Blessings for Thursday

Blessings for Thursday... as we come together as friends and family, near and far, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Don't miss our version of a charcuterie board at the bottom, you just may chuckle to yourself.  Our Thanksgiving charcuterie board turkey will be the talk of the table, good or bad, we like it all the same. 

As you prepare to sit down with your friends and families for this blessed Thanksgiving Day, keep in mind what this holiday means.  It began all those years ago as a day to give thanks, thankful for the harvest and another year's end which would lead to a new year and new beginnings.

We may not always have what we desire in life, but sometimes we need to be thankful for what we do have.  Our futures are not written in stone, sometimes challenges and difficult situations are thrown at us, but that does not mean we should give up.  No, in my opinion, quite the opposite.  Sometimes it is during these challenging times in our lives we learn what we are made of, and how to become stronger people. 

Put yourself out there, meet new people, learn what others are doing, what challenges they face, how different your life is from another's.  It is during those times, we learn what we have experienced is sometimes not as bad as what another has experienced.

  

Something I have always tried to do is put myself in someone else's shoes.  What hardships do they face?  How difficult would it be to overcome these challenges?  Is there something I can do to help?  

When I worked with persons with disabilities all those years ago, I was thoughtful in my approach in working with each person.  I looked at the person, not the disability.  Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have dis-abilities.  Maybe not in the literal sense of physical or mental disabilities, but there are things that hold each of us back.  

I cannot carry a tune, or do headstands, or a cartwheel for that matter, and then there are some days I cannot walk and chew gum at the same time (yes, I am a klutz), but it doesn't stop me from trying to put my best foot forward each and every day.

I enjoy offering an ear to listen, giving compliments to build self confidence in others, offering knowledge I have others may not.  I just call it being a good citizen, something I wish more of us could do.  It seems in the tech world, people feel more comfortable tearing down one another, and sending negative vibes out into the world, so my challenge to you is to lend a helping hand.  People tend to think this means bringing out their checkbooks, but no, that is not what I mean at all.

We are stronger together than we are a part.  That is all I am saying or hope for.  See how you can help a neighbor through a tough time, a friend, a coworker, a member of your church.  Sometimes we talk the talk, but can we walk the walk?  I sure hope so.    

To kick off this Thanksgiving Day, I am sharing my attempt at a charcuterie board!  I have always wanted to make one, and so I did.  It may not be the beautiful ones I have seen out there on the internet, but I am just a regular person like yourself who enjoys sharing ideas, projects, even the fails because I think it makes us normal, an every day person, your neighbor, or your friend.  No special talents here... unless we want to talk about my special talent at thinking I can do all the things when in reality, I can do some of the things. 

I have no team behind me writing my posts for me, or a team who works on my home (I wish!), or a person who takes my photos (I am sure you can tell).  I am just me, a regular ole gal who lives in a smaller community, in a simple cozy cottage with many lofty dreams.  I am a, what you see is what you get type of gal.  No smoke and mirrors, nothing too fancy pants even though I love all things fancy pants.  

I am thankful for you following along with me, for friends, old and new, my family, and our rascally pup.  I had no idea what would become of this little blog of ours, but I am thankful, big or small, whether you are here for the photos, the ideas, the projects, or even my oddball rants, and writings.  I will say I am pretty excited if you are here for the writing though, that makes my day, my month, my year!  

Lofty dreams is how I got here, so let's keep those dreams a float and continue making, and creating, and sharing, and coming together in this vintage style gal world we have created.  We thank you, even the pup laying at my feet who thinks everyone in the world knows who he is and loves him, we all thank you for your readership and community.  Without you, there would not be a reason for this blog.  

And now, gobble till you wobble folks... my long winded and awaited charcuterie board!  Now, you had to know I was going to do something off the wall, right?

Isn't he cute?  All of a sudden I woke in the middle of the night this week and like a zombie said, charcuterie board, must make a turkey!  Did I go back to bed?  Nope... I did not.  Like the crazy nut I am, I kept thinking about it and wondering how I could make it.

My husband picked up an assortment of meats and cheese this week when he put in an order and brought them home.  I asked, don't you think you went a bit overboard?  He said nope, I know you will come up with something.  I had not shared my idea of a turkey at that point with him. 

We have a small family as you know... so I did not want to make something huge.  I began with my cheese board, and then it just evolved from there.

Of course I kept fussing, I should have thought that using my marble cheese board would show the remnants of my work on it for photos, but that did not dawn on me at the time.  

I work best on the fly and continued to put together my charcuterie board.  A large cutting board would never work out for us, that would be too much for us to consume so I thought this would work best.

I cut the edges of each cheese slice with a small round cookie cutter and began to assemble them on the board to replicate the look of feathers.

LOL!  The eyes were too small and so was the beak.  Let's try this again!

I still do not feel I got the beak correct.  I used one marshmallow cut in half for his eyes, I searched high and low for something black in the cupboards that was edible, but I could not find anything.  Then I went to my spice drawer and I pulled out two red pepper flakes.  Whew, now our turkey can see!  

Cheese became his beak, prosciutto as his "feathers" along the back, salami and pepperoni as his body.  Then to make his wattle is a piece of prosciutto cut in half and gathered, then placed on top.  I did not want anything to not be edible, and I did not care for using toothpicks either.   

Then I sent a pic to my sister and the changes began... texts kept popping up, the eyes are too small, beak is too small, you need a large white platter... yada, yada, yada.  I simply replied I am using what I already have here, I am not making a purchase for this dear...

The phone then rings... and she starts right in, you need a white platter, do you have one?  

I went through my cupboards and found a plain old glass dish.  So blah, not me at all, I wanted pizzazz, I liked our D cheese board.  I have never gotten to use it, it's place in our home is perched on the counter leaning up against our backsplash.

  

I caved as you can see, and so here you go.  You can easily make on one these for your family dinners.  We know I like simple so it wasn't difficult to put together unless you count the back and forth with my sis.  I guess sister's can do this, it is their right of passage in life.  If you have one, then you know what I am talking about.

So there you have it, our turkey charcuterie, what has now turned into a plate.  He is perfectly imperfect, just what you come to know me for!  Have a wonderful holiday.