Thanksgiving Side Dishes - the New Age Way

This morning, on Good Morning America, Diane and crowd were chuckling at the "Side Dish According to Zodiac" method of choosing your dishes for Thanksgiving dinner.

I had to check.

Feel free to invite me.

Aquarius Side Dishes (January 20 - February 18)You will want to have at least one Aquarius at any gathering. These unique, futuristic creatures are one of the friendliest, most social signs. Water Bearers are open-minded, unprejudiced and mix well with all kinds of people. Be sure you maintain the discerning eye of the well-organized host, as Aquarians can become so caught up in the social side of the affair, they forget to eat all together. Serving Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Baked Acorn Squash will bring them back to earth.See Garlic Mashed Potato Recipes

History Buff

Our hot water heater went out the other day. It is located in an interior closet in the back bedroom with no outside access. While cleaning out the closet, I found a box of my husband's books that had been stored there the year that lil man was born.

They are "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare" published by Columbia House in 1967 in 20 volumes.

Lil man, in 2nd grade, is fascinated. He finds an interesting picture, asks about it, we read about it and we all learn. Granted, this is not state of the art weaponry, but the pictures from D-Day are exceptional.

His favorite thing to do is to find a "cool" picture and make a tracing of it. That would explain the lamp (yes, it is askew and no, it is not usually positioned there) over the bar separating our kitchen and living room (dining room to the left). It is such a joy to see him so interested.

Pensieve's Poetic License the First

Want this button? Robin, the Pensieve genius, invited us all to participate in the once a month poetry blog. Once a month? I may actually stand a chance of making it. Her first assignment was a Thanksgiving limerick. Here are mine:
There once was a November holiday
That always fell on a Thursday
A rehearsal of sorts
Trifles, puddings, and torts
All to prepare for His birthday


A day to give thanks for our blessings
With turkey and yams and dressings
Kith and kin gather round
Special food does abound
Thanksgiving, with nobody stressing.

Fun Monday - Do You Have to Tell That Story Again?

This week’s Fun Monday is hosted by Karisma. She wants to hear “The Story”. You know, the story that gets told and retold and embellished and told some more - at every family gathering.

The story that gets told and retold about me at my family’s holiday dinners is “The Gravy Story”. I was not really a child, I was 15 when this happened and it was not during the holidays, but there you have it.

My sisters are 10 and 13 years older than I am. When I turned into an obnoxious child, back in the day when preteen was not yet a word, my parents would send me to my sister’s house for the summer, or at least a good portion of it.

My sister was an uber-housewife. Her house was clean, her child was clean and his clothes were pressed, as were her tablecloths. She actually, and I kid you not, trimmed her lawn with manicure scissors. She ran a perfect household.

When my brother-in-law got home from work, his home was his castle. His queen had fresh makeup, her hair was perfect, dinner was cooking and there were NO problems.

So, the year I was 15, my nephew was 2 and my sister was pregnant. I was spending the summer there to help with my nephew and because my parents did not trust me at home. I truly was a horrible person at that age.

My sister went to the hospital and had a beautiful baby girl. I was at home with the 2 year old and my brother-in-law went to work.

I set out to be my sister. The grocery store was within walking distance of their house, so shopping was not a problem.

I decided to cook a roast beef dinner with all the trimmings. No problem. I cooked the roast, peeled and cooked the potatoes, mashed them, made a salad, and heated up some green beans. I washed up the kitchen, set the dining room table, washed and changed and ironed my nephew and made sure that everything was perfect.

The problem arose when I decided to make gravy. My mother is an EXCELLENT cook. She just doesn’t like people in her kitchen and, to be honest with you, by the time I came along her patience and desire to teach another person to cook were nil. But I HAD watched.

So I took the plastic container thingy and mixed the water and the flour and shook it just right and stirred some into the pan drippings. It looked OK, but a little thick. I added some more. Still a little thick. I added just a scoche more and decided to quit while I was ahead. I put the gravy into the then traditional gravy boat and served dinner.

My brother-in-law is a very kind man. He tried. He honestly tried. When the spoon stood in the middle of the gravy straight up, he told me as kindly as he could that he just couldn’t eat it. He carried it out to the kitchen and turned the cup over.

The gravy slid out in one piece, landed in the sink, and stood there quivering exactly like a jello mold.

We went out to eat.

And I still do NOT make gravy!

Door Shopping for Dummies

The other day my daughter’s dog, Bug - oh, ok, my dog Bug who is living at my daughter’s house because my job relocated me and I could not leave her at my old job site and I could not bring her home because Duck would eat her and my daughter said she would keep her - ate the door between my daughter’s garage and kitchen.

Knowing that we needed to replace the door, we drove the 50 some miles to the big town. There are two major home improvement stores, several large chain hardware stores, and a “liquidation and recyclers” store. We figured we could find an affordable door at one of these places.

Then I remembered that I had seen an ad on the local TV station for a “Re-store”. It is a store run by the Habitat for Humanity. They have items donated by local companies, items removed from homes under renovations and items donated by private parties.

I mentioned it to my daughter and she said that her husband had been telling her about this same store. He said they had everything and at amazingly low prices.

We went first to Jo-Ann’s to pick up supplies to make a rosary for a seminarian who is being ordained on the 8th of December (5th grade CFC project), World Market for gingersnaps (Pepparkakor) and pannetone, Once Upon a Child to leave some of the jeans the lil man has outgrown already (6 slim to 10 slim since September, all in height), and Hallmark for a card.

We then drove to where I thought the store was. Then we drove to where I thought the store was. Then we drove to where I thought the store must be.

I called information and got a number for Habitat for Humanity. It was the wrong number but they gave me the right number. I called the right number. There was no answer. I left a message on the right number and then called the wrong number to see if they could just give me an address. There was no answer.

My phone rang.

It was the right number and the nice man gave me directions. We still got lost (actually, you’re only really lost if you care where you are) but finally found the place.

Oh, my gosh!

It was like finding Aladdin’s cave - if Aladdin had been the child of Bob the Builder and Rosie the Riveter.

We wandered, like members of the lost tribe, for a while and finally asked for help. We told the nice man what size door we needed and he went to the door cave and found what we needed. Now, some of the doors that we had seen were marked with prices - $75, $100, $60. Not horrible but not as great as we had been led to believe either.

The door the nice man pulled was not marked. Julie asked the price. The nice man mentioned that it was a solid door - not hollow core. He pointed out the hinges and the door knob. He pointed out what great shape it was in - and it was. He asked us if $10 would be all right.

$10.00?

Julie pressed $30.00 into his hand, told him to please just count the change as a donation, and we were ready to leave with Julie’s already painted and hardwared solid core door.

So, if you need paint or countertops or doors or windows or shingles or cabinets or cabinet hardware or light bulbs or lighting fixtures or appliances or…
PLEASE CHECK THESE FOLKS OUT!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Template Giveaway!

Hop on over to Lindsay's for a chance to win one of several prizes, including a free blogger template!

I do not currently have one of her designs but they are just gorgeous. So go on over and enter. You can't win if you don't try and it is absolutely, positively free!