So here we are, it's Christmas eve. It arrived too quickly. This year we have guests in town. My mom and her husband Randy drove in on Tuesday (just as I had the unfortunate timing to have both the most horrible period of my life* and a migraine headache). Luckily they cheered me up. I made them an Irish beef stew for dinner (ala crock pot) and we watched Julie and Julia.
On Wednesday we went out for breakfast at Voula's and Voula told Randy he was handsome. He liked that. After getting thoroughly stuffed I returned home to make desserts. Nothing fancy, just sugar cookies and Rice Krispie treats. I was going to make a pecan pie as well but somehow ran out of time. We had a quick dinner at Ballard Brothers Seafood (I enjoyed a basket of fried oysters** and chips) and then Zoe, mom, Randy, and I went to see Sister's Christmas Catechism downtown. Sister is funny and she only picked on my mom once for talking out of turn. Fortunately, the rest of us escaped without incident.
This morning I'm up early to prepare for a long day downtown. Normally our family does something called "The Friday Before Christmas". We go downtown, see a movie, eat lunch and do a little shopping and Christmas light looking. This year, because Friday was still a school day and we wanted to include my mom and Randy we're doing it on Christmas Eve. I have no idea whether it'll be crazy downtown or not. I'm hoping not. We plan to see the early showing of Avatar in 3D and then lunch at one of the many restaurants in Pacific Place. Tonight is our usual viewing of A Christmas Story projected on the wall with many snacks including spiral sliced ham, artichoke dip and crackers, raw veggies, chips, and cookies. Somehow, I need to find time to buy a pork shoulder today before the stores close since all I could find yesterday at my local market was a bone-in picnic cut.
Tomorrow's plan is to have a sausage, bacon and egg breakfast after gift unwrapping and then a late dinner with the roast I'll hopefully purchase today along with mashed potatoes, creamed spinach (planned when I was originally going to brave cooking prime rib, then chickened out), and a feta and cranberry green salad. Sid, I believe, is cooking a tofurkey roast for him and Zoe. An unexpected event for Christmas evening is to drive the boys to the airport so they can fly off to New York City. They were supposed to leave Sunday morning but their flight was canceled due to the east coast snow storm.
So yeah, that's it, in a nutshell. I'm looking forward to the next 2 days! Have a Merry Christmas!
Wow, I'm going to need to diet after all this.
p.s. My friend Allyson and Paul are getting a brand new baby early next week and that really makes this the most wonderful Christmas ever!
*tmi alert: the WORST period ever. Horrifying. I'm calling the doctor next week. I can't live with this anymore. Birth control pills aren't helping. What's next?
**more tmi alert: oysters help w/ anemia and well, I can't imagine how I couldn't be anemic after having the WORST period ever.
Hello. I'm a crazy cat lady. I especially feel like a CCL when I'm standing in my kitchen and I look around and I see one old cat on the counter eating his fish only diet and another old cat on the other counter eating his no-grain turkey diet and one floppy foster cat sprawled out in the middle of the floor looking at both their tails waiting for seconds and another foster cat sulking off in the corner waiting for ham handouts or an opportunity to swat any male cats that dare come near her.
Yes, that's what my mornings are like.
Oh, and then there are the cat food costs. The old, OLD cat cannot eat beef, chicken, rice or corn so I'm left with a brand of canned food that costs nearly $2/can and he eats AT LEAST a can a day. Cat food with names like "Polynesian BBQ" and "Meow Luau". The other old cat also has a special canned food diet and it cannot be sniffed, licked or near the other old cat. Then there are the fosters. The old shelter provided cat food but the new shelter doesn't. Fine. I'm okay with that. The problem is that I feel guilty giving my cats top of the line foods and giving the fosters cheap cat food so they too are getting fancy organic kibble. I feed them in the master bath and that was working out okay until old cat Gumby found out about it and started sneaking in to eat it at night and then apparently told Frasier about it and Frasier decided not only to sneak in at night but to poop on the tile floor when he found out I'd put the food up beyond his reach. Also, I was reminded that young cats are in fact able to bite through food bags and make a huge mess. How had I forgotten that they can do that?
Inspite of it all. I love them. They are fluffy and soft and they purr and they do silly things and they cuddle with me and my kids and they mostly take care of themselves. Yes, there are many days when I'm about to take Frasier in to euthanize him but there are just as many days when I see a nice old cat that isn't doing much harm.
I haven't been so good at promoting my foster cats which is a shame since I did so well with the kittens and they really don't need any promoting; their cuteness sells itself. Currently I have 2 adult fosters. Tonks has been with us since November 10th and Odin has been with us since December 9th. The shelter provides monthly opportunities to showcase the cats at adoption events but unfortunately I missed them because a) Tonks is not keen on cages and strangers; in fact she would hiss and possibly disembowel all living things around her in that situation and b) Odin was still getting over Calici virus when the last one came around.
So the challenge is, how get them adopted?
Well, I wrote earlier that I thought Tonks had found a potential adopter. That unfortunately fell through because the adopter had very little experience with cats and expected Tonks to immediately fall in love with her male cat. When that didn't happen immediately she felt sad and Tonks came back to us. Really, I'm glad she is back with us. She deserves a more cat experienced human as she is a complicated gal. I need to have someone help me re-write Tonk's Petfinder description. The one I wrote for her doesn't really tell her story or give a potential adopter much of an idea of what she's really like, unlike the wonderful Petfinder description for our other foster, Odin, which was written by his previous foster mom.
Odin really is a marketable guy; I don't think I have to do much more for him. In fact, someone is coming over to meet him tonight and once he flops on her lap its a done deal*. I feel a bit bad for Tonks because she made friends with our foster kitten and we adopted her off and now, just as she's starting to trust and play with Odin, he'll be leaving her as well. If Odin does get adopted I'm going to try to find a foster at the shelter that is a good enough match with Tonks that I can possibly get the 2 adopted off together. That would make Tonks the happiest girl in the world. Either that, or I think Tonks would prefer that I never bring another new feline into the house and while I'm at it get rid of my old cats. She'd really like to control the humans and the house single-pawedly if she had a choice.
*I wrote this earlier. Odin is getting adopted! I'm so happy for him but a little sad because he is currently playing fetch like a dog with Zoe and she (and he) are really having a great time.
Frasier
Gumby
Tonks
Odin
Three months ago Zoe asked to move her bedroom downstairs. We complied. She moved whatever still mattered to her and left everything else behind, stowed away in her old closet and on the floor of her old bedroom. She said, "Get rid of everything." I said, "Um, no, YOU get rid of everything." Nothing happened.
3 weeks after her move, kittens moved in and stayed in her old room. Whatever was still on the floor got shoved in the closet on top of whatever else had already been shoved in the closet.
6 weeks after her move, the kittens moved on and the old cat moved in. Robert opened the closet and started sorting and tossing.
10 weeks after her move to the basement, she decided she'd like to move back to her old room. The closet was emptied, the room was swept, the curtains taken down and laundered, and the room was painted.
12 weeks after her move to the basement, she moved back into her old room with a fresh start. A new chandelier. A "new" bed. Fresh walls (ready for artwork and sparkly lights and posters of werewolves).
And a clean closet.
All of this happened with very little effort from the 14 year old girl. She drew plans for her room. She flipped through Ikea catalogs and bookmarked almost every item in Wake Up Frankie. She painted a wall (sort of) and did a little taping. She vacuumed the rug. She put the light bulb in her lamp.
We, the parents, were tired of being the laborers to her contractor. We'd done a lot. Moving. Cleaning. Sorting. Painting. Sawing. Patching. The last effort was to bring up all her clothes and return them to her dresser, sorted. We weren't going to do that for her.
Zoe begrudgingly agreed to carry up her clothes. They sat on the clean rug. 2 feet deep. Encompassing the majority of the room. Clothes everywhere. Zoe tossed the last handful down and ran.
I called after her. "Come back!"
She complained. "I have things to do! I need to go draw!" I stood firm. But then backed down. I knew it wouldn't happen without my help. "Okay, you will sit here, help me, tell me what you like and what you can get rid of, what you can put away until summer." She tried to scoot out the door. I mentioned the show "Hoarders" more than once. Eventually, after about 30 minutes she was happily sorting, chatting and comfortable (no more edging out the doorway). We finished in very little time and everything was in just the right place -- summer clothes stowed on shelves in the closet, winter clothes in the drawer, jackets and sweaters and coats hung on hangers. It wasn't that big of a deal. I heard myself repeating my mantra, "Just keep at it, learn to fold well and quickly, have a place for something and return it there. Is this really that hard? Just don't let it get too intimidating! Isn't this fun?! Doesn't this make you feel happy?" Maybe this is how hoarders are made. Mothers with mantras. Mothers that help too much.
(We've had this conversation so many times before. She's got the mantra memorized.)
That night, when she was tucked in bed and I went in to say good night, she said, "Thank you. Thank you for helping me with my room."
Zoe drew a lot over the Thanksgiving break. You may remember that she loves to draw comics and her inspiration comes from the Perry Bible Fellowship (not kid friendly but it wouldn't be Zoe if she liked something kid friendly).
Robert is taking Sid to New York City for his 16th birthday. I'm very excited for them (I'm so jealous that they'll be there when all the Christmas decorations will be out!); neither of them have been before. I booked them a room in the Pod "Hotel" and they're taking it from there. I know Robert would like to see at least a few touristy sites (Ellis Island, The Statue of Liberty, Central Park, a museum or two, Times Square) while Sid wants to wander around Queens and Brooklyn and avoid all touristy locations (with the exception of maybe Greenwich Village).
(Personally, I'd do Katz's Deli, Ellis Island, The New York Public Library, The Tenement Museum, and definitely a Broadway show at a minimum.)
We have an old friend who is an artist and lives in Brooklyn. If they can visit him that'll be a huge bonus! (Note to Robert, email him to see if he'll be in town.)
Neither Sid nor Robert like musicals so many of the Broadway shows are out but there are a few options: God of Carnage (too bad James Gandolfini isn't still in it) and Superior Donuts with Michael McKean. There may be other shows out there; I'm trying to nudge them into looking into them. I worry that they'll get there and just walk around for 2 days.
Anyway, I am excited for them. Sid has dreams of going to Columbia University so he should definitely go up and see the campus.
If you have any ideas for where they should go send them my way!
We're (still) cleaning out the garage and closets and going through various boxes we've shoved with stuff over the last year or so (mainly stuff pulled from Zoe's room). I don't understand how we continuously get rid of stuff yet there is still more.
Today Robert went through all of Zoe's old dolls and doll clothes. At one point I saw him dressing a doll. I helped in remembering which clothes went with which doll; it was surprisingly easy for me to remember that a particular shoe went with such and such doll since I possibly played with those dolls as much as Zoe did. The idea is to donate each doll w/ its clothes and accessories in a big Ziploc bag so that some other little kid can enjoy them just as much. We are SO ANAL.
The goal is to finish up within the week, donate most to Goodwill, keep some and send others off to relatives. I love getting rid of my stuff but I hate getting rid of other people's stuff.
Sadly, I think we've only come up with one decent white elephant gift so far.
BTW, we still have 1 MILLION pens.
Thanksgiving dinner was a delicious success and now my two fridges are full of stuffing and turkey and cranberry sauce. My freezer has a turkey carcass and a really messed up* (but delicious) pie in it, too!
Sid, Zoe, and I made 2 pies, vegetarian stuffing, sweet potatoes and the cranberry sauce Wednesday evening. During all of this my microwave caught on fire and one of the walls melted! I was pretty exhausted after all that and a bit concerned about what I still had to do. I nearly forgot to put the turkey in the brine! I finally got around to it at about midnight with Robert's help (my brining bag broke and I nearly poured salty, bloody, poultry water all over myself and the countertops). I took notes on the turkey this year. If it ended up turning out yummy I'd just replicate it year after year, if it turned out bad (like 2 years ago) then I'd have to fix something. Here are my turkey notes:
Turkey type: Diestel free range, freshWeight: 10 pounds
Brine: 4 quarts water, 1 cup coarse salt (I used mostly Hawaiian salt), 1/2 cup honey, one bunch of thyme, 10 peppercorns
Brining time: 12 hours
Prep: Rinsed, dried and set out to rest for about 40 minutes, then rubbed down with butter and sprinkled with cracked pepper, wings wrapped in foil
Stuffing: stuffed about 4 cups of sausage stuffing into body cavity and neck area
Oven temp: 500 degrees, turkey placed on rack (2 cups chicken broth poured into the pan) and set on the lowest rack for 15 minutes.
Lower heat to 350 degrees and start timing and basting: 1:20pm start, baste: 1:45pm, 2:10pm (tent bird with foil), 2:30pm, 2:45pm (check temp - 150 degrees in thigh), 3:00pm (150 degrees, raise rack up one rung), 3:15pm (158 degrees), 3:25pm (removed from oven).
Unstuffed the bird, wrapped it in foil and carved and served at 4:10pm.
There were a few problems. I used this Ikea meat thermometer and it seems to be broken (I recall having similar issues with it this summer). It didn't register a temp at all until nearly at the end of the cook time and then when it did it registered 10 degrees lower than my better meat thermometer that I inserted right next to it (the temps I show in my notes are from my functional thermometer that I inserted when I took the bird out to baste). I can't complain, the Ikea thermometer is cheap and it worked for a while. I'll probably pick up another one.
Another problem was the basting. I don't usually baste much (or at all) but the initial high heat caused the liquid that was in the pan to crisp up and burn so I added more to prevent further burning. I saw little, if any, juices running from the bird and since I wanted to use drippings for my gravy I panicked and added broth to the pan. Since I was adding broth and removing if from the oven regularly to check the temp I decided to go ahead and baste. I don't know that the basting made any difference in the final product. The drippings were good and helped make a delicious gravy.
Verdict? Delicious! Maybe the best one yet. The skin came out perfectly! The meat was tender. There was a tiny bit of pink in the thigh area but other than that, cooked perfectly. The stuffing that I removed from the bird was put into a casserole dish and cooked more just for safety.
***
Other highlights of the day:
Sid making the butternut squash and cheddar bread pudding. It was delicious! And really a meal in itself. I highly recommend it.
Foster kittehs** playing in the temporarily abandoned eating nook (we moved our table out into the living room and added the leaf).
Zoe set a beautiful table!
Everyone was happy and hungry! I finished up my food and was kind of surprised to see Robert going for seconds!
In the end my favorites were the cheddar bread pudding, the mashed potatoes (because it's the only time of year I make them with cream and lots of butter, plus I used my ricer so they were very smooth), the gravy (I ended up making the giblet gravy but left out the giblets in the final product), and most of all, I loved the turkey.
I was completely exhausted at the end of it all. I even begged Robert to steam the green beans (and he did A GREAT JOB)! I heard myself mumbling a few times that I was never going to do this again. But in the end, it was very satisfying. Since we'd moved the table out into the living room, after I'd finished my plate I laid down on the sofa (with my wine) and watched the family eat while two kitties snuggled with me. Was nice. The kids did the dishes and Robert finished up carving the bird and doing cleanup. He doesn't cook much but there was no sitting around for him that day either. He built a storm window for our basement office while I was cooking.
We paused between dinner and dessert to watched Smoke Signals. I like this movie a lot. Perhaps a new tradition will be to watch a movie about Native Americans on Thanksgiving.
We visited friends later to share pies. All four were delicious (yes, I sampled them all)! I woke up at 3am and realized I was still completely stuffed. It was a great day and I really do have so much to be thankful for.
*On our way home from pie eating I had our 2 leftover pies stacked on my lap. As Robert made a right turn, the top pie flew off and wrapped itself around the gear shift. The creamy mousse was fortunately contained (or so I thought) in its plastic wrap but its graham cracker crust escaped and it was everywhere. I only discovered this morning (after going out to the store to buy a new microwave) that I had chocolatey peanut butter mousse all over my purse and coat. Oops. The pie is back in the freezer and it's ugly but still very, very edible.
**Good news! Adult foster kitteh Tonks (was Peep) may be adopted tomorrow! She's going to be the "girlfriend" to an adorable flame point Siamese named Marco. I really feel like I saved a kitteh's life and because I have the opportunity to do this, I'm truly thankful.
I warned you this was coming...
You can tell that I love Thanksgiving, right? I like to cook. I like to eat. What's not to love? I haven't always loved it, cooked for it, or even celebrated it. Here are a few Thanksgiving memories from my past:
The first year we moved to Seattle we ate Thanksgiving at The Keg restaurant (where Robert worked at the time). I remember the bill being something like $45 and I couldn't believe I spent that much on food.
My sister used to live in Tacoma and once or twice she invited us to Thanksgiving. I wasn't much of a cook at the time so I'm sure I offered to bring a can of cranberries and help out by mashing the potatoes. I remember watching Total Recall after one meal at her place.
When Sid was a baby I decided it was time to start having our own Thanksgivings at home so I bought a frozen turkey loaf and heated it up and had the table all set for when Robert got off work (United Airlines reservation agents don't get Thanksgiving off I guess).
I made my first real turkey when Zoe was 2 months old. Again, Robert was at work and I was really nervous about it. I got one of those turkeys with the pop up timer and as far as I remember it was edible.
One year we loaded the kids in the car and drove to Utah. We were making good time but were low on gas in a deserted part of Idaho so we had to stop at a place called Glenn's Ferry and drive into "town" only to find a gas station with ancient pumps. I think it took us 20 minutes to fill the tank and when we were heading back towards the highway Robert got pulled over for going 30 in a 25 zone. The police officer asked for proof of insurance and we realized we didn't have it in the car. He then threatened to take Robert in and lock him up for the day because of it. It was Thanksgiving! Our 2 adorable children were sleeping in their p.j.s in the back seat! Are you serious? He ended up letting Robert off with a stern warning. To this day, when we drive through Glenn's Ferry, Robert growls.
One year we took the train to Canada and ate sushi!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone! I'm about to go home and make cranberry sauce, a few pies and brine my turkey! A real turkey! Without a pop-up timer!
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