I'm Still Thankful!

Well, I made it through Pie Day, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and a glorious weekend all filled with food.  Oh yes!  I'm feeling very fat indeed!  It could have been so much worse!  Bad enough though!  Let's just get the stats out of the way.  Today glucose 104 - not too bad, and fatometer has inched back up to 155.7.  Bummer!  My pants are feeling pretty snug!  I won't look great (even for my age) in my swim suit in January if I continue on this course so hang on!  I'm gonna slam on the brakes and spin the car around!  But first here's a recap of my Thanksgiving holiday.   First - it was really quiet this year.  Most of our kids were unable to come over.  Michele was brave enough to drive across the pass in the middle of a snow storm and made it here on Tuesday.  Wednesday before Thanksgiving is of course Pie Day and here she is mixing up and rolling out pie dough.  Pie day is very special for me.  I used to help my mom bake the pies so I always think of her on Pie Day.

  

And someone could not wait for Thanksgiving day to arrive...

Oh well!  Since there were only a few of us there were certainly enough pies to go around.

I worked all day Wednesday cooking as much of the Thanksgiving meal as I could so that Thursday would be less frantic.  We had of course been thawing out the turkey all week.  I was getting a little concerned though about what I was going to cook the bird in because, well...  here comes a little mini story...  The week before Thanksgiving I was in Woodinville and one evening my sister in law Andrea told me about a great roasting pan her mom had just purchased from Sur La Table.  Now that got me all kinds of excited because I had been salivating over a beautiful roasting pan and rack in their catalog for days prior to my trip over.  I knew it was on sale but I still was having trouble justifying spending quite so many dollars on one pan - even though I do believe that you usually get what you pay for.  I decided that I was going to splurge and just go for it.  No more foil roasting pans for me!  I had two options... I could go to the store and pick it up or order it online.  Since I had driven the truck I was having trouble imagining myself parking that beast in downtown Kirkland.  I can't even line it up straight in an empty parking lot.  I decided to order online.  Rather than pay $30.00 for shipping I opted for the ground method which was free, but according to the shipping department would not arrive until shortly after Thanksgiving.  I then remembered my sweet little mother who pesters God with all kinds of tiny things so I figured I would do just that... I asked God to deliver my roasting pan so I could use it for my turkey on Thursday.  I did however let him know that if he had way more important matters to attend to I would be ok with that - but I was totally willing to receive my roasting pan early if he could squeeze that little miracle in.  :)  I woke up each day wondering if my pan would arrive.  Each day it did not.  On Wednesday I listened all day for the dogs to bark announcing the approaching UPS truck but no barking.  About 5pm I decided I better  send Michele to the store to buy one of those stupid foil roasting pans.  What?  Dogs barking?  Could it really be...  

Oh yes!  My beautiful new roasting pan!  Well you can just imagine how excited I was about that!  I think I stared at it for the rest of the evening and couldn't wait for the morning to come so I could plop that birdy in there.

Thursday morning I rolled out of bed bright and early and started off with a long soak in the tub to set the tone for the day.  Of course there were moments of mild panic but dinner came togeather in the end.  The bird I must say was a huge surprise.  It was the prettiest, crispiest bird I've ever roasted - well here he is...
He was so pretty I couldn't even pick at the skin.  My brother Gene and I used to steal all the skin before my mom could get the turkey on the table.  If he had been here I would have chased him away with a meat fork!  :)  Which is what my mom should have done once or twice.  It may have cured the evil behavior.  :)  Anyway...Dave did the honors of carving him up.   Slice after slice fell to the platter glistening with moisture and I decided it was ok to go ahead and admit that he had been hanging out in the freezer since last year.  :)  Could a pan make that much difference?  What else could it be?  Crispy AND moist?  A tiny miracle for sure!

Our neighbors, Carol and her adorable mom that everyone calls Granny came over and had dinner with us.  Carol made some wickedly good almond tea cookies.  They were the kind that you might as well just eat in one sitting cause... well, that's what's going to happen anyway.  And we did.  :)  One of my favorite things at dinner was the home made huckleberry sparkling wine that Granny brought.  One of their friends made it out of local huckleberries,.  It was not meant to be sparkling but somehow it turned out that way.  It was mildly sweet and tasted really good by itself and mixed with a punch I had made - as a spritzer.  The bottle it was in reminded me of an old moonshine jug.  I have it soaking now to remove the sediment.  I am hoping that Carol will forget about it.  I'm sure I can find a use for it :)

One of the very best things about Thanksgiving is the leftovers.  There is of course always turkey soup.  My version of turkey soup is a variation of something Dave's grandpa used to make when he was a little boy.  Nifla.  It's a peasant soup.  Meant to use up what ever left overs are around the house and includes dumplings.  Not the fluffy biscuity kind.  It was very tasty!  The old turkey bones made that great big pot of soup and 8 more quarts of turkey stock that are now in the freezer.  Alright... I've been too lazy to actually put them in the freezer.  They are sitting out on the grill outside but they are frozen!  I also made Thanksgiving Shepherds Pie made with turkey, stuffing, turkey gravey, green beans and mashed potatoes.  It was divine :)

The thing that really sets this Thanksgiving apart is that it has snowed and snowed!  We have about a foot of snow in the yard and pastures right now and another 6 inches is expected over the next couple of days.  It is not melting off since the temperature has remained well below freezing.  It seems pretty early to be snowed in but - it sure is pretty!

Well it's time to say goodbye to Thanksgiving for another year.  I have my Christmas tree up and Christmas carols playing.  It feels like a hot mug of cocoa is in order.  Perhaps I can find a nice non-gross sugar free mix. :)  Riiiiight!  If only I can get through the Christmas holiday with no more weight gain I'll be happy!  Perhaps I'll get out my sewing box and find some pretty red and green embroidery floss and stitch my lips together.  :)

Ciao!