Karen and I made our annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Berkeley Heights and the Morgan-Ortons. This year we went via Roosevelt Island in NYC to drop of exhibition prints from our October show Street Photography / Surveillance with Bojune Kwon.

Ed went upscale on the wine for this meal

Wednesday evening dinner was cooked by Mr. Wonderful who brought back an old favorite for a re-run, meatloaf. This is the same meatloaf that was the subject of several earlier postings here. Of course all of this attention on a dish which has no recipe necessitated some head scratching. Once I got started in Meredith’s kitchen (I know that Ed makes rice and beans and other delicacies there, too, but this is Meredith’s kitchen) she hung around to kibitz. This lead to the discovery, not surprising given her penny pinching propensities, that she added oatmeal to her meatloaf too. The Wheatena I include was a novelty for her but I left out the carrots that hers included. Since my earlier jiggling of the memory banks I recalled that I also added either canned diced tomatoes or tomato juice to give some fluid for the cooking of the oatmeal and Wheetena. Spices include variably, basil, garlic, red pepper, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, Pickapeppa, and catsup. Actually, the catsup is a required sealant for the surface of the meatloaf.

Not to get carried away further with TMI (where is Nyla when I need her steadying editorial hand), I also made a dish that was a real novelty for the Morgan-Ortons, kasha varnishke. My original plan was to make a basic Russian kasha, but Karen demanded the Jewish variant familiar in the US. I followed a recipe (this happens occasionally) at yourjewishmother.wordpress.com.

Thanksgiving Day

Since Meredith has to put in an appearance at the annual football contest between her high school and the local rival New Providence HS, we arrived fashionably late half way through the second period and departed after the half time extravaganza marching band foolery. Always the opportunist, Meredith stopped to feed the fish in her classroom after filling up on the the adulation of the crowd.

Before we could get Ed to peel a few potatoes, the following goofiness broke out:

Andrea, Noah, and Nyla arrived. Then next door neighbors Roland and Andrea. The feast was ready to begin. Karen took this panoramic shot over dessert. (Click on the image to see it full size)

Novelty Item

We had not noticed this little bit of wit from Meredith earlier. This inspired by one of Ed’s bad habits. Strikes many that there must be many more of these hidden about and to come. Ed has a lot of bad habits.

This is just to the left of the front door.

I should fess up that I have rarely used a recipe. My genius is to open the refrigerator door, look in the pantry, wait for inspiration, then make something with what is at hand. Only in my recent ventures into Indian cuisine have I used a cookbook. Even that I gave up when I discovered the wonders of manjulaskitchen.com.

I have a picture of a 2007 version of my meatloaf. I am sure it included the signature Wheateena and oatmeal, canned tomatoes, and ketchup coating. I must have had a lot of onions and green peppers hanging around This one seems less gloppy than many that Jonathan and Andrea would remember. Maybe I got distracted and it was desiccated by a bit too much time in the oven?

But the big news is that I received a medal! I am so excited. I don’t think I have ever gotten a medal for anything before. Not sure exactly why I am so enthralled. Every participant who finished the race, even the crawlers, received a medal. Still, I am excited.

Then, I picked up a can to look at the label. One glance reminded me of Michael Pollan’s Food Rules. One rule says something along the lines of, “if your third grader can not read the label don’t eat it.”

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It was quite personal since there are only twelve graduates. Special gifts were awarded to each with amusing commentary concerning some quirk or talent.

It was especially nice to meet some of Parker’s school friends and some of his teachers. Unfortunately, I only captured a name here or there. Apologies.

Here are a few photos.

The Procession

Parker listening to remarks before receiving gift

Parker with his teacher Adel

Maggie, Meredith, Ed and Parker

Mark, Maggie, Meredith, Ed, Parker, Karen

We spent time with Andrea, John, Nyla & Noah and others including the Browns. Struggled to fit in three barbecues. Missed John Sr. and Jeannette.

The Orton siblings gathered in Berkeley Heights NJ for a reunion this weekend. The last time all four were together was in 1997 at Nantasket Beach.

Today’s outing featured a trip to watch Noah Gilstrap play lacrosse in Princeton NJ. Mom and Dad were there also as was sister Nyla.

Torrey Orton fulfilled an objective of the trip with a visit to the hot dog stand. Nostalgia takes strange forms.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Noah Number 8

post game picnic

The other day Karen and I heard the telltale signal that Skype was calling us with some incoming call. Given the time of day, we knew that it was Hong Kong calling. Instead of answering it on my desktop machine I popped open our two week old iPad and answered. There were Jonathan, Nan, Jesse, and Anna in Hong Kong. We were sitting in our breakfast nook and they on the floor in their living room.

The usual family blather was conducted. Jesse showed us his stuffed animal cat and fed it carrots. Anna demonstrated her walking. Then I noticed Jesse wandering off to do something and I was struck by the notion that this videoconference was just part of the furniture of his life. He talks regularly with at ,east two sets of grandparents and probably others. I was sitting there struck at the same moment by the novelty of this event occurring not on a large desktop computer with all of it’s wires, external hard drives and printers cluttering a desk, but on a panel 9.5 x 7.5 inches and a mere .38 inches thick sitting without any dangling attachments.

In fact, as I am writing this, I realize that I have been planning ahead for this to happen. Recently I bought another WiFi router and set it up towards the back of the house. Initially I was just thinking of improving the signal in the breakfast nook. Then we had a day of warm weather and I sat on our deck in the back yard and played on the iPad. Soon we will video conference with the grandchildren from there too.

Still, I am struck by how miraculous this all is.

At any rate it was great fun seeing Nyla play, even if I experienced some trepidation that hyper-competitive mother Andrea might rush on the field to lead the charge.

Ultimately we got to the game, mostly for free due to Meredith’s teacher’s badge and old fart status for some who don’t want to be identified as such except in ticket lines.

It sort of looked like football. But the fact of the matter is revealed by the score at halftime. The game closed out at 35 – 13. GL High School had a dreadful 0 – 9 season. Maybe this is another high school coach headed for the peewee league.

And, we were deterred further from lolly gagging around by the cold wind and snow flurries. Anyway, we had heard enough of the disgusting fawning and groveling by students (Meredith insists that there was no groveling) at the site of “Oh, Dr. Morgan!!”.

Time to go home.

Turkey day was capped off by a quite traditional fare wonderfully commanded by Meredith. This year, because there were no additional guests we ate “buffet style” in the kitchen, thus avoiding the arduous task of clear the rubble from the dining room table.The only innovation to the fare was Ed’s roasted Brussels sprouts and radishes. Of course, Mr. Wonderful recreated his all-American dish of sweet potatoes covered with marshmallows – a particular favorite of Parker.

You’re probably are wondering about the feline story. Well, after we stuffed ourselves we had the entertainment of watching Tigerr, one of the resident cats eye the turkey leftovers and then make a leap for it.