Giving Thanks: The Mind of a Child

Katherine has such an inquisitive mind.  It's one of the many reasons I'm thankful to be a mom.  We put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and she helped decorate.  For a few days afterward she would go over to the tree and point out various ornaments.  "A horse, Mommy!  Where other one go?"  "A ball!"  (for the purple and silver Christmas tree bulbs)  We'd stand for a few minutes looking at the Christmas tree and enjoying how pretty it is.  She's reminding me to slow down and savor the moments in the holiday season.  It's so easy to get caught up in the rush of everyday life.  Her excitement and joy about simple Christmas decorations remind me that this is what the season is truly about: finding joy in the little things and enjoying each day.  She also wants the Christmas tree to be lit all the time.  Each morning I make sure to plug the tree in before she comes downstairs so she's greeted by a lit tree.  

She's also a little nut.  Yesterday we were grocery shopping and she was laughing at everything.  And I do mean everything.  I have no idea what was so funny at Fareway yesterday but it made a normally mundane task a lot more fun.

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day!  I'm up before Steve and Katherine so I have the opportunity to reflect on what I'm thankful for.

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving, as weird as that may sound.  I'm thankful for a holiday to gather with family, prepare a meal and appreciate what we've been given in the past year.  Steve and I don't live near family so anytime we're able to have family visit us, I'm thankful.

I'm thankful for Katherine's vacation days at day care.  Katherine had 5 vacation days at day care that would have expired in January.  I decided to take this week off so she and I could get some quality time together before Baby S arrives.  We didn't do anything super exciting this week or out of the norm.  We've had more snuggle time and time to play together.  The days off also gave me a chance to recharge.  I'd been feeling pretty exhausted lately.  Staying home with Katherine actually allowed me to not push myself too hard and get a few extra things done around the house.

I'm thankful for my crazy cats, The Fuzz and Leela, who as I type this are running around the living room attacking each other.  Our lives would be so boring without them.  Katherine loves them and now wants them to come play with her.  She'll hold a cat toy and yell "Leela!".  So far, Leela has yet to come running but it's still cute.

I'm thankful for the internet and Weight Watchers magazine.  Both have enabled me to find low-carb pumpkin and cranberry dishes so I can still enjoy some of my holiday favorites without going over my carb allowance.

I'm thankful that despite a few hiccups I'm healthier with this pregnancy.  I'm confident I will deliver a full-term baby this time around and not spend a week in the hospital clinging to my life.

I'm thankful all of the specialists I've been referred to this year have been in Sioux City.  This has made my life so much easier.  Rather than take a full day off work for a specialist appointment, I can take a few hours and drive across town to my appointment.

The things listed above are just a drop in the bucket.  I have so many things to be thankful for, this post could continue indefinitely.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday today with your loved ones.

Purple Palace and Conversing Food Style

This past Christmas I acquired a few purple items for my kitchen and had 3 food related conversations in 2 days.  (Is anyone surprised by this?)  I stopped by my second mommy's house on the way to Grandma's for Christmas. While there I got to see Randy and Nancy, Jen, Shane, Cole and Karson and Ryan and Jared.  I rarely get to see all of the Janssens together and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Growing up I was usually at the Janssens' house a couple times a week.  I love them to bits.  Nancy gave me (drum roll please!) a plum Fiesta Ware spoon rest and a plum Fiesta Ware salt and pepper shaker set.  My first pieces of Fiesta Ware! Yesterday we went to Sioux Falls to have a small family Christmas while my in-laws where driving through on their way to St. Cloud to visit Steve's grandma.  We exchanged Christmas presents at Nathan's after supper.  My mother-in-law gave me a purple apron and dark purple plastic plates and forks.  With the plastic-ware was a note that read: "Psst--It's not Fiesta Ware.  If you don't say anything maybe nobody will notice the difference."  I told Linda that I could use them for a fiesta.  I appreciated that Linda was contributing to my purple kitchen and her sense of humor about doing so.  I told Steve that we can save them and if the Vikings get into the Super Bowl, we can use them then.  His response: "It's not looking good this year."  So maybe we'll just use them when I don't want to do dishes someday.

Some families watch sports when they get together for the holidays; some play sports; some sleep; some fight.  Mine talks about food and politics.  Since politics aren't really my cup of tea (no lectures please!  I'm just not that into them.), I usually focus on the food conversations.  Now we all know that my Achilles heel this year for Thanksgiving was the dressing.  I had separate conversations with my aunt Colleen and my grandma about dressing.  Both said they add more liquid than the recipe states.  Grandma also omits something but for the life of me, I can't remember what it is.  This year she added small apple chunks to it.  Grandma also pops her dressing in the microwave on high for 5 minutes to get it started.  Colleen does all of her prep work for the dressing the night before so Thanksgiving (or Christmas Day) is less hectic.  Great tips that I will surely keep in mind for next year.  I will have successful dressing if it's the death of me!

My third food conversation was with my uncle Mark and my mom.  Every year Uncle Mark makes divinity.  It is a very rich Irish dessert made mainly with sugar and corn syrup.  (There is more to it but I don't have the recipe right in front of me at the moment.)  Mom had tried to make divinity once years ago and flubbed it.  Divinity is a very picky thing to make.  Uncle Mark learned how to make it from his mom and has modified his recipe a little to suit him.  The recipe can be made primarily using a standing mixer.  However the batter will start to rise out of the mixer and you must continue to mix it by hand for 15 minutes.  This is usually when Uncle Mark's mom turned it over to him.  I would like to learn how to make this.  It's one of Mom's favorite desserts and a tradition in our family.  (As are Uncle Mark's bourbon balls... but that is a recipe and post for another time.)  Perhaps next year I will ask Uncle Mark if I can come to Omaha to witness the making of the divinity.  I enjoy learning other people's family traditions and making them a part of my own.  Plus it would be good bonding time with an uncle I hold dear.  

Also during that conversation we talked about traditional Norwegian and Swedish food.  Our family is neither but the area my mom grew up in has a lot of Norwegians and Swedes and Scandinavians.  It was a fun conversation.  We talked about lefsa, lutefisk and a whole bunch of other desserts and foods that I can't spell.    Steve is Scandinavian and German so I'm going to try to learn how to make some traditional foods.  However not lutefisk.  If you're interested in learning more about lutefisk, check out this wikipedia entry.  Here's what I know about lutefisk: it is a process of aging fish and it reeks to high-heaven.  Steve has never tried it and I'm certainly not going to.

Lesson Learned: Holiday Edition

I learned a few lessons this Thanksgiving weekend.

1.Making homemade dressing the very first time is a pain in the butt.
        -So I'm sure half of this is my fault but homemade dressing is a huge pain.  I hadn't fully read the recipe until Thanksgiving day.  Then the stupid onion wouldn't peel.  Tiny pieces came off at a time.  At this point, I was very frustrated and told Steve to peel it because I wasn't wasting anymore time on it.  I started chopping the celery.  We didn't put our last batch of onions in the fridge and I could tell.  My eyes stung chopping the onion.  I sat down to cut up the bread for the dressing and it turns out I made 2 loaves too many.  Go me.  I had decided to cut the stuffing recipe in half since there were only 4 of us.  In case you ever need to know, the 2-lb loaf my bread machine makes equals 9 cups of bread.  I put everything in the crock pot but didn't reduce the cooking time.  The dressing was slightly dryer than Grandma's.  I'm not sure I'm making this next year.  If I do make it for next year, I think I will cook it a day or two before Thanksgiving and warm it in the crock-pot the day of Thanksgiving.

2. OXO peelers are lethal.
         -Steve cut his finger last year peeling the potatoes.  I've cut my finger in the past peeling carrots.  This year I decided to peel the potatoes so Steve wouldn't hurt himself again.  I peeled the carrots and half of a potato before cutting my finger.  It hurt like hell.  It also causes your finger to gush blood.  I ran my finger under cold water and put pressure on it before Steve grabbed a band-aid for me.  I called my aunt to commiserate about the progress of my Thanksgiving and proceeded to nick my thumb.  The peeler is in a box for Goodwill.

3. Dancing when flouring your turkey bag makes the day a little better.
    -Yes, I dance at strange times.  I blame my mom.  Music was always blaring at home and she was usually dancing to it.  Not only was she dancing to it but she'd usually convince us to dance with her.  It's in our blood.  I also had a mixed CD blaring that contained a lot of 70's rock and 90's alternative music.  Dancing is bound to happen with that combination.

4. Small kitchens are not ideal for making a holiday meal.
      -My kitchen is tiny and I can't wait to be out of it.  Our dirty dishes took up the counter with the sink leaving the very tiny counters next to the stove for Thanksgiving meal prep.  I don't think I have to elaborate on why that's a pain.

5. Gravy turns out better when your mother-in-law helps you make it.
     -My white wine gravy turned out pretty good.  Or so people say, I haven't actually tasted it yet.  Linda whisked the drippings and the wine together as I poured.  I'm fairly certain this is why it turned out this year.

6. The 24-hours for every 4 pounds to thaw a turkey rule is a lie.  It takes longer than that.
     -Our turkey was just under 12 pounds.  I took it out of the freezer the Sunday before Thanksgiving and put it in the fridge.  This allowed 3 complete days in the fridge (not counting Sunday or Thanksgiving day).  Part of the turkey was still frozen on Thanksgiving day.  The directions to quickly thaw a turkey were to place it in cold water in the sink.  We placed it in the sink with cold running water and our turkey thawed.  It created unnecessary stress on Thanksgiving day.

7. Recipes given by family members are the best.
     -My cousin Angie gave me her pumpkin bar recipe after my previous blog post.  She doesn't give it out to very many people but offered it to me.  I'm proud to be among the select few that gets the recipe.  The bars are delicious and simple.  I made them for Steve's employees and they gave me the title of The Angel of Baking Everything.  Thanks Angie!

8. Delegate more food responsibilities next year.
    -After this year, I'm definitely going pot-luck for my next holiday.  Making all of the dishes is a lot of work and Linda had offered to bring food or help.  I'm filing that away in my memory for next year.  I think next year I'll have a list of the dishes I would like to have for Thanksgiving and ask family members to sign up for the dishes they want to make.

9. If your china is packed away, the white Corelle will work just fine and double as serving dishes.
     -Because we're moving in a few weeks, my guest bedroom is full of boxes.  I keep my china in the storage closet in the guest bedroom.  You can see where this is going, can't you?  The boxes are in the way of getting things out of the storage closet.

10. If your gravy boat is packed away, a Pyrex 2-cup measuring cup works just fine too.
    -We don't have a gravy boat or gravy ladle for every day use.  Pyrex is as good as it was going to get.  I found it slightly humorous.

11. Don't be depressed if you didn't have a fancy Thanksgiving table if the food tasted ok.
    -I'm disappointed my Thanksgiving table wasn't as fancy as I would have liked but that's the perfectionist in me coming out.  The food tasted good so that's all that matters... right?

Thanksgiving and Left-overs

This past Thursday I hosted Thanksgiving for Steve's parents and his twin brother. I popped the turkey in the oven at 10 AM. Most of the side dishes were made in advance. The only things that weren't made in advance were the corn, stuffing and mashed potatoes. Steve cut his finger on our new peeler trying to peel the potatoes. After getting him bandaged up, I took over peeling potatoes. Linda, David and Nathan arrived while I was peeling potatoes. They brought cookies, a cheese ball and crackers. Nathan forgot to bring the rolls. I gave him a hard time about it and then told him we had some Grand's biscuits in the fridge he could make. Linda helped make the potatoes and helped me transfer the turkey to the serving dish. In all, the meal went very well. The turkey turned out great which I was the most nervous about. I also made homemade gravy for the first time using the turkey drippings. The seven layer jell-o salad did not turn out that well. A couple of the layers with carnation milk didn't completely set. I was disappointed but didn't let it ruin my day. I had a great time talking with Linda. The boys and David were at the table talking so Linda and I took control of the TV. I switched it to ABC family and we watched a little of Snow White. Steve and I had watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade before everyone arrived.

We had a lot of left-overs, mainly turkey. I did send some food home with Nathan. Linda turned down taking left-overs because they had more traveling to do during the weekend and no way to store the food properly. For this week's menu plan, I put turkey noodle soup and turkey pot pie. I'm hoping we can use all of the turkey left-overs that way. If not, we'll have BBQ turkey sandwiches. I made the turkey noodle soup today and it tasted great. Chicken noodle soup is one of my favorites. I used that recipe and subbed turkey for the chicken. I also decided to make cranberry apple butter using the left-over cranberry sauce. My sister Kat had sent me a recipe for apple butter that I've tried and liked. I'm adding the cranberry sauce to it and hoping that it turns out well. The cranberry apple butter is made using the crock pot so I will turn it on tomorrow before I leave for work. I'm so anxious to smell it! I love coming home to a yummy smelling apartment.