing in early December.
� Rake remaining fallen leaves to keep grass from yellowing.
� Dig the planting hole for live Christmas trees and store the soil in a shed or garage where it won�t freeze. Put mulch or leaves in the hole to keep surrounding soil from freezing.
� Finish planting spring-flowering bulbs.
� Clean and winterize lawn mowers and other power garden tools before storing.
� Keep the water reservoir filled in the Christmas tree stand. Check daily. Keep root balls of live trees moist.
� Clean or replace furnace filters.
� Test smoke and carbon- monoxide detectors. Check fire extinguishers to ensure they are charged and operable.
� Test ground-fault interrupters.
� Inspect holiday lights, cords, plugs and switches. Make sure exterior lights and cords are rated for outdoor use.
� Flip circuit-breaker switches off and on to ensure they are not stuck.
� Take security precautions before holiday travel. Put lights on timers. Don�t leave gifts where they can be seen through windows. Stop mail and newspaper deliveries.
Ask a neighbor to check inside the house, especially on days with freezing temperatures.
Hire someone to clear walks and the driveway in case of snow.
Make sure windows and doors are locked.
To thwart thieves, don�t leave a garage-door remote control in a car parked in the driveway.
� Make sure tubes and filters on vacuum cleaners aren�t blocked. Clear the revolving brush of string, thread and other fibers.
Check the belt for wear and cracking; replace if necessary.
� Clean dishwasher strainers and filters. To remove sediment and grease deposits, place a small amount of vinegar in a container, set it in one of the trays and run the appliance for a full cycle.
� Skip fertilizing houseplants until March.
� Use a humidifier or pebble tray to raise humidity for tropical plants.


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Wright Morris
Wright Morris (Wright Marion Morris), 1910–98, American writer, b. Central City, Nebr. He was for many years professor of English at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State Univ.). His fiction treats the relationship of the burden of American history to the present, and the evolution and continuity of the American character. His novels include The World in the Attic (1949), Love among the Cannibals (1957), Fire Sermon (1971), and Plains Song (1980). The Territory Ahead (1958) is a study of American literary tradition, and About Fiction (1975) is a critical work. Morris was also a photographer, noted particularly for his images of the Great Plains and for his combinations of text and photographs.
See his memoirs Will's Boy (1981), Solo (1983), and A Cloak of Light (1985). See studies by L. Howard (1968) and G. B. Crump (1978).


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For Bookings, call 0421 819 373
Tours depart from
14 Brisbane Street, Launceston TAS 7250
For Bookings, call 0421 819 373
Tours depart from
14 Brisbane Street, Launceston TAS 7250
Launceston Tasmania has a deep and dark convict past. A past with violent and torturous deaths, and deaths caused by heartache and pain. Petty thieves, rapists, murderers and ill-treated servants and slaves used to roam the Streets, buildings, and churches of Launceston.
On this Launceston tour you can experience their ghosts and the paranormal energies that they left behind. We offer three 90 minute walking tours:
Throughout the tour you will experience darkness, loud noises, screaming. Many of our guests have experienced unexplained paranormal feelings. Our guides are skilled and can adapt the gore-level depending on the age of the audience.
The walking is easy with frequent stops.
The stories told here are real eye openers and surprisingly some are not even known to the locals. Believers and sceptics alike that have been on the tour have had some form of experience and photos taken have shown some form of unexplained figures or light.
Fact or Fiction? Believer or Sceptic? Take this special Launceston tour and decide for yourself.
Launceston Ghost Tours are one of the unique things to do in Launceston and one of the best Launceston activities.


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Thursday, November 26, 2009
Hey, Good Lookin', What you Got Cookin'?
I'm up making cranberry sauce and steaming summer squash (no, this won't be a locavore feast, although I am serving a local turkey and local potatoes, and probably other things that I'm too tired to think of at the moment), and I started to think about my menu and wondered what my friends are cooking up today?
So, first off, despite my love of cooking and my love of all things locavore, for us Thanksgiving is first and foremost a family holiday, and the menu has been constructed of various family members' favorites over the years. So, yes, it's pedestrian, and somewhat commercial, even, but it's our very, very traditional feast.
We're having a very small crowd this year - just me, Dave, Con, my mother and my father-in-law. We're also having an early dinner (probably 1:30 or so), and then we're planning to see THE BLIND SIDE, which is one of the few movies out there which we'd all be happy seeing (my father-in-law basically only likes to see inspirational movies).
So here are our family favorites:
Turkey - I am trying something new this year - I liked the title of this recipe: World's Simplest Thanksgiving Turkey.
Mashed potatoes - with skins partially on. These are from Tantre and I'll make them with sweet butter and some half and half and salt. That's it. Con likes me to try to imitate the Roadhouse mashed potatoes, which are his favorites. He's the mashed potato king in our brood, so he gets dibs on the type. If it were me and Dave, it would be garlic mashed all the way.
Squash pudding. I've talked about this here, before. This is NOT a sweet squash - it's a summer squash pudding that's decadent and savory. My mother started making this in the 60's and it ain't Thanksgiving without the Squash Pudding (this is a bow to me and to Mom and to Dave).
Cranberry Maple Sauce - this is a recipe from the Silver Palate New Basics cookbook. Bowing here to Dave, who likes the maple, and Mom, who likes the orange zest. It's fabulous and simple - 1 bag of cranberries, rinsed, 1 cup of maple syrup, 1 cup of raspberry juice (but we don't drink juice so I used a bottle of pomegranate cherry juice instead) and the zest off one orange. Boil, bring down to medium, cook for 10 minutes, cool. Add a cup of toasted walnut pieces, if you choose to. We probably won't - I'll take a poll. I'd prefer the walnuts, but I bet, I'll be outvoted.
Katherine's Gravy - this is my sister's recipe that's a bastardization of a Craig Claiborne N. Y. Times vegetarian gravy. I still have the recipe card she gave me, and I commune with her a little every time I take it out. We all love this recipe, although we do a non-vegetarian version (I use chicken stock).
Stuffing. Okay... confession time. It. has. to. be. Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing. A la the package recipe. With my homemade chicken broth. Then baked out of the turkey. So, um, yeah. But that's the way it rolls on the Shikes side of the family. Dave prefers cornbread stuffing, but he gets outvoted here. ;-)
If there were more people, I'd do Tyler Florence's upscale green bean casserole recipe, but we just don't have enough people, and the food we have are the main faves.
Dessert: Another confession here: Costco Pumpkin Pie. It's better than any of the versions I've made over the years. Sigh. At least according to Con, and he's also the Pumpkin Pie king. Mom just wants pumpkin pie. My father-in-law and Dave love Pumpkin Pie, too. If there were more people, I'd also make my mother-in-law's Sour Cream Apple Pie, but there just aren't. Me - I like Mince Pie, but I'm totally outvoted here.
And finally, you have a choice of Calder vanilla ice cream on that pie or whipped cream.
So, what are you all cooking up today? What are special family faves?
Happy Thanksgiving and happy eating!
16 comments:
- Brian Miller said...
i hope you and your family have an amazing thanksgiving! my favorite...turkey sandwiches on the day after! smiles.
- November 26, 2009 at 9:18 AM
- anno said...
Sounds lovely.... savory aromas, delicious flavors -- all the best of the season. Wishing you a wonderful day!
- November 26, 2009 at 10:38 AM
- Jen said...
Thanks, Brian, and to you! Replied about the sandwiches on your blog. ;-)
And to you, Anno - I hope it's lovely!
- November 26, 2009 at 10:49 AM
- Ivy said...
Happy Thanksgiving Jen. Hope you and you family have a wonderful time.
- November 26, 2009 at 11:42 AM
- April said...
Happy Thanksgiving, Jen!
- November 26, 2009 at 1:34 PM
- Korie said...
I had some slices of lunch meat and I'm about to have some chips. Cause I had no Thanksgiving. Yours sounds awesome though....sigh.
- November 26, 2009 at 3:27 PM
- Liz Dwyer said...
Happy Thanksgiving!
That cranberry sauce sounds delish! I've been a fan of Ocean Spray canned since I was a kid, but that sounds really tasty.
We made pumpkin pies and we're taking them over to a friend's house. She's making turkey and a veggie nutloaf. Other folks are bringing the other side dishes so I'm sure we'll have PLENTY of food.
- November 26, 2009 at 4:46 PM
- glamah16 said...
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
I kept is simple this year with a few twists (Turkey, stuffing with sausage, cranberry sauce with brandy, vanilla, cinnamon, etc.). Made Bourbon sweet potatoes and Sticky Toffee Pudding.
- November 26, 2009 at 7:16 PM
- Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul said...
It all sound delicious Jen! I hope you and your family had a lovely Thanksgiving!
- November 27, 2009 at 4:36 AM
- Goofball said...
wow what a festive meal. Sounds delicious...just as I imagine a traditional thanksgiving meal :)
That never stops amazing me: that American holidays are so strongly linked to specific dishes. I think in Europe Christmas (we don't have thanksgiving) brings a huge variety of meals on the table, more than in the USA.
Don't worry for not being local all the time, you already put so much effort in being local the rest of the year?
- November 27, 2009 at 6:22 AM
- Jen said...
Thanks so much, Ivy and April!
Lilac - sorry to hear it. When I was in Russia, I still "did" Thanksgiving with Russian friends - I made it for them. Maybe next year you can? (It doesn't have to be *on* the day).
Los A - it sounds like you had a lovely time. As you said in your post - it's all about the gathering, really.
Glamah - yours sounds wonderful. Have you put up that sticky toffee pudding recipe? I've always wondered how to make it!
Thanks, Peter, we did. I'm sure your crew ate well, too. ;-)
Goofball, thanks! You know, that's so funny, because I've always felt the opposite - especially in terms of Christmas traditions. It seems like each of my European exchange kids talked about all the specifics they HAD to have for Christmas. It may be that it depends on the country. Thanksgiving is our main meal that is similar, although given our diversity, there's plenty of variation in that, too, from family to family.
- November 27, 2009 at 6:31 AM
- Jeanie said...
Your Thanksgiving dinner sounds much like mine -- except I have to click to that pudding link! I love it -- pedestrian, commercial, traditional and wonderful. Interesting, isn't it, how "pedestrian" and "commercial" can still be so darned delicious and wonderful when you throw that "tradition" into it!
Hope your day was wonderful. It's nice to catch up with you!
- November 27, 2009 at 7:47 AM
- Jackie at PhamFatale.com said...
Everything sounds so yummilicious. How was the movie? I haven't seen it yet
- November 27, 2009 at 7:13 PM
- Proud Italian Cook said...
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving Jen, I confess, we love Costco's pumpkin pie too!
- November 27, 2009 at 9:40 PM
- Linda said...
The reason we do it sort of pot luck is so that everyone can bring an old favorite or a dish that they can't wait to try. We can no longer imagine Thanksgiving without Penny's cheesy baked onions or Mayumi's cranberry sauce with strawberries in it. I make a sweet potato dish that I found in a Junior League cookbook. The rest changes every year. Jaya always takes to muttar panir to her get together in Boston.
- November 28, 2009 at 8:27 PM
- Jen said...
Jeanie - that's the thing I guess - folks just love to retain all their favorites. We used to go to Linda's - and I preferred that, actually, both for the company and all the delicious new things to try. ;-)
Jackie - we didn't get to see it because my mother and father-in-law were both too tired. I've heard from friends that it's wonderful, though.
Proud Italian - thanks! And I have to admit, Costco does a darned good job with that particular pie.
Linda, you have no idea how much I missed you guys this year! Maybe soon we can re-join again.
- November 30, 2009 at 7:18 PM


text:
Pay attention to who you share your intimate energy with. Intimacy at this level intertwines your aural energy with the aural energy of the other person. These powerful connections, regardless of how insignificant you think they are, leave spiritual debris, particularly within people who do not practice any type of cleansing, physical, emotional or otherwise. The more you interact intimately with someone, the deeper the connection and the more of their aura is intertwined with yours. Imagine the confused aura of someone who sleeps with multiple people and carries around these multiple energies?What they may not realize is that others can feel that energy and attract negative energy into your life.
I always say, never sleep with someone you wouldn't want to be. ~Lisa Chase Patterson