Thanksgiving Week

RV Park on Lake Elsinore

How was your Thanksgiving? I hope you were fortunate enough to spend it with friends and loved ones.

When Mark and I made our November plans, we weren't sure what we were going to do about the Thanksgiving holiday, and so we didn't think much about it until we were preparing to leave for Lake Elsinore. But we were surprised by an invitation from Mark's long time friend, Tina Kelsey, to spend Thanksgiving day with her family. We chose Lake Elsinore as a stopping point because we had planned to spend some time visiting with her. It's about twenty miles or so north of Temecula, where Tina lives. But we never expected to be included into their family celebration. Our special thanks go out to Tina and her extended family for their kind hospitality to us nomads. It was a lovely meal and a very pleasant visit overall.

So now I have to tell you about my pressure cooker debacle. After we got our invitation, I asked if there would be anything I could bring to the dinner. A side dish or dessert was the answer, and since there was going to be plenty of dessert, I opted for a side dish. Of course I chose something I like (a wise consideration when attending any potluck-style event), as well as being standard offering at most Thanksgiving dinners -- yams. Even if someone else brings yams, not everyone prepares them the same way. And if it turns out that nobody likes them, I get to bring them home and eat them all myself. Win-win.

So I set out to make my version of Thanksgiving yams. Off to the store I went to purchase a bunch of sweet potatoes - organic, of course. Thanksgiving morning I was up bright and early to make the yams, as we were planning to leave for Tina's house at about 10:30. I thought to myself, you have this handy pressure cooker...why not use it to cook the sweet potatoes; a half hour should get them nice and tender. And so I washed them, stuffed them in the pot, and set the timer for thirty minutes. At the end of the time, I proceeded to release the steam and pull them out to cool. There was no steam. Off came the lid. The potatoes were barely warm. What's wrong? I thought. I checked the seal. It seemed fine. I repeated the same process again. Same result. I changed out the seal and repeated the process. Same result. By this time it's getting close to the time we should be leaving, and I'm thinking my Instant Pot is broken, when suddenly, like out of the blue, a simple scientific fact occurs to me. Steam requires water. There was no steam because there was no water. Duh! So, while Mark got on the phone to let Tina know we would be late, I added a cup of water to the bottom of my pot and restarted it for yet another thirty minutes. Wa La! Beautifully cooked sweet potatoes. Fifteen minutes later, they were pealed, mashed, seasoned, and stuffed into a casserole dish for transporting.

We weren't really late, fortunately. We spent a few hours at Tina's visiting with her and Dave before it was time to go to her sister's house where the meal would be. And...now I understand how pressure cookers work. 

Temecula, it turns out, is another American "wine country." As Tina aptly remarked, "You can't throw a stone here without hitting a winery." The next day, she took us out for a wine tasting afternoon. The one pictured is where she and her husband have a membership, and the tasting was free. Her husband, Dave, met us at the second winery where we sat for a while sipping and visiting on their outdoor patio until the sun went down. Afterward Tina fed us turkey leftovers and sent us home with two jars of homemade jam. We've already opened up the fig jam - it's delicious!

At Thanksgiving I can't help but ponder how truly rich we are. In a world where millions, maybe billions, of human beings suffer hardship and starvation, we are blessed with all that we need and much that we want. It is the evidence that God keeps his promise to care for his children.

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good: for his steadfast love endures forever!" (Psalm 118) 

We hope that your Thanksgiving holiday was equally blessed.

On Saturday, Mark and I took a drive up the mountain on a curvy two-lane road to a little restaurant called Overlook Roadhouse for lunch. It's nothing to look at from the outside, but the food is great and you can't beat the view. 

Sunday we left Lake Elsinore for the San Diego area where we are now. Our campsite is about ten miles from Mexico, as the crow flies, off Highway 94 near Jamul, CA. We're here for two weeks.