Monday, November 26, 2007

Turkey Day Report

We had a belated Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, just the 3 of us. John wanted to be more social, but it just didn't work out with our 2 invitees. Actually, it was much better that way for me. We weren't trying to clean and cook and beat the clock for the arrival of guests. Hell, we didn't even change out of our jammies that day. :-) John kept making little comments about how "most people" have Thanksgiving lunch, but I pointed out he was free to get up at 5 am to start the turkey so we could have everything done by noon, and he stopped bringing it up, eventually.

I made a turkey, my grandma's stuffing, baked sweet potatoes (1), giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and rolls, and a pumpkin cheesecake. It was less than I would have made if we'd had guests, but still more than 3 people could possibly eat. Fortunately, it's now cold enough that I can store the cheesecake in the natural fridge, i.e., on our balcony. I was so un-rushed with the cooking that I could chop veggies to freeze; after dinner, John added some of the leftover turkey, and today we're going to have turkey soup with the pre-chopped ingredients.

(1) I couldn't find any mashing potatoes (2), and John won't eat instant mashed potatoes, but I did find sweet potatoes instead, so I baked them.

(2) I didn't know when we first moved here that there are different types of potatoes for different cooking purposes, and my first attempt at mashed potatoes (with the "wrong" potatoes) turned out like glop.

Mmmmm! Thanksgiving!

Hannah didn't say what she was thankful for, but I was thankful for tv. Yes, I will come right out and say it--I like tv. Also, this Thanksgiving cactus. Wooooo!

pink Thanksgiving cactus

Hannah had a headache last night and this morning, so a pre-made dinner is just what the doctor ordered for a mom that was home with her most of the day. She doesn't look sick, per say, but she is quiet enough that I can tell she still doesn't feel 100% yet. At least her cough is getting better. And no thanks to the doctor. He said to bring her back if she was still coughing after 4 weeks. At 3 weeks, I realized she wasn't stopping. I googled around and found where an American doctor had had success curing this type of cough with hypnosis. I didn't think our doctor would go along with that, since he doesn't even think it's a tic, but I thought the Am. doctor was on to something. So I figured that rather than training her through hypnosis, I'd try training her through bribery. I offered her five bucks if she went one whole day without coughing, and the amount she was coughing dropped immediately. If she concentrates on not coughing, or concentrates on something else, she doesn't cough. She still doesn't have the 5 bucks yet, but she's on her way.

We're up to our third snowfall as of today. It didn't stick, of course, but it was really coming down during the 3 or 4 times it snowed. I was glad to be home with the wood stove instead of running around in it in town.

Third snowfall of winter 2007/8