So...whats for dinner?

Susan, what are you coding?

I'm off the rest of the week, so tomorrow I'm going to do some more experimenting with a pot roast.

I've run 6 miles outside in the upper 40F degree "cold" and now I'm shivering like crazy. I can hardly type........off to a *HOT* shower.

Ah hem, I beg to differ Miss Susan. You may well be the cheapest Thanksgiving enthusiast we ever met (and maybe not , but also, to many of us here, you ARE a from scratch queen!

So sorry to learn of your DH's Alzheimer's. Painful for the whole family....

So I have yet to get the dainty bird. Glad you got yours, Susan. My DH got overinvolved in phone meetings for negotiations of a CEO search he's chairing, so he never made it up the highway, and I was tied up with car stuff and other errands. So I called WFarms this afternoon and the woman assured me that they would have plenty tomorrow. Hopefully so. It looks like they get theirs from Plainville Farm, which does have wonderful turkey!! Fingers crossed....

Got the start of my stuffing ready....the onions, mushrooms and sausage. I plan to sneak raisins and dried cranberries into one of the stuffing casseroles, which DH and I like. Then tonight made some pumpkin loaves and suggested to DS2 that if he wants his totally non- nutritional little white rolls at dinner, he might want to pick some up. I am probably going to make cole slaw (for some reason my mother ALWAYS had cole slaw with turkey), and an interesting salad of baby kale, pomegranate, walnuts, feta, and wild rice. Have been dying to make this....from Yummly.

Instead of making cranberry sauce, I plan to make cranberry salsa for the first time. DH is the only cranberry sauce (like from a can) fan here, and I was tempted to just do that (oh the horror!!) and he will be delerious over homemade cranberry salsa. I will probably even like it! Should go well on sandwiches!

Need some sleep....awoke at 4:30 this morning and never went back to sleep. Given my night owl habits, 4:30 is not a good time for me to arise these days....only three hours of sleep! I did make it through my hour work out this afternoon and then stretching class....barely.

Tomorrow sounds like the day to get leftover essentials done here with the storm arriving Wednesday.....one of the major reasons I am content to stay in this "football nest" for the holiday and not slip andslide down that crowded east coast corridor. Hope everyone gets to your destinations safely!

DH working late and maybe overtime. Last night was a Stouffers lasagna. I spent the day in Ft Worth shopping. Doggie was very good; did not pee in her crate. Spent most of my money at Central Market. Good thing I do not live near there. Went to an Aldi - don't know if some are better than others. I do know of one in a more upper class neighborhood - might try that one. I bought chocolate, more chocolate, chocolate gingerbreads. It was late and I was starving. No small chickens - the behemoths looked like my local ones. I had my plastic bags ready. Traded a lady a quarter for the cart she was leaving. Managed to get mine back in the conga line and get my quarter back. Stocked up on Lundberg rices at CM. I have to make coleslaw, the black cherry jello salad, and cranberry cheesecake bars. I bought one piece of cheese that is stanky-stinky. Not sure which one. Had the cheese stocker advising me - pretty sure it's one of the soft cheeses. Need to get my stuff packed up - at least what goes in what cooler/bag tomorrow - so DH does not have to fuss too much with it.

Susan - cheap or not you cook circles around anyone I know. I could never do anything close to what you do. And work fulltime. Geesh. Sorry to hear about your DH. You do have a very full plate. I hope you take good care of yourself.

OK - can't remember who's traveling on the east coast. Hope everyone is getting there safely. Susan your mom was traveling right? We are having autumn again 70s over the weekend. Know the bottom will drop out sooner or later. Has brought out all the bugs again but froze all the pollen.

Yum cranberry salsa. Sounds wonderful. I bought I think at least 2 maybe 3 jars of various hot pepper jellies yest. I also bought at WallyWorld today a block of yogurt cream cheese. I think I have one of my snacks for our Mexican food Christmas ready.

susan - you may call it frugal - I call it the "from scratch QUEEN" and I know we all agree on this!  Um, glad you will have a crazy Jane-less table, but sorry your mom won't make it - sounds like a better safe than sorry proposition though - I feel for those dealing with crazy weather. 

 It rained hard all day here - like, all day.  But, it was in the 70's, so I can't complain.  I went to DH's Thanksgiving lunch thing - sent my two sliced turkey breasts with him this morning.  He told me not to eat anything as the food had been out for quite a while and I got there at 11:00 a.m.!  Some of it was on chafing dishes, but some not, so I just skipped it.  It was all traditional T-Day food, so I will have my fill when we do our on Thursday.  Did get to go into the cool war gaming room though with the holographic floor thing (you can see I am up on my military terminology, lol!) and also got to go into the room with the big bunch of worldwide live action screens where he goes for briefings every morning.  This is way more exciting than it sounds because I never get to see him at work, or even really talk about what he does, so this was eye-opening!  It was all sanitized for family open house day, but fun nonetheless!

Hi joyce good to hear from you. Even I remember Michelle. Glad her DH still gets together with you and your DH.

Susan, you really do it the hard way (why am I picturing a tshirt with that phrase????) LOL. I am sorry to ear about your DH. One f my friends is not doing well with that right now but she is in ND and her DD is my neighbor. She is worried but what can you do but cope as best you can.

Specialk that must have been fun. But I'm glad he warned you about eating food there! LOL. It's neat to see where people work when you normally don't get to see. My DH works at the Nuclear plant and once many many years ago I got to go in for a tour and saw a lot! Would never happen now. But that was back over 30 years ago! LOL

I'm still deciding if I'm going to cook at all. My DH is deer hunting on the family farm eith his siblings. He'd come home for dinner then head back up. But the weather calls for 50 to 60% of snow and it's 3 hours each way. I don't want to drive myself or have him drive down here either. So with 4 kids and a DH, a

nd 7 sibs, not to mention sib inlaws, I'll be alone this Thanksgiving. LOL I bought a half turkey breast and a wing when I thought he'd be home. I may just toss them in the oven with an apple pie. Guess ll get some crochet done. LOL

To everyone, much love, safe travels, and have a great turkey day!

Joyce - good to hear from you. Thanks for keeping Michelle's spirit alive. She was such a wonderful person.

All of you seem to like Aldi. I only went once and didn't find much that interested me. Maybe I should try again. Now Sprouts - oh boy there goes my budget.

Susan, I agree with everyone else, so I guess you're just going to have to live with the title. I hope you don't mind! :-)

Hi Joyce, long time, no hear, pop in more often, please. I still have Michelle's blogspot blog bookmarked in my web browser and I sometimes read parts of it.

I couldn't bring myself to do chicken tonight, so I continued my "ongoing since 1980" pot roast experiment. My goal was a tender pot roast without the stringiness and pot roast taste. I can now put "good as is" at the bottom of 2 pages of notes. I marinated, overnight, a cheap rump roast in (full salt) soy sauce, a bit of water, a couple of cloves of garlic, sugar and lime juice. I cooked it in a rack so itt

was out of the juices in a 250F degree oven until the meat was 130F inside.

Eric

lacey - I just couldn't lift the big roaster with three turkey breasts in it!  DH had to do that - other wise it was just seasoning before roasting, and slicing after! Funny, my BMX was a November surgery too - but I still cooked the dinner. We went out to dinner since DH didn't eat either - he had a porterhouse pork chop and I had prime rib with horseradish cream sauce - yum! One of our fave good restaurants is very close to our house -- it was deserted, so it worked out great! Half of my dinner is in the fridge waiting to be lunch today.  I am so frustrated - can't find brussel sprouts - is there some sort of worldwide shortage I am unaware of?  Tried to stop at Trader Joe's on my way home yesterday - it is downtown, quite a ways from my house, but near the base - it was a MADHOUSE, so I abandoned that plan.  I am venturing out one last time this morning to Whole Foods - there better be some! 

So, the other thing about stuffing bread..... the goal is to get cubes of stale bread right? And that is the final reason paying top dollar for excellent, just baked bread makes no sense. You take this beautiful loaves and turn them into something stale. Just can't do it!

Today, I will steam the pearl onions, make the béchamel, chop all the vegetables and fruit for the stuffing, and if my sister doesn't call soon, bake up some squash. My mother brings squash each year, and asked my sister to take over that task, and nothing.... I have called and emailed and have received radio silence in return. I will prep the green bean [actually haricot vert] salad makings. This salad is a new thing replacing the steamed green beans just for ease of use, well and I love this salad. When I am done, the kid will move into the kitchen to make the pumpkin roll [yup! doing that again] and the nut tart which is also new to the table.

Not sure if I should make the gravy today, both of them, to reheat tomorrow, or if that should wait. Might depend on how much time the rest of my tasks take.

Lacey, glad you found the right-sized turkey for your day. Special, smart move not to eat food that hasn't been properly stored. Joyce, a wonderful Thanksgiving to you as well. I think we all miss Michelle, but your loss is the most poignant. Moon, such a large family but you know, sometimes enjoying just the T-Day foods you like could be good. I have to think positively about this since my mother will be alone this year as well. Eric, quite a production for pot roast. We have something called a 7-bone roast in New England that makes the best pot roast. Not a cut I ever saw when living in other parts of the country.

We have an Aldi that opened up north of me, but I haven't been yet. The reports are not stellar, and though I shop at many different stores for our provisions, I would be hard-pressed to travel quite that far for a mediocre selection. I have a Market Basket right nearby that has the best prices and quality combination you can imagine. Another local gem. Right now time is more valuable than a few dollars. [I love being able to say that!]

*susan*

auntie - I was curious so I just looked up Trader Joe's since it originated many years ago in So. California (as did I, lol!) and it looks like it was founded by an individual (Joe Coulombe) in 1967, but sold to the German trust 12 years later - very interesting.  I had no real knowledge about Aldi until my MIL started drinking a white wine called Winking Owl, which has lower alcohol content that she likes, that is carried only by Aldi supermarkets.  I realized there are a couple near me when I wanted to get the wine for a MIL/FIL visit but have not shopped there often, they are not in convenient spots where I run most errands.

I'm not so thrilled with Aldi's, I prefer Save a Lot over Aldi's, if I'm just picking up a few necessities and don't want to go to either of the local grocery chain stores. Better selection at Save a Lot than Aldi's.

oh Eric. Hope it is just a bit of dehydration.....

Yes Eric prayers for your mom. Dehydration or UTI are what I always suspect.

Eric - We'll all be sending prayers & hugs. It's so much harder to be in the hospital over a holiday. Hope it's a short stay.

they're keeping her at the hospital...