Turkey Dinner Is Served

 I woke up to this .... wet and cold.  So chilly in fact that I finally had to turn on the heat for a few hours.  Between the rain and the fog, my solar isn't exactly sending dollars into my bank account.  My camera actually took out some of the fog.  I could barely see the trees.  The fireplace would have been magnificent, but I'm saving that big gas bill for Christmas.

Since I'm up so early, I didn't have any kitchen duties until later, so I tackled another problem.  My computer tells me twenty five times a day to back it up.  How annoying!  I tried to accomplish that on several occasions, but it would not cooperate.  Seriously, who knows why these things go crazy.

Apparently it didn't like the previous interloper that was backed up on the same disk.  I tried deleting a few, but it still was not happy.  Finally, in desperation, I clicked on the message to see if I could remove it ... permanently!  Up popped another message ... do you want to keep the old and backup the new?  Well of course, that's why I've been clicking the BACKUP button, yes?

I figured it would take awhile.  After three hours it was still going.  Big sigh ... what is going on?  Come to fine out it was backing up EVERY hour.  Why oh why?  I shut it off, now happy that the two computers are playing nice together, even if little brother is trying to outshine the older machine.

And then it was turkey time!  Since my oven has no clue just how hot it is, I turned it up to 400 degrees and plugged in a thermometer.  That's it on the right.  Everything went along fine for about an hour before I noticed the temp didn't move.  I adjusted the oven several times, now up to 475 degrees, but the gauge stayed the same 144 degrees.  

I got out my SECOND gauge and stuck it in the turkey.  Good grief.  NOW what do I do?  I also had a gauge inside the oven ... not sure that works either ... that read 300 degrees.  At that rate it will take all day to cook this bad boy.  

After 30 minutes and the temperature didn't rise at all, it finally hit me.  There's a battery in there and I bet it died.  

In the meantime, since Marie came to visit, I fixed her up in my Breville oven for an hour.  I've never had a Marie Callander pie I didn't like!  This is a Dutch Apple for a measly $5.00 on sale.  

When that came out of the oven, in went my cornbread stuffing.  It's always so much better when cooked in the bird, but this will suffice.  Celery, onions, almost an entire bottle of poultry seasoning, and a load of turkey broth.

Back to the bird, the second the new battery went in, it read 165 degrees.  How could I be so lucky!!  Out it came, to rest on the counter.  Yes it looks weird, because this is a turkey roll.  Ten pounds of the most delicious, moist, tender turkey I've ever had.  I can't even tell you who makes it.  This is what our Elks Lodge orders for all our Christmas parties.  No bones to mess with either!!

I whipped up my best gravy .......

and VOILA!  Dinner was served.  Obviously I was not a fan of the overcooked mushy microwavable broccoli with cheese sauce.  The cheese sauce disappeared completely.  I should have had corn ... or peas ... or anything other than this stuff.  I'll be honest, I only ate one bite of that.

As for the turkey .... it came out absolutely perfect!!  So very moist and tender you could cut it with a fork.  I ate the entire plate, along with lots of little pieces that fell off when slicing the bird.  

Big mistake .... BIG!!  I was absolutely miserable the rest of the night from eating WAY too much.  It just tasted so GOOD!  Marie agreed to wait and join the party for breakfast.

Not only did I think it was good ... Mr. Cooper cleaned up his bowl of turkey as fast as I did.  That's a good thing because we've got lots left to consume.

I was a lump on the couch the rest of the evening.  That's liable to be a repeat today since there's more fog and LOTS of turkey!!  

As for Black Friday ... that's a thing of the past.  It's Black WEEK for shopping and it's been resulting in record numbers around here.  I'm not a fan of crowds, so I'll just hang out with Mr. Cooper and eat leftovers ... and talk to Marie.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

 NOT just another day, this one.  It was time for that amazing turkey meal!  As I mentioned, I was invited over to Kathy and Nick's house ... an awesome couple who donate even more time than me to the Elks Lodge.  They ran a catering business for many years, besides twelve other jobs at the same time.

Nick is also in charge of our local Honor Guard, providing services at the National Cemetery most every weekend.  Kathy is a whiz in the kitchen and she's a BIG help to me.  

We started the day socked in with fog.  You don't really think about it, but fog is just small droplets of water.  COLD water that soaks everything to the bone.  Shine a light on it and it looks like this.  The tiniest drops of water floating through the air.

Blow on it and it moves like syrup.  I hated fog on the ranch.  Every time we went out to check the cattle, we came back soaking wet and freezing cold.  Even the horses stayed in the barn.  Cooper and I did the same thing, and I even turned the heat up!

When the fog lifted, it finally showed the first signs of fall.  At long last the trees are turning colors.  Of course along with that comes the gazillion leaves on the ground, now soggy and wet.  I'm leaving that to the gardener.

At long last it was time to head on over to the House of Food.  There sits Kathy's famous raspberry pie.  I just can't believe how fabulous her pie crust is.  I finally asked for her recipe.  She pulled the Marie Callenders pie box out of the garbage.  Now that's MY kind of girl!!!

That turkey?  It's gorgeous!!  There was a slight problem however ... something akin to MY cooking.  She looked up the FDA website to see how long to cook it.  It said 3-1/2 hours.  She put it in at 9:30.  When I got there, we were discussing when it was going to be ready to come out of the oven.

When her sister and I asked how BIG it was, she proudly stated 20 pounds.  Ummm Kathy ... that's going to take 5-1/2 hours to cook, not 3-1/2.  That's a "Nancy" if I ever saw one!!  She got out some chips and dip while we chatted on the patio for the next two hours.  

No problemo ... I had all day ... and when it came out of the oven, it was worth the wait.

Here we go ... mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole that I love, gorgeous turkey and some amazing stuffing.  I of course asked for THAT recipe too.  That was met with a HUGE laugh.

Okay .. what's your secret!  She had cooked some sausage the night before and crumbled it into the Stove Top Stuffing mix.  That and a tiny bit of turkey juice along with the required amount of water and VOILA!!  A mighty tasty stuffing.  How easy is THAT?

I cleaned this plate so well you could eat off it again.  I really think food tastes better if you are NOT the cook.  It was delicious!  We spent the next two hours cleaning up the kitchen before heading back out to the patio for a glass of Brandy.  I passed on that one.

It being much later than expected, I knew Cooper would have his legs crossed, so I headed on home.  I have to admit, it was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had.  It's so much nicer with company!!!

So TODAY, I'll be cooking up MY Thanksgiving dinner.  Since my oven never heats up to the correct temperature, I think it will take a while ... hopefully not 5-1/2 hours.  I'm using the temperature probe this time so I don't get it wrong.

WISH ME LUCK!!  I hope it turns out HALF as good as yesterday's dinner!  Oh ... and that pie?  I have the Dutch Apple special made by Marie hanging out in my oven as I type!!

GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!

Happy Happy .... it's TURKEY DAY here in Central California.  I'm all over the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.  I could pretty much do without everything else, but decorum requires a vegetable.  I have a choice between cheesy broccoli, bacon smothered peas or carrots swimming in maple syrup.  Or maybe I'll forget to cook those "good for you" things. 

The day started off on a good note with a little sun.  My Christmas light timer did its thing and turned off right on schedule.  It's so nice when those really cheap electrical controllers actually work.

After breakfast, my kid went right back to sleep.  Oh to sleep like a dog!!  In three seconds he's out like those Christmas lights.

My intention was to spend today cooking up a storm, but instead, I have accepted an invitation to my friends house.  You'll have to wait to hear about all the disasters that seem to accompany MY big Thanksgiving dinner.  I'll be cooking it up tomorrow instead.

In the meantime, I did whip up a batch of cornbread, stolen from Jonathan.  His bird biscuits are 90% cornbread from a box mix.  I baked this on a sheet tray, cut it up and am waiting for it to dry out.  The bad part is every time I walk by, I grab a piece.  You know, just to see how it's doing in the drying phase.  By tomorrow, there probably won't be any left!  It's SO GOOD!!

I finally grabbed a section of smoked ribs from the freezer for lunch.  It amazes me how good they still are, even when microwaved.  By the way, when did you get your first microwave?  I think mine was a 1969 model that weighed in at around 100 pounds. No kidding, that thing was HEAVY!  Mostly I just used it to reheat stuff.

Occasionally I would grind up perfectly good canned ham, mix it with barbecue sauce and pile it up on hamburger buns, to be wrapped up and frozen.  When it was time for lunch, I would nuke them for a couple minutes and VOILA!  Ham sandwiches.  That actually sounds TERRIBLE now, but they were delicious back then!  

I did try a couple hot dogs, which exploded nicely, causing an hours cleanup on aisle one.  Now I doubt I could live without one because there would be WAY too many pots and pans on the counter from reheating stuff, that would never get washed.  

The weather was so nice, I went out to check the van.  I plugged the solar charger back in before turning on the inverter and 12 volt power.  Sure enough, my solar panels, despite the rain and clouds, have kept the batteries at 100%.  That's a plus!!  

I know you can plug the charger in to the cigarette lighter and set it on the dash, but only if the lighter is hot all the time.  It appears that mine only works when the engine is on.

Dinner was a healthy chunk-o-salmon, not so much for me, but for the Kid.  All of a sudden, Mr. Cooper is gaining weight faster than he should.  Apparently we share the same problem.  Surprisingly, he ate his little portion with gusto.  I'm trying to get him off the dry dog food since it seems to cause so much itching and scratching.  It's like trying to take ice cream and cookies away from me!!!

Evening brought a big surprise when I went to gather up my trash cans at the curb.  WOW!  Where in the world did they get these trees?  I think my neighbors have four spread across their yard.  THIS one now lives in MY yard!  I love it!

Of course my phone camera doesn't do it justice, so I may have to get out my REAL camera.  This is just the beginning of their masterpiece.  I love the green wreaths up top!  On the left there's a creche scene that's just beautiful.  I'll try to get pictures of that too.  What a show stopper this is!

That was it ... a nice quiet day at home with this bundle of joy!  Leave me alone Mom, I'm SLEEPING!

Here's wishing you a wonderful happy food-filled day with your family on this Turkey Day.  I'm so very thankful for all my friends who read this crazy, sometimes boring blog, and give me a lot of much needed advice to keep me going.  I appreciate each and every one of you!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL!

GOBBLE GOBBLE!

It's Just Garbage!

 I think someone forgot to turn on the switch.  As much as I thought winter had arrived, we seem to now be stuck in Fall.  The weather guessers say our temps will be between 60 degree days and 40 degree nights for the next ten days.  At long last the trees are starting to turn colors and the leaves are falling.  Everything is shifting south and the earth is flat.  Just kidding, but I can hear Chicken Little in the Castle, every Bingo night.

First however, I got to play with my new little toy, the Christmas Tree Lights controller.  It only has two plug-ins, but since I haven't gone crazy with the lights, I only need two.  For ten bucks, this thing is a blast.  It even comes with a remote control and a dusk to dawn sensor.  I played with it for a bit before heading off to the great land of Bingo and another wonderful night with the peasants.

Lookie here ... even the Elks decorated the building with employee stockings.  Sadly, they are hung so low that even "I" bumped my head as I walked through the doorway.  There is lots of anticipation since Santa will visit and fill their stockings with a yearly Christmas bonus.  

Right off the bat, you can see the confab happening there as I look through the door from my safe haven.

On this night it wasn't the peasants who were up in arms with arrows, slingshots and pitchforks, it was the CREW.  The cities around here have become ridiculous when it comes to garbage.  Apparently the County has let a new company take over the garbage dump outside of town.  

The new rules are absolutely crazy.  Food and ONLY food must now go in a separate garbage can, to sit outside our building and rot for a week before pickup.  Can you just imagine the smell of that in our 105-110 degree summer weather?  Can you just imagine the homeless digging through all that?

Anything paper must go in another bin along with plastic bottles and cardboard boxes.  The third bin is for styrofoam cups and plates, but ONLY if they do NOT have food on them.  Ummm don't all styrofoam plates have food on them?  I think that's what they are made for.  Come on, it's all just garbage!

Of course last week, no one followed the new rules, which are confusing at best.  They put all their pull tabs into the food bin, which of course our crew had to extract.  I swear they did that on purpose.  THUS ... the NEW rules for our brown trash bags handed out when they paid for Bingo.  

Sadly, I wasn't there when this was written up.  It seems pretty confusing and I think they left out a bunch of commas.  We handed these out to everyone, whereupon they just did what they did last time ... put food in their brown paper bags.  Sometimes I think the peasants do it just to aggravate us.  Payback as it were for them not winning.  They have been known to purposely plug up the toilets in the women's restroom on many occasions.

The night was loud and proud as 133 players either grumbled or screamed for joy.  No big money games were won, but I gave away enough to buy a car.  That's better than a finger in a pumpkin pie!!  

That's when the best part of the night came along.  I received a phone call from an unknown number.  I never call those back, but this time I decided to take a chance.  One of the bingo players makes tamales every year ... and they are amazing!!  The husband was calling to see if I wanted any, since the wife does not speak English.  That's the best reference ever!!

I placed an order for FIVE dozen.  I don't eat them all myself, though I probably could because they are so good!  You can't even tell what this is because they are fresh out of the steam pot.  I gave away three dozen to my cohorts for helping with the rowdy peasants and brought two dozen home.

The rest of the night went pretty well ... no Knights had to be called to quell knife fights.  It seems the air of thanksgiving was permeating the building ... a rarity!!

Lucky for me I balanced ... except for the five dollars of nickels, dimes and pennies that I stashed in our slush fund.  It's a bucket under the counter so we don't have to deal with all that change.  

I was late getting home ... after 10:00.  I was almost falling asleep at the counter, but I had to repack the tamales into smaller bags and stick them ... still hot ... into the fridge.  I'll freeze a bunch today.  I was thinking however, I need to find a better way to heat them up again.  Frozen, then nuked, doesn't do them justice.  So how do you reheat YOUR tamales??

Though my turkey for tomorrow is thawing in the fridge, I'll be eating out at a friends house and cooking for myself on Friday.  I'm looking forward to lots of Cooper snuggle time.

Happy Hump Day and here's hoping you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with your family and friends!!!

Finger or Ginger? That Is The Question.

It rained a good part of the night as we head into Thanksgiving.  I know because it woke me up several times.  I hate it when that happens.  I think I've slept until at LEAST 3 am and when I check the clock, it's only 10:00 pm.   I also know we got quite a bit of water since my flower beds are full to the brim.

I knew it was coming when I got out the ladder to take a look see at the top of my rig.  The wind was blowing like a banshee, forcing me to hang on for dear life to the building struts.  I'm looking for a place to put a Winegard dish.  Not much room up there.  That big round thing I'm guessing is an antenna?  Take that off and I would be in like Flynn.  

After the installation charges, it would only cost me $7.00 a month since I already have Dish Network at home.  How about StarLink you ask?  That's $150 a month.  I could use it at home too, but think it would be a pain to move from the rig to the house, back to the rig, back to the house.  I'm still debating that one.

I spent all morning putting my Christmas decorations together.  Gee ... not much to set up ... but it took a couple of hours since none of the parts and pieces are numbered any more.  It would probably behoove me to get out a magic marker and fix that.

The first one I picked up fell apart completely.  To be honest, they are cheap China-made plastic.  I had to use zip ties to keep them together.  The good news is you can't see that part from far away.  The little hooks they give you to nail them down are too thin and only 5" tall.  A good windstorm would send them flying.

BUT ... I got the job done.  That bright light on the left?  For whatever reason, I can't get my landscape lights to work like they should.  It appears the timer died and I don't know how to replace it.  They are either on all the time, or off completely.  

There was a quick trip to town for a Christmas light timer because the big fancy expensive one I had refused to work no matter where I plugged it in.  Electricity is not my forte!  Of course they didn't have one, so I placed yet another Amazon order.  This time, a cheap one so I won't mind throwing it away if it doesn't work next year.

Lunch was simple.  This egg salad is what happens when .............................

You walk out of the store with THIS instead of a timer.  They always look so amazing that I thought a taste test was in order.  Remember, I test these things so you don't have to.

It was just okay.  A bit of a letdown since it looks so delicious.  I could taste the overbaked chocolate cake, but the frosting tasted like nothing.  No flavor at all.  What a letdown for $12.00!!!!  You can pass these up.

This on the other hand was cheaper, but you might want to read the ingredients very closely.  Either it's part of a body disposal, or someone can't type.  I passed on this one.

I couldn't wait for dark.  Here's my wonderful neighbor's house lit up like a Santa Clause runway.  I love Christmas lights.  And it's not finished yet!  I'll get more pictures later.  That husband is a keeper ... he does all this crazy stuff every year.  I think you can see their house from space.

I was most interested in seeing MY lights, including the two wreaths I put on the windows.  I found them on sale and love the look.  Their lights run on batteries, with 6 hours on and 18 hours off.  I had to attach Command hooks to the windows ... on a ladder ... in the wet muddy flower bed.  

Yeah, that was fun, but I got it done.  Hopefully when I go to remove the extra large STRONG hangars, I won't break the big picture windows.

And so for today, you know I'll be resting up and gearing up with my steel armor in readiness for the Bingo Castle.  We have a problem in Bingo City ... those outdated potato chips.  Good grief ... if that was the only problem I'd be in heaven!!  Maybe I'll bring the box home and eat them myself ... on the days I don't have CAKE!!

I'm off to BINGOLAND .....

The SHUFFLE!!

 Wow ... I can't believe November is almost gone already.  The days are flying by.  I mean really ... 30 days til Christmas!!!!  Are you ready?

Like any other day, we spent a couple hours cuddling on the couch.  My shadow follows me everywhere.  

Don't bother me Mom ... I'm sleeping!!!

Well I really needed to do SOMETHING ... sitting around makes me crazy ... so I began the SHUFFLE!  No it's not a dance, it's trying to straighten up the house by shuffling stuff here and there.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it's abject failure.  

The biggest problem is that my three big bedroom closets have become overrun with STUFF.  Things that were stacked up on the kitchen table, are now stacked up in the bedroom closet.  Truly, it's full to the brim.  One of these days I'll have to shuffle through it again ... maybe out to the garage.

That's when I found the solar trickle charger for the van.  Since it was nice and sunny, I set it up, surprised to find big holes in the front through which I could pass the wires.  It worked like a charm.  Well I think it did ... the red flashing light came on.  I guess time will tell.

That's when I spotted this.  Candy canes!!  My sweet neighbors had called to ask if they could put up some lights by the fence.  I thought they meant at the walkway.  I can't believe they set up ALL THIS, all the way down my driveway.  How nice is that?

That means they are in the decorating mode .....

Their house comes out amazing every year.  He hits up Home Depot most every day for his work, and gets in on all the sales.  Apparently he found those candy canes last year for a steal!!  

That means I had to get out my trees and get them set up.  I didn't get all that far since apparently I threw away the instructions, and all the little tag numbers fell off.  Three down, three to go.

When it got dark, I looked out to see this!  More lights run down the far side of their property, but how nice of them to put them on MY side ... especially when they had to go through all that rock to do it!!

It looks like a runway right to their front door.  I suppose I should head out to Home Depot now where I will find more stuff to shuffle about.

As I walked outside to admire the lights, wasn't I surprised to find EVERY neighbor had already put their lights up.  I need to get with the program!!

It's sprinkling this morning, and even though the battery charger touts itself to be waterproof, I don't believe it.  Out I went into the pitch black to disconnect it and bring it in out of the wet.  Well that was fun ... now I'm soaked.  But here's the thing ... how do you KNOW if it worked or not?  There's no battery indicator readily available on the dash.  

In fact, I have discovered you can't find out anything unless you delve deep into the brain by clicking button after button to even see the mileage.  So much for the days of easily knowing where you stand with your ride!!  

I'll be parked on the floor for the morning, trying to figure out how to put the last three trees together, shuffling tree stand parts until they fit.  OH THE FUN!!  Will they work when plugged in?  THAT remains to be seen!!

Arabian Nights!!

 So much for our five days of rain!  I'm not sure who does the predictions, but I'm pretty sure they look like Carnac the Magnificent!  Anyone remember this?  

 So far our five days of flooding rain have only brought us less than half an inch.  The week long storm MAY bring about two days of water if we are lucky ... but it won't be today.  As you may be able to see however, it was enough to remove lots of leaves from the trees overnight.

I procrastinateth!  I'm sure that's a word.  I thought about it every day for three days before the rain hit, but sat on my duff and did nothing.  It would have mattered not ... I would just have to do it again.  So you know what this ladder is for, right?

On my entire huge house, the only problem I have is with this ONE downspout.  Yes I could probably spend a lot of money on leaf guards, but that would require even MORE work at least twice a year removing leaf guards before removing the two inches of mud that accumulates at the bottom of the gutter.  It's so heavy, the gutters begin to tear away from the house.

This is farming country.  The amount of dust and dirt is epic when harvesting almonds, walnuts and pistachios.  It's much easier to clean them out WITHOUT leaf guards getting in the way.  

It's only this corner that gathers enough tiny tree twigs and mud to block the downspout.  I dug them out by hand, and miraculously, all the water disappeared down the hole.  Easy peasy ... but a pain.  I tried putting screen over the hole, but it only made it worse.  

After that I sewed a little, read a little and generally lollygagged the day away.  The evening was to be spent at the Arabian Nights Gala at the Senior Center.  This is a small rural town, so what to wear to such an occasion was questionable.  I wore a very nice western shirt with Levis and boots.  It's the best I could do.  I saw everything from Levis to exotic ball gowns.  Who wears that stuff??  Maybe bridesmaids.

This is their second attempt at a fund raiser for the small elementary school performing arts.  Truthfully, those are words you never hear around this part of the country.  You have to give it up to a few parents who are trying to bring a little culture to the table.  Bingo supports them by buying an entire table plus a lot of extra moolah.

I was pretty shocked when we sat down to find gold charger plates.  Wow ... this is up town for Levis and boots.  I of course forgot the required picture, so I snagged my neighbor's plate.  The first course was a very nice salad served by the kids in the production, followed by a really REALLY good dinner.  The plastic fork and knife were problematic ... not really being able to cut the steak ... and when it did, the fork broke.  No worries, we got another one.  

Then came the production.  These kids ... they were all so excited to serve us dinner, and even MORE excited to sing a few songs from their musical.  

So here's a short video for your listening pleasure.  Turn up the volume and DON'T LAUGH.  Wait till the end and keep your eye on the right hand side of the movie.  No one ever said they would end up on Broadway but we gave them a standing ovation.

In the meantime, we were bidding on silent auction items.  Next was the dessert dash.  Your table writes up a big donation from everyone and submits it to the Emcee.  They read off the highest bid and that table gets to dash to the dessert table and pick their item first.  We were the only three left at our table, so we didn't participate.  You're not going to believe this ... the winning dessert was a nice white cake with white frosting that went for a whopping $1,000.  

You read it right.  The next one was $600.  I'm glad we didn't participate in that one.  These are my good friends Karen and Mark who participated in the NEXT gig ... buy a balloon for $20 (or $50) ... and pop them all at once when they say GO.  You might win a $100 bill.  They lost ... and since I had already bought $20 worth of drink tickets, I passed.  

I'm pretty sure the winning balloon was up on the ceiling over our heads where it escaped from the kids selling them.  

All in all it was a good night, except for the politician who showed up.  People seem enamored with them, but not this table.  The last time we spoke with him, he agreed with all our positions on water for farmland, but said it didn't matter what we thought, he had to vote his party's stand regardless of what his constituents wanted.  Yup that's a politician for you!!

On a good note, Mr. Cooper was really happy to see me come home.  No rain today, but we might see another gorgeous sunrise!  Thank goodness the politicians can't mess with that!!!