Thanksgiving and Then Some
29/11/20 07:12
We don't need a twenty pound turkey but that's what we have sitting in our refrigerator for Thanksgiving tomorrow. It's probably five to six pounds more than we need if not more. That's all they had at Trader Joe's so that's what I bought. I need to remind myself that when I'm reading stories about stores closing and cars and families lining up for miles and miles just to get food because of the pandemic that maybe having five to six more pounds more than I need isn't a bad thing.
We can thank the baby Jesus that it's not happening around here. That said, we need to keep in mind that it could happen here. I was sitting on our couch the other afternoon looking at a meager number of supplies that has been piled up on our deacons bench since March. I couldn't help but wonder how long what I did have would last if everything shuts down again. I will clearly need that extra five pounds of turkey and a hell of a lot more if I don't want to be standing in line waiting for government rations.
And then there are all of those families in need who wish they had a turkey in thier oven on Thanksgiving no less an extra five pounds of turkey. I don't know that we've done enough to pay anything forward as it is so there's that. Maybe we've just been too busy with our own lives to consider the plight of the people in need sitting right here in our own community. It wouldn't have killed us to make a donation or two and now it's probably too late. Bicycle Bob and our elderly neighbor, Betsi Lou, are on their own this Thanksgiving.
Evan says they have a couple of cases of covid-19 in his building over in Exeter. He takes the stairway up to his fourth floor flat and avoids taking the elevator when it looks like he might not be the only one along for the ride. We don't worry one way or another that he might bring the dreaded virus into our house when paying a visit nor do we want him worrying about doing just that. Nobody is worried about coming down with this virus in a day and time when and where therapeutics are readily available. I would be lying if I didn't say that it would be inconvenient. Well, maybe more than a little inconvenient.
I had high hopes that we might be able to bring a nice little something over to Mr G for the holiday. You know, something that she could share with her fellow residents if she was so inspired. We could drop it off at her doorstep since they are not allowing friends or family, outsiders really, into the actual units. The idea came to me when I was picking up a few things at Trader Joe's. I threw a nice tin of chocolate tipped Belgian cookies into my cart that I thought might tickle Mrs G's fancy and then some.
Mrs G was kind enough to send Nancy a copy of the Thanksgiving menu from the dining room of her independent living facility with the inscription, "wishing you could join me" or something to that effect. It was a high falutin menu to be sure and intentionally so. Mrs G is quick to remind us these days that most residents living in her facility needed to sell their homes before moving in. I'm not sure that's even close to the truth. That said, there's no doubt in my mind that the resident chef at her facility could deliver as advertised and more. Like I said, high falutin.
Nancy may have been of the mind that the goodwill basket I'd hoped to deliver was a good idea but she couldn't get there from here. "What else would we put in the basket", she inquired? Who will go to the store to buy all of these things? I knew instinctively where she was headed with her questions posed deliberately as they were. I could read between the lines. It's the same ole, same ole. Getting to the store to do all of this is a bridge too far. Well, Nancy getting to the store to buy all this is a bridge too far.
I could see maybe buying a bottle wine, a couple loaves of Scala bread, and maybe some candies to throw in the basket along with the Belgian cookies. I'm happy to help with all of this but you, my dear, have to carry the ball up the field and into the end zone. I'm sitting here some 24 hours after I started this new post and I have t say that we've made very little progress with that so-called gesture of goodwill.
In fact, most of the Belgian cookies, as of this morning anyway, have been consumed by me and the missus. Mrs G is just hours away from sitting down to her own meal compliments of the facility in which she resides. We might have made more of an effort but that's just me.
Nancy was up late last night making her pie and cranberry sauce so we'll be that much further ahead of the game starting out this morning. I'll be making a real effort to stay ahead of the dirty dishes so as not to be overwhelmed when the time comes to tidy up. Aside from the turkey which will be in the oven for several hours, I think our remaining dishes just need to be re-heated.
I'm feeling fairly energetic or at least up to the task that lays ahead of me on this holiday so that's good. As far as I can tell, this Thanksgiving isn't going to be much of a departure from past Thanksgivings if you discount the size of the turkey we'll be preparing.
I was happy to see the Supreme Court find for the religious groups in New York against the Governor who had placed really ridiculous restrictions on them ahead of the holidays. The parishioners were either not allowed to congregate or were only allowed to congregate in numbers so insignificant so as to make a mockery of the institution and the freedoms provided for same in our Constitution.
These mother fucking liberal and leftist governors who think they can rule with an iron fist just because we're in the midst of a pandemic need a bitch slap or two and that's precisely what the Supreme Court gave to that moron in the corner office in Albany, New York. Trump's latest addition to the Court, Amy Coney Barrett, joined the 5-4 majority in finding for the religious institutions. Thank God for Donald J. Trump! Without the Donald, there would be no Amy Cony Barrett (ACB.)
If there is a prologue to this Thanksgiving dinner saga, it is that our Thanksgiving dinner was a complete success. Well, almost. If we had to roll up our thoughts into a ball that is what you might come up with if pressed for an answer. You wouldn't even have to be polite or, god forbid, say it with a straight face. We could have all worked a little more on what we might say in response to the question, "what are we thankful for", but, that aside, it was all good. Truth be told, some things were better than others. Ain't that always the case?
As for my part in all of this, I might have taken the turkey out of the oven a little sooner. It was good, and not really too dry, but I checked the internal temperature when it came out of the oven and it was off-the-charts hot. I gotta get me one of those birds with the pop-up thermometer next time around. Nobody complained so that was good. I guess if you drown enough of anything in gravy and applesauce you would be hard pressed to say anything bad about the dish in front of you. Everyone loved the sweet corn from Trader Joes but left the LeSuer peas out of a can largely untouched.
Nancy's cranberry sauce was, in a word, weird. I can't put my finger on it. I also wasn't alone in my assessment as faces around the table scrunched and twisted with their first taste of her so-called-sauce. What did you do to this, little darlings? Or, maybe more to the point, what didn't you do to it? Is there an ingredient missing? Is there too much of one thing and not enough of another? It might have been the one side dish that after the first bite you just never revisited it again. We all laughed it off and went about gorging ourselves on other things as diners are want to do on Thanksgiving.
If we thought that ordering certain side dishes off a menu from one of our local restaurants was a good thing, we're thinking differently about that strategy this morning. You may recall that we ordered both mashed potatoes and dressing from a local restaurant called "Common Roots", and we had, yes we did, we had high hopes. The potatoes were excellent but, the dressing, not so much.
My spidey sense was up and running the minute I picked up the two dishes the day before Thanksgiving. The container of the dressing felt heavy, but not heavy enough. It's supposed to be sludgy, right? Sludgy is heavy, right? It was not heavy enough for my tastes and I was right to be concerned.
When I pulled back the foil covering the dressing, I wasn't sure if the chef forgot to add water, chicken broth, or maybe both. There were no instructions other than his telling me before I left the store that one container needed to be covered when heating and the other did not.
The "dressing", onceI had a chance to take a peek, looked to be a smattering of darkened and almost burnt bread crumbs with seasoning that could have passed for something you might have on Thanksgiving but that is where the similarities ended. The assessment around the table was unanimous; we're having StoveTop dressing next year.
The rolls were a bust. Nancy hollered at me from the kitchen as I lay in bed taking a rest from it all. "You know these are crescent rolls, right??? I bought the kind you see in a tube-like container in the supermarket which require baking at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Nancy was having a difficult time separating the dough and then rolling them up in little crescents so I was happy to lend a hand. I think there was a little spatial dissonance thing going on there. Nancy threw them into the oven, set the timer, and walked away to sit at the computer.
One thing you never do when cooking rolls in the oven is set the timer and walk away. Those little puppies cooked way faster than anyone expected and I was able to rescue them just in time before they turned too dark to eat. There were enough other good things to eat so it didn't much matter that the rolls were maybe not for the weak of heart.
That didn't stop Evan from having one or two nor it did it stop Nancy from putting a couple on her plate even if she didn't finish them. Evan was quick to admit that he has his mother's DNA when it comes to setting the timer and walking away. I get it. I put none of them on my plate and didn't miss having a roll or two to go with my meal. Maybe the theme around bread products in general was a bust. Maybe if I had stuffed the dressing inside the turkey cavity before cooking the turkey and gone along my merry way we wouldn't be having this discussion today.
I hadn't planned on doing a deep dive into the Thanksgiving thing but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Suffice it to say that we did about as well as we expected to do given all the balls we were wanting to juggle. We're on now to the next holiday on the calendar and it's coming up quick as it usually does. We've noticed that a lot of Christmas trees are flying off the lots earlier than usual if we're to believe our eyes when, on the day before Thanksgiving, we see car after car on the highway carrying trees home for the holiday.
If I had to guess, I would say that people are wanting to bring on the cheer a little earlier than usual after having had our nation steeped in a pandemic coma for the better part of the year 2020 as it was. What better way to do that than to put up the annual Christmas tree complete with ornaments, lights, and tinsel. Put on a little 'Rudy the Red Nosed Reindeer' and we're off to the races. Now, all we need is a little snow to complete this Hallmark Holiday of ours.
We can thank the baby Jesus that it's not happening around here. That said, we need to keep in mind that it could happen here. I was sitting on our couch the other afternoon looking at a meager number of supplies that has been piled up on our deacons bench since March. I couldn't help but wonder how long what I did have would last if everything shuts down again. I will clearly need that extra five pounds of turkey and a hell of a lot more if I don't want to be standing in line waiting for government rations.
And then there are all of those families in need who wish they had a turkey in thier oven on Thanksgiving no less an extra five pounds of turkey. I don't know that we've done enough to pay anything forward as it is so there's that. Maybe we've just been too busy with our own lives to consider the plight of the people in need sitting right here in our own community. It wouldn't have killed us to make a donation or two and now it's probably too late. Bicycle Bob and our elderly neighbor, Betsi Lou, are on their own this Thanksgiving.
Evan says they have a couple of cases of covid-19 in his building over in Exeter. He takes the stairway up to his fourth floor flat and avoids taking the elevator when it looks like he might not be the only one along for the ride. We don't worry one way or another that he might bring the dreaded virus into our house when paying a visit nor do we want him worrying about doing just that. Nobody is worried about coming down with this virus in a day and time when and where therapeutics are readily available. I would be lying if I didn't say that it would be inconvenient. Well, maybe more than a little inconvenient.
I had high hopes that we might be able to bring a nice little something over to Mr G for the holiday. You know, something that she could share with her fellow residents if she was so inspired. We could drop it off at her doorstep since they are not allowing friends or family, outsiders really, into the actual units. The idea came to me when I was picking up a few things at Trader Joe's. I threw a nice tin of chocolate tipped Belgian cookies into my cart that I thought might tickle Mrs G's fancy and then some.
Mrs G was kind enough to send Nancy a copy of the Thanksgiving menu from the dining room of her independent living facility with the inscription, "wishing you could join me" or something to that effect. It was a high falutin menu to be sure and intentionally so. Mrs G is quick to remind us these days that most residents living in her facility needed to sell their homes before moving in. I'm not sure that's even close to the truth. That said, there's no doubt in my mind that the resident chef at her facility could deliver as advertised and more. Like I said, high falutin.
Nancy may have been of the mind that the goodwill basket I'd hoped to deliver was a good idea but she couldn't get there from here. "What else would we put in the basket", she inquired? Who will go to the store to buy all of these things? I knew instinctively where she was headed with her questions posed deliberately as they were. I could read between the lines. It's the same ole, same ole. Getting to the store to do all of this is a bridge too far. Well, Nancy getting to the store to buy all this is a bridge too far.
I could see maybe buying a bottle wine, a couple loaves of Scala bread, and maybe some candies to throw in the basket along with the Belgian cookies. I'm happy to help with all of this but you, my dear, have to carry the ball up the field and into the end zone. I'm sitting here some 24 hours after I started this new post and I have t say that we've made very little progress with that so-called gesture of goodwill.
In fact, most of the Belgian cookies, as of this morning anyway, have been consumed by me and the missus. Mrs G is just hours away from sitting down to her own meal compliments of the facility in which she resides. We might have made more of an effort but that's just me.
Nancy was up late last night making her pie and cranberry sauce so we'll be that much further ahead of the game starting out this morning. I'll be making a real effort to stay ahead of the dirty dishes so as not to be overwhelmed when the time comes to tidy up. Aside from the turkey which will be in the oven for several hours, I think our remaining dishes just need to be re-heated.
I'm feeling fairly energetic or at least up to the task that lays ahead of me on this holiday so that's good. As far as I can tell, this Thanksgiving isn't going to be much of a departure from past Thanksgivings if you discount the size of the turkey we'll be preparing.
I was happy to see the Supreme Court find for the religious groups in New York against the Governor who had placed really ridiculous restrictions on them ahead of the holidays. The parishioners were either not allowed to congregate or were only allowed to congregate in numbers so insignificant so as to make a mockery of the institution and the freedoms provided for same in our Constitution.
These mother fucking liberal and leftist governors who think they can rule with an iron fist just because we're in the midst of a pandemic need a bitch slap or two and that's precisely what the Supreme Court gave to that moron in the corner office in Albany, New York. Trump's latest addition to the Court, Amy Coney Barrett, joined the 5-4 majority in finding for the religious institutions. Thank God for Donald J. Trump! Without the Donald, there would be no Amy Cony Barrett (ACB.)
If there is a prologue to this Thanksgiving dinner saga, it is that our Thanksgiving dinner was a complete success. Well, almost. If we had to roll up our thoughts into a ball that is what you might come up with if pressed for an answer. You wouldn't even have to be polite or, god forbid, say it with a straight face. We could have all worked a little more on what we might say in response to the question, "what are we thankful for", but, that aside, it was all good. Truth be told, some things were better than others. Ain't that always the case?
As for my part in all of this, I might have taken the turkey out of the oven a little sooner. It was good, and not really too dry, but I checked the internal temperature when it came out of the oven and it was off-the-charts hot. I gotta get me one of those birds with the pop-up thermometer next time around. Nobody complained so that was good. I guess if you drown enough of anything in gravy and applesauce you would be hard pressed to say anything bad about the dish in front of you. Everyone loved the sweet corn from Trader Joes but left the LeSuer peas out of a can largely untouched.
Nancy's cranberry sauce was, in a word, weird. I can't put my finger on it. I also wasn't alone in my assessment as faces around the table scrunched and twisted with their first taste of her so-called-sauce. What did you do to this, little darlings? Or, maybe more to the point, what didn't you do to it? Is there an ingredient missing? Is there too much of one thing and not enough of another? It might have been the one side dish that after the first bite you just never revisited it again. We all laughed it off and went about gorging ourselves on other things as diners are want to do on Thanksgiving.
If we thought that ordering certain side dishes off a menu from one of our local restaurants was a good thing, we're thinking differently about that strategy this morning. You may recall that we ordered both mashed potatoes and dressing from a local restaurant called "Common Roots", and we had, yes we did, we had high hopes. The potatoes were excellent but, the dressing, not so much.
My spidey sense was up and running the minute I picked up the two dishes the day before Thanksgiving. The container of the dressing felt heavy, but not heavy enough. It's supposed to be sludgy, right? Sludgy is heavy, right? It was not heavy enough for my tastes and I was right to be concerned.
When I pulled back the foil covering the dressing, I wasn't sure if the chef forgot to add water, chicken broth, or maybe both. There were no instructions other than his telling me before I left the store that one container needed to be covered when heating and the other did not.
The "dressing", onceI had a chance to take a peek, looked to be a smattering of darkened and almost burnt bread crumbs with seasoning that could have passed for something you might have on Thanksgiving but that is where the similarities ended. The assessment around the table was unanimous; we're having StoveTop dressing next year.
The rolls were a bust. Nancy hollered at me from the kitchen as I lay in bed taking a rest from it all. "You know these are crescent rolls, right??? I bought the kind you see in a tube-like container in the supermarket which require baking at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Nancy was having a difficult time separating the dough and then rolling them up in little crescents so I was happy to lend a hand. I think there was a little spatial dissonance thing going on there. Nancy threw them into the oven, set the timer, and walked away to sit at the computer.
One thing you never do when cooking rolls in the oven is set the timer and walk away. Those little puppies cooked way faster than anyone expected and I was able to rescue them just in time before they turned too dark to eat. There were enough other good things to eat so it didn't much matter that the rolls were maybe not for the weak of heart.
That didn't stop Evan from having one or two nor it did it stop Nancy from putting a couple on her plate even if she didn't finish them. Evan was quick to admit that he has his mother's DNA when it comes to setting the timer and walking away. I get it. I put none of them on my plate and didn't miss having a roll or two to go with my meal. Maybe the theme around bread products in general was a bust. Maybe if I had stuffed the dressing inside the turkey cavity before cooking the turkey and gone along my merry way we wouldn't be having this discussion today.
I hadn't planned on doing a deep dive into the Thanksgiving thing but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Suffice it to say that we did about as well as we expected to do given all the balls we were wanting to juggle. We're on now to the next holiday on the calendar and it's coming up quick as it usually does. We've noticed that a lot of Christmas trees are flying off the lots earlier than usual if we're to believe our eyes when, on the day before Thanksgiving, we see car after car on the highway carrying trees home for the holiday.
If I had to guess, I would say that people are wanting to bring on the cheer a little earlier than usual after having had our nation steeped in a pandemic coma for the better part of the year 2020 as it was. What better way to do that than to put up the annual Christmas tree complete with ornaments, lights, and tinsel. Put on a little 'Rudy the Red Nosed Reindeer' and we're off to the races. Now, all we need is a little snow to complete this Hallmark Holiday of ours.