This very special bonus episode begins with a Thanksgiving Blessing from Andrew before he and David dig into topics of gratitude, food, and the communal elements of Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from the bottom of all of our hearts, minds, and souls here at Hyphenated-Life.
This very special bonus episode begins with a Thanksgiving Blessing from Andrew before he and David dig into topics of gratitude, food, and the communal elements of Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from the bottom of all of our hearts, minds, and souls here at Hyphenated-Life.
We joined hands and hearts and gratitude on this wondrous day, where we have the abundance of our lives before us in the faces who are in front of us and the voices beside us. And we remember on this day of abundance and bounty, all those who do not have enough, who are afraid, who are lonely and who suffer. We wish for the abundance of this world to be shared or fear, to become love for the lonely, to feel welcomed and for the suffering to no rest and joy where the labor, the love, the care that gave us the delights of this day and every day of our lives, we say, thanks for the nourishment of our spirit, the challenges that strengthen us and the friends we have on the journey we say, thanks for all that is our lives for these good gifts. We whisper. Thanks. Overflowing with gratitude. We say, thank you. Thank you, Andrew. That was, that was, that was lovely. So on this
Speaker 2:Thanksgiving day, we take this day too, to be thankful for the abundance of greatness in our lives, in the world, on our tables, in our hearts. And this is a tough one this year, huh? Finding gratitude can be difficult. I don't know if you've found that Andrew. I think it is, can be difficult, but I believe that gratitude, it's hard for resentment or anger to persist. When you find a place for gratitude in your life. We talked about, uh, last year, I think in a Thanksgiving week message where you go through the alphabet, you take each letter and you think of something you're grateful for based on that letter. And he can get really competitive with it too. Like yeah. Someone shout out what they're grateful for. That starts with letter a before everyone else does kind of thing. Right? So this year, Oh yeah, that sounds right. No, I think that's actually, that's, that's great. Uh, it's
Speaker 3:Immediately engaging in it and it you're communing with the people you're doing it with. And it depends on who that crowd is on what direction that game would take, like the Cowboys game today. Right, right. That would be the Cowboys are playing the, is it the Washington football team? I think so. You would know
Speaker 2:It's, it's a tough year to be a Cowboys fan, which they're my one B team. So one a Broncos, one B Cowboys. It's a really rough year to be a Broncos and Cowboys fan. It is yeah. Double the pain.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's a rougher year to be Dak Prescott. Oh, prayers for Dak. We're grateful for you deck. So yeah, I like it. The gratitude alphabet game. Is that the name? Try that at home. Yeah. I think that's a, that's a fun way to do it because, uh, you need a different strategy this year for attaining that space that you talked about of true of experiencing and acknowledging true gratitude. It's uh, it's, it's fleeting, but I think you're right. Even in the face of these monumental global disasters, there is still space and room for gratitude. And you just start with alphabet. I like that. Um, I think, yeah
Speaker 2:Know, but you know, if something starts with a letter, see what you might be grateful for
Speaker 3:Calvin, Calvin, Edward longed year. Um, this will be his first Thanksgiving that makes it easy. I feel, you know, a lot of, uh, if you didn't know, the listeners didn't know, um, my wife, Emily and I had our first child this year on May 2nd, Calvin Edward Lumnia was born in the middle of the Corona virus pandemic. We're in the middle of a lockdown stay at home order and a lot of people. And we thought that this was going to be the case. A lot of people said, Oh, what a difficult time to have a baby, to have a child to bring a child into the world. And for me, it's, it feels like a cheat code on a video game. Um, all I have to do is go home and look at him and have him smile at me. And there is nothing else that I can feel other than love and hope and gratitude. So I know not everyone out there has that on their list of things to be thankful for and grateful for. But, um, there are things to find even in the face of these difficulties. And I, I, like I said, mine's kind of a cheat code, but I, so that idea, this idea of family, uh, maybe you're not sharing a table with them this year because of an inability to travel, but you can still reflect on the meaning there, right? The meaning of sitting down and communing with, with loved ones of sharing a meal, um, that's at the core of what would typically top my gratitude lists. Um, I am always grateful to share delicious meals with good friends and family. So what is the thing skipping dish
Speaker 2:That absolutely has to be on your family table?
Speaker 3:So for me, it's, uh, not what most people would think, cause it's not on most people's table. And I'm talking about the main, the main thing, the main event, we don't do Turkey on Thanksgiving, in my home, what that's right. We do prime rib bone in rack of rib roast. Go on. Yup. And I'm going to share a little recipe with you that I got from my grandfather, grandmother, my mother's mother and Dowdle Stouse and it's, uh, I adapted it to use for a prime rib roast, um, from she, she did it with a tender loin roast. So you mixed together and I also made some amendments, so I won't do the original and the new one, but okay. You get roasted garlic, a lot of it, uh, great boom pole, Dijon mustard, Tabasco sauce, Tony[inaudible] Cajun seasoning and pepper, and you blend it in a food processor. And so basically what you have is a wet rub, right? Opposite of a dry rub, cause it has wet ingredients, mustard, and Tabasco, and you, you put it all over the roast and let it sit overnight. And then the next day you cook it, like you would a Turkey, I'd put it on a roasting rack. And, and when that thing comes out, it's one of the greatest moments of the year for me every year. And talk about transcendent experience. Talk about having a, a sacred experience in your kitchen at your dining table. Um, there is no wall there. That's, uh, that's a magnificent moment for me and, uh, and we share it together and I can't tell you how much I look forward to that every single year. Do you have, uh, do you have anything that you do every year for Thanksgiving? You know,
Speaker 2:I'm a son of the South grew up in Tennessee, so it's casserole extravaganza typically on Thanksgiving day. So I remember the first ever casserole I made was a green bean when I was maybe in middle school or so. And I was my first contribution to the family Thanksgiving and I thought I was a pretty big deal, uh, doing that. Is that right?
Speaker 3:The crunchy onions on top. Yeah. Yeah. That's one way to do it for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And the cream of mush.
Speaker 2:So in my adult life, I have become very much a traditionalist having to have the big bird on the table, apologies to all the herbivores who are listening today. Cause we're very carnivores centric with this conversation right now. We just want to acknowledge that
Speaker 3:There are great vegetarian options out there as well. You can start with green bean casserole. I'm sure some people could just eat a whole tray of that, right?
Speaker 2:Yes. Pointing to myself. Uh, so yeah, casseroles centric on Thanksgiving typically, but definitely with the big bird these days. And I usually I'm pretty generic. Like just use a food network recipe from Tyler Florence, I believe is his name. Oh yeah. Chef. He used to be on the food network. I'm not sure what he's doing now.
Speaker 3:I'm not sure what happened to the food network. It was a lot of game shows, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's been a while since I've checked that out.
Speaker 3:Yeah. They're always culinary experts like Tyler Florence and Bobby Flay and exactly. I'm role gassy. Yeah. Bam,
Speaker 2:Bam. Indeed. So the Sage butter Turkey recipe from Tyler Florence is sort of my default. So
Speaker 3:That's nice. Yeah. The warm herbaceous Snus of Sage mixed with the, the richness of it. Do you use a nice butter? Like a Kerry gold Irish butter? Oh yeah. For sure. Like grass fed cows in Ireland.
Speaker 2:Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to ask you earlier if you did delivery or shipping from your, with your Thanksgiving prime rib roast. Right, right,
Speaker 3:Right. You know, uh we've we've uh, uh, I think you're asking if I would deliver one to you, is that right?
Speaker 2:Pretty much what I was asking you. Yeah. Audience of one, you're such a connoisseur of culinary. Goodness.
Speaker 3:I do. I do love cooking food. It is a spiritual experience for me, sharing that experience with others is, is like, it's literally at the top of my list of life experiences that I don't ever want to have go away. And so Thanksgiving to me is my favorite holiday of the year. It's one of my favorite days of the year because it that's the whole point of it. There's no, you don't have to make an excuse to spend 24 48 hours preparing and cooking food together with loved ones. It's what you're supposed to do. Right. So that's how it became my favorite holiday. And you throw in there that that already is one of the things I'm most grateful for. And that's the other element of Thanksgiving is, is cultivating gratitude. So this is a very special day for me.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. Thanks for sharing. That's plenty to be grateful about right there. Yeah. Reminds me to be, and I'm sure it's taking you a while to fine tune your Thanksgiving recipes, what you have shared with our audience and what you'll be delivering to me later today, hot off the grill. Um, I was thinking about how gratitude takes practice to, you know, whether you're like fine tuning a golf swing or teaching little Calvin or me teaching my 11 and nine year olds still to say, please, and thank you. It's like all the things we would want for our kids to say and feel from their hearts. This is a day to celebrate that and reflect about that. And I was thinking earlier about there's this monk named, uh, David, I'm going to butcher his last name. David Steindl-Rast I believe S T E I N D L hyphen R a S T. He's really dedicated his whole life to studying and practice what all of us crave and want for ourselves, for the people we love, which is the H word happiness. And there's a twist to that in his research. I mean, he spent, I'm not quite sure how old he is, but he spent decades researching happiness. And he has this beautiful book called gratefulness, the heart of prayer, which if you're interested in reading a book that really helps you cultivate gratitude. That's a, that's a classic, but he says, it's not happiness. That makes us grateful. It's gratefulness. That makes us happy. Um, and I would say happiness, maybe that would be in my gratitude game list H for happiness, because I dismissed that word for a long time, but I'm kind of finding that there's a happiness that goes deeper than the word happy, which might be called gratitude as well. But I love, I love, uh, David Steindl-Rast work and, uh, there's a Ted talk where he asks, how do we, uh, how, how exactly do we live gratefully? And he says, by becoming aware that every moment is a given moment, meaning it's a gift. You don't earn it. You don't buy it. There's no assurance that another moment will be given to us. So when we think about how every moment is a given moment, it really is, uh, every, every breath that we on the inhale and exhale being grateful that we have this moment with ourselves with one another. I know the world is crazy right now. It's difficult. And even the leading most sophisticated scientists, uh, are saying, Hey, holidays might suck this year, but next year is going to be great. But just the thought of doing all that can to get this
Speaker 3:Pandemic under control, the sacrifices that we're being asked to make right now in the midst of those circumstances, we can still be grateful. Um, and I think that's where I go to, to the Monk's advice of, um, you know, happiness, uh, is not what makes us grateful. It's gratefulness. That makes us happy. Pretty good to remember during these heady times, that's, that's a beautiful thought and I love flipping things around sometimes. Uh, it's like looking in the mirror and it gives you a perspective that you didn't have before. And that's great. Gratitude leads to happiness, happiness. Doesn't lead to gratitude. So on this Turkey day, Thanksgiving day of gratitude, happy Thanksgiving to you and happy Thanksgiving to you. David, happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there today.
Speaker 1:Happy Thanksgiving, everybody[inaudible].