Word of the Day

Happitality - A state of extreme happiness.

I'm really enjoying the fact that I'm not out shopping today. I spent a long while studying the sale flyers but there wasn't anything to tempt me out of the warm safety of my house and into the mad crowds of shoppers.

HTP and DD Daughter went out at an early hour. DD had to bring her truck in to have the brakes looked at. Seems like it must have been a good day to do it because HTP and DD told me that they were first in line.

Me? I made waffles for everyone. Now? I'm ready to crawl back into bed. I'm still tired from yesterday.

Turkey Day Horror

I have no problems making Thanksgiving dinners. I've never had a bit of problem in the kitchen. It's hectic. But nothing major. Having said that...I almost set the kitchen on fire yesterday. Argh! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Everything started out in such a normal fashion. I cooked up the cranberries for sauce. I left that to cool on the stovetop. I cleaned the turkey and removed the "packages" and got the bird ready for stuffing. Too soon. But I got the package contents all cleaned up and in a pot with water and seasonings. Future broth for making my gravy. HTP was doing some internet shopping and needed my input. By the time all that was done it was time to make the stuffing and get the turkey taken care of. I use disposable roasting pans to make my turkey. When I was at the store I bought two of them. It was a two-for deal and I knew I'd need one for Christmas. Anyway, I made my stuffing, stuffed my turkey and into the pan and into the oven it went. While the turkey was roasting, I got the green bean casserole and the sweet potatoes all ready and into the fridge. Then I peeled the potatoes, ready to boil up for mashing. I snipped the asparagus and got it ready for steaming. My first problem. I couldn't find the hollandaise sauce mix that I had bought. Anywhere. My second problem...I could only find one bottle of white wine. My mind was working on what to do about the first problem and I decided to put a bottle of champagne in the fridge to solve the second problem. Cream sauce? Maybe a bit of grated cheese? First problem solved. I checked the turkey and noted that it was browned enough to cover with foil. Done. Breakfast. I made eggs and toast. I cleaned the kitchen. Washed the dishes. The smell of turkey was wonderful. I set the table for dinner.

A couple of hours later, I should have been concerned. I'd checked on the turkey. I wanted to drain off some juices for the gravy. No juices. I should have been concerned. It became apparent, an hour later, that there was a hole in my disposable pan. All the wonderful turkey juices had pooled and were burning on the bottom of my oven. DD Daughter and I quickly lifted the holey mess into the other pan. Thank goodness I had the other one. We got as much of the juices wiped up as we could but.... Smoke! Lots of smoke! I'm amazed that my fire alarms didn't go off. We turned on vents. We opened windows. We turned on fans. Blue smoke poring out of the oven. I'm nervously waiting for a flashpoint to be reached. HTP got involved when he noticed the amount of blue smoke gathered in our front yard from his office. Not good.

Thank goodness for HTP. We turned off the oven. Took the turkey out of the oven. And...HTP cleaned the oven. I'm thinking. No juice for gravy. I need gravy. Sigh. HTP sent me out to the store while he cleaned the oven. Thank God for HTP! Bless him. At the store, I bought turkey gravy, hollandaise sauce mix, AND, three bottles of white wine. I only needed one bottle but at this point I REALLY needed to have that one bottle of white wine. By the time I got back from the store, HTP had cleaned up the entire mess and the turkey was back into the oven. Disaster over.

We finally were able to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner at around 6:30 PM. Everything was perfect. Arizona daughter helped with the clean-up and all the left-overs actually fit in the fridge. Miracle.

Though I had purchased a pie for dessert, no-one had any room for it. We drank coffee and watched a movie. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. It was great. I sent dessert home with Arizona daughter and her husband.

Succumbing to a tryptophan overdose, it was off to bed....well...after watching Finding Nemo which happened to be on the Disney Channel last night. That movie is so cute. But so ends a very long day. Oh...and I didn't set the kitchen on fire afterall, despite all my efforts.

Camp Furball Update

DD has taken over the upkeep of Camp Furball while she's in residence. We're hoping that she can take her happy trio home with her (knocking madly on wood) by Christmas.

Human Imponderable of the Day

Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?