This week there have been two recurring themes in Emily's and my lives: Thanksgiving is ruined or Thanksgiving is saved! Can't find pumpkin pie filling...Thanksgiving is ruined. Find pumpkins...Thanksgiving is saved! No canned green beans...ruined. Frozen broccoli...saved! Burned rolls...ruined. Successful pies made in glass bowls instead of pie pans...saved!
This week has certainly been a shopping adventure for us. We hoped to find pumpkin pie filling in cans somewhere in Beirut, but we lucked out. Still, we did find a beautiful pumpkin that I'll tell you about later. Since last year I'd had to use a real pumpkin, I wasn't too worried about doing again this year. Dreading it, yes, because it is a lot of work, but now I knew it would be ok. Also, I was greatly cheered by the presence of Hello Panda in the grocery store.
Probably our biggest shopping adventure was the saga of the Turkey. Naturally, we assumed that the butcher area at our local grocery store would sell turkeys. And when I asked him for turkey, he had it available. He politely asked how many slices we wanted. When I told him we wanted a whole turkey, he looked confused for a brief moment, and then brightened up and offered us the whole package of processed turkey sandwich meat. No, we said, we want a whole one...we shaped a turkey carcass with our hands in the air to make our point. He smiled and brought out a package that we thought must be what we wanted. Emily noted that you could see the legs in the shape of the package. I agreed that it looked right, but I felt vaguely suspicious of it. I told the guy that I thought that was right, but I wanted to feel it first. He looked at me with concern, but handed it over. To test it, I gave it a little squeeze. It squished. Obviously not what we wanted. We explained that we wanted to put it in the oven. The butcher shook his head sadly and offered us a whole chicken instead. We were on the point of accepting it when the butcher's assistant motioned for us to follow him. He took us out to the frozen vegetable section where they had a wide selection of ridiculously over-priced butterball turkeys! Thanksgiving was saved!!
Later that night we got out the pumpkin purchased earlier in Beirut. Emily put on Avonlea, so that we could enjoy old TV shows and marvel at the abilities of Canadian child actresses. Then we went to work. OK, I have to confess, I allowed Emily to do most of the work. I mean, if she's willing, why not? Soon, though, we noticed something a bit odd about our beautiful pumpkin. First, it smelled like a melon and second, it was greenish inside. Scott began to insist that we'd gotten some weird hybrid pumpkin-melon hybrid. He hinted that he would never have made the same mistake (although we had earlier given him the opportunity to go out and buy them for us and he had declined). We worried that it wouldn't work for our pie and bread, but chopped away anyway. We decided to risk it, and amazingly I can testify that the bread and pie were successful. There were some lumps, but that was because we didn't cook it long enough and we had to beat it out by hand because we have no blender. I actually had to sift through the pumpkin pie batter with my fingers to find the biggest lumps. (I didn't tell you that before, Emily, but don't worry-my hands were clean.)
Meanwhile, Emily decided to prove to the world that she is capable of cooking EVERYTHING required for a complete Thanksgiving feast by herself. I mean, it's possible that I could be expected to chip in a bit, but really she knows that the kitchen isn't exactly my happy place. I agreed to sit in there with her and chop and stir, which I did. (Yet another example of me saving Thanksgiving.) She made broccoli casserole, corn casserole, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pineapple salad, green bean casserole, crescent rolls, dressing, and turkey. Also pecan pie with no corn syrup. It was all amazing-mostly because she did it all herself. I tried to help out by offering to let her use instant mashed potato stuff that I have at my house from its previous owner. But when I mentioned this, Emily looked at me like I'd suggested to let her roast up her cat instead of getting a turkey.
So in all, it was a successful Thanksgiving. We ate until we were very full and then laid around on the couch watching stupid things on TV. I'll put up photos on facebook soon. Those photos will include the ones we took when decorating the house for Christmas as well. That was also an exciting time involving stringing popcorn, making snowflakes and homemade clay ornaments. I think I'm going to get a job with Hallmark selling a new line of Christmas ornaments entitled: random animals eating Santa Claus. So far we have a crocodile and a whale eating up the old fat guy. We'll do some market research to decide which animal is next for the collection. Precious Moments? What is that crap?
This week has certainly been a shopping adventure for us. We hoped to find pumpkin pie filling in cans somewhere in Beirut, but we lucked out. Still, we did find a beautiful pumpkin that I'll tell you about later. Since last year I'd had to use a real pumpkin, I wasn't too worried about doing again this year. Dreading it, yes, because it is a lot of work, but now I knew it would be ok. Also, I was greatly cheered by the presence of Hello Panda in the grocery store.
Probably our biggest shopping adventure was the saga of the Turkey. Naturally, we assumed that the butcher area at our local grocery store would sell turkeys. And when I asked him for turkey, he had it available. He politely asked how many slices we wanted. When I told him we wanted a whole turkey, he looked confused for a brief moment, and then brightened up and offered us the whole package of processed turkey sandwich meat. No, we said, we want a whole one...we shaped a turkey carcass with our hands in the air to make our point. He smiled and brought out a package that we thought must be what we wanted. Emily noted that you could see the legs in the shape of the package. I agreed that it looked right, but I felt vaguely suspicious of it. I told the guy that I thought that was right, but I wanted to feel it first. He looked at me with concern, but handed it over. To test it, I gave it a little squeeze. It squished. Obviously not what we wanted. We explained that we wanted to put it in the oven. The butcher shook his head sadly and offered us a whole chicken instead. We were on the point of accepting it when the butcher's assistant motioned for us to follow him. He took us out to the frozen vegetable section where they had a wide selection of ridiculously over-priced butterball turkeys! Thanksgiving was saved!!
Later that night we got out the pumpkin purchased earlier in Beirut. Emily put on Avonlea, so that we could enjoy old TV shows and marvel at the abilities of Canadian child actresses. Then we went to work. OK, I have to confess, I allowed Emily to do most of the work. I mean, if she's willing, why not? Soon, though, we noticed something a bit odd about our beautiful pumpkin. First, it smelled like a melon and second, it was greenish inside. Scott began to insist that we'd gotten some weird hybrid pumpkin-melon hybrid. He hinted that he would never have made the same mistake (although we had earlier given him the opportunity to go out and buy them for us and he had declined). We worried that it wouldn't work for our pie and bread, but chopped away anyway. We decided to risk it, and amazingly I can testify that the bread and pie were successful. There were some lumps, but that was because we didn't cook it long enough and we had to beat it out by hand because we have no blender. I actually had to sift through the pumpkin pie batter with my fingers to find the biggest lumps. (I didn't tell you that before, Emily, but don't worry-my hands were clean.)
Meanwhile, Emily decided to prove to the world that she is capable of cooking EVERYTHING required for a complete Thanksgiving feast by herself. I mean, it's possible that I could be expected to chip in a bit, but really she knows that the kitchen isn't exactly my happy place. I agreed to sit in there with her and chop and stir, which I did. (Yet another example of me saving Thanksgiving.) She made broccoli casserole, corn casserole, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pineapple salad, green bean casserole, crescent rolls, dressing, and turkey. Also pecan pie with no corn syrup. It was all amazing-mostly because she did it all herself. I tried to help out by offering to let her use instant mashed potato stuff that I have at my house from its previous owner. But when I mentioned this, Emily looked at me like I'd suggested to let her roast up her cat instead of getting a turkey.
So in all, it was a successful Thanksgiving. We ate until we were very full and then laid around on the couch watching stupid things on TV. I'll put up photos on facebook soon. Those photos will include the ones we took when decorating the house for Christmas as well. That was also an exciting time involving stringing popcorn, making snowflakes and homemade clay ornaments. I think I'm going to get a job with Hallmark selling a new line of Christmas ornaments entitled: random animals eating Santa Claus. So far we have a crocodile and a whale eating up the old fat guy. We'll do some market research to decide which animal is next for the collection. Precious Moments? What is that crap?
You didn't save Thanksgiving-the guy at Spinneys did. Or maybe me since I did most of the pumpkin work.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you saved Thanksgiving! I am so impressed that Emily cooked that much for just the three of you. Did you have anyone at all visiting? And I would like a few clay ornaments for my tree. Reminds me of the many ways you've set up manger scenes while we all decorated. Santa hats always ended up on the wise men and the duck was in the manger.
ReplyDeleteThis year the duck is eating Santa. And Darth Vader has a Santa hat and candy cane.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait till you start your new line. It's going to be such a hit, Amanda. I'll personally buy the entire collection so that Josh and I can start our new home off right.
ReplyDelete