I guess that’s sort of lazy of me. Sorry. But it’s late as I am writing this (Tuesday night). And I need to get up early to go to the store for dinner fixings, a cake, and a new hand mixer.
I made a yellow cake from scratch tonight. But I forgot to flour the pan. I greased it, but it wasn’t until after I’d poured the batter into the cake pan that I realized my error.
Now, were it not for the fact that our 17-plus-year-old hand mixer (it was a wedding gift) was SMOKING as I finished mixing the batter, I would’ve started over. But hand mixers aren’t supposed to smoke. And it’s not supposed to smell like an electrical fire when you’re mixing cake batter either. So I just went ahead and stuck the thing in the oven.
It smelled really, really good as it finished baking. But there’s no hope of the thing coming out of the pan in one piece. I could just put icing on top of the cake, but that is SUCH a waste of valuable frosting space. The sides need frosting, too.
Anyway…
Today is Shannon’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Shannon.
Here’s another picture from last year that’s awesome.
Ruby saying Happy Birthday last year.
Shannon’s friend, Laura, took this picture of her little girl, Ruby, to e-mail or message to Shannon as a birthday gift. As exciting as the trip was, it must have sucked being away on her birthday.
And wait, here’s one more pic…
Shannon at Age Two
This MIGHT be the one I didn’t post last year that is Shannon’s favorite.
As for where I was when Shannon was born, I have no clue. I didn’t birth the girl. I was only 11 when she was born. I was closer to 12 than 11, but still. I was in elementary school!
But that’s okay. Yes, it would’ve been nice to experience those early years with Shannon (and Amy, too). I didn’t even meet them until much later. You know what, though? That doesn’t matter a bit. We’ve all managed to make up for those missing years quite nicely.
Happy birthday, Shannon! I am so glad you are home. And not just because you feed us well either. Because it’s just plain nice having you around.
At least twice recently (HERE and HERE) I’ve mentioned that Shannon is living at home. It’s only supposed to be temporary, while she tries to find a permanent job. But if she keeps doing the things she’s been doing, we might never let her leave.
Why?
Because she feeds us really well.
Before I go further, I have to explain the dinner rotation. For some time now, Hubby and I have had this rotation thing going on where he cooks one week then I cook the following week. Then it starts over. In other words, we take turns. Whoever isn’t cooking is responsible for cleanup.
When Shannon got home back in August (you do know she just went ’round the world, right?), she was really good about helping to clean up and stuff. And she’s always willing to help chop, slice, dice, etc. So we figured, it’s only fair that she get added to the rotation, too.
Of course she was willing. She loves to cook and bake. She’s good at it, too.
Even better? She takes orders.
One night last week, I requested pretzel dogs.
That’s basically a soft pretzel wrapped around a hot dog. Not just any soft pretzels. Made-from-scratch, DELICIOUS soft pretzels.
Pretzel Dogs
Typically I like ketchup, mustard and raw onions on my hot dogs. But pretzel dogs are best served with mustard only.
Here’s what the pretzel dog looks like on the inside.
Pretzel Dog Innards (note the mustard topping)
See what I mean about not letting her leave?
Besides, Hubby and I are kind of enjoying having her around. She was gone for ten whole months after all.
AND she’s promised to make buttermilk biscuits the next time she’s up, too.
The pretzel recipe actually is from Household Diva 6. She got it from someone else, but since Ann Marie is the one who told me about it, I had to give her a mention.
A couple of days ago, I did a blog post about Dexter, one of the PA 13 dogs who needed a pretty expensive surgery. My lead-in to the main part of the post mentioned different things I’ve experienced personally of late that have left me scratching my head (a discarded dog, a half-ass project, and a horrible parent). Unfortunately, even though I didn’t mention names, one of the people involved in that ill-fated project was horribly offended by my post. She took it as a personal attack on her character and now believes that my innermost thoughts revolve around not liking her and/or thinking that she meant to do a bad job.
I’ve tried repeatedly to call this person and apologize for offending her. She hasn’t answered the phone and won’t return my calls. So I have to resort to explaining myself here.
First, the three things weren’t even remotely related. The project had nothing to do with the parent and vice-versa. Second, my segue to the Dexter part of the post (“Enough with people. They really piss me off.”) was not targeted at the project folks either. It was primarily referring to the horrible parent who has a gift for pissing me off primarily because the things that she does and has done over the past 18+ years continue to hurt two of the people I love most in this world.
The comment was not meant as a personal attack. I happen to think very highly of the folks that were involved. They are kind, decent people who offered to help someone that I know they love and respect a great deal. I am not angry at any of these people. I am just surprised and confused (i.e., left scratching my head) at the fact that they didn’t take greater care when doing this project. If I were sitting in a room with these folks, I would not have blurted my opinion out of the blue for all to hear because I know it would hurt their feelings. Hurting their feelings was never my intention. If I had intended to be hurtful, I would have called them.
K, I am sorry I hurt your feelings. That is not what I set out to do. My statement was not meant as a personal attack against you. I do not think you would intentionally do something to hurt the person I am referring to. I was wrong to express my opinion on my blog for all the world to see. I know you were trying to help. I know you would never, ever set out to do something to hurt the person in question. It has nothing to do with whether we get along or not.
Hopefully you’ll be able to think about this rationally one day and realize it was just my opinion. Nothing more.
I was going to do a quick post yesterday to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, but the morning flew by. And once we started cooking around 10:30 we didn’t stop doing, doing, doing until pretty late. And I was pooped.
So now it’s the day after…
I hope each and every one of you had a fabulous day. If it was even half as awesome as mine, I know it was good. Because our day was amazing.
It’s odd, though, because we only had a few people here. My Mom hasn’t been feeling well so she and my Dad did Thanksgiving alone at their house. My son-in-law, TJ, is still deployed. The grand kids were at their other grandparents’ house. Amy, who is still recuperating from foot surgery, stayed close to her own home and spent the holiday with friends. Eric’s girlfriend was with her family in Pennsylvania. My brother, sister-in-law and nephew are in Virginia (that’s where they live). So…
Our gathering consisted of Hubby, of course, my mother-in-law, Shannon, Eric and me. And the dogs. We can’t forget them. 🙂
We decided to be different this year and forgo some of the more-traditional fare (like a turkey). All of us prefer chicken. None of us are really crazy about pumpkin pie either. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Shannon, who also likes to cook, agreed that it would be fun to experiment. I’ve always wanted to try sausage stuffing. And I get REALLY tired of the same old side dishes all the time. We decided to start with the must-haves (chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy) and then add some new stuff. Shannon took the initiative to find some interesting recipes. She succeeded, too.
I really am not exaggerating when I said we started at 10:30 and didn’t stop.
Actually, Shannon started on Wednesday by baking totally-from-scratch cinnamon rolls just like Hubby makes. They were designated as our Thanksgiving breakfast. She loves to bake, and it shows. The cinnamon rolls were delicious.
Homemade Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing for Breakfast
One of the must-have-again-SOON recipes Shannon found was Bella’s Brussels Sprouts with Bacon. Hubby, MIL and I really like Brussels Sprouts anyway. Shannon likes them, too. Eric doesn’t particularly care for them. But we all agreed that Bella’s Brussels Sprouts with Bacon ROCKED.
Then there were the Roasted Beets and Sweets…
The Most-interesting Vegetable
As much as I like red beets, I’ve never actually prepared them. Shannon hadn’t either. So we were both quite intrigued by the way the beets looked when freshly-peeled. The recipe was simple to follow and absolutely divine. If you’re a fan of red beets and sweet potatoes/yams, you have to try this Roasted Beets and Sweets recipe. Sorry I don’t have a picture of the finished product to show you.
I did mention that Shannon loves to bake, right? She’s my Kitchen Aide Pretzel Maker, remember? For dinner, she elected to make some dinner rolls. The recipe (actually called a formula) came from her bread maker’s Bible. Check these out…
Shaping the Rolls (I missed capturing the mixing and kneading action)Oven-readyFresh-from-the-Oven Goodness
Those were THE BEST rolls I have ever eaten. For serious. I’m not a huge bread fan. I mean, I like good-quality bread, but I’ve never been one to say, “Ooh, I would love to have some homemade rolls.” Now? We may never let Shannon move out. Having your own personal baker is AWESOME. Especially when they’re really good at it like Shannon.
While she and I cooked and baked, the dogs anxiously watched for our guests to arrive.
"Are they here yet? When are they coming?"
I baked an Apple Crumb Pie, too. Like the ones Brianna and I made back in October.
Please pass the garlic!
We used myriad spices as we cooked and baked. At one point, I had a few extra minutes and decided to reorganize the spice cabinet a bit. If you don’t do that periodically, things get completely out of hand. Shannon didn’t believe me when I told her we had FIVE different containers of garlic powder. So I got them out to show her.
When Eric still lived with us, we went through garlic powder like crazy. I prefer fresh garlic personally, but that boy loves him some garlic powder. Since it’s completely his fault that we had so much garlic in the cupboard, I made him take three of the five containers home.
Staying out of our way.
The dogs were pretty good about staying out from under foot. Every now and then one of them would sneak back into the kitchen. But for the most part, they did pretty good.
Back to our experimentation…
The last experimental side-dish was Garlic Carrots. Oh. My. GAWD. They were very simple, and really, really, really good. They were quite possibly the best cooked carrots I have EVER eaten. Again, I am not exaggerating. They were THAT good.
Experimental Chicken
We had two chickens because we made two kinds of stuffing. And the stuffing that’s cooked inside of the bird is ALWAYS better that the other stuff, so we had to have two chickens for the apples-to-apples comparison. The recipe Shannon chose was Awesome Sausage, Apple and Cranberry Stuffing. It was very good, but the traditional stuffing is still my favorite. That’s like one of my favorite things in the whole world to eat, so I’m not surprised that I liked it better. But the experimental stuffing was good, too.
Traditional Chicken
I’m sort of bummed that I didn’t take pictures of all the side dishes, but we were busy! I did try and get a shot of the meal on the table. None of these pictures are particularly good (there’s at least one person I captured with a weird look on their face or something out of focus in each), but I am posting them anyway because they were all the pictures I got.
Getting ready to eat.
That picture is actually not bad, but Eric is missing.
Hurry up, we're hungry!
This would’ve been a good one if Hubby hadn’t been goofing off and sporting a Gaige-face (Gaige loves to make goofy faces in pictures).
The meal.
And in that last one, I caught my MIL with her eyes closed. Sorry, Mom!
We were all half-starved by this point. Shannon and I somehow messed up our timing. The chickens weren’t finished until at least two hours after they were supposed to have been done. So I couldn’t make everyone wait too long to eat.
And eat we did. It doesn’t look like there’s that much food on the table, but there was. And it was all fabulous. I made succotash, too. That’s a staple. And I didn’t mention the gravy. I make yummy gravy, if I do say so myself.
Is it FINALLY our turn?
Once we were finished, the dogs got to eat their Thanksgiving meal. I use the chicken innards and necks to flavor the gravy base. Once that’s cooked for several hours, I always remove the innards, chop them all up and save it for the dogs. So they got that, some chicken, and a big dollop of gravy added to their bowls. They were all thrilled.
Even though we all wished the rest of the family could’ve come, we all agreed this was quite possibly our best Thanksgiving meal ever. Shannon and I really had a good time cooking together. And everyone enjoyed our experiments immensely. All-in-all, it was a very satisfying and very happy day.
Now, I think I’d better go and eat one of those leftover rolls of Shannon’s. And maybe some mashed potatoes and gravy, too. Plus some leftover stuffing…
It’s gonna be a grand day. Literally. Shannon is bringing all of the grand kids to our house this afternoon. She’s leaving Amy, convalescing after foot surgery, home alone.
Gaige is going to spend the weekend with Hubby and I in West Virginia. Both of the other kids have had their chance to hang out with us alone, so it’s his turn. Otherwise we’d take them all.
Although, Hubby is pretty sick. He’s down with the same bug that hit me. So Gaige and I just might be having a Double G Weekend!
– – –
The song featured in this video is definite earworm material. Listen at your own risk…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu_zwdmz0hE
Check back in a couple of days… I’m sure I’ll have lots of kid pics to share. 🙂
This week’s You Capture prompt was “What inspires you?”
I almost didn’t participate because I was thinking along the lines of WHO inspires me. And I haven’t left the house pretty much all week. Not that no one around here ever inspires me, it’s just that photo ops of people around here have been a bit limited.
As I grabbed my camera before heading out to the back yard to hunt for dog poop this morning, a light bulb went off. Why would I carry my camera on poo patrol? I guess you could say my dogs inspire me to keep the camera at hand during even the most unpleasant of tasks. Because you never know when you’ll catch them doing something a bit odd. Like trying to see what just landed atop the grill (a leaf).
That’s when I realized it would be okay to share some of the pictures I shot this week even if I didn’t snap them specifically with You Capture in mind.
Nosy Girls
My dogs make me laugh. So I like to try and capture these odd moments.
Meg, chillin' under the burning bush.
Seeing Meg with her dark nutmeg colors laying behind the bright-red burning bush caught my eye here.
Birdwatcher
That same bush made a nice backdrop for this shot of K.
Center of Attention
I liked the colors so much, I decided a close-up was in order.
Belle
Then there’s this shot I got when Belle wasn’t paying attention. She doesn’t like having her picture taken and usually squints when I ask her to pose. Seriously.
Too bad she’s got a mouthful of dog toy…
I also try to keep a camera nearby while I’m working. Because one never knows what odd positions Meg will contort herself into as she dozes in her favorite bed.
Meg
To see what inspires fellow You Capture participants, be sure to VISIT BETH’s BLOG and follow some of the various links other photographers have shared this week.
