Gather Round The Table

Raiding the china cabinet

     Recently, we gained an hour of sleep as we rolled our clocks back.  I think everyone likes the extra hour in the morning, but many of us complain about the early nightfall/darkness.  As for me, I love the changing seasons and the return to hearth and home that this time change brings.  As it gets darker and colder, earlier and earlier, I am inspired to cook up a savory feast for my family. This is the time of year when a fire in the fireplace reminds me of my youth, and the comfort of the wonderful home my mother made for me and my siblings and even harkens back to a time I can only imagine, when my ancestors cooked dinner over an open flame. This is a nostalgic time of year.  I want to draw my children close and play the music of bygone days, as we settle into our nightly routines, awaiting the satisfaction of a meal made slowly, teasing us with salivating smells.
     This year, the time change came late, after Halloween, so as I put away my ever expanding collection of Halloween paraphernalia , and modify my fall decor with pumpkins and turkeys, versus jack 'o lanterns and graveyards, I feel the desire to set a harvest table.  Collecting is a passion for me and one of my favorite collections is my transferware dishes.  Transferware, also known as Straffordshire, is a type of tableware that was made by tranferring an image from a template onto the pottery pieces, as opposed to hand painting, enabling the maker to reproduce the pattern over and over quickly and inexpensively.  In essence, transferware was the poor woman's china, and another reason it can be rare, as it was used by everyday people who set their own tables and washed their own dishes, and another reason I love it. Harken back, baby, harken back.  Feel the connection.  I love many genres of transferware but my favorite pattern is Charlotte by Clarice Cliff.  I have some pieces in red, brown and multi-color.  Tonight I'll use the brown.  I will set the dining room table for 6, using the "good" silver and stemware.  Don't leave that stuff packed away waiting for posterity, use it! Set a beautiful table and often.  Make a nice table part of your weekly or monthly routine.  Your family will benefit from the gatherings and like John Keats said, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever".  Tradition, my friends, tradition! That's what makes life beautiful and memorable, and anchors us to our past while linking us to the future.  Enough of my rant, back to the table, literally and figuratively.  What shall I serve? Roasted pork loin with caramelized apple and onion stuffing, red wine reduction, buttermilk mashed potatoes, homemade apple sauce and dried cranberry, feta and slivered almond arugula salad with balsamic dressing. (recipes following)  Is your mouth watering? Well you should smell it cooking.  They say we would all be better served to return to the days when our appetites were not immediately gratified.  A time when we awaited a meal, tortured by the tantalizing smell of supper cooking, stomach growling and mouth watering.  Who knew that those uncomfortable feelings were actually helping our digestion, readying our systems for a well-digested meal? Years of adapting shouldn't be so easily discarded...we need to anticipate our food, wait for gratification and try to savor the meal.  Maybe our girths will diminish as our patience grows.

Harvest table

  As my family members draw chairs up to the table, ready to share the end of the day together, I stop to say a prayer of thanks for a blessed and abundant life.  Celebrate home and family and your returns will be many. Bon apetite!