Our Family Thanksgiving

This is the second year that we have had our family Thanksgiving the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Scheduling it at that time means we don't have to share the girls and their families with anyone else. The little ones are still in school, so we can do our preparing and cooking uninterrupted.

The meal was outstanding, as usual. We never vary the menu, so there's no reason for it to disappoint anyone. This year I made the turkey, dressing, gravy and a dessert. Dee made a pecan pie and the girls made the rest. I think they had two items apiece, only one of which required much effort.

We have most of our gatherings at Carolyn & Brent's house now. They have plenty of room with stained concrete floors that make it easy to rearrange furniture and set up folding tables.

Dee joined us this year. Here she is getting the once over by Jax.

Carlee is strapped in and ready to be served.

Our three lovely daughters

Not exactly sure what look Carlee was going for...

Looks like a serious discussion here

Aunt Robin & Carlee

Jax and Kate

A thought or two about instructions

Yesterday, as I opened a box containing 4 sticks of butter, I noticed for the first time that there were instructions for opening the box printed on the bottom, in two languages. I was even more surprised to discover directions for closing the package, also in two languages, on an inner flap. This is a box of butter, people, not very complicated.

I was removing all the sticks of butter from the box and storing them in the special butter compartment of the fridge door. Perhaps if I were going to keep them in the box, I would need to know exactly how the box end worked in order to close it. But, being smarter than the average monkey, (pardon my reworking of your line, Yogi) I think I could have figured it out without the instructions.

It also occurred to me that if one actually did need the instructions, possibly reading wouldn't be in their skill set either.

Just an observance. Thank you.

One more observation...Spanish seems really hard!

Injury report

A couple of posts ago I admitted to my addiction to StoneLoops! of Jurassica, a game app I have on my iphone. I noticed a week or so ago that my index finger was very sore and tried giving it a couple of yanks (using the chiropractic skills I have gained through osmosis.) That didn't help, though, but I never thought about it when I was at Carolyn's, where I could have gotten some actual therapy.

It took a few days before I realized my pain was from overuse of the digit during game play. It even hurts to type here. Look at me, suffering for you!

I'm still playing StoneLoops! Still addicted, rooting for commercials instead of fast forwarding through them. (I grab the phone and play during the commercial.) But now I'm using my middle finger instead of the index. I don't seem to be pressing as hard using that finger. Hopefully, I don't suffer an injury to that finger, too. I don't think I could play with my left hand, though maybe I should give it a try. Just in case.

Thanksgiving preparations

Last year, for the first time, our family decided to have our Thanksgiving Dinner the Saturday before Thanksgiving. That way, they can spend Thanksgiving Day wherever they want.

We are doing the same thing this year. Earlier in the week I emailed the girls telling them I would make the turkey & dressing & gravy and gave them the list of other dishes that need to be prepared. They made their choices and all should go well. At dinner tonight, Pat mentioned a do-ahead gravy that she has personally tried and pronounces wonderful. I asked her to send it to me...hope she remembers...otherwise I have to make my usual gravy, which is fine, but not what I would call wonderful.

****************

A year or so ago I bought a Cuisinart food processor to replace the GE food processor that I had been using for about 30 years. That GE sounded like one of those machines that chews up branches. Or maybe it was more like a rock tumbler...or a combination of the two. It got the job done, but it was so noisy! The new one is very quiet and just feels so substantial. I've only used it a few times, so I'm not totally familiar with how the lid components fit together...or what they all do...or how to put the lid back on after washing.

After I used it to chop up the onions and celery for the dressing, I washed it. As I was rinsing it, I saw that soap was in parts of the lid that I wasn't positive I could get to. But, I kept rinsing, turning it this way and that until I didn't see any more soap. I wanted to dry it and get it put away, but now I couldn't get to the places that were soapy before...do you just let it evaporate? (Which reminds me of a story about an aquarium we used to have...after the last fish died, I just let the water evaporate. Took about a year, as far as I can remember.) As I was stuffing and twisting the dishtowel into a small opening, it suddenly came apart, releasing one of the components that I thought was stationary. Okay, but now there was another place that I couldn't get reach to dry. I was again stuffing and twisting the dishtowel when, lo and behold, another component came loose! It was like I had a personal genie reading my mind and taking this thing apart for me. I had no idea what had happened...but, I got it dry. My personal genie also helped me get it back together, but then deserted me when I tried to put the lid back onto the base. I had to work that out by myself. Eventually, I did figure it out.

Sadly, I know it will all be brand new to me the next time I use it. Maybe I should put a note inside it explaining to myself that the lid comes apart if you screw with it long enough. I came to the conclusion that I hadn't actually figured it out and a monkey could have done just as well, at least at taking it apart.

Tomorrow I'll make my dessert, a variation of Coconut Supreme. Mine is 1/2 Chocolate Supreme and 1/2 Banana Cream Supreme. Any flavor of pudding is good. My current favorite is Lemon Supreme and I'll be taking that to the Wendel/Rioux Family Christmas in Austin in December.

Pigs must be flying

I read a recipe for brussel sprouts recently that made them actually sound good. I've had them once or twice in my life but didn't like them enough to cook them more than that. Of course, it goes without saying that that isn't the sort of thing Wayne likes to eat. His saying is that "vegetables are for gardens." He'll eat salad, celery sticks and carrot sticks, but that's about it.

Anywhooo, having purchased brussel sprouts at the grocery store, I looked at Mommy, Hungry and found the recipe that I wanted:

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

2 pounds Brussels sprouts
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 400* F.

Remove the ends and brown or damaged leaves of the Brussel sprouts. Rinse well in cold water. Dry the sprouts well. Cut in half lengthwise. In a bowl, gently mix the sprouts with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast on foil-lined baking sheet for 30- 40 minutes, until crispy and on the outside and tender inside.

I was only cooking them for me, so I adjusted the ingredients accordingly, although I didn't actually measure anything. I think I only used 5 or 6 of the sprouts, halved...so 10-12 halfs.

Wayne came in for lunch about the time I got them out of the oven. It looked like they were really burnt on the outside, but I picked up one of the burnt outer leaves and took a nip, thinking "how stupid are you to eat this bit that looks like a burnt piece of paper?" But, it was actually still pretty good except that I had put too much salt in the olive oil. Wayne saw them and made a negative comment...which I totally expected and did not get mad about. I agreed that they were pretty crispy and too salty. So he said he might like them then and I gave him one to try. Surprisingly he actually tried it and got another one. I think he might have eaten more if he thought I was willing to share.

All in all, I enjoyed it and will cook the rest of them the same way. The oil & seasonings were about what you would want to dip some good bread in (at least it would have been if I hadn't added too much salt. From now on, I'll just make it like a bread dipping recipe.

It did stink up the house a bit, though. I'd rather smell cinnamon rolls baking!

StoneLoops! and more addictive games

Okay, I wouldn't be surprised if I were diagnosed as having a mild case of selective OCD. Once I find a game or puzzle I like, I play it ALL the time.

I used to go to jigzone.com every day without fail. Since you could choose any (or all) cuts of hundreds of puzzles...free...I would start with the daily puzzle and work those. Then I would go to the different categories and work those. I went through the entire list of puzzles several times before I forced myself to back off and just work the daily puzzle in about 3 or 4 cuts...always the same cuts. I liked the USA cut, the 87 piece crazy cut and the 91 piece lizard cut. I was always well under half the average time. I just went to the website and worked my favorite cuts on the daily puzzle. The USA puzzle took me about 2 minutes, almost twice as long as I usually took. The other puzzles took me about twice as long also. Just didn't quite remember where the different pieces went. It's been several months since I last visited the site because a new challenge presented itself and I spent more time there.

The new challenge was a freebie from Incredimail. It was called "Dream Wedding." I don't know what I did to deserve it, but they offered a free game, so I downloaded it and immediately got hooked. It is a "find the object" type puzzle. The first time I tried it, it took me over 2 hours in real time to get to the end. It took about an hour & a half in puzzle time. So, naturally I had to work to improve that time. Jigzone didn't get visited at all. Instead I looked for hidden objects. I have improved my real time to about 40 minutes. My best puzzle solve time is about 8 1/2 minutes. The objects I have to find might be different each time, but they're always in the same place, so it's just a matter of memory. I don't know how much faster I can get, but I keep doing it anyway.

Actually, Dream Wedding has fallen by the wayside because I downloaded an app I really like on my iphone and now I play THAT all the time. It's called StoneLoops! of Jurassica....similar in action to the very old Asteroids game. Except in StoneLoops you direct a colored rock at lines of colored rocks and when you match a minimum of three of them, they are smashed and that might cause other smashes of other rocks. There are 15 levels in each of 4 areas and you can retry each level...if at first you don't succeed. So far, I've completed the whole thing twice and have only 1 level to go to finish it a 3rd time. Obviously, it's addictive. I've been doing that instead of watching television...and I like television.

If only I could get addicted to housework!

Hot tamales

Yum! Fresh tamales!

I got up really late this morning and has been my routine this week lately, I brewed a large coffee in my new Keurig single cup coffee maker and drank more than half of it before I made and ate my oatmeal. Love the coffee maker! I have been drinking instant coffee for several years and was perfectly fine with it. Then, when I got my last facial I had a cup of brewed coffee from a Keurig. I liked it so much that Carolyn (when I wasn't in the room) questioned them about it with the intent of buying one for me for Christmas...a gift from all three families.

Too bad! I didn't want to wait for it. The next time I went into a Bed, Bath & Beyond I bought the sucker and boxes of different types of coffee. I kept a list of the coffees and wrote what I did or did not like about them. The "pods" are about 50 cents each. You can also buy a reusable filter to fill with your own coffee. Numerous roasts are available in the store, but at my local supermarket and Walmart there are just a few. Of course, they're available online...but I haven't checked that out yet.

Enough about the coffee. Right after I finished my breakfast, I started a pot of quick chili. While I was doing that Wayne called to let me know that Raul (our tamale dealer) had been by and wanted to know if we wanted any. I told him sure, but we didn't have room for much in the freezer, so just get us 3 dozen. He said he was going to Edie & Glenn's to watch the Aggie football game, so we decided to get a couple dozen more for him to take over there...along with the chili and some rice that I would make.

Raul delivered the tamales to Wayne and when he brought them, piping hot, to the house I couldn't wait to tear into the package. Omigod! They were so good...the masa was soft and moist and the meat was medium spicy...just right. I probably ate half a dozen right then (even though I had just finished my oatmeal) and pronounced them fit to take to Edie & Glenn's. Just talking about them makes me want to go finish off that dozen. Think I will!

The quick chili recipe...in case anyone is interested, is below. It's what Carolyn makes for chili and fritos. Personally, I prefer Wolf Brand chili for that...

Quick Chili

Brown 1 lb hamburger
Add 3 or 4 tablespoons taco seasoning (to taste)
Add 1 can Ranch Style beans

Optional: Add 1/2 can chili-style tomatoes (I use the HEB brand...I also use an immersion blender to make it more like tomato sauce...Wayne pushes tomato dices to the side)

I add a can of water (we like it soupy.) Let it simmer as long as you like. I like the hamburger meat to get tender, so I cook it at least an hour. Carolyn would probably serve it as soon as all ingredients are in and it's heated good. She's usually in more of a rush with hungry kids banging on the table.