Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Thanksgiving Menu

My living room today




Sorry to neglect you, dear blog. Not that I'm worried about anyone reading you, if you're like most blogs out there then you are merely an ignored representative of the collective narcissism of my generation. Still, it's a good exercise for me. If I'm not careful my life quickly distills into non-stop nose-wiping, cooking, cleaning, laundry and nursing. And that life is a little too grim for me. So to break up the monotony and as a semi-intellectual exercise I will try to keep writing.

I'm hosting our usual Thanksgiving supper with my in-laws and any single folks we can rope in. Here's the menu. Keep in mind I'm doing it from scratch, no cream of mystery soups, scary canned fried vegetables, no box stuffing and DEFINITELY no packet of gravy powder.

For the pre-supper nosh I'll have a relish tray and homemade pate with crackers

Brined and Roasted Turkey with bread stuffing
Giblet Gravy
Candied Yams
Corn Pudding
Green Bean Casserole
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Cranberry sauce

My mother-in-law is bringing her three specialties, spinach salad, sweet potato casserole and Dutch apple cake. Brother-in-law's girlfriend is bringing pumpkin pie and some other kind of pie.

Would it be completely over the top for me to make a mincemeat pie as well?

Thursday, November 3, 2011

November pushed October out of the way before I realized what was going on

I have no idea what happened to the last two weeks. It's Thursday, November 3rd. Spaceboy's 3rd birthday is the 16th and I have been caught completely off guard. I have some vague ideas about baking a cake and having guests over, and then the next week baking a turkey for our Thanksgiving meal with the in-laws and their entourage (I think this year is including two friends of the family, one girlfriend, and two girlfriend's sisters in addition to the family). Last year at this time I was already making lists and taking notes, even buying some ingredients. This year I'm just trying to not get snowed under while scaling Laundry Mountain.

Here's a picture of my living room, because I think some of you got a kick out of what it looked like before. Not a whole lot has changed, although I did organize my sewing table.



I had a post planned, it was going to be about delicious soups that are almost as easy as opening a can, but ten times as delicious. Then I noticed the date and got all flustered. Maybe I'll try again later. Until then, here's a teaser.