November 28th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Gobble, gobble, gobble. The day of the feast has finally arrived.

I went to bed early last night, I think I was asleep by 9:30, with the hopes of getting a few extra hour of sleep, so I could be well rested for all that still needed to be accomplished today. As you can see by the timestamp of this post, it didn’t quite work out that way.

I woke up at 2:30 and couldn’t fall back to sleep. I laid in bed until three and then gave up. So far all I have done was load the dishwashers – that’s not a typo, we actually do have two dishwashers. It’s a cool, two drawer, independently run unit by Fisher and Paykel. The dishwasher came for free as a promotional item with the stove we purchased, a stove which later today will have all six of its burners running at the same time, and will be baking our turkey as well as several sides all at the same time! Can you tell I LOVE my stove?

 

After I finish this blog entry and my first of, I’m sure, several cups of coffee, I need to find quiet things to work on so I don’t disturb my sleeping family. Vacuuming at 4:30 in the morning will not go over well. What I think I’ll do is get all the food prepped and in the pots/pans/dishes to be cooked. I can do that, put it all on the back porch to get it out of my way (okay, so a cold day does have its benefits at times, but I still don’t like the cold), and then I can get my kitchen cleaned.

The turkey doesn’t need to get into the oven until 10:30 to be ready for supper at 6, so that will give me time to whip up a batch of corn bread. First thing I’m going to do though is stick little PostIt notes all over the kitchen saying, “Don’t Forget the Butter!” It’s a standing Thanksgiving joke around here. The corn bread recipe I use calls for melted butter. I melt the butter in the microwave while I’m combining the other ingredients. I make the corn bread, actually corn breads, I do those little individual loaves. They look beautiful on the cooling rack. I open the microwave to pop in whatever’s next, and there’s the butter. I have done this several times, and it’s always and only the corn bread I screw up, year after year. I’ve even make it a point to tell whomever is helping me in the kitchen, not to let me forget the butter, and they forget to remind me. I would just give up, but when the recipe is done correctly, it’s the yummiest corn bread ever.

Other than the biscuits which I’ll pop in right before we eat, the corn bread is the only baking I need to do today. Last night, Lys baked an apple pie and two pumpkin pies for me. I had asked her to use my deep-dished Longaberger casserole to make the apple pie, and to use three jars of the apples I had canned. Since we were only making one apple pie, I wanted it to be a big one. Instead of the casserole dish, Lys used a Longaberger pie plate, and she did use 3 quart sized jars to fill the pie.

Holy crow. If I had just made pies with fresh apples, I probably would have gotten at least five pies; but since we picked the apples so early, I couldn’t use fresh, I had to can them or they would have gone bad before I could have used them. I filled eight quart sized jars of apples. I already used two for a cobbler I made a few weeks ago, and now Lys used three to make one average sized pie, which means I only have one pie’s worth of apples left. That’s sad. Cleaning, peeling, cutting and canning those apples took hours. Seems like an awful lot of work for very little yield.

Okay, it’s going on five already, and if I want to get finished by one so I can sneak in a nap before people get here, I had better get moving.

I hope you have a blessed day, and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

I’m thankful for…

 

I know ten minutes will not be enough time for this challenge, because I really do have much to be thankful for, at least fifteen minutes worth. J

I’m thankful we have food to eat.

I’m thankful we can provide shoes for our children’s feet.

I’m thankful for the roof over our head.

I’m thankful we can sleep in a bed.

I’m thankful for those who gave their lives so we can live free.

I’m thankful for our dear friends and family.

I’m thankful I have a husband and children to love.

I’m thankful for the many blessing we receive from above.

 

Since I knew I couldn’t possibly list everything, I guess my brain thought a more generalized poem would suffice. Yup, I’m still a little baffled when a challenge produces a poem. The one thing I didn’t mention above was I am incredibly thankful to be able to do something I truly love, writing; and I am thankful for all of you, reading.

 

Your Next Challenge is to go have a wonderful day with your family.

 

You have all day. Enjoy them and your time together. Eat delicious food. Throw your calorie counter out the window. Have a slice of pumpkin and a slice of apple pie. Laugh and make memories. Go.