Don't get me wrong, I totally dig having Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving (my deepest apologies to those who have to work). This year I hosted Thanksgiving on Sunday. It just worked out that way with our various schedules. And the upside? Having all of Saturday to prepare for it.
I guess I could take off Wednesday to do the whole cooking ordeal, but it was nice not having my meal upstaged or cut-short by the attendees needing to dash off to another, or coming in late from a previous, meal.
My son had to work on Thursday so this was his only big meal and he truly loaded up. Everyone quickly retired from the dinner table to moan and rub extended tummies, so I guess we did something right.
It's sort of odd becoming the gathering spot for family gatherings. My mom has hosted in the past and certainly has the house to accommodate it, but with Grandma's deteriorating health my mom just doesn't have any umf to prepare her house for the mayhem. This has come up rather suddenly and with my oldest two kids no longer living with me, it's even more important than ever to make sure we come together on holidays. With my own history of arm wrestling over multiple mandatory family gatherings on the same day, I'm am not married to the idea of doing something on the day of. I will follow my former mother-in-law's lead and celebrate on whatever day, even if several weeks away from the actual holiday, just to have everyone together.
My Sunday night Thanksgiving came together rather last minute, as of last Monday. We haven't even discussed Christmas, although the children have taken it upon themselves to arrange this Friday as the day we put up my Christmas Tree. They will pull out all of the boxes, assemble my tree, put up about 2/3 of the ornaments and then leave. I guess this is our tradition. Again, tipping my hat to my former mother-in-law, as she has always hosted a huge party for putting up her tree. I don't have quite the formal affair, inviting all of my friends and having a large spread of food laid out, but it's fun just the same. After the kids leave I put up the remaining ornaments and rearrange the ones the kids put up.
I guess this is how traditions begin?
Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Fruitcake
I've never liked fruitcake. My memories of it are harsh tasting and chewy. For some reason I thought if I make one from scratch maybe it would be better?
After searching the internet for a fruitcake recipes, I found one that the writer SWORE was delicious and nothing like those other heavy store-bought monstrosities. Her directions weren't for the faint of heart, but certainly looked possible. And it used rum. I was specific that I wanted a cake using rum.
I bought dried fruit from the farmer's market, picking and choosing the individual fruits, not the prepackaged neon-green cherries. Then for two weeks I soaked them in a rum and spice mixture, stirring once a day.
Today I made the cake. What a total pain in the ass to assemble! I think I used four or five different bowls. It even required whipped egg whites. Despite asking for pureed oranges (I just used two cups of orange juice) - this cake actually came out damn near perfect.
AND IT TASTES GOOD!
Yes, I will be making this pain in the ass cake again. Soon, in fact. I bought enough dried fruit for two batches.
And because I know you'll ask for the recipe - here you go You've been forewarned, it's a pain to make. You totally have to read through the directions before making it (uh, yeah, I'm sort of guilty of not reading directions fully before using a new recipe). I added about three cups of chopped pecans and used two cups of orange juice instead of two pureed oranges.
Edit: I've shared the link to this post plenty of times so I figured I should add a picture to PROVE I actually made this huge, pain-in-the-ass recipe.
After searching the internet for a fruitcake recipes, I found one that the writer SWORE was delicious and nothing like those other heavy store-bought monstrosities. Her directions weren't for the faint of heart, but certainly looked possible. And it used rum. I was specific that I wanted a cake using rum.
I bought dried fruit from the farmer's market, picking and choosing the individual fruits, not the prepackaged neon-green cherries. Then for two weeks I soaked them in a rum and spice mixture, stirring once a day.
Today I made the cake. What a total pain in the ass to assemble! I think I used four or five different bowls. It even required whipped egg whites. Despite asking for pureed oranges (I just used two cups of orange juice) - this cake actually came out damn near perfect.
AND IT TASTES GOOD!
Yes, I will be making this pain in the ass cake again. Soon, in fact. I bought enough dried fruit for two batches.
And because I know you'll ask for the recipe - here you go You've been forewarned, it's a pain to make. You totally have to read through the directions before making it (uh, yeah, I'm sort of guilty of not reading directions fully before using a new recipe). I added about three cups of chopped pecans and used two cups of orange juice instead of two pureed oranges.
Edit: I've shared the link to this post plenty of times so I figured I should add a picture to PROVE I actually made this huge, pain-in-the-ass recipe.
A Flock Of Robins
I have never seen so many robins converge at one spot in my entire life. Ever. When we came home yesterday, er, Thursday (it just rounded past midnight - I really need to get to bed). Anywhoo after going to the in-laws we came home before sunset to find a neighbor's yard fully engulfed by robins. Big, full-breasted, robins jumping over each other, vying for space.
Trying not to look like a stalker freak, I attempted to get some pictures of the mayhem, but photos will never capture the insanity. There were birds everywhere. It truly looked like something out of Hitchcock's movie. The trees and yards were filled with robins. They were focused on one particular tree with full, red... cherries? crabapples? Something. Others, not fortunate enough to get in on the berry action, were down the street mauling the yards. I guess the worms were close to the surface?
The sky was filled with birds dive bombing the yard. There is a twin tree on the street behind my house and I will assume the birds were darting back and forth between the two locations. The air was filled with chirps and squeaks unique to robins. A few other birds would flit in and then leave. The regular pack of starlings were nowhere to be seen and I'm not sure where the neighborhood hawks were, but certainly not patrolling my street.
I don't know when they left, but there is no hint of the carnage that happened on my street yesterday... er, Thursday. Was this a pre-migration feast? A little-seen bird version of Thanksgiving? Hard to say, but it was damn weird.
Trying not to look like a stalker freak, I attempted to get some pictures of the mayhem, but photos will never capture the insanity. There were birds everywhere. It truly looked like something out of Hitchcock's movie. The trees and yards were filled with robins. They were focused on one particular tree with full, red... cherries? crabapples? Something. Others, not fortunate enough to get in on the berry action, were down the street mauling the yards. I guess the worms were close to the surface?
The sky was filled with birds dive bombing the yard. There is a twin tree on the street behind my house and I will assume the birds were darting back and forth between the two locations. The air was filled with chirps and squeaks unique to robins. A few other birds would flit in and then leave. The regular pack of starlings were nowhere to be seen and I'm not sure where the neighborhood hawks were, but certainly not patrolling my street.
I don't know when they left, but there is no hint of the carnage that happened on my street yesterday... er, Thursday. Was this a pre-migration feast? A little-seen bird version of Thanksgiving? Hard to say, but it was damn weird.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Practical Jokes
I guess I'm the class clown at work. If you remember me from school that is probably a surprise as I was pretty quiet and "nice", whatever that means. It was a recurrent theme in all of my yearbooks. But at work I'm pretty much known as the jokester. If a prank is being pulled I must somehow be behind it or am on the receiving end in retribution. It's all fun and no one gets hurt... much.
My crimes include filling a cubicle with every plant in the office, having a plant "follow" a coworker around, initiating the office armadillo (stuffed animal that mysteriously got passed from desk to desk), holding desk trinkets ransom, hiding desk chairs, resetting browser homepages (favorite so far has been David Hasselhoff's Hooked On A Feeling), and an endless stream of sneaking up behind people and scaring the shit out of them.
They do get even. My car has been wrapped in Seran Wrap. My prized Swingline stapler has been sunk into Jello. And my cubicle has been boxed in with boxes of baby formula creating a perfect castle wall (with window) - very cool.
Yesterday was a coworker's 30th birthday so the night before we moved the guest chairs out and set up a CHRISTMAS TREE!!! and then added a few office plants to give the whole forest aura. AWESOME! It came together in a matter of minutes and could have gone faster if not for all of the fits of laughter. The next morning we took it down for her and I managed to whack my partner in crime in the face with one of the large trees - sorry Les.
My crimes include filling a cubicle with every plant in the office, having a plant "follow" a coworker around, initiating the office armadillo (stuffed animal that mysteriously got passed from desk to desk), holding desk trinkets ransom, hiding desk chairs, resetting browser homepages (favorite so far has been David Hasselhoff's Hooked On A Feeling), and an endless stream of sneaking up behind people and scaring the shit out of them.
They do get even. My car has been wrapped in Seran Wrap. My prized Swingline stapler has been sunk into Jello. And my cubicle has been boxed in with boxes of baby formula creating a perfect castle wall (with window) - very cool.
Yesterday was a coworker's 30th birthday so the night before we moved the guest chairs out and set up a CHRISTMAS TREE!!! and then added a few office plants to give the whole forest aura. AWESOME! It came together in a matter of minutes and could have gone faster if not for all of the fits of laughter. The next morning we took it down for her and I managed to whack my partner in crime in the face with one of the large trees - sorry Les.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
A Bigger, More Heinous Theft
Today was the big company Thanksgiving potluck. It was absolutely delicious (I just typed that three times with "sh" GAH!)
There may have been food absconded from the leftovers in the kitchen, hard to say as I really didn't take inventory this year. Yeah, I suck at that whole "we're watching you" threat I posted last week.
Worse yet, something truly valuable was stolen. A coworker had the contents of her wallet inside an eyeglass case and it was missing. She said it was a black and white stripe case and I clearly remember seeing it in the large conference room where we had our meeting and then meal. But I can't remember any details, like whether it was before or after the meal. I can't even swear that I saw it in the conference room rather than in the actual office. I remember walking past it sitting on a table, or counter, or some flat surface. The black and white stripes stand out in my mind. It was clearly left by someone and did not belong there but you don't move it because the owner must have set it down with the intention of coming back. And all of that took a million times longer to think out than the amount of time I spent noticing it. It was a glimpse. Something registering in my memory. That's it.
And this afternoon someone attempted two different internet purchases on her credit card. I don't know if this is the same perpetrator as last year's Bread Thief, but it was definitely one of my coworkers. Well, like 99% probably a coworker. I guess some slob could have snuck into our inner sanctum and snatched a zebra stripe eyeglass case landing a cool credit card.
I wouldn't be too surprised to find out the IP traces back to our office. That leaves it pretty wide open as we had oodles of people all on their laptops, checking their email, surfing the web.
This is bad. Very bad.
There may have been food absconded from the leftovers in the kitchen, hard to say as I really didn't take inventory this year. Yeah, I suck at that whole "we're watching you" threat I posted last week.
Worse yet, something truly valuable was stolen. A coworker had the contents of her wallet inside an eyeglass case and it was missing. She said it was a black and white stripe case and I clearly remember seeing it in the large conference room where we had our meeting and then meal. But I can't remember any details, like whether it was before or after the meal. I can't even swear that I saw it in the conference room rather than in the actual office. I remember walking past it sitting on a table, or counter, or some flat surface. The black and white stripes stand out in my mind. It was clearly left by someone and did not belong there but you don't move it because the owner must have set it down with the intention of coming back. And all of that took a million times longer to think out than the amount of time I spent noticing it. It was a glimpse. Something registering in my memory. That's it.
And this afternoon someone attempted two different internet purchases on her credit card. I don't know if this is the same perpetrator as last year's Bread Thief, but it was definitely one of my coworkers. Well, like 99% probably a coworker. I guess some slob could have snuck into our inner sanctum and snatched a zebra stripe eyeglass case landing a cool credit card.
I wouldn't be too surprised to find out the IP traces back to our office. That leaves it pretty wide open as we had oodles of people all on their laptops, checking their email, surfing the web.
This is bad. Very bad.
Monday, November 16, 2009
My First Cooking Accomplishment
We all have that family member who brings stunning, delicious dishes to every gathering. She (usually female) has mastered the "pinch of this and dash of that" style of cooking. That person was not my mother nor my grandmother. Both could bake fabulous desserts, or anything that would follow a strict recipe, but entrees were, um, ahem
Grandma's sister, on the other hand, was a superstar at any holiday meal. Her recipes were guides, but never could anyone follow one and capture the yumminess.
Imagine my delight when I tinkered with ingredients in my tiny two burner college apartment kitchen and duplicated my Great Aunt's baked beans. Suddenly I had a dish REQUESTED at our meals... and yes, we have traditionally eaten baked beans at every holiday meal.
Tonight I made yet another batch of baked beans, just like my aunt would make, for the company pot luck. Which, of course, needs to be tasted. So, if you'll excuse me....
Grandma's sister, on the other hand, was a superstar at any holiday meal. Her recipes were guides, but never could anyone follow one and capture the yumminess.
Imagine my delight when I tinkered with ingredients in my tiny two burner college apartment kitchen and duplicated my Great Aunt's baked beans. Suddenly I had a dish REQUESTED at our meals... and yes, we have traditionally eaten baked beans at every holiday meal.
Tonight I made yet another batch of baked beans, just like my aunt would make, for the company pot luck. Which, of course, needs to be tasted. So, if you'll excuse me....
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Bread Thief
Tuesday will be our staff meeting and our theme is, of course, Thanksgiving. We're having the turkey catered but all of the side dishes are pot luck. In the past this has been a pretty successful event with OODLES of food. The days following a pot luck promises free lunch, something all of us anxiously look forward to.
Last year one of my coworkers brought several dozen homemade rolls. As other people brought rolls there was plenty left over. The next day as we pulled out all of the dishes no one could find the bag of rolls. It was a huge bag, sitting out on the counter - well over 100 rolls in there. We asked the baker, no she didn't take them home. We turned that office upside down looking for the rolls.
SOMEBODY STOLE OUR ROLLS!
This wasn't the first episode of stolen food in our office. We once found an unused cabinet with a little stock pile with a zucchini someone had put out on the table free for the taking. Which it was okay, that the bread thief took the zucchini, but why hide it? And in the kitchen? Very odd. We also found canned food in a bathroom cabinet. Even odder.
We never discovered the bread thief, but we're pretty sure she hasn't left us (yes, we suspect a woman). But now we're on to her and we will be watching.
Last year one of my coworkers brought several dozen homemade rolls. As other people brought rolls there was plenty left over. The next day as we pulled out all of the dishes no one could find the bag of rolls. It was a huge bag, sitting out on the counter - well over 100 rolls in there. We asked the baker, no she didn't take them home. We turned that office upside down looking for the rolls.
SOMEBODY STOLE OUR ROLLS!
This wasn't the first episode of stolen food in our office. We once found an unused cabinet with a little stock pile with a zucchini someone had put out on the table free for the taking. Which it was okay, that the bread thief took the zucchini, but why hide it? And in the kitchen? Very odd. We also found canned food in a bathroom cabinet. Even odder.
We never discovered the bread thief, but we're pretty sure she hasn't left us (yes, we suspect a woman). But now we're on to her and we will be watching.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Seventy Degrees in November
It was just a few weeks ago I was belly aching about Missouri weather and then this week we are experiencing absolutely gorgeous, love-to-be outside weather. The temps are in the upper sixties to low eighties - IT IS BEAUTIFUL!
I have resumed my morning walks. The scent of the leaves is magnificent. A local DJ always complains that fall is awful what with the decaying dead leaves, but that is not what they smell like. It's sweet and spicy. No room spray can capture that, I'm sure.
There is a drawback to these warm temps, I guess. With it being early November and so warm it's more than a little difficult to discuss the upcoming holidays. I'm just not in the mood! I'm managing, though. I just starting soaking dried fruit in rum for a fruitcake. It's a first time for making one so we'll see how it turns out over Thanksgiving before I start giving links to recipes.
I have resumed my morning walks. The scent of the leaves is magnificent. A local DJ always complains that fall is awful what with the decaying dead leaves, but that is not what they smell like. It's sweet and spicy. No room spray can capture that, I'm sure.
There is a drawback to these warm temps, I guess. With it being early November and so warm it's more than a little difficult to discuss the upcoming holidays. I'm just not in the mood! I'm managing, though. I just starting soaking dried fruit in rum for a fruitcake. It's a first time for making one so we'll see how it turns out over Thanksgiving before I start giving links to recipes.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Armwrestling Over the Thermostat
"When I grow up I will NEVER keep my house like a freezer"
Yes, I said that. I believed that. I religiously adhered to that. I proudly kept my home with livable temps...
And then I married a man with a totally different internal heat register. He runs hot. Really hot. When I walk outside and begin to shiver thinking I should run back and grab a sweater, he comments how perfect the weather is.
GRRRRRR
I may have to consider buying a snuggie for my son and myself. We are constantly walking around with blankets wrapped around us. When I get up in the morning I dash directly to the thermostat and groan at the low numbers and start turning it up. When I return from work it has been turned down back to brutally cold numbers.
I tried using the programming function on the thing, but he actually turns it off during the day when it's decent enough to open the windows causing the thermostat to reset.
There has to be a happy medium, but we have not yet found it. He points proudly to the electric and gas bills as proof how well this thermostat monitoring is saving us money. Unfortunately I cannot read the bills through the cloud my warm breath forms in front of my freezing cold face.
Yes, I said that. I believed that. I religiously adhered to that. I proudly kept my home with livable temps...
And then I married a man with a totally different internal heat register. He runs hot. Really hot. When I walk outside and begin to shiver thinking I should run back and grab a sweater, he comments how perfect the weather is.
GRRRRRR
I may have to consider buying a snuggie for my son and myself. We are constantly walking around with blankets wrapped around us. When I get up in the morning I dash directly to the thermostat and groan at the low numbers and start turning it up. When I return from work it has been turned down back to brutally cold numbers.
I tried using the programming function on the thing, but he actually turns it off during the day when it's decent enough to open the windows causing the thermostat to reset.
There has to be a happy medium, but we have not yet found it. He points proudly to the electric and gas bills as proof how well this thermostat monitoring is saving us money. Unfortunately I cannot read the bills through the cloud my warm breath forms in front of my freezing cold face.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
New Wallpaper
I'm playing with new backgrounds on my blog pages. Please bear with me as I tinker with swatches of this and that. The current one doesn't pan out quite so well as the eye draws to blobs of seaweed, not the soothing lapping of waves. YUCK. I'm keeping it for a while as I scroll through other options.
After several hours of staring at scrapbook pages I've decided I want something more personal and maybe I can create my own. I've fiddled with a personal picture and the html code and actually got a first run to post! It totally looked like crap, but the evil scientist/computer programmer is starting to take over and I will be spending more than a few hours playing with Photoshop and lines of code.
Monday, November 02, 2009
Where Did October Go?
Seriously - wasn't it just September like last week?
I'm not ready for November. That means at some point I need to excavate my basement to find the Christmas decorations, that I need to finalize Thanksgiving plans and that shorts are finally put away for the next five months.
I AM NOT READY
I'm not ready for November. That means at some point I need to excavate my basement to find the Christmas decorations, that I need to finalize Thanksgiving plans and that shorts are finally put away for the next five months.
I AM NOT READY
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