We're Getting There
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Appetizer from Teri and Brian
Pickled carrots
Mixed nuts
Roast turkey, dry brined with aleppo pepper and thyme
Gravy
Stuffing with sausage, sage and pear
Mashed potatoes
Roast squash with soy butter
Brussels sprouts, hashed with bacon/shallots/cream/mustard
Clementine/jicama salad with vinaigrette
Cranberry sauce with port
Cranberry relish
Dessert from Teri and Brian
To Do List
SUNDAY
Make pickled vegetables
MONDAY
Season turkey
Make another batch of cranberry sauce
TUESDAY
Make piecrust
Make meat pie filling
WEDNESDAY
Make coleslaw
Defrost stocks, combine and reduce
Prepare meat pies
Uncover turkey, dry and leave uncovered
Make soy butter
Chop Brussels sprouts/shallots
Toast remaining bread for stuffing
Chop onions/celery/pear/garlic for stuffing
THURSDAY
Chop Clementine/blood oranges/jicama
Make vinaigrette for clementine
Roast potatoes in morning
Roast squash
Make stuffing
Turkey in around ten?
We're getting there! I am officially on a floating holiday as we speak, and it feels delightful. We've got the butter and mixer bowl/paddle all chilling so we can start on our pie crusts (crossed fingers....remember the Great Pie Crust Failure of December 2012). I've got a bit of a cold but Ernie's been Zicamming me to death and it's not bad. Our friends Teri and Brian have been sick but I'm hoping they'll be able to make it....although I don't want them to come if they don't feel up for it (Do you HEAR that Teri?).
In my ongoing obsession with the Gifford tornado and my inlaws' old house (as I told my friend Nancy yesterday, I never realized I was like this until the last few years. She suggested maybe I hadn't always been like this and I said, "Uh, no...." I'm the one that memorized Ruth Webb Lee at 12 years old. And God knows my sweet little apple Leo didn't fall far from the tree. Anyway....I finally found an aerial shot that showed the area where Ernie's folks lived and it looked to me like the house was still there. So then I went into tax records to find the name of the woman who had bought the house from the estate and then I googled her and lo and behold,
Debbie Farmer of Gifford was home with her son and his girlfriend when the twister hit Gifford.
"We heard the sirens going off, so we knew it was serious," Farmer said. "All of a sudden there was breaking glass, and a horrible wind was going through the walls. It was very scary."
The back end of Farmer's home was damaged. "At least my house is still standing," she said. "Many others weren't so lucky."
So I guess the house made it through despite damage.
So that, the seeming resolution of the school issues we've been having, and the fact that I don't go back to work until Monday....and the smell of cooking in the house, oh, and Leo got 100% on his 8th grade Constitution test, which is making his grandfather immensely proud in heaven....all makes for a pretty good day. Happy Thanksgiving Eve all!