There is an interesting controversy in England over a policy of U.K. retailer Marks and Spencer, which has allowed Muslim employees to refuse to help customers buying dishes with pork or alcohol. The result was long lines of shoppers who were told to wait for a non-Muslim employee to check them out. With huge numbers of people buying champagne for the holiday, customers are irate as they stood around for another cashier without religious objections to appear. There is now a Facebook page to boycott the store over the policy. However, the Obama Administration is supporting a similar claim in a U.S. case.

Muhlenbergia capillaris, a pretty grass known as pink muhly and gulf muhly, is native in parts of Arkansas as well as Texas (and various other states). I found this one on the grounds of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, on November 9. Some brown sprigs from a bald cypress tree, Taxodium distichum, had fallen into the feathery grass and remained caught there.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman

VeeV Spirits contacted me a couple months ago asking if I’d be interested in creating a dish to pair with one of their seasonal cocktails. I gladly accepted the offer, and chose to work with the VeeV Fruit Cup Sangria. The cocktail was sweet and delicious, and paired wonderfully with my slightly spicy grilled eggplant stacks. Both the cocktail and eggplant stacks are making an appearance at our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow!

VeeV is featuring my recipe on their Facebook page today…check it out here!

On this special Nurturing Thursday, let me take the opportunity to wish all of my American friends a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday!

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.”

~Brother David Steindl-Rast
(Austrian-American Author and Benedictine Monk)

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Frequent Contributors to
Nurturing Thursday:

Laurie’s Notes
Jacqueline King
Crowing Crone Joss
Inside the Mind of Isadora
Pocket Perspectives
Carol Carlisle
Hugmama

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What is Nurturing Thursday, you ask?

In this amazingly competitive society of ours, how many of us truly feel good about ourselves? How often do we extend to ourselves … the same courtesies, considerations, nurturing, forgiveness and understanding we would a loved one, a friend, or even a stranger?

Our culture tells us we need to be special and above average to feel good about ourselves. Yet, it is not possible for all of…