Thanksgiving Eve

We were up at our usual 7 a.m. hour this morning, and I headed to the treadmill right after breakfast. I won't exercise tomorrow, of course, since it's Thanksgiving Day.





I spent the rest of the morning preparing dishes that can be heated in the microwave tomorrow, like sweet potato casserole, and my corn/green bean recipe that is a family favorite. The first time I made this dish was while my then husband and I, and our baby son, were living in California.





Money was scarce, and our cupboard was getting bare. One day, a neighbor brought us a large salt-water fish, for which we were very grateful. But what to have with it? I combed our supplies and turned up some cornmeal and flour, canned beans, tomato sauce, and chili powder, plus a can of green beans, and a couple of cans of whole kernel corn. With these, and an onion and bell pepper, I made a Mexican casserole, and the corn and green bean dish to go with the fish, which I seasoned and baked.





For the corn and green bean dish, I melt a couple of sticks of margarine in an electric frying pan, and add a large chopped bell pepper and a large chopped onion. I saute' the onion and bell peppers until tender, then add four cans of drained green beans and three cans of drained corn, and season with seasoning salt and pepper, and about an eighth of a cup of sugar. I let this simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.





This is obviously not a heart-healthy recipe, but it is a dish requested by family at Thanksgiving. I will not be eating it. But a heart-healthy book that I have has a reasonable substitute, which we'll use for those of us on restricted diets. It calls for three tablespoons of chopped onion sauteed in a teaspoon of light margarine, in which is added a cup of green beans and a cup of whole kernel corn, 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon basil, and a dash of pepper. Simmer until heated through.





As for sweet potatoes, those of us on restricted diets will forgo these in favor of a heart-healthy butternut squash casserole (made from the squashes grown in the compost heap).





Since everything is under control for tomorrow's feast, Mother and I decided to make a shopping trip to one of the stores that has a sale every weekend. Today, the store offered a 20% senior discount. Mother found two knit Christmas theme shirts to wear to various upcoming parties, and I found a couple of cute Christmas ornaments to use as token gifts.





From there, I stopped by one of the branch banks to pick up two tickets for a Christmas tour of historic homes. Mother doesn't like going on these tours, because the homes are not very handicapped accessible, and it's hard for her to climb steps up to porches or to upper levels in the homes.





Back home, we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, before heating the leftover lasagna for supper, which we had with canned spinach and canned peas and carrots, and sample slices of the yeast bread baked for tomorrow's feast.





Mother went home right after supper, and no sooner had Hubbie and I sat down to watch TV news than we heard a sickening thud outside. Rushing to see what had happened, we saw two vehicles in the ditch at the west side of our yard. I wanted to cry. What if someone was hurt or worse on this eve before Thanksgiving?





Hubbie immediately called 911, and then hurried to the wreck. He came back a few minutes later reporting that two trucks had collided, and one guy was pinned in his vehicle. He grabbed a coat, and so did I (praying all the while that the guy who was pinned was not seriously hurt), and we rushed back to the scene.





Debris from the trucks was scattered over a large area of the yard, and by now state police, the fire department, and various other emergency personnel and vehicles were parked along the edge of our property, red lights flashing, while emergency crew trained flashlights over the wreckage.


A couple of men bought out the jaws of life. About 20 minutes later, they had cut away the windshield, the door, and part of the cab's roof, and were able to extract the injured driver. We were relieved that the ambulance that transported him to the hospital did not rush off, sirens screaming, but drove away at a normal speed. Surely that meant the man's injuries are not life threatening.



The driver of the other vehicle said the injured man crossed the highway at the intersection without stopping, and he (the uninjured driver) had no time to even apply his brakes. The front end of his truck was crushed in like the nose of a pug dog.



The injured guy's truck, which slammed into one of the pine trees in our yard, appeared, after being hit on the driver's side, to become airborne, turning about 180 degrees, tipping sideways and slamming, topside, into the tree, which crushed the top down onto the driver. We don't know if he was wearing a seat belt or not, but when we saw him, he was lying across the seat, head toward the driver's side, with the truck cab pinning him at the hips.



Two trucks are totalled, but two guys are alive. I can imagine the prayers of gratitude at the Thanksgiving tables of these two families tomorrow!



We spent the rest of our evening listening to our favorite college basketball team play to a nail-biter win, when one of our team sunk a three-pointer in the last second of the game.



It was a busy and exciting day.