Brine

Anne Marie asked what I thought of the brines, which is cool because I completely forgot to update you guys on those.

The Apple Brine is a long time fav of ours. We first tried it about 5 years ago and have been hooked ever since. The key is to not use the full amount of sugar. Use no more than 1 cup of sugar. We also brined it for about 36 hours which I don't think was better or worse than the usual 24 hours. It sure made it fast to put in the oven in the morning. Just rinse, pat dry, and chuck that baby in.

The maple brine wasn't bad but no where near as good as the apple brine. Man thought that the maple was too strong, which is interesting what with all the other flavors competing in there. Though the drippings from this one made the best gravy I've ever had.

Peas and mushrooms were (in my opinion) very tastey.

We just used the basic recipe for cranberry sauce. (berries, sugar, water, dash of salt)

Rolls were our favs: Unknownchef86's Very Best Dinner Rolls. These are super easy, very forgiving, and fast to cook.

Stuffing was Stove Top, my fav kind of stuffing.

Steamed corn, with optional butter and salt.

And I think I already posted the mashed potato recipe.

The sweet potatoes were simple: microwave until soft, let rest until cool enough to handle. Peel, mash, put in casserole with enough brown sugar to sweeten to taste, top with marshmallows and brown the top briefly.

We're still eating the leftovers, 4 days later. :)

Thanksgiving

I think this is the first Thanksgiving that I've hosted for other people. It was nice to stay pretty relaxed with friends and not be too caught up in presentation.

We used the crockpot to keep the potatoes warm (thanks, Grandparents! It worked very nicely), and had as much done the day before as possible. As it was, I ended up in the kitchen for a good couple of hours and was very grateful for Man's sister's help. She made some awesome gravy and helped keep me grounded while all those plates were spinning. Tag spent most of the day playing with the neighbor's grandkids.

And yes, we had way too much turkey. We ended up with leftovers after carving up the little turkey, and the large turkey was untouched. Holy guacamole, but I think I'll be posting a few ways to use turkey. M told me about one that she likes:

Layer (crushed tortilla chips), (chopped turkey, salsa, cream of mushroom soup), and (cheese) twice, then bake until bubbley. And we definitely sent her home with enough leftovers to make that dish. I think we'll have to try it with some low fat soup, or just sub in some of that fat free cream cheese. Don't cringe -- it actually hides pretty well in casseroles.

The only major mishap we had was when some sweet child turned the roaster on high heat for a while. That turkey turned out a tad overdone but, since it was brined, was still juicy and tastey.

And now, on to Christmas.

I have most of my shopping all done, but nothing is wrapped and I have a couple of mystery people to shop for. You know, the people who appear to have everything. -sigh-

You are what you eat

So I'm going to be one stuffed turkey soon.

It all started about a month and a half ago when Man asked if he could invite some people from work over for Thanksgiving. Now, the military is a lot like elementary school: if you bring an invitation to school, you should bring enough invitations for everyone. But, since rank and a couple of other factors force some level of segregation among soldiers, I was spared the entire class of 30 and their families.

Instead, we invited about 14 people over. That's a lot of people for us.

Fortunately, only 7 or so took Man up on the invite. That's a number I can live with for sure. Man's sister and her husband are also going to be coming. We started playing with ideas for how to feed that sort of crowd. Mashed potatoes and corn are cheap, but pie and and eggnog are not. Ham is more expensive than turkey, but two turkeys would be hard to cook.

We decided to just bite the bullet and make two turkeys, because I've seen soldiers eat. It isn't dirty or anything, just shocking quantities scamper down those eager gullets, and these soldiers all live in the barracks so they don't get home cooking. Ever.

The turkeys have been thawing in the fridge since this past Friday, because when you brine a large bird you have to start taking action about 156 hours before the fact. Today I made up two different brines (apple brine and maple brine -- I use a mere fraction of the sugar called for. it's much better that way) and I was busy giving the larger of the two birds (Herman) a bit of a bath in the sink to clean him up before his beauty sleep. Plunging my hand into his body cavity to search for stray ice, I managed to create a Death Juice Geyser that soaked my shirt and the head of the baby standing at my feet. Her glowing eyes crinkled as she grinned at my fun new game. She smiled and screamed "baaaah!!"

I used my stockpot for Herman and my very large pressure cooker for Hermione, putting them both in turkey sized oven bags before adding their spa treatment. I'm glad we got the large sized fridge.

I've already got the topping for the peach crisp waiting in the fridge ( with the addition of fresh ground nutmeg and a tiny dash of ginger), and the vanilla ice cream is standing by. Gravy, of course, will be drippings, flour, and fresh ground black pepper.

Sweet potatoes, steamed corn, peas and mushrooms, and mashed potatoes represent the veggie group, and homemade cranberry sauce is imperative for Man's turkey eating experience. Hot rolls will sort of fill in the corners and mop up plates.

Dessert is that peach crisp, brownies, and Paula Deen's pumpkin gingerbread trifle.

This is the original OAMC (once a month cooking) marathon cooking session.

A couple of days ago, after all the sweet potatoes had been purchased and the turkeys were already thawing, Man let me know that we'd only be having 3 of the guys over.

So, I guess we'll be having more leftovers than I thought. At least I won't have to buy groceries until the next time we move.

The kids ate my Christmas gift

As a child, it's easy to think of things to blame for falling short on assignments. I know that Christmas gifts are neither mandatory nor do they have to be extravagant. I like to give them as far as my budget is able. In fact, I like to make things for people quite a bit but am so self-critical that I will often make a few things that never end up under the tree. I have no dog to blame, no pets of any kind, and if I have time to type these posts I certainly have time to knit a few more rows, let alone time to fold the two baskets of laundry in my bedroom.

This year, I decided to make a couple of cute things for a couple of cute sisters, but wasn't happy with how one of them turned out. It was a scarf and the stripes I wanted for it would be most easily accomplished by knitting it sideways, along the length of the item. That always makes me nervous because I like looooooong scarves and knitting it sideways meant that the length would be fixed, for better or for worse, unless I got tricky and brave with a crochet hook.

Well, it did turn out too short for my taste. I ended up leaving the poor thing on the back of the couch, where my kids found it. It made the most marvelous draw bridge, stretchy arm, whip, rope, and harness they'd ever used, the end result being my sad little scarf being left for dead in a withered pile in a dark corner of our crooked hallway, to be discovered only after that magic moment revered through all time, known merely as "bed time." Of course, once everyone is all tucked in, you can't go thumping around chastising them for ruining all my hard work.

I stared at it, examining the broken strings on one side that were already unraveling a large portion of the edge, where jewel-pink ribbon yarn hung limp and lost and frayed.

I smiled slightly, torn between outrage because knitting does take time, and relief that I could go get more yummy yarn to make what I really wanted.


teehee

Readers, how long do you like your scarves? See the poll on the right side of this page.

Relief

3 days after his surgery, his shoulder feels better at rest than it did before the surgery.

YAY!!!!!!!!!

-fingers crossed, knock on wood, praying, praying, praying-

Waking up

This morning, Man tried to let me sleep in. It was really a courageous thing for him to attempt. But, sadly, Princess came in to let me know that she had accidentally peed her bed. She drank a lot yesterday (highly uncharacteristic of her) and neglected to use the bathroom last night. Fortunately, it was a small enough mess that I could tell her to take her own sheets off the bed. Thank goodness for plastic sheets which have been in place since our last flu episode.

A few minutes later, Man came to inform me that Frieda had not only thrown up all over her crib, she also needed a diaper change and he couldn't do it with one hand. He's been trying to help with things all day -- putting dishes away, flipping French toast, keeping the sad, grumpy baby occupied, but the results of often comedic. Poor guy. He really is trying.

Anyway, Pebbles wanted some breakfast and I realized that, since I cleaned up Freida and put Princess' bedclothes in the washer, gotten kisses from the kids, dried some tears, and had baby snot smeared on my shirt, all I needed to complete my collection of common bodily fluids was blood. Haha. Ha.

No one has bled yet today. And I'm SOOOOO grateful that Tag made it to the toilet before he lost everything he put in his stomach at his friend's birthday party last night. Between the two sick kids and post-op hubby, no one is going to church tomorrow.

Thank goodness they managed to be sick during their Thanksgiving break, rather than, you know, during a time when I could send at least one person to school.

Final version

I'm using a free file share program for file hosting, so if you try to download any of this and it doesn't work, that means I've used all my bandwidth for the month. As of today, I have 3 weeks until it resets, so try again around Christmas. :)

This version of my outline isn't a whole lot different, but it's my final version. I wanted to do more but, meh.
File

I have dozens more recipes I wish I had posted. Here are three weeks of my own menus:

Week one. (file download)

Week two. (file download)

Week three. (file download)

And I'm working on more, especially since I havn't found a source for a couple of ingredients in these menus (like my fav hoisin sauce)

Here is a link to K-State's Month of Menus. (warning, it's a PDF)

Here's a link to a table called Creative Casseroles. (PDF)

A formula for healthy, satisfying snacks. (PDF)

Here's a MyPyramid sample menu. (PDF)

Here is also a template I used a long time ago to help spring board my menu planning. There are a ton of short cuts that can be used to facilitate the use of this template. I can elaborate later when I think of it (which means, a year from now) or sooner if there's interest.

General Rotation. (this is an excel file)

Surgery

With all said and done (maybe not all said, I guess) we're calling the surgery a tentative success.

Findings: two bone spurs (rather than just the one we knew about), tendonosis which was relieved by very slightly reducing the bone to give the tendon some more wiggle room, and a frayed rotator cuff. There was another area of pain on the posterior part of his shoulder where the surgeon did some spelunking but couldn't find anything wrong at all, which has us a bit bummed. Mostly, we're just grateful that it's over with and we're looking forward to some reduced pain.

Man had a very difficult time coming out of the anesthesia and made a really cute drugged guy. He didn't say much except "sorry for not waking up quickly" and "thank you for your patience" over and over again. Other than that he stayed pretty quiet and would just randomly snore about every 2-3 mins. He managed a smile when I called him my little narcolept. He's in a lot of pain but we're making sure to give him meds on a timely basis, he's on some heavy duty anti-inflammatories, and we have some sacrificial bags of peas to keep that thing iced. He still has his original dressings on (they come off today) and it makes him look a bit like Quasimodo. He's learning how and how not to hold his arm, and he's in a sling part of the time.

This week has been a bit surreal for me. All four kids have been sick for a week or two now (with an entire spectrum of symptoms, so I'm sure that they've had a variety of illnesses), but Man's cough has been keeping me up at night. Combine that with preparing that meal planning class some more, keeping the house up and all that entails, and Frieda depeloping flu-like symptoms the day after surgery, and I'm SOOOO grateful for the following:

1. Fast food. It's what we ate for dinner the day of the surgery. From wake up that morning at a little after 6, until we all piled into the house at 7:30 that night, it was full throttle.

2. Pain meds. How bad would he feel without them?

3. Heat. It's been cold lately and I'm glad to have sick kids in a warm house.

4. That the kids all semi-willingly went to bed early enough last night that I could leave them all at the house while I taught and man convalesced. After Enrichment we all gather around some gooey sugar cookies and chatted for at least another hour and it was balm to my soul.

5. God. And family. And friends. Everyone who loves us and has prayed for us and reached out and been aware. We're doing alright in most respects and appreciate the moral support. I've been praying that I won't get sick since we're hosting Thanksgiving next weekend for some soldiers and we're looking forward to providing an environment of some refuge.

Anyway, we have grocery shopping done for at least the next 2-3 weeks, including Thanksgiving and all its leftovers. Other than that we just plan on holing up until Christmas with a couple of brief interludes of school and work.

And I'm not sure how to end this naturally. So, the end.

Woohoo! Go away, salesperson!

A young punk came to my door.

YP: Hey, I'm doing this thing about points and free speech where I can earn a scholarship. Have you been to college?

A: Nope.

YP: Does your work have you involved with a lot of people? Do you meet a lot of people?

A: I do a lot of volunteer work, so it's very much people based. So, yes. Are you selling something?

YP: Nope, I'm looking at earning points. I'm going to be a pediatrician with a Spanish minor, so a bi-lingual pediatrician.

A: Good for you.

YP: In the mean time, I'm learning about people skills. Do you have any advice to give me for people skills?

A: Yes. When you first meet someone, let them do 80% of the talking. Believe it or not, they remember you better that way.

YP: Wow, that's some great advice. This is how I earn points. [pulls out laminated sheets with hundreds of names of magazines and books] These are some common books and things that kids read [one of the ones I caught was ESPN].

A: Ah, so you are selling something.

YP: No, no, I'm just trying to earn points.

[I handed his sheets back after a mere glance]

YP: Did you see anything there?

A: Nope.

YP: Well, thanks for supporting education. Have a nice day.


Now, what I wanted to call after him was "guilt trips are not a good people skill, you whipper-snapper, and stay off my lawn."

But I held my peace, glad that I didn't give any ground and didn't entertain him longer than necessary. I used to be one of those people who'd listen to the entire program, watch the whole demonstration, and waver between buying or not.

Well, not no more!

This little girl of mine is in the "must change my clothes every half hour" phase. It makes for a lot of laundry since she usually manages to get her clothing dirty each time. Anyway, I told her to go put some clothes on the other day and this is what she came up with:

It's her own shirt, a diaper (we're working on it), some of her own under pants, and two pairs of her sister's underpants as well. The crocs are Tag's.