Snippets

(Last year's advent class)

Happy New Year 

warning: opinion ahead

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin Franklin

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln.

These men were not perfect - But they had ideals and dignity and the knowledge to 

protect and improve the lives of everyone.

I pray we don't have to endure the next four years,

amid the destruction an ignorant selfish dolt might unleash

 upon our nation and the world.

This elected figure does not even register as a shadow of great men.

When the truth is finally understood by all who voted in hatred and fear,

I pray that it is not too late.

All Was Calm

All was bright

Kids were here early, and then began a whirlwind of

flights and drives to NYC, Portland, LA and back 

again twice to Vegas. I still have 2 more trips to airport.

They are travelers.

Christmas Eve was a feast extraordinaire.

Broccoli souffle, roasted vegetables,

ANOTHER deep fried turkey,

mussels, white fish diablo and seared ahi tuna.

After much discussion we all just made

 what we each wanted to eat.

VERY non traditional

but I work to stay flexible.

Movies, music, naps, coffees, wine, food

Happy At Home

While waiting for a friend to stop in for a second

and share holiday hellos, I walked in on

this.

Howie is in heaven when my girl is home.

We three are headed to a fish market 

to round out Christmas dinner

for our pescatarian.

Ben will be donning his chef hat once more.

We were eating sun dried tomato ravioli

 and meatballs at 11 last night!

Lord that guy can cook!

This afternoon we'll wander the stores 

and take in the decorations

 and the music and the crowds,

eat a great lunch at Public School,

and then head home for more

family time.

I'll check in tomorrow with photos and 

Christmas wishes.

A Forest Of Greens

It's only natural

A Noble Tree

I have not had a real tree in many years.

The kids do not care either way, and I had several 

artificial that I put up each year.

 A few days ago I popped into Lowes 

and entered by the garden and passed

 this cute little noble who was reduced to 15.00.

He was very fresh and I just had to bring him home.

The House of Hatten set I had

 planned to use in this room just like last year

2015

was too large for my little 4 footer so I

just layered on the tin stars and hearts that

go with it, and added some red glitter hearts.

It is so cheerful.

I adore the topper, he is very rare, so even though too 

large for my very noble noble I tossed him up there.

I never use the same stuff in the same 

place from year to year.

This year is a mostly "greens" year once more.

I spent years only doing white

throughout the house,

but now in the family room I'm leaning toward

mustards and reds.

I was only going to do a wee bit 

but with bins full of greens I just kept a 

plunkin' em down and it's a forest in here.

Just like my turkey,

easy to set up and take down.

I'm going easy and "very green" this year.

Adapting to all kinds of change.

Getting old is not for sissies.

The Virgin Turkey

So I realized that I never told you 

about the turkey.

The fried turkey.

My very first fried turkey.

56 minutes from start to finish

56 minutes people!

So here is the skinny.

The kids were in Toronto, 

it was gonna be just me this year,

so I made a run to Costco

 for their cranberry stuffing, 

and mashed potatoes.

 I add a little cream cheese to the taters 

and they are delicious.

Both of those can be nuked so

 mere minutes of effort.

I heated up the oil in the fryer,

that took about 45 minutes.

Then injected the 14 lb bird with organic chicken broth,

rubbed more broth on the exterior and patted on some

seasoning mix, set the digital info and 

 dunked it in my new indoor fryer.

I then made a sweet potato casserole I have made

for over 30 years and 20 minutes later

 popped it into my perfectly empty and clean stove.

Exactly 56 minutes later I had 

the perfect turkey with all the trimmings.

I've been cooking a LOOONG 

time and I can honestly tell you.

It was the best darn bird ever!

I will never cook one any other way again!

This is an indoor fryer, much safer, 

so easy to drain and clean.

I have told anyone and everyone

who will listen

 that they must get one,

an it does far more than just gobblers.

Maybe the best part is no 

rushing to prep, or loads of dirty pans piled in the sink,

I just had my trusty MS storage containers to fill,

drained and filtered the oil,

then washed out two parts of fryer

and everything else was tossed into recycling.

Remember way back when when I was

doing the happy jig about my blue bucket mop?

This IS better.

so it is Butterball XXL Premium indoor turkey fryer.

I bought on QVC on a special value day

w/ free shipping for 129.00

and used easy pay.
(click QVC to see video)

It is large so I stored the digital part inside the house

and the shell in the garage.

The plan is to have a huge seafood boil for 

the holidays since DD is a pescatarian now.

DD had quick trip home last week 

to do a commercial for her Dad.

She wanted a bloody mary.

I think it was tasty

Maybe With Enough Birds?

Maybe with enough orange/gold loving birds,

we could remove the bad orange/gold

starting with the top down?

Do I hear a hell yeah?