#21: "Surprisingly, the ice did not melt."

[bottlecap]

AAAAHHHH, turkey coma.... Is 6:00 too early to go to bed?

[FromClaygary]

MERRY THANKSTURKEY TO ALL MY FAVORITE FOLKS DOWN SOUTH!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day with friends, family or just on your own...in the way you love best.

WHY do you suppose I have an almost insatiable desire for turkey/dressing and a green bean casserole I've never tasted in my life???

Might have to visit Swiss Chalet tonight.

ETA: At risk of breaking rules about bringing quotes from blogs, I really MUST comment on him telling us about a woman "coming down hard on" him....

When I saw that, I visualized this face....

In my dream world we would get a lot of green-eyed soul, a bit of BW type new-age, and a great big ballad or two for old times sake.

OMG! I agree!!!

I was following the Celine Dion discussion at the CH, and as one who was personally affected by her decision not to play Halifax <snip>

Haven't heard a thing about this, but I'm extrapolating that there were complaints the city was spending too much money to bring in a "cheesy" singer? By certain people?

How TRULY awful first, that Celine knew about this (I gather...) and second, that it affected her performing. Your daughter must have been crushed, and although I'm not really a Celine fan (altough not a not-a-fan either), I feel badly for Celine.

Sorry, but some of these things just go right off the deep end! How incredibly stupid!!

That clip just makes me crazy waiting to see this show again!!!

Well that was great fun! Thanks for bringing it over! I haven't spoilered myself for Spamalot as I want to see it with fresh eyes. I didn't see boyfriend's character in that group I don't think...but if that is the "tone" of the whole production how much more fitting could it be for him than "Look on the Bright side". He's the master.

I'm off to get someone to bring me a turkey pizza or something...through the drifts and ice. I refuse to go out in that mess. And God knows I don't cook!!

[muskifest]

Turkey's got another hour to go. I've made the jello salad and the sweet potato casserole. I've done everything I can do for the gravy until the turkey's done and the stuffing at the very end...I've cleaned up all the bowls and whatnot that I used and I have left the kitchen! Now it's Kenny's turn---he does the mashed potatoes and succotash. The girls set the table. The dog waits for scraps.

I'm now sitting in the living room, drinking a beer while Carrie, Kenny and my mom play Bingo. Carrie's using one of those cages that make all kinds of irritating noise when she cranks it and I'm going bonkers!

The beer's going down very, very smoothly.

CG, just put some Clay DVDs on, sit back with some wine and your veggie cra....uh goodies and enjoy! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

[jumpingjacks]

:cry4: My homemade pumpkin pie isn't done in the middle!!! Can you put a pie back in the oven to cook more when it's been out of the oven for several hours?

Dammit...I was SO looking forward to it. I cooked it for over an hour plus the 15 min. at a higher temperature (per the recipe)...

[luckiest1]

My son and I had a nice little dinner of chicken breast, instant mashed potatoes (roasted garlic of course) and frozen veggies. Mmmmmmmm, I"m still licking the store-bought pumpkin pie for desert off my lips. Yum yum yum. Thanks for inspiring me, y'all. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I hope Clay found some time to get out of the office and mingle with his friends and family around the dinner table. Still no word on anyone getting an email?

{{{jj}}} You could always try putting it back in for a little while and see. If not, is there a store open nearby?

Gibby, from what I've listened to, spot's audio is by far the best of the bunch for Holiday On Ice. Of course, if you wait a little longer, you could use NBC audio, but that's bound to have commentators on it.

[zena]

It's so much fun to read about all the feasting. In a former life, my kitchen was my kingdom and I did lots of happy cooking and baking and eating there......

I probably own the most cookbooks on the Canadian prairie, and I can't bear to part with any of them. It's a bit like buying a CD for one song.....*g*

I have drawers full of clippings and recipes I've brought home from somewhere.

I don't know nuthin' about okra, succotash, or lima beans. Sweet potatoes are yucky and I give those golf balls called brussel sprouts a reeeeally wide berth. :chair: Broccoli and I are friendly.

But GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I looooove green bean casserole, ( thanks for that link, JennaZ), and turkey with dressing, mashed potatoes,pumpkin pie, chocolate pecan pie, cranberries, and good wine. Yum..

Here's my GB recipe for posterity.....

Green and Yellow Bean Bake ( this is an equal opportunity casserole)

Cook fresh beans until tender.

Saute some onions in a little butter.

Add some red and green pepper strips,and sliced fresh mushrooms if desired.

Set aside.

Make a white sauce using 2 cups of milk and a little flour.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Add 1 tsp. soya sauce.

Combine the sauce with the onions, peppers and mushrooms.

Put beans into a casserole dish.

Stir in sauce and vegetables.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 25 minutes.

While the casserole is baking fry about 8 strips of bacon until crisp

When the casserole is done, take it out of the oven and stir it.

Top with toasted bread cubes, crumbled bacon and

put back into the oven for five more minutes.

ta da!

From Claygary, I'm having pizza too; out of the freezer.

You know what I wish today? I wish all of us lonely people lived within hugging distance. Crazy I know, but all the same, I'm glad Finding Clay Aiken helped me find all of you.

I betcha Clay is lonely too; slaving away in that little office of his. Here's a hug for you Clay!

[jumpingjacks]

Keep your fingers crossed...the pie is going back into the oven.

[playbiller]

Gee, you people eat late,.Thanksgiving dinner is always around 1 or 2 PM in all the households where I have eaten. I don't know anynoe who waits until nighttime. How else can the guys follow dinner by laying on the couch and watch football?

[keldanker]

Playbiller, we ate about 5:30 because dd and sil had an early dinner with his parents and then came here. I would prefer to eat a little earlier, but we've had to do it this way for the last several years. Next year dd and sil hope to have their own house and she says she will have Thanksgiving at her house for all of us.

Today we had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, canned cranberry sauce (for dh), an apple/cranberry dish, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, pumpkin pie and apple pie. Whew!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

[muskifest]

playbiller...we usually eat around 2 pm but this year we had some things making a later meal necessary. Kenny had to put a new battery and air filter in the car and so we couldn't go get Mom earlier than we did...ended up not putting the turkey in the oven until almost 1 pm! :o We just finished...Kenny and MOm are cleaning up, the girls are doing nuthin', although Alex has to take the dog out for a long walk in a bit an Carrie needs to wash her clothes and pack for her trip...

I'm sipping wine and checkin' in here with my peeps! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

LEt's see...it's 8:45 pm...wonder how many helpings Clay has had by now?

[aikim]

I think I'll make a pasta and bean soup to go with my tofurkey sandwich. It has ditalini and zucchini and cannellini beans and tomatoes (I use fire-roasted because I love the favor) and spices and stuff like that. Normally that and a salad would be dinner, but since this is Thanksgiving, I'll have a tofurkey sandwich to go with it.

Aren't you all jealous?

The sad thing is, I have nothing for dessert!

I make a soup similiar to that (It's actually Rachael Ray's recipe) and it is my absolute favorite. No tomatoes in it but I may have to try that.

Back from my MIL's; after two days of rain, the sun came out so it was a very nice drive down. We had a nice visit with the family, ate way too much and to add to the day, hubby let me listen to Clay on the way home (usually when he is the car, it is a no Clay zone); now everyone is crashing. Hubby had to go to work at midnight and tomorrow I start Wrapping for Inclusion. I am really looking forward to it!

Kim

[Kareneh]

Well, there isn't the delicious aroma of turkey cooking around here today, everyone but me and the dog are in another country. I'm getting that lovely burning smell you get when you first turn on the heat at the beginning of winter. I am/was freezing my ass off here. The temperature dropped from 82 to 52 around dinner time last night.....30 degrees...in the time it took me to slap the mayo on the bread till I passed the last crust off to the dog. I caved in turned off the ceiling fans and retrieved some socks from my luggage. Today I had enough of shivering and turned on the furnace.

Just turned it on....didn't come down hard or anything.

So, this is my first Thanksgiving alone in quite few years. I thought it would be great to have a day with no interruptions in which I could get copious amounts of schoolwork out of the way and feel really proud of myself. HAHA! I'll get to it eventually but I slept until noon and so I sort of lost the morning hours. I'm not so proud of that right now....but I got to playing with the new camera and then one thing led to another. BUT.....I do have a point here somewhere.....oh, yeah.....a small world story. This occurred to me today. merrieeee came here from England. I came here from Canada. On my very first Thanksgiving Day in Houston, John (who is now in Azerbaijan) and I went to dinner at his boss's house. At the start of dinner our host (who as of this month is working in Denmark) said grace. During the prayer, I held John's hand with my right and merrieeee's boss's hand with my left....except I didn't know he was merrieeee's boss at the time. I just thought he was John's boss's brother-in-law. Small world, eh? And one for which I am thankful as I head off to the other side of it soon.

zena, darling.....you have a green bean casserole there that doesn't have french-fried onions in it. We have to talk.

I think I adopted sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole on our second or third hitch in the states. Imagine my distress when we moved back to Halifax once and I had to search high and low for a precious can of Durkee French Fried Onions. I found them in the foreign food section covered in dust on the highest shelf. No Celine and no Durkee French Fried Onions....I'm sensing a theme here. And muski, your Thanksgiving dinner is the same as mine with a substitute of GBC for the succotash....so that makes it exactly like keldanker's. Now I wish I had of ordered something from Luby's to eat in front of the TV.

Who was it that said his voice is his musical direction? Excellent point. And in keeping with today's theme, I'd equate it to being a good cook who can make a great lasagna and an equally yummy poached salmon. I don't think I'd want a steady diet of one or the other, and though a cook may prefer to make one thing over another, I remember getting really bored with making dinners.

I think I'll ponder the CD's being like dessert and the live performances bringing the meat.....and potatoes. I only said potatoes so as not to sound too crass. It is a holiday after all.

John has been over there picking out our furniture with the landlord....should I be worried. I'm not going to own this stuff, so I am keeping an open mind. He sent me some pix he took with his cell phone from the top of the Maiden's Tower the day I left my memory card in the side of the laptop.

Okay, that's all you have to deal with from me right now. I'm going to take my dinner out of the oven, walk the dog while it cools a little and then eat. When that is done and the foil pan is in the trash, I'm going to use a necktie to fasten myself to the chair as a reminder that I really don't want to wander up to Best Buy at 2:00 AM. I DON"T NEED ANYTHING! No, I don't.......I really don't....except that 2G cards are 17.99.....and double-except I DON'T NEED THEM. I think I shall uncork my last bottle of vino myself and that way I won't be able to go.

Sounds like a good plan.

[jmh123]

Just got back from Thanksgiving dinner--we went out to a restaurant...*gasp*. Works best with the mom situation, and she enjoys it. We called my cousin and she said she saw Clay on 5th Grader and..............guess what.................she said he was............................so...................................

CUTE!!!!

[playbiller]

Well, I was talking about a lot of people on a liot of boards - there seems to be a lateness to dinner this year pretty much all around.

good luck with the pie though, Muski. I have just served mine undercooked when it happened to me. noone complained about free food they didn't have to cook.

Had a good quiet day myself. I really did a good clean up on the wood in the yard and am taking a bookcase down to the basement, I hope there is room in the kitchen soon and I can put a stained wood bookcase in there to give my cook books a good home and to display my cookie jar collection. Slowly, but surely I am taking my home back. I am thinkful for that. Actually there are many things to enjoy. I have a healthy, but nuts Holly running around the house now. I could have saved a lot on vet bills and had her put to sleep after she was hit by the car and bought a new dog, but it just would not have been the same. She is still the most affectionate dog I have ever owned or dogsat.

Lets hope that by this time next week all the concert speeches are in place and we don't have to hear too much about how bad the concerts are before they happen.

Nice phone picutes, Karen eh?.

On topic, Clay is cute!

[cindilu2]

KarenEh? wrote:

Who was it that said his voice is his musical direction? Excellent point. And in keeping with today's theme, I'd equate it to being a good cook who can make a great lasagna and an equally yummy poached salmon. I don't think I'd want a steady diet of one or the other, and though a cook may prefer to make one thing over another, I remember getting really bored with making dinners.

Excellent analogy. Clay really is a smorgasbord of yummy goodness. Can I have the drumstick, please?

Before Christmas-y stuff starts in earnest, how about one more in Fall-ish colours?

Regular

Widescreen

[muskifest]

play, that was jumpingjacks that was having pie challenges!

BWAH! Kenny just came to pour me more wine and actually spilled some on my laptop monitor! I quickly said, "Hey! Clay doesn't drink!"

Alex: "OMG....MOM! Did you name your laptop 'Clay'?"

Me: "No...but see?" Then I showed her the desktop background---the gorgeous and very big AIW poster with the red background....

Alex: "OMG...." (big eyeroll)

BWAH!

[Claygasm]

*I'm* jellus.

Without even knowing it, twin, you've inspired and reconnected me to my own resolutions. Even if you don't have much to be thankful for; many beings (including me) are thankful for you.

Awww. You made me all teary eyed, twin! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

My soup was very good - and VERY easy to make. I didn't really need the tofurkey sandwich. The soup was very filling. But I felt I should have something that was a little Thanksgiving-ish.

When we used to do Thanksgiving we ate late - and I mean late. Like 8:00pm was early. Never could understand why people ate dinner at 1:00pm! That's lunch! We've always eaten dinner late. We ate Christmas dinner really late too.

Now I have to do some laundry so I have something to wear to work tomorrow.... YUCK!!

[jumpingjacks]

play, that was jumpingjacks that was having pie challenges!

It's ok, I'm just so quiet and subdued....

[Claygasm]

Clay really is a smorgasbord of yummy goodness. Can I have the drumstick, please?

Thread title??

[KAndre]

I'm back!

My son, mother and nephew (my family is complicated and large) drove to my grandparents' house (which now belongs to my aunt who doesn't like me but likes my son and feels the need for the giant family gathering) last night. Stayed up til 4 in the morning playing cards and dominoes. Not a lot of people this year - only about 35. The oldest was my great aunt Beulah (born in 1916 and doesn't like me either but it's definitely mutual) but still kicking ass and taking names. Especially at dominoes and Scrabble. Everybody brought something so there were multiple versions of mac 'n cheese, green bean casserole, broccoli 'n rice casserole, candied yams, turkey, ham, gumbo, sausage, turnip greens, gravy, cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, apple pie, some pie with pink filling, 4 kinds of cake, sweet tea and beaujolais. And we ate at 12:30p. Forced my child and nephew to go wandering around with their great uncle Charles to see where their land was. Listened to complaints about them being stuck listened to Great Uncle Charles talk about everything under the sun for 2 hours. Laughed at them because if I had to put up with it, so did they.

Am back today, and enjoyed avoiding the fifty million cops out there.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

[keepingfaith]

Thanksgiving is the best holiday ever in my opinion. Our menu this year was:

2 smoked turkeys

a baked turkey

a fried turkey

a honeybaked ham

smoked link sausage

a huge pan of cornbread dressing

another pan of cornbread dressing w/o celery

my mother's incredibly addicting giblet gravy

broccoli rice casserole

butterscotch yams

sweet potato casserole with pecan topping

fresh squash casserole (the one with sour cream and cheese, etc.)

mashed potatoes

my sister's yummy macaroni and cheese

fresh green beans

watergate salad w/walnuts

watergate salad w/o walnuts

spinach salad

fruit salad

40 deviled eggs

cranberry sauce

the obligatory plate of green onions

two pecan pies

a coconut cream pie

a chocolate cream pie

a cherry pie

an assortment of breads

beaujolais, iced tea, soft drinks, coffee

It was wonderful. We feast hard and continue to eat it the rest of the weekend and it gets better every day. But right now, I'm dead and I don't want to see food.

[Guest Toots]

Pasta and bean soup, yes I'm jellus CG. I'm not a vegetarian but I do love beans and vegetables, sometimes better than meat.

We ate at 2:00, a little early but nice. Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes & gravy, home made rolls, stuffing, various and asundry casseroles including green bean with the required onion rings. I enjoyed every morsel that wandered into my mouth. Now I have the turkey coma so that's all for the night.

[gbmifan]

Some of you had very elaborate menues. My DIL for the second year in a row hosted our dinner. Last year when she said she would do it I thought she was crazy. My son and her wedding was two days later. She did it and it was really good. This year she offered again and because they actually have more space then me I did not argue. I brought green bean casserole, and sweet potato and pecan topped casserole. Her mother brought the homemade cranberry sauce and apple and pumpkin pie. My DIL made the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, a cranberry and walnut salad, rolls, two other pies, and made a couple of appetizers. I think this is great for someone who is only 24 years old.

I loved his blogged last night. My story probably will not get picked so I am not concerned about the wearing of all black. Read this morning on the OFC that people were upset that he suggested this. I had to laugh, thought if this opportunity came about I would find black somewhere. What I read is that people either picked out what they wanted already to wear or they could not afford to buy something else. I am not wearing black to the concert, but if picked I am sure I could go through my closet. I never post over their, but my answer to them would be do not get upset to you find out if you are reading or quit complaining about everything. Some people are never happy.

[FromClaygary]

I've never thought of us as having "Canadian" food, other than the obvious things like tortiere and poutine which are very Quebecois rather than Canadian, I think.

Nor have I really noticed typical "American" food while I'm there. I see the same ol' same ol' pretty much everywhere I go in the US.

But some of the stuff you guys are eating just blows my mind!! (mostly in a good way, you understand)

What the heck is "watergate salad"??

Squash?? Ewwwww! Who made you eat that??

PS...my chicken italiano pizza was not bad!!

[laljeterfan]

I made about 12 pounds of fudge to take to our Thanksgiving get-together today, ( chocolate, chocolate/peanut butter, and vanilla/butterscotch), and came home with about 10 pounds left over! That means that I'm NEVER going to fit into all of my new "going -to -see -Clay" outfits in 2 weeks!

Just wanted to let you all know that even for someone like me, who's a lurker, not a writer, this place has been a little slice of heaven. Thanks so much for allowing me to quietly enjoy all the laughs, smut, thoughtfulness and silliness- and that CUTE guy up there in the banner- who I love and adore beyond all reason. :F_05BL17blowkiss: