Thanksgiving Day, 2011

Question:
www.nataliedee.com

.....mine is the head ^_^

I told my husband, earlier today- Thanksgiving is like a sporting event for women.

We prepare & look forward to this whole day cooking event each year, well some dread it I'm sure too. The first year married (2008) & living on our own up here in ND- I made anything & everything, for just us 2 -both of our families' traditions, the best I could. The year after, 2009, we were in a huge fight & therefor I did not buy anything to prepare. We ate at Perkins & watched football, lol (I can lol now that it's passed). Last year, we had another couple over for Thanksgiving Day, plus their dog.... which was nice bcz it kept our dog entertained, too. This year, Nick didn't find out his work schedule until, um last night. We decided bcz of the unknown, we'd celebrate Friday after his Best Buy trip. So not knowing what time it was "going down" he said make it whenever I wanted, he'd be off work at 1pm Thursday. One of his friends was going to join us, but then that plan changed, too.
So we are going to eat about 6 tonight, LOL.

Obligatory cute kitteh foto.

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Anyways, I wanted to document what I'm making, so if it turns out well I can do it again!

So far I put the turkey in the crock-pot- Butterball boneless white breast meat recipe followed here. My crockpot will usually burn whatever is touching the sides or bottom, (I don't know if this is normal or what) so I layed some celery stalks down on the bottom to keep the meat from laying directly: a) on the pot & b) in the chicken-stock (which is homemade, btw!)

I used 5oz of the stock, then seasoned the meat & plopped it in there, set to low for 7 hours.

I also threw a lil shallot in there for flavor.

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I also found a great recipe for homemade from scratch Green Bean Casserole-
from Martha Stewart - with a video too!
Seemed easy enough, & since it's my fav part of the meal-
I decided it was time to get serious. First up, chopping the shallots, I cried, of course.
I wasn't prepared with my candle- but after the 1st one, I lit that bad boy!

Photo-Op, Ula from Momma C. & Bob!

Then I coated in flour, shook off & dropped into hot oil, stirred a bit & waited
for them to look a lil' brown & crispy.

Be careful, hot oil hurts!

Yay!


Next was making the cream of mushroom soup- I used heavy cream bcz- the milk went bad a week ago & I didn't notice, luckily I had cream open from my creamy tomato basil soup, & also I wanted to make if nice & thick.

The sauce thickenin' up, we're ok with thickenin' up, it's winter for goodness sake!

Mixed in with the green beans & I threw some of the onions in there too, just cuz.

I think it's so pretty, all the colors melding together. Then i 8 it. You can't have any.
Fin.

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Next up was some pie. I found a recipe online thru Libby's for a Pumpkin Pecan Pie.
Normally I would just heat up a frozen pumpkin pie, but since I'm trying to eat smarter-
& I have the time-
& I'm the only one going to be eating it anyways,
I decided I'd give this a go.

(ok Callaway would totally have some too, if I let him)

I did use a ready-made graham crust, bcz I've yet to make a pie crust...
maybe at Christmas I'll try that.... with a Kitchen Aid mixer's help (hint, hint).

Mix crap together.

Layer pie & bake.

Cool & admire your work.


4 Hours remaining on the turkey- checked the temp per Butterball's suggestion- I had to reach 140 within 4 hours, it was well over 180- I guess it'll be done early, lol.

But I'm not ready yet- still enjoying some Dunkin' Donuts Pumpkin Spice coffee.

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This is how the pie turned out:
It is very good! Looks a bit burnt, but I am going to assume that's because it's not fresh crust. But it's a really nice mix of pumpkin & pecan pies, duh. lol

Here is our table spread, I know, I know- nothing fancy, but wanted to document this date as we ate AT the dinning table, not even using that computer sitting over there, or the 3DS....

I plant garlic from the grocery store

.....which would normally not be advised. However, this is organic garlic- so it's super special & untreated, which I am hoping will mean in another 9 months means I have 5 bulbs to pull & let dry! I found many sources with info how to plant it, so I just kinda mashed all the advice into what I could remember to do while I was outside, with our corgi hassling me, in North Dakota, in November, when it was about 40 degrees out.

So what I did was.... rug into my raised bed & pulled any weeds/grass shoots out. I've read that garlic does not compete very well with weeds. I sprinkled in some Bison manure fertilizer mix I bought a while ago then cut a ~12"x12" piece of yard fabric & cut 5 wholes out. Laid this down & put my 5 cloves of garlic in the ground, keeping their papery-skins on. Then I put about 2" more of "dirt" (really my Mel's Mix) over top & THEN covered that with about 4" of mulched grass/leaves I'd been saving in a big yard debris bag (for good reason).

So here's hoping that in the spring I will see some green sprouts pop up & that I'll actually remembered what I plant there, probably need to put a plant-marker in that square. ^_^

Here's a great write-up I used: How To Plant Garlic.

***** Nov 24 update *****

Here is a picture of me "harvesting" the parsnip. Ok- well I think there would be one. Here's a before picture of the growth in the summer:
Now here is what I pulled today:

What the crap?!

*April 14 Garlic update*

All 5 popped up yay!

Next on my list: The Pumpkin Project. Growing pumpkins inside a pumpkin- just add soil & water!