Gobble Gobble

Here’s wishing everyone a belated Turkey Day.  Hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and remembered the whole point behind the holiday.  This year I am thankful to be happy and healthy and for all the great quality time I have gotten to spend with my husband in the past few weeks.  It’s nice to actually see him once in a while.

We had two turkeys this year, and not purposely.  I had a dinner planned with a good friend across the street.  She is German and was going to be celebrating her first Thanksgiving ever, plus she also has a new son so it was his first too!  Her husband wanted to do a deep-fried turkey since he’s from the south and had been having them for years.  But it was less than a week till Thanksgiving and there was still no fryer to make one so I planned on cooking one.  Bought one, started it thawing, then low and behold he found a fryer.  And bought a turkey!  And despite our suggestions, thawed it anyway, so we had two 14 pound turkeys for four people.  Of course I didn’t want that much turkey and didn’t want to deal with cooking a turkey on top of everything else for Thanksgiving if there was no need to, so I kept it in the fridge to cook later.  I was cooking first thing when I woke up on Thursday, just for the hubby.  He wanted Cinnamon Rolls because it’s a family tradition.  I didn’t mind a challenge, and baked cinnamon rolls from scratch.  I can’t believe I was successful though!  And now that I’m an accomplished Cinnamon Roll baker I need a better recipe.   So please share any suggestions!  Thank you!

It was nice to have Thanksgiving twice, I must say.  And both birds were absolutely delicious (despite the fact that the deep fried one was slightly undercooked and had to make a trip to the oven).  I highly, highly suggest the recipe I used to roast my turkey.  I cooked it up yesterday.  It was so good, and very very moist!  If you get Taste of Home Magazine you already have the recipe!  It was a Champagne Basted Turkey and you can find the recipe here if you are a Taste of Home Member.  At first I questioned the idea of using Champagne, or as it called for any type of sparkling wine.  I ended up using Mascato wine because I always have it in my fridge, and it turned out great!  I will use this recipe again, and possibly again and again after that!

 

Deep Fried Turkey- Not as burnt as it looks!

 

Oh So Good Mascato Basted Turkey

 

Oh Happy Day.

Hoping you can sense the sarcasm in my voice.  Needless to say I have to complain.  I’m not a big fan of complaining, but sometimes it’s just necessary.  Well, first I find out some people aren’t coming that I planned on for Thanksgiving.  Which is cool.  You should do what you want to on Thanksgiving, but I don’t like when I have to find out about it through another friend, because I discover that some people I invited are going there instead.   I mean, how tacky really.  I don’t mind when people do what they want to do and I always want the freedom to do what I want and not feel bad.  I really am just mad because this always seems to happen to us.  We tried to have a Super Bowl party last year, a birthday party for my husband, and things really just never seem to pan out.  We plan, I cook and people that we are expecting don’t come.  Or we find out a few days before that they aren’t coming.  As much as I love living in Germany, I’m really excited to go back to the states where we have family.  Because really, you can always plan on family.

So I went shopping for our feast because we still have some great friends coming, and although it will be a little more of an intimate party than I expected, we are still going to have a great old time.  I’m determined.  So my fridge is stocked and my menu is planned, and everything is ready to go.  Then life decides to throw me another curve ball.  Apparently I just wasn’t meant to have a working refrigerator for the week of Thanksgiving.  It started getting a bit warmer this weekend, so I turned the temp down on it so it would get colder. Then it didn’t.  So first thing this morning I called facilities on post.  She told me she would get back to me between 10 & 12 about when the contractor would come to fix it.  When she called over an hour earlier than she said she would I was hopeful, then she said he would be here between 1200 and 1800 (for you civilians that means between noon and 6pm). 6pm!!!  I cannot wait that long, so I told her this. She says he has 8 service calls today, he never knows how long each will be.  I just wanted to scream at her “just come here NOW!!!!!!!!!”  But, I kept my calm I said I have groceries in my fridge I need to worry about and would appreciate it if they could keep that in mind and try to keep me at the top of the list.  I do think that they need to think about stuff like this, instead of just coordinating where they are going by location.  Unless they want to pay to replace my groceries and get me to the commissary to buy them.  So, needless to say, I’m waiting on them to come repair my fridge.  And I hope they can repair it and that they don’t have to replace it.  From what I’ve seen they replace fridges all too much around here instead of just fixing what doesn’t work.  My groceries (the important ones) are at my friends house, who will actually be joining us for Thanksgiving.  She is such a good friend and I’m glad I have her to depend on.  And since she called me so much earlier than she said, I’m hopeful that he will get her to fix my fridge nice and early. I’m being optomistic.

Then I got home from my dear friends house.  And my cats are running wild.  Which isn’t all that unusual so I don’t pay that much attention. I should have paid more attention.  Down in that little spot by their water dish is my project bag, with my husband’s Christmas present in it!!!  But seems a ball of yarn was missing……it was spread from the bottom floor to the top floor.  Now, you must understand my house to really see how annoying this is.  We live in a split level apartment, and have 6 stories.  Yes 6.  So needless to say one ball of yarn was wet, and unraveled throughout the house.  I’m not happy.  After everything I’ve been going through, it really wasn’t what I wanted to deal with.  And now the cats know Mommy is not a happy girl.  They both got into big trouble!

Welcome November

Can you believe we only have 2 months left in the year?  And they are my favorite!  Especially this year.  I’ve been thinking about Thanksgiving for about 2 or 3 weeks now (don’t tell!) and trying to plan out everything.  I’m very excited and now that November has finally rolled around I can actually share my excitement.  Last year was the hubs and my first Thansgiving together, among other holidays, but it was also my very first time cooking a turkey.  Just for the two of us (and might I mention the commissary only carries turkeys that are at least 12 lbs and bigger!!).  I must say that I was told it was the best Turkey he’d ever tasted.  Well, who knows if he was just saying that for my sake, but it was pretty darn good.  And this year I get to find out how sincere he really was!  Because we are having people over.  Actually quite a few.  Right now I can count on 6 people (+ 2 babies.  we never can forget the babies!) and 6 others have been invited but we are waiting on.  So I may have quite a large group.  And no matter what, I know we will have more food than we know what to do with.  I’ve cooked for others before, but nothing this extravagant.  And I can’t wait.  I really love to cook, and I love to make things I don’t make everyday.  So I can’t wait!

Not only is Thanksgiving coming up, but my brother’s birthday is also in November.  Then comes my birthday, Christmas and New Years!  I’m just so excited for this year, although I’m not exactly sure why it feels different than other years.  Maybe it’s just that I feel more like a homemaker now, and excited for all the treats I can cook while my husband is at work.  And I have more friends that like to get out and do stuff, so I’m excited about exploring new places.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been losing weight and I’m excited to see how well it continues. But I’m happy right now, very content.  And I’m here wishing you a Happy November!