Post Turkey Day Post
Sorry, I couldn’t resist (and I suspect that that very fact is the root cause of MANY of my issues.)
Anyhoo, iTunes playlist running on infinite repeat, Shiba Inu Puppy Cam on the screen (best tv show EVER… even better than the rotisserie tv show), coffee is on the drip and I am back in my Sock Monkey jammies.
I doubt it will be an all day thing like yesterday, but yesterday was very nice. I do need a nap day every once in a while.
Kitchen is finally getting clean. Tex and I have been tag-teaming on dishes (I wash 3 then he washes 10, but I put everything away so I can find it again. Seriously, after 4 years of him being here all the time and he still doesn’t really know where everything goes.)
Oh look, one of the puppies is biting the other one on the winkle. Ouch.
I didn’t end up making Guinness Beef Stew yesterday, we were both so full from Turkey Day proper that, at most, we nibbled on the very little pie leftover and warmed up turkey for tortillas.
…later…
OK, today is the day for Guinness beef stew, also apparently, to watch The Quiet Man and speak in an atrocious Irish accent…
I didn’t have any beef broth (as the recipe called for) so I just put two cans of Guinness in there… what?
We’ll see how it turns out. My cooking is always an adventure.
Smells good though.
…8 hours later…
Yum!
The beef is where the Guinness flavor ends up, the broth smells really good but not really Guinness-y.
*almost* as good as Carte Noir coffee
Almost…because as you know, there can be only one.
Redux
Ow.
My arms hurt.
RSI is a bitch, and normally I have it well under control, but last night, conveniently when it was time to clean up, my arms started aching something fierce and I just couldn’t lift anything heavier than…well, I actually couldn’t grasp anything. Fingers said no.
So I took 3 tylenol and did the best I could.
Turkey was fabu (rotisserie really is the way to go) doused in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, scary mashed potatoes, yammy mashed, cream giblet gravy, cornbread dressing, sacrificial cornbread (modified for Timmy’s palate-no celery, but Jiffy cornbread mix, parmesan, Zatarain’s, butter sauteed onions, sweet corn, heavy cream and honey.), roasted veggies (green beans, mushrooms, carrots, new red and fingerling potatoes with a slab o’ butter and a bottle of white wine), apple and cherry pies…
I think my favorite was the roasted veggies. Tex whined about him not liking veggies (which is a load of crap because he’s eaten everything I’ve ever put in front of him, so I don’t know what his issue was) but Timmy and I ate veggies like mad and I will so be doing that again ;) )
I gave Bunny some turkey (because it had no additives or flavorings and is a seriously clean source of protein… and also because there’s no point in torturing her.) and the minute she smelled it she got that psycho, wide-eyed crack-ho kitten look. I gave her tiny little bits and then chased her off (so that I could give her more little bits later). All told she probably had a teaspoon of turkey, but she was insanely happy over it. Sweet baby girl… even came out to look at Timmy once every couple of hours.
We ate later in the day than I expected, but I had lots of small snacky things around to tide anyone over. Also, Timmy sat in the kitchen (there is only effectively one comfy chair and one perching chair due to the chest freezer I have now.) while I cooked and then we did a buffet kind of thing… Timmy and I sat in the living room on trays and Tex sat at the table (even though I made room for him in the living room) so he could eat all the cranberry sauce without anyone knowing.
While Timmy and I were visitin’, I told him of my ideal kitchen (which is also a living room/den/dining room at the same time.) A very looong room with a very looong table (with all mismatched chairs and a couple of squishy chairs at the ends…and the table made from old barn wood or something, shellacked within an inch of its life; about 15 feet long) with a kitchen on one end and a fireplace area with 2 squishy love seats around it.
Kind of like this:
Mmmmm.
So here I am, quite contentedly on the couch in my insanely great sock monkey jammies, reading off and on and surfing. I think any food decision will be made based on whether I feel like going out today or not… the equation is as follows.
If yes, then sushi.
If no, then Guinness Beef stew.
…and I’ll put off the stew until SAT if we go to sushi…We have a chicken for SUN, so the food this weekend will be quite luscious all in all.
Also, I think I will be taking the day before turkey day of next year as well. Being home was nifty.
I might be in love with this small appliance
No, not those small appliances.
Naughty.
This one…
THU and FRI
I’m hoping my cooking mojo has returned this year.
Not being able to make lemon oatmeal cookies really was a blow to my fragile ego however long ago that was (much like the time my Hollandaise sauce separated…) this is a serious issue here, people.
Anyhoo, I’m breaking with tradition (as I am wont to do as blindly following any tradition bugs the shit out of me… if you have a reason other than “because that’s the way we’ve always done it” I’ll be glad to hear it, but otherwise, I don’t care.) and not making cornish game hens this year.
Blasphemy you say! But of course, would you expect any less of me?
Tex had sung the praises of the specially ordered turkeys his little family market around the corner has each year and I said OK with the proviso that it needed fit into the Ronco rotisserie because I hate most turkeys roasted in the oven… dried out and BORING.
Unfortunately, the 8 or 9 pounder we required ended up being 11.6 pounds which won’t fit in the rotisserie. So, now we are at plan B.
Its probably not too late for defrosting the little chickens, but now I have a taste for rotisserie and I don’t want to futz with the little guys (plus, I need turkey juices for gravy).
A chicken is too day-to-day and beef is reserved for thanksgivings where I am feeling especially contrary… so a turkey breast it is.
I’ll brine it the night before and then slather it with butter.
Otherwise, most everything else is fairly standard because I let myself have them at thanksgiving; cornbread for dressing, gravy, roast veggies… and I’m cheating this year with the mashed potatoes. Tex had needed soft foods when he was in the midst of all the dental work he’d had done this last month and I found some seriously gruesome cheese mashed potatoes to try (For $1.02 at Target)
and they were YUMMY-especially after I made them with whole cream, more butter than you’d ever dream and garlic, so we’ll be having those little beauties for dinner as well.
I’ll be using my little baking dishes from Ikea for pies and other baked items and possibly doing home made biscuits depending on how crabby I am when I get up THU morning.
Le Menu:
breakfast:
sour cream banana nut muffins
coffee
bacon/eggsdinner:
Turkey breast (brined and rotisseried)
cornbread dressing
giblet gravy
roast veggies in wine & butter (carrots, mushrooms, potatoes + anything else that strikes my fancy)
sweet potatoes and vanilla beans
green beans
cornbread
mashed potatoesapple pie
cherry pie
vanilla ice cream
I took Friday off (they gave us floating holidays) and I have fabu sock monkey jammies, new ebooks identified (Didja know that Target sells gift cards for the Sony eBookstore? I’m just sayin’.) and a Guinness beef stew recipe lying in wait for my crockpot.
Friday is also the new moon, so that might be something to work in as well.
Frankly, I think I’m looking forward to Friday more than I am Thursday.
The rest of the weekend will probably be equally low key, filled with leftovers and Amazon/eBay ordering for xmoose plus some other hand made things.
I’ll try to take pictures, but no promises… if my blackmail works properly, I will have a photographer on hand. ;)
The week ahead:a sketching view…
MON:
Smart N Final (bulk groceries)
Turkey in fridge
TUE:
vacuum/mop (moved to WED)
tables uncovered (moved to WED)
Whole Foods (fancy groceries)
Trader Joe’s (funky groceries)
WED: (chez moi)
cut up apples/in pie sauce overnight
mix pie dough (3 batches)
Spud order here
THU:
get Timmy
make cornbread
make rolls
rotisserie turkey
FRI:
beef stew
read on the couch in jammies
2 new books (this one and another)
Ah me.
Life is filed with xmoose present planning (or not), puppy cams, Prop 8 angst, work and Bunny running.
Bunny is doing well. She runs all over me at night (so my sleep is crap, but she feels good.. so.. OK.). She is eating like mad still, and I am about to take her in for her 4 month from the last time appointment at the vet. Hopefully, he’ll see she is doing well from the inside.
Work is work… just normal.
Lots of it.
House clearing (not cleaning necessarily) is ongoing as well. I’m getting rid of stuff. Donate, give away, recycle, freecycle, what have you. But it is getting emptier in the place. A bunch of stuff was usable stuff (little shampoos, stocked up stuff, food in storage, etc.) so it goes away . The hardest part is not restocking. I’m making myself not buy things that I use until 1. they are almost out and 2. it is on sale. Its mostly working.
Giving stuff away isn’t too bad. I’m sure some people are just irritated about having things in their house now, but oh well.
I think i also found the outfit that I want to wear for the holiday party. It is black, natch. A merino wrap around sweater, a chiffon flippy skirt, fantasmo-incredible shoes (a la character shoes with a double strap that were on sale at Marshall’s so I didn’t have to lay out for the expensive Capezios that I love, but can’t afford) and then just gotta figure out jewelry. I also am doing the typical “Let’s dye my hair!” and “Let’s put on temporary tattoos to freak people out!” thing, which I probably won’t do because I will be too frazzled to do much more than take a shower and get dressed the day of the party.
Let’s be realistic here.
Last weekend was spent unconscious… I think I was trying to get sick and that’s how I combat it. I did get some stuff done, but for the most part, I laid around in my jammies, drowsing and letting the Bunny walk all over me.
Getting good news in on some friends and not so good news in on some family – both health related. So I’m a little on edge lately. Facebook and Twitter seem to be the communication avenues of choice, so I refresh obsessively.
Other than that, how are you?
Courage Campaign
“Hi,
Have you signed the pledge to repeal Prop 8?
I just did. And over 200,000 other people have signed the pledge from the Courage Campaign, CREDO Mobile, and MoveOn.org to repeal Prop 8 and restore marriage equality to California:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/RepealProp8
Usually, discussions of political issues wind down after elections, but Prop 8 is not about politics. It is about love, equality and civil rights. That’s why we cannot let the passage of Prop 8 stand.
We all need to talk to our family and friends about the importance of restoring marriage equality to California.
That is why I am asking you to sign the pledge to repeal Prop 8 and to tell your friends by forwarding this message.
Thanks.”
No Gays for a Day day
Forget the marches against Prop. 8’s passage. This will hit people where it hurts.
“UPDATE: No Gays For A Day has been officially changed to Dec 10. It turns out another guy was working on the same idea, and he’s gay, and produced the Lifetime movie “Wedding Wars,” and there’s no way I’m going to get in a fight with a guy who’s both gay and willing to work for Lifetime. He’s willing to do anything. For further details see JoinTheImpact.com.”
[via the LA Times]
Hmm…what’s been going on
a whole lot of busy.
Mainly cleaning, work, more work, cat maintenance (she’s doing very well thank you) and stuff like that.
In fact, as it is November, I broke out the 4 week calendar and started listing things to do to get ready for the holidays.
Tonight was “find a dress that didn’t make me look like a potato for the company holiday party” which is tricky as even when I am 500 million pounds lighter, I still look like a potato… the girls overshadow everything and I have the shortest torso ever invented, so there you go.
I may have found something interesting as well as something I might want to rip apart and make into something else and also shoes.
I’m still disgusted with hypocrisy and I can’t speak about Prop8 without foaming at the mouth, so I just don’t.
Other than that, its quiet. Fine by me.
2 thangs…
1. http://www.mormonsstoleourrights.com/
Frankly, I think all churches should be removed from tax-exempt status…and its political shit like this that reinforces my opinion.
and
B.
(link and attribution forthcoming…)
I agree with kottke.org
CA to gays: no marriage for you
Today is bittersweet…Obama got elected but it looks as though Proposition 8 will pass, banning gay marriage in California. Fuck you, California.
Kottke.org
I agree.
Completely.
You know, I have to think that the people who fought and died for rights of people, such as those who voted for this proposition (you know, the one that eliminates rights for people), are wondering if they made the right decision to help out people who just turn around and shit all over other people…
Apparently, y’all are now in a good place…good enough to screw those who are being discriminated against… and I am done defending anyone who turns around once they are comfortable and takes away others’ rights.
