Thanksgiving

I've been shopping ahead for Thanksgiving Dinner. The turkey breasts (four) are in the freezer. The Darden Ham is ordered. Darden Ham is an old type Smithfield cured ham using the Darden Family recipe for curing---which is salty and wonderful. Must be sliced thin! They are cured and sold by the Darden Family (Tommy and Dee Dee) in Smithfield, Virginia at their country store. YUM YUM YUMMY!!! Today I bought sweet potatoes and stringbeans (canned) from Sam's Club. I'll wait until Thanksgiving week to buy fresh collards. Yeast for the rolls as I was about out. Sweet potatoes will become sweet potato pudding with marshmellow topping and the canned stringbeans will be drained, washed well and seasoned with a hunk of scrap piece from the Darden Ham. The collards will be seasoned with the ham hock from the said ham.

I also bought four bags of Black Walnuts! That will be enough for two Black Walnut Cakes for Christmas. I may make three of them. One for me, one for my father-in-law and one for my sister and brother-in-law. Also three pound cakes. Both recipes date back to my great-great-grandmother Mary Elizabeth "Cotton" Kirwan-Billups. The Walnut cake her daughter Aunt Mamie gave to my mother and the Pound cake Aunt Mamie's daughter Georgia gave the recipe to me.

I also loaded up on sugar, cocoa, and evaporated milk for fudge. I try to get a batch done for Thanksgiving. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I make a ton of Fudge for the family, neighbors and friends.