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

[Claygasm]

I can't believe I have to go to work in the morning.........

In case anyone is interested, I posted my soup recipe in the recipe thread found here.

I can't believe I have to go to working in the morning......

[Cotton]

KAndre - I had a Great Aunt Beulah!!! She was my Nannie's sister.

I don't remember her kicking ass, though!

hee

G'Night, All!

[muskifest]

Good LORD, keepingfaith! How many was all that food supposed to feed? :o

Tomorrow Kenny, Alex and I hit the road for a two-day journey for college campus visits...should be fun---weather will be perfect and the van's clean, with a new battery and air filter, balanced and rotated tires and an oil change. We're good to go!

Carrie's off to Disneyland with friends!

Neighbor's son will check in on Shadow and walk him twice a day!

Oh, by the way...we really had a great time today and Mom was wonderful. She was in good spirits and helped clean up. Sat by the fire and helped us sort socks out of the dryer and then was ready to go back. She kept thanking me and telling me she loves me.

When we said goodnight, she hugged me and said, "I'll let you know if I get married."

[Couch Tomato]

Enjoyed reading about everyone's day. I'm home with enough leftovers for at least 2 days. My taste buds kicked in today so I could taste everything and I can honestly say...I put my foot in everything. Where did that saying come from. Even my pumpkin pie cake which turned out pretty well..cooked it a touch too long and so the bottom crust was a little ummm dark. I don't know why I didn't understand I was making something so rich until I took my first bite. hee. Yummy.

So we ate around 3 pm and then watched 2 movies that my sister picked. She did pretty good this year. One was Contract with John Cusack (my original pasty white boyfriend) and MOrgan Freeman...then we watched Hairspray. Don't laugh but I had no clue what this was about. Is the movie version different from the original? Anyway, I really enjoyed it. John Travolta..I couldn't love him any more. Anybody know the history on why he had this part. But the funniest thing was not from the movie but from my 5 year old neice (pochohontas)... a what? a what day? And after my sister told her..she's all "What's a Negro." I couldn't contain myself, although she hates it when she thinks you're laughing at her.

Anyway it will be intersting to see how my sister's kids deal with both of their ethnic backgrounds. Even though they live not five minutes from me and their grandma I think they more self identify as Filipino. They're just too young to really understand much at the moment.

TMI

Still congested but a bit better...and sometime during CSI I Realize the tissue I was using was all bloody and it took me a while to get it to stop. My bro in law is a manager at Walgreens so had lots of good drugs and did you know they make tissues with Vicks in it? What will they think of next.

Just going to take it easy the rest of the night..tomorrow night is our So You Think You Can Dance show...I can't wait to see my niece enjoy this. Night all.

Jenna..thanks for the green been recipes. I'll try it for Xmas dinner...which for us is essentially the same as thanksgiving dinner. No matter how much I insist that we just had all this stuff and let's be different and original..my mom is all about tradition.

KF how does fried turkey taste?

CG...tofuturkey? hmmm but that's for the soup recipe.

Hey lajeterfan..glad to know you're still around and lurking and enjoying!

ETA: love mamamuski... can I be a flower girl?

[playbiller]

FYI - todays woot woot.com is a remanufactured Scoomba for 99.00

I think it is a good deal, They have the best prices ion roomba's, but they are usually new. Some remanufactureds are fine, some are not. new it costs 299. good deals sell out fast. you have to decide.

On topic - well, he is kind a cute.

[Couch Tomato]

waves to sheiladownunder..I think it's me and you kid. Everybody else... out for the night... ETA:

spoke too soon.. .look like some folks just rolling in.

ETA Hey Jenna... oh to hear you do karaoke! Glad you had fun! Our drink of choice this holiday was cranberry margarits and I did one tequila shot.

[JennaZ]

Just got back from my brother's place. We had:

Turporken (turkey stuffed with pork)

Honey baked ham

Meatballs

Cranberry sauce

Stuffing

Mashed potatoes

Green bean casserole

Sweet potato casserole

Macaroni salad

Fruit salad

Apple pie

Pecan pie

Tres leches

Plus - "Sex on the Beach" cocktails and lots of red wine.

Which may explain all the karaoke singing we did afterwards. I sang, "Top of the World" and "I Want You to Want Me."

Yes, it was a happy Thanksgiving!

[sheiladownunder]

waves to sheiladownunder..I think it's me and you kid. Everybody else... out for the night... ETA:

spoke too soon.. .look like some folks just rolling in.

ETA Hey Jenna... oh to hear you do karaoke! Glad you had fun! Our drink of choice this holiday was cranberry margarits and I did one tequila shot.

Waves back. Took me a long time to catch up and I think everyone's gone now. A little late but Happy Thanksgiving to you and all. They are showing a 72 lb turkey on TV that took 15 hours to cook. Ack, did they feed it steroids?

I made a green bean casserole for the first time, used the recipe on the onion packet and added some grated cheddar cheese. It was good. I forgot to serve the sweet potato casserole I made and discovered it was still in the crockpot and cooking at around midnight. It's turned into soup. Everything tasted surprisingly delicious even though the cookie sheet I put the pecan pie on warped in the oven and the pie ended up with all the filling on one side and the yeast rolls rose so high they were the size of softballs.

I loved the interview. I don't have anything to add, so many great posts that have already said what I feel. I need to get to bed. Happy Belated Birthday,

Cotton.

ETA- just a little story. We're sitting around talking after dinner and my daughter's new boyfriend said he had never heard Clay or watched AI. I normally don't foist my Clay addiction on others, but I said I'll show a quick clip. Showed him Ruben singing Superstar and then Clay's clip. He said. WOW, he just blew them out of the water. WOW, he has a fantastic voice. I really like this boyfriend.

[laughn]

...from Notacanuck at the CH

Washington Post

At the Finish Line of Life, Sometimes Second is Best

All those '80s movies, like "Pretty in Pink," with all those Duckies chasing after all those Andies in pink prom dresses? We're all Duckie, a little needy and nerdy. Which brings us to Clay Aiken, as most good conversations should. He came in second to Ruben Studdard on "American Idol," but he became more popular and successful in the long run. He loved his seconddom, and his seconddom loved him back.

"I think people like an underdog sometimes," Aiken once told Larry King.

There are some true-isims in there that can't be denied.

Which brings us to Clay Aiken, as most good conversations should.

He loved his seconddom, and his seconddom loved him back.

[jumpingjacks]

*YAWN*....cat woke me up at 5. He appeared to be hacking up a lung. It appears now that he just wanted me up so he could go to bed!

My re-cooking of the pumpkin pie worked quite nicely....why yes, I just had a piece with whipped cream, why do you ask?????

[bottlecap]

Sigh. I'm at work. On a practically deserted floor of my office building. The good thing? It's the day after Thanksgiving, and I can break out the Christmas music without feeling like I'm pushing the season. Also, I can crank up MCWL as loud as I want without bugging anybody, so I guess that's good.

:xmas07a: One week to Kalamazoo!!!! :xmas07a:

[Ansamcw]

Just got back from my brother's place. We had:

Turporken (turkey stuffed with pork)

Honey baked ham

Meatballs

Cranberry sauce

Stuffing

Mashed potatoes

Green bean casserole

Sweet potato casserole

Macaroni salad

Fruit salad

Apple pie

Pecan pie

Tres leches

Plus - "Sex on the Beach" cocktails and lots of red wine.

Which may explain all the karaoke singing we did afterwards. I sang, "Top of the World" and "I Want You to Want Me."

Yes, it was a happy Thanksgiving!

MMMM Turporken...I wonder if that is like my dads stuffed chicken, where he debones his chicken and stuffs it full with this ground pork (pretty much like embutido), marinates in soysauce and lemon mixture and baked....

and Tres leches...is this similar at all to leche flan???

and Karaoke? was this with the magic mic???

This makes me miss my Filipino friends in Bathurst...we almost always end every get together with either Karaoke or Mahjong.

Well I was pretty happy with our supper last night...a very healthy supper of panfried Tilapia, stirred fired vegetables with shrimp, sauted spinach and Basil tomato rice, Uncle Ben's natural select...I highly recommend it. Very easy to make and very flavorful.

[aikim]

Good Morning Everyone!

3 Days until The Christmas Tour Starts!

29 Days until Christmas in Merrillville!

32 Days until The Skating Show Airs!

45 Days until The BAF Golf Outing!

56 Days until Clay is on Broadway! :whoohoo:

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[Claygasm]

CG...tofuturkey? hmmm but that's for the soup recipe.

Yes, Tofurkey!

EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT TOFURKEY!

It's really quite good! Doesn't really taste anything like turkey, but its good.

Really, it is.

Sounds like most everyone had a great day yesterday. Jenna - I would pay money to see you singing karaoke!

Anyone go shopping at 4am???

Muski, what colleges are you going to see?

I wonder if Clay ever came out of his office??

Can you tell I am delaying going to work???

[christelklein]

Good morning all!!!

Just an ordinary working day in Canada!!!

Just freezing here!!!

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. too ... but this time i just went back to bed and slept for a couple more hours!! Not all that awake yet ... but happy that it's

FRIDAY!! :04: :nana:

[luckiest1]

ansa, that sounds delish. My kind of dinner. Too bad no one else in my house would touch it with a ten foot pole! jj, glad the pie turned out ok! And there is nothing wrong with pumpkin pie for breakfast. The pumpkin has to have some nutrients, no? CG, thanks for the soup recipe. I will try that one out sometime.

OK, come on Clay, lets get those emails flowing! Gotta give people at least a couple of days notice about story readings and M&Gs and stuff, ya know?

Morning all, -5 degrees Celsius here, and snowing off an on.

[Carolina Clay]

Greetings, FCA! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I have been reading earnestly of all that's happening with our members, Clay, et al. Just never seem to have enough time to post. Since I am an online shopper, today is perfect. I will try to do better.

Hope all those in the US had a great Thanksgiving and the Canadians a very good day as well. Apparently, most everyone enjoyed quite a feast. On this holiday, my family heads east, so it's just me. However, I did make oyster dressing.

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

Cindilu2 -- this is gorgeous and does indeed make a beautiful desktop!

Kareneh, I enjoy reading your posts. Excellent analogy on "musical direction." Thnx for sharing pictures from your husband's cell phone of the Maiden's Tower.

FYI - todays woot woot.com is a remanufactured Scoomba for 99.00

I think it is a good deal, They have the best prices on roomba's, but they are usually new. Some remanufactureds are fine, some are not. new it costs 299. good deals sell out fast. you have to decide.

You can read the Community Discussion and see what people are saying about the product of the day. Here is a sample comment:

My brother has the Scooba, and they love it/use it even more than their Roomba. It doesn't scrape off hard dried gunk too well, but they have three little girls and wow--the water you dump out is black. The other cool thing is that it dries so fast. The squeegee is very effective. It leaves more of a thin sheen of moisture than any really wetness. They have hardwood floors.

Hope Clay was able to enjoy being with his guests.

Y'all have a great day!

Caro

[jamar1700]

He loved his seconddom, and his seconddom loved him back.

Thread title?

EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT TOFURKEY!

Hey... I want some of that Tofurky Jurky! Have you ever had it?

----

Had a nice day yesterday. Thanksgiving is the holiday my kids spend with their Dad's side of the family so I go to my friend Karen's. She's one of those people that takes in any and all strays (by force if necessary. )

But I'm like a regular part of the family now. Her grandkids treat me like their spinster aunt or something. Karen makes a terrific creamed onion dish that I had never had before I started celebrating with them. Now it wouldn't be Thanksgiving dinner to me without creamed onions. Yum. I always make a homemade apple pie. It's the one baking/cooking thing that I can do well. I don't know why. I can't stand apple pie.

My oldest son is in from jj's neck of the woods until Sunday. He'll help me move furniture so I can paint the spare bedrooms next week. My other son is spending the holiday and weekend with friends in Chicago. He can't stand his Dad's side of the family.

---

I'm also very thankful for finding such a great place to hang out in the clayfan world. Thank you all for accepting me and sometimes even responding to my posts. Hee. Most of the time I'm just reading along nodding and agreeing.

My holiday wish for you all is that you "don't save it all for Thanksgiving Day" and can take the time to be thankful for the blessings in your life all year long. {{{FCA}}}

----

I can't believe it's only days until the first concert...and I'LL BE THERE!!!!!!!!

i edit therefore i am

[luckiest1]

Oooh, jamar, you lucky duck, going to the first concert! I will be with you in spirit....can't wait for the cellcerts to start. I am going to listen to the first one (there is no way I would miss it) but am going to try REALLY, REALLY hard not to watch any clack until after my first concert in Kalamazoo. Does anyone think I will be able to do it?

Nah, me either. But I will try.

[keepingfaith]

What the heck is "watergate salad"??

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

Watergate Salad is more of a dessert that the kids demand for the holidays -- whether Christmas or the 4th of July. It's a box of Jello pistachio pudding mixed with a can of crushed pineapple with juice, folding in 2 cups of miniature marshmallows and a tub of Cool Whip and then a cup of chopped pecans or walnuts, and cherries -- and coconut is optional. I don't have a clue where the name comes from, but it's pretty well known by that name and we've been making it since the 70's.

Squash? I LOVE squash -- let me count the ways ...

yellow squash, zucchini and tomatoes ... ummmmm

Fried rounds of yellow squash .... yummy

Baked squash casserole .... rich and delicious

I eat it so willingly you wouldn't believe it. Is this just a Southern thing, like okra? Because I could probably eat my weight in okra, too. I'm pretty much like Clay when it comes to vegetables. I like most vegetables -- just no beets for me, please. I had a bad experience as a child that warped me forever with beets.

Good LORD, keepingfaith! How many was all that food supposed to feed? :o

Twenty hungry folks. We ate at 3pm and I fasted all day until dinner, except for that honeycrisp apple that I couldn't resist when chopping for the fruit salad. Which is probably the last ones I'll have until the prices come down. I bought at $1.99/lb. before -- and now they are $3.29/lb. They're good, but no piece of fruit is worth that kind of money.

KF how does fried turkey taste?

It's excellent, very juicy and cooks quickly. Some people will eat their turkey no other way; however, I'm a bigger fan of the turkeys that spend the night in my dad's smoker. Best taste ever.

Was it bottlecap with the quick Apple Brown Betty recipe? I pivoted off that one with my cherry pie. It just didn't look pretty when I took it out of the oven and the more I looked at it, I decided I would hold it back for private consumption. But thinking about the ABB suggestion, I chopped up the cherry pie into my cobbler dish and mashed it to an even surface, stirred up another pie crust to cover, baked it again and slathered the hot crust with some of the butterscotch sauce I used with the yams -- and it was a huge hit. Nothin' left. Thanks for the keeper tip.

I adored that Washington Post article. And the line .... Which brings us to Clay Aiken, as most good conversations should will be oft-quoted by me to my daughter who just mentioned to me this week that every single one of our telephone conversations somehow manages by some twist or turn to lead to Clay. She lives just a few miles outside of the District and reads the Post daily. I emailed the link to her anyway because I can't take a chance on her missing that most pertinent comment.

One last thing ... Tres Leches is fabulous. Three different milks (evaporated, condensed, and cream or whole milk) go into this cake made without butter. The consistency is unsurpassed and surprisingly it isn't a bit soggy, it's just fantastic. The Cake Lady in Friendswood makes a killer Tres Leches.

[muskifest]

We're off! In a few minutes....it'll be a beautiful drive through Northern California an Southern Oregon...I'm decked out in jeans, sweatshirt (my BAF sweatshirt...heh) and sneakers...Muski Daughter #1 is in jeans, too--but in boots with ridiculous heels, a beret and makeup...I'm not quite sure whom she plans to meet, but....

heh. I remember being sixteen.

Happy Black Friday, y'all! If you've got any sense, you'll spend it FAR away from the stores!

Oh, and by the way

[luckiest1]

Squash? I LOVE squash -- let me count the ways ...

yellow squash, zucchini and tomatoes ... ummmmm

Fried rounds of yellow squash .... yummy

Baked squash casserole .... rich and delicious

I eat it so willingly you wouldn't believe it. Is this just a Southern thing, like okra? Because I could probably eat my weight in okra, too. I'm pretty much like Clay when it comes to vegetables. I like most vegetables -- just no beets for me, please. I had a bad experience as a child that warped me forever with beets.

Luuurve squash, and I like okra when prepared for me by others, but have never really figured out how to cook it myself. The Watergate Salad sounds yummy, too! However, I draw the line at beets.

[JennaZ]

MMMM Turporken...I wonder if that is like my dads stuffed chicken, where he debones his chicken and stuffs it full with this ground pork (pretty much like embutido), marinates in soysauce and lemon mixture and baked....

and Tres leches...is this similar at all to leche flan???

and Karaoke? was this with the magic mic???

Turporken is an alternate version of Turducken - turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken. I think it's kind of a cajun recipe. My sister-in-law ordered it online. But I think I've had something similar to what you discussed. My mom calls it, "galantina." (sp?)

Tres leches is a cuban dessert of cake soaked in three milks (regular, condensed, and evaporated) and topped with a meringue icing. Delish!

And yes, the karaoke is with what they call the "magic sing."

[merryclay]

Is it Monday, yet? I wonder what Mr. Clay Aiken has in store for us. I hope we don't kill him and each other over the Christmas stories. I didn't submit anything so I wish everyone luck. And of course I'm just kidding about the rest as I think everything he does is adorable.-- tm. Paula. I can----not wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bottlecap]

Watergate Salad is more of a dessert that the kids demand for the holidays -- whether Christmas or the 4th of July. It's a box of Jello pistachio pudding mixed with a can of crushed pineapple with juice, folding in 2 cups of miniature marshmallows and a tub of Cool Whip and then a cup of chopped pecans or walnuts, and cherries -- and coconut is optional. I don't have a clue where the name comes from, but it's pretty well known by that name and we've been making it since the 70's.

Ah, that's fondly known in my family as "Green Fluff!"

I did find one other person in another department on my floor in the course of my wanderings this morning - there are normally about 40 people. I'm enjoying my Clay CDs, but geez it's quiet and kinda lonely. I had to phone my mom for a few minutes just to have someone to talk to... Maybe I need to re-work the lyrics of one of Clay's songs to fit the "Banker All Alone" motif.