One year back in the seventies when there were loads of recreational drugs floating around and I was married to the Klingon, we decided to have an Alternative Thanksgiving Dinner. Weeks of hazy planning later and we had our menu. We decided on Beef Wellington, Les Haricots Vert Avec Les Almonds, Lemon Souffle, and a bunch of other stuffs I can’t remember due to resin brain. The Klingon fancied himself as a sort of pre-Emeril kind of guy and began industriously to marinate tenderloin and construct puff pastry. The marinade was then to proceed to be rendered down to produce a sauce to accompany the meat. Normally this would be accomplished in a sauce pan on top of the stove only the Klingon decided to save some steps and put the pyrex bowl right on the gas burner. Do I need to say the next thing I heard from the kitchen was:
WUMP!!
KEERASH!!
::expletive, expletive, not very nice expletive::
Needless to say, a eulogy was performed for the sauce and bowl. The rest of the dinner was pretty good though, or so I remember…
So the pointlessness (is, too, a word) of all of this is that you can has your whole turkey, your half a turkey, your turduckin, or even your tofurkey iffin you want. It’s all good! HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!
My French is kinda rusty, so I interpret Les Haricots Vert Avec Les Almonds as Green Hairy Cots With Almonds. Or brussels sprouts. Either way, YUCK!!!
Good Monday Morning Y’all! A three day work week. YAY! Wish I could spend the two days off (and four day weekend) being a big ol’ slug but that won’t happen. Big Thanksgiving dinner on Turkey Day itself in the offing here, plus Friday going up to mom’s for the weekend and having a big Turkey Feast with family on Saturday. At least my sister’s next to mom’s, so that promises the flowing of cold beer. Sis, BIL and I tend to sit up late at night watchin’ dumb movies on tv and drinkin’ beer. Then I wonder back over to mom’s house and go to sleep. I’m so glad they live next door to each other and have a walkway between houses. Very convient for a slightly inebriated swampy to navigate betwixt the two houses that way. How thoughtful of them!
Tonight is steak cook out. It’s raining here btw but that’s ok cause all my grillin’ area is covered. Tomorrow I need to make cornbread dressing and deliver two Thanksgiving boxes (full of goodies, not just boxes cause just giving people boxes is not nice unless they’re moving in which case giving boxes is appreciated). Wednesday is Turkey Feast at work (I’m fryin’ up turkey that morning) followed by more cornbread dressing making that night for the big day. I’m also making giblet gravy cause I’m the only person I know that can make it right. Y’all already know my feelings about the gravy so I won’t get into that.
I cleaned my house Saturday! I caught the virus from Lissla, so my house is all clean and sparkly. Ok, it’s more like nobody will catch anything fatal from being in it than sparkly, but it is clean. Saturday night was bday celebrations at the good Eyetalian restaurant followed by cake and ice cream at a friend’s house. YAY! Cake and ice cream! I had everybody sayin’ that Saturday night. We’re adults with real strong inner five year olds, we are. Yesterday I had lunch in Parrott, GA and that was good, except I belched squash casserole for a better part of the afternoon and evening afterwards. Also I made a bunch of cornbread. I already mentioned most of this stuff yesterday but this is a recap for the new MMP.
-swampy (it still looks so weird everytime I see the words fried and turkey together, but it’s so good!)
I’ve got a four-day week, not a three. Traditionally, the owners of Technical Thingies, Inc take those who work the day after Thanksgiving out for a big lunch at a steak house. Besides, I’ve only got one day of vacation left, so I’m saving it. Why, I don’t know, but I am.
I filled up a dozen bags yesterday of yard stuff. And I didn’t even get all the leaves in the backyard raked and bagged before it started raining. So I got that to look forward to when it get dry around here again.
I don’t know why people take a perectly good turkey and drown it in deep fry oil. That’s for french fries and shrimp, not turkey.
I’ve had deep-fried turkey. It was like eating a sponge soaked with Mazola. Bleah!
We’re having a fairly traditional Thanksgiving dinner here. Whole turkey, cornbread stuffing, taters and gravy, cranberry sauce (homemade, not the jelly molded to the rings on the can), the works. Then we’re going up to Altoona to visit my mother and having ANOTHER Thanksgiving dinner over the weekend, this one more Thanksgiving-lite: turkey breast, taters and corn, my mother’s personal-recipe Italian filling (loaf-type, with lots and lots of romano cheese and garlic…this stuff is my heroin). We’re gonna be STUFFED by Monday…
My big adventure for Thanksgiving: I bought a bottle of “sparkling shiraz”. They said, at my wine place, that it’s very good but like nothing you’ve ever had. Adventure. That and it looks like dinner for 20 or so at my folks place. My daughter really, really, really wants to sit with the grown ups. Looks like we might be eating in shifts, anyway, so who knows.
swampy, that would be good ol’ green beans to you. So there.
All my siblings (there are six of us) will be Thanksgiving come this Thursday. BarbeeDoll[sup]TM[/sup] will be hosting the event and I don’t think alla us can fit at the two full size dining tables she’s got end-to-end in her dining room. We will make do. I’m going to make two of my famous marble punkin cheesecakes and I’ll be cooking one of the two 20-lb turkeys at my house, too.
I’ve got the cleaning virus! I’ve got the cleaning virus!! Yesterday Mr. Anachi and I cleaned windows and hung window scarfs. Today I’ll be mopping the travertine and setting up the guest bedroom for Uncle Thomas. Okay, he’s not MY uncle. He’s my brother but he IS my chilluns’ uncle.
jay jay, the eye-talian stuffing/dressing sounds delicious!! Any chance of getting the recipe, you know, besides cheese and garlic?
Fried turkey done right is very moist and tender. The secret is hot, hot, hot peanut oil. Also, not filling the fryer too full of oil. But it’s good, good good! Just weird to think about.
jayjay I second gettin’ the recipe for the Eyetalian stuffing/dressing/filling/whatever. It sounds nummy! Even though I is a southerner and thus am a big afficianado of cornbread dressing, I like all sorts of other stuffing/dressing/filling/whatever stuff too. Like chestnut and oyster etc. I need to add that to my collection. And yes, I have made other than cornbread dressing in my life. However, for Thanksgiving it has to be cornbread dressing cause everybody will hurt me bad if it’s otherwise, though I have been known to make one of the other kind along with the cornbread dressing. Specially the oyster one. MMMMM!
Cornbread dressing makes thanksgiving. Mmm, dressing.
I think the thing on my penis ended up just being another pimple, because it’s almost gone now. (I never did get down to Student Health Services; they’re closed on weekends. )
Doesn’t someone have a birthday tomorrow? (And isn’t that person’s name chaoticbear?)
Politely refuse all invitations to Thanksgiving at chaoticdonkey’s house. Unless it involves lots of beer. That makes watching the place burn down fun.
END MENTAL NOTE
A fried turkey must be injected with marinade and properly seasoned also. My favorite is the butter creole marinade stuff and Cajun rub for seasoning. I’ve had a Cajun rub me before. Though that’s not quite the same thing as the Cajun rub one seasons a turkey with, it was quite nice.
Three day week! Ha, for me it’s a 2-day week, so i’ve got you all beat.
Altho I am flying out Wednesday morning before the sun rises, going west! Life is peaceful there (not).
I’ll be gone until Sunday, so you won’t see me around much. And no meat, for four days - my Thanksgiving is going to be vegetarian this year! My aunts don’t eat meat, and while I’m sure they’d get it for me if I asked, I can do without.
Good job, Puggy! And swampy, I’m sure I’d like to get a Cajun rub, too.
Happy Birthday, cb! And I hope your penis is ok. I don’t believe I’ve ever said that before.
How do you make your dressing/stuffing, swampy? I make cornbread dressing, too. It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it. I’ve never eaten any other kind!
We also got the lights back on - a well spent $350. :eek: I could see! All the dust! So we cleaned the bedroom. We shampooed the carpet where the dog had diarrhea. Then last night around 3:00 am, he puked. Lovely! Just a little - it wasn’t too bad.
I still need to clean the guest bathroom, and mop the kitchen floor. I’m taking off Wednesday to do the precooking of stuff. I’ll clean then.
I cheated and bought a frozen Marie Callendar’s apple pie. But I’m making a punkin pie, too. With a frozen crust. I can’t make a pie crust to save my life.
Tom made a yummy meatloaf last night. I made mashed potatoes with garlic, butter, green onions and sour cream. Awesome!
I’m attempting punkin cheesecake this year for the first time. It’s a tradition in KeithT’s family and since he won’t be with his family for T-day (He’s coming here tomorrow.), I wanted to make sure he had something from his family’s traiditions. So cross all your fingers that that comes out ok.
Mom still doesn’t have the final head-count for T-day. That’s the way it goes in our family. Thursday morning she should know how many places to set at the table. At least the range is down to 5-9 instead of 5-13 as it was last week. There will be at least Mom, Dad, Grandma, KeithT and me. That’s the 5. The rest… well, we’re not sure. Plus now they’re predicting snow this week so that may lower the number of guests. Oh, well. More turkey for the rest of us!
We might get a 2 1/2 day week here. The company always used to give the staff a 1/2 day on the Wed before T-day. But the old boss retired and the new boss isn’t so generous. So it’s not guaranteed. But even if we do have to work, it’s not like there’ll be a lot getting done anyway.
**KeithT **took a job in Minnesota, to start next summer after he finishes grad school. So now I have to decide how I feel about MN. I’ll keep everyone posted on my deliberations.
Minnesota is cold. And they talk like Canadians. But if you like the sportsman’s life, it’s a really great place to go. Or so I’ve heard. But the State Bird is a mosquito, just like Maine.
Hey, why are we still calling it the “Guest MMP?” It looks like Rue is going to be busy Monday mornings for the long haul, so why not just call it The MMP?
Tupug -nice work! I like the “not nice expletive”.
I am cooking this year and it has just dawned on me that I have nowhere to put all these people. Hmmmm–d’ya think some would mind eating on the floor? I need a card table, stat!
Off to see HP and GOF again today–I vetted it for my 7 year old, but I think he can handle it. I’ll find out in about 6 hours.
Work was horrible–but then it almost always is. I need to find a new occupation, but am stuck in the get on top of the bills and need PT work to be home with kids mode…come to my pity party,BYOB (bring your own bathos).
I have never had fried turkey, but I bet the skin is wonderful. I loves me some crispy turkey skin…
Went to see Goblet of Fire myself this weekend–I need to see it again. Too much happening! But all in all, good. Maybe not as good as Azkaban, but I’ll reserve judgement until I see it once more. Best part–didn’t have to tell anybody to shut up through the whole movie. That’s my job. I’m nice about it the first three times, and then I am not at all afraid to turn around and glare at the teenagers behind me with a big, robust “Shut the eff up.” I’ll get the manager if I have to be that bitchy old lady–I paid ten bucks for this movie seat.
But anyhoo–I’m really looking forward to the long weekend. I have a strict schedule to keep all week. My novel is up to 42K words, and I have until the thirtieth to get to 50K. But, I have a lot to do this week, so the plan is get to 45 tonight, 47 tomorrow, and 50 by Saturday. I think I can handle it.
Thursday is the yearly trip to Grandma’s (not that I only go once a year, but Thanksgiving Day is very important to me). It’s an hour drive to Gram’s, and some of Puggy’s recreational drugs (nice job on the MMP!) and “Alice’s Restaurant” on the radio keep me mellow through the traffic. I usually time it just right so I’m pulling into the driveway just as the song ends. Then I’ll spend several hours telling family members about my new house and my stressed cat and no, this isn’t my natural hair color, Grandma, so be quiet because at least it’s still red, which it may not be naturally anymore, and no, dammit, I’m not gay, but thank you for wanting to be supportive and hey you cousins stop touching my computer and no, I’m not playing football with you because now all the cute little boys I used to knock over easily are nineteen and twenty and older and huge.
Then I’ll go home and sleep, and spend Friday and Saturday morning preparing for the Second Annual Potatoes & Pie Thanksgiving at my house on Saturday afternoon. The one day a year where I prove to people that yes, I can cook.
But you know what’s the best part? Next year, I’ll have a dishwasher for afterwards!
Yesterday I had lunch in Parrott, GA and that was good, except I belched squash casserole for a better part of the afternoon and evening afterwards. Also I made a bunch of cornbread. I already mentioned most of this stuff yesterday but this is a recap for the new MMP.
