Tag: thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Adventures!

The folks and I decided that we had so much fun last year at Amy’s for thanksgiving, we’d ask if she’d have us back again this year. She (foolishly?) said yes, so we’re back in Minnesota again.

Amy decided that we’d have roast chicken this year instead of roast turkey, which was just fine with me. Turkey is OK, but chicken is very yummy. Especially the dark meat. So we developed a plan of attack for the meal. Cheeseball made and pies baked on Wednesday night, everything else on Thursday morning.

The cheeseball went smoothly (my usual “Thanksgiving Cheeseball”) but Amy had some issues with the pie crust. They were using white whole wheat flour and it didn’t work as well with Rachel’s mom’s pie crust recipe as regular white flour did. And then Amy discovered that her sweet potatoes had some bad spots she’d not planned on. Still, by the time we headed for bed, her pie and the apple pie that Rachel had made both looked wonderful. Pre-prep was done. On to Thursday!

This morning we lazed about some before I started on the rolls. I found a nice recipe from King Arthur Flour’s website and decided to give it a try. Once the dough was proofing, I turned on the oven to a low heat to get things started.

Amy started by chopping up the root vegetables for roasting (with Rachel cleaning) and I got the potatoes cut for future mashed potatoes. Then mom and I cut up the ingredients for a Pear Cranberry Chutney recipe she’d gotten from WeightWatchers. Since Cilantro tastes of soap to me, we substituted parsley for it. The recipe was claimed to go well with roast chicken. (They were right!)

Amy then started prepping the chicken – she’d found a nice recipe online (I think this was it) that looked pretty easy and that she had ingredients for. She discovered that the chicken wasn’t as thawed as it originally looked, but she took care of that hurdle only to discover a bigger hurdle – the oven hadn’t gotten any warmer than 150F since we first turned it on. The root vegetables weren’t getting roasted and the chicken wasn’t going to get so either. Eep!

Dad checked in the basement to see if any of the circuit breakers had flipped (Amy has an electric oven) but flipping them off & on did nothing for the oven. The burners worked just fine. Thankfully, Rachel’s apartment isn’t too far away, so she and I bundled up the rolls, chicken, and root veg for a trip over to her place. There, we baked everything and played with Charlotte (her kitty) and our phones (we both have Galaxy SIIIs).

The chicken reached it’s proper temp with 4 minutes to go on the timer, so we bundled everything back up and returned to the folks and Amy. Turns out the chicken was dripping red (gah – the recipe LIED) so some zapping in the microwave took care of the final cooking. While Rachel and I were baking, Amy was making the rest of the food. She had brussel sprouts going in one skillet and kale in another. And I got to mash the potatoes when I got back. Then Amy made a gravy (with mom’s help) of the drippings from the chicken.

Lunch was late (or supper was early) but it was simply wonderful. Despite the setbacks, the food was delicious. The rolls were declared “even better that my mom’s” by someone whose identity I will protect, just in case… 😉 So I think we’ll be keeping that recipe around for the future.

I am thankful for so much more than I can type, but for now I’ll just say that I’m thankful for the family I was born into and the friends that I have chosen in my life. We rock!

Thanksgiving And Then Some

This was a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. Didn’t get to celebrate with my sister or Rachel (they were off in Maine with Rachel’s folks), but other than that, had a lovely time with the folks and with dad’s family.

We let Kroger (a grocery store chain) cater our Thanksgiving supper. They provided the turkey, mashed potatoes, “traditional” stuffing, sweet potato souffle, broccoli rice casserole, rolls, and cranberry fazooti. Or something. We supplemented with a few other things. I made my Thanksgiving cheeseball and Amy’s chestnut stuffing (but with hazelnuts since we couldn’t find any chestnuts). Bill made noodles. Cheryl brought veggies. Becky brought pies. (Oh yeah, Kroger provided an apple strudel pie, too.) I brought red velvet cake I’d gotten from Market Day. Deanna brought beverages. Dinner was nice and there was plenty of food. We even got a game of Crazy Rummy in before the night was over.

For “Black Friday” we managed to miss the major stores. Well, we popped into Kohl’s 12 hours after they opened and the lines were still ridiculous, so we headed on to Downtown Troy for some shopping. And then onto Downtown Greenville for more. I finally got to try chocolate covered bacon. I’m glad I got to finally try it, but I don’t think I’ll buy it again.

For “Small Business Saturday” I decorated the outside of my house (like Friday, it was a gorgeous day – warm enough to go without a jacket) and then joined the folks for more Downtown Shopping – this time in Tipp City. Today has been a “clean the house, already!” and do laundry day. I got the tree out from the basement, but it’s only lit, not yet decorated. And I’ve not put out my friendship lights yet. Ah well. I’ll get it done. The living room has been re-arranged so that the tree is front & center in the big picture window again.

Still haven’t seen The Muppets yet. Hoping to see it and a few other films before they leave the theaters. But I’m quite pleased with how the “start” of the holiday season has gone.

Thanksgiving

It’s lovely having a day set aside to be thankful. I try to be thankful every day, but for the days when I’m too busy or too frazzled or too sleepy or too sick, having a day like Thanksgiving helps to make up for those days.

Amy decided that she’d make a Thanksgiving Dinner for us this year once the folks and I invited ourselves around. (Well, we couldn’t resist the reasonable flight prices to Minneapolis, so we asked if they’d be willing to host us – they were!) So last night, mom baked a pumpkin pie and an apple pie (I peeled the apples). I made my “famous” Thanksgiving cheeseball. Amy prepped things for today.

This morning, Amy roasted a Heritage chicken, roasted chopped root vegetables (potatoes (Yukon, purple & red), sweet potatoes, yams (we learned this year there *is* a difference between sweet potatoes & yams), carrots, beets, onion, garlic, etc), cranberry & mushroom dressing, kale, green beans, and gravy (with Hefeweizen beer). Rachel baked some lovely (and sweet) corn bread. And dad carved the chicken.

Things were ready at 2:30pm and we ate a wonderful meal. And then ate a bit more. We still haven’t had dessert but will probably do that (and play games) after nap time. Which is what is going on now.

I’m grateful that my sister & Rachel have a lovely house which they can host us for dinner. I love that my family gets along very well and is fairly low key. I miss my kitties and hope they are having a nice Thanksgiving day. Hope you all (folks in friend’s list land) are having a nice time and that you have a lovely weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving today, I wish you & yours a Happy Thanksgiving! Hope that everyone has a Happy Thursday!

My duties for Thanksgiving are over – I have made a cheeseball for tonight’s dinner. (I’ve made two, actually, so one for me, one for the family.) Aunt Becky’s doing the dinner and we’ll be gathering around 5 or so.

I had yesterday off, and spent most of it reorganizing closets and stuff. What started out as a simple project – put my Physics Teacher journals into binders, became rather complicated when I realized I had no place to put the binders. My front closet is now cleaned out and I intend to start work on the den closet in a short while. I’ve also been sorting VHS tapes and floppies and CD-ROMs and stuff. Have had lots of trash thus far!

Linus is currently resting on my arms, which makes typing a bit difficult, but I am thankful to have such lovely kitties to sleep on me and get in my way and help with cleaning (they’ve been having a blast – especially when I found the remote control car last night). I’m thankful for much more than my kitties, but Linus is making himself known, so the kitties get the mention. To paraphrase someone on my friends list – I am thankful for having so much to be thankful for!

Thanksgiving 2006

This holiday weekend has been only the second time that both families have been together (the other being Amy & Rachel’s wedding). Last night, Rachel made vegetarian lasagna which we had when Lynn & Doug arrived (having driven into town). The dinner was excellent and accompanied by salad, roasted squash, and rustic Italian bread (from their Co-Op). Good eats!

But the REAL banquet was saved for today. Amy got up early and started on the chestnut stuffing (chopping & browning the bread) and then the turkey (which had been soaking in brine in the fridge for nearly 12 hours). As the morning progressed, I made the sweet potato souffle (having made the cheeseball last night), Rachel worked on the rolls, Lynn made the green bean casserole (using green & wax beans from her garden), Doug made the mashed ‘tatoes (having made cranberries the day before), and Rachel made the apple pie. Mom and dad carved the turkey (which turned out beautifully). And then we feasted at 2pm.


The feast, lovingly prepared by all.

Once we got the kitchen cleaned up again, we all crashed, some napping, others watching Love, Actually on cable. I napped a little, and now I’m typing this up.

We still have pies. Amy & Rachel’s friends Becky & Michelle will be arriving around 7:30pm for games, leftovers, and DESSERT. Mom baked her pumpkin pies yesterday and as I mentioned just now, Rachel baked an apple pie.


Mom’s pumpkin pies.


Rachel’s apple pie (with snowflake cut-outs).

Oh, and just cuz I can, gratuitous cat photo:


Früvous helped out by staying out of the way.

We said thanks before we had our feast. Today in particular, I am thankful that we were able to gather for this. Thank you, Amy & Rachel for making all of this possible. 🙂

Giving Thanks

I try to give thanks for my privileged life every day, but it’s nice to have times like organized holidays to guarantee that I do it at least once a year. (Grief, I hope I’ve done it more than once a year!) Indeed, holidays are great for pausing for a moment to note the passing of time. If we didn’t have such moments, life would go by in such a blur we wouldn’t get to enjoy it as much. At least, that’s my humble opinion.

I am thankful for my loving family (mom, dad, Amy, Rachel, and Leo, and the extended family too). I am thankful for my kind & generous friends (elsaf, judiang, and so many of you out there I’d probably forget someone if I tried to list you all). I am thankful for my health and my wealth. I am thankful for the roof over my head and all the stuff under it. I am thankful for a job I love and students & coworkers who are a joy to work with. I am thankful for the freedoms that I have. I am thankful to be single & comfortable with that. I am thankful for the ability to travel when I want and where I want. I am thankful for the beautiful town that I live in, and for the beautiful planet that I live on. I am thankful that people are basically good. I am thankful for much more than I have the ability (or patience?) to write. I live a good life with good people and I hope to celebrate many, many more Thanksgivings.

I’ve been working on my Christmas MP3 collection and am, thankfully, finished. So now I get to listen to the music. Hopefully I shan’t have to do this again for some time. I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade today, and having seen Santa Claus, it’s now OK if I listen to Christmas music. (OK, I admit that some years I start before Thanksgiving. I was good this year.)

In fifteen minutes or so, the folks & I are off to my cousin’s for the Short Family Thanksgiving. I shall do my best to avoid stuffing myself like a turkey. And I shall endeavor to be thankful for the bountiful meal that we will be having. And thankful for the family that I’ll be celebrating with.

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are celebrating!