Cheap & Cheerful Suppers: I missed a week, so here's a post of 2 weeks of meals

Last week I skipped posting our suppers. I had something else I wanted to post about that day. So today I'll post both this and last week's meals.

You may notice a change in dishes and a peek at a change in tablecloth. November 1 is my day each year to switch our Rose Chintz dishes for Friendly Village (and turkey plates for the month of November only). An exception, I spy the use of a Friendly Village bowl on top of a Rose Chintz plate. I think we needed the larger bowls that night.

You may also notice more pumpkin in our meals. I love, love, love pumpkin. My favorite way to have our pumpkin is in cubes, roasted. I often cube a few slices of Sugar Pie pumpkin and roast it for our lunch along with some purple potatoes. So delicious!

Last weekend I harvested all of the celery. I chopped the top leaves for the freezer and washed and wrapped the rest in a couple of tea towels and plastic bags, then stashed in the fridge to use this month. Many of this weeks meals had some celery in them, including a cream of celery soup, an apple and celery salad, in savory bread stuffing, and in a couple of different vegetable soups.

Onto our meals from the last 2 weeks . . .

Thanksgiving Deals Are Dropping Now (plus what I'm actually going to do this year)

These are the turkey deals in my area:

• Last week I read that Aldi was going to "rewind" the prices on Thanksgiving staples to 2019 prices. 
• Our local Kroger affiliate, Fred Meyer, has advertised their turkey deal for this year -- free turkey with a $150 spend or 69 cents/lb with a $50 spend. 
• Safeway (which now owns Albertsons) is offering a free 10-20 lb turkey with a $150 spend or 69 cents/lb with a $50 spend. 
• Walmart is advertising "this year's meal at last year's price." They have Butterball whole turkeys advertised at $1.18/lb, and Jennie O whole turkeys at 98 cents/lb, no minimum spend on either. 
• My other store is WinCo. While WinCo doesn't advertise online, The Coupon Project indicates that WinCo is offering a free turkey with a $125 spend.

What are the Thanksgiving deals in your area this year?

Now, what I'm doing about a turkey this year: 

Unless I find that I can't resist a cheap turkey, we're skipping the turkey for this year. I'll be roasting a whole chicken and a pork loin that I have in the freezer. I decided I didn't want all of that leftover turkey this year. Believe it or not, we're still eating last year's turkey leftovers (had turkey and dumplings just this night). 

      sometimes a "deal" isn't really a deal

Given that we are really well-stocked on everything (except milk, which is a regular purchase), I didn't think I could come up with $150, $125, or even $50 of other items to buy in order to get a stellar price or a free turkey. Sometimes a "deal" isn't really a deal if you have to spend extra on items you don't need. The only extra food I'm planning on buying for Thanksgiving is whipping cream. We have the mentioned meats, potatoes, stuffing ingredients, vegetables, pumpkin, pecans, and pie pastry ingredients, cranberries, and blackberry juice to serve in place of sparkling cider plus ingredients to make spiced apple cider. We could do without whipping cream, but I like to have it around for the entire Thanksgiving through Christmas holiday season.

Thanksgiving is about more than what we eat. It's about our gratitude to the Provider and the family that we share the meal with. We make it special and festive by setting aside that entire afternoon to joyfully break our bread together. We'll eat in the dining room (we usually eat in the kitchen), and I'll use special plates and goblets for the meal. We'll play a game or two afterwards. Then have pie and coffee.

What makes Thanksgiving special in your household?