Twas the night before Thanksgiving

 

 

Thanksgiving Eve is my favorite holiday of the year! It seriously is.

 

 

What other holiday has a preschool feast complete with Indian (Native American) headdresses-

 

Actual child wearing an "actual indian headdress"

 

 

 

And Pilgrim hats- 

 

 

 

 

Actual hat worn by Miles Standish

 

And once the work is done, the fun can begin!

 

 

It really is. And yes, I just posted a picture of my chesticle area. Deal with it.

 

I started with making two kinds of cranberry sauce.  I made two mostly because I found a recipe that called for cooking the cranberries with maple syrup and I couldn’t not make it.  It had MAPLE SYRUP.  I seem to have become slightly obsessed with maple syrup. (I just typed “upset with” instead of “obsessed with”. What does that mean?? Is it some kind of Freudian slip and I really am upset with maple syrup? Is it just too sweet? Do I resent the hold it seems to have over me? Do I hate that it is so expensive? For the life of me, I can’t find that I have any quarrel with the lovely maple syrup!) Anywho.  I find maple syrup makes just about everything better. That tree sap is magical stuff!  (recipe at the end of this post)

 

 

 

 

Two ruby red beauties

 

 

 

Next was  a French Silk pie (which sounds an awful lot like something you would find in Victoria’s Secret. (Well, not *you*. I didn’t mean to imply that *you* would shop at a store like Victoria’s Secret. Not that there is anything at all wrong with Victoria’s Secret.  *You* do whatever it is that floats *your* boat, sister. And if shopping at VS makes *your* ship sail, then bon voyage, indeed!) After all of that, I have to tell you that there is no picture of the French Silk decadence.  It’s not so photogenic, poor thing.  But what it lacks in prettiness, it makes up for in tastiness. I reminded it that pretty is as pretty does and it seemed to feel better.  I think tomorrow it will be the belle of the Thanksgiving ball.

 

 

 

But the Apple Crumb pie, now it’s all smilin’ and wavin’ like a damn beauty queen-

 

 

Apple Crumb-the most photogenic of pies

 

Then for dinner, I made calzones.  I don’t know how I know how to make calzones, I just do.  I am a calzone savant. No pictures were taken of the calzones because the boys basically ate them as I was pulling them out of the oven.  It’s a miracle that they didn’t burn off all of their taste buds!

 

 

Tomorrow I will make the pumpkin pie and the corn casserole.  Paula Deen’s corn casserole!  Not literally her corn casserole.  She can make her own flippin’ casserole!  Or have one of her minions make her a corn casserole. Because if anyone has minions, it’s Paula Deen.  And she feeds them butter.  This is just her recipe for corn casserole. (wordpress [or is it the minions?] is not letting me set up a link tonight. Just google that and it will come right up for you, if you’re interested.)

 

On that note, I think it’s time for me to head to bed.

 

 

 

I know this recipe might be a little late for you to use tomorrow, but there’s always Christmas!

 

 

 

Cranberry Sauce

• 1 bag (12 Oz. Bag) cranberries
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup real maple syrup (no fake stuff!)
• the zest from one lemon

Preparation Instructions

Wash cranberries and put into a medium saucepan.

Add 1 cup of orange juice (or whatever juice you choose).

Add 1 cup maple syrup.

Add lemon zest.

Stir together and turn heat on high until it reaches a boil.

Once it comes to a rolling boil, turn the heat down to medium low and continue cooking over lower heat for about 10 minutes, or until the juice is thick. Turn off the heat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can get some good deals at those NUD sales

How are you all celebrating this very special day? I put up my National Unfriend Day tree with its decorations of skull (skulls?) and crossbones, dead flowers, pictures with faces cut out of them-you know, all the classics. And then I logged onto facebook and I “unfriended” 6 people.

 

 

 

In case you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain. Jimmy Kimmel has declared that November 17th is National Unfriend Day on  facebook. Mr. Kimmel believes that “friendship is sacred” and that facebook is “cheapening it.” Now, why Mr. Kimmel gets to be an expert on the subject of friendship and facebook, I don’t know. But the idea has caught on and lots of folks have been talking about it. Just google “National Unfriend Day” and you’ll see what I mean. (And now I’m talking about it!)

 

 

 

After hearing about the idea a couple of days ago, I pondered if I would take part. There were several “friends” that I hadn’t heard a peep from in months, and a couple that were posting things that I felt uncomfortable reading, one was a child who, when I friended (friended? really? what has this world come to?) her, I thought was an adult acquaintance.  Turns out this child was using her mother’s name because she was too young to have a facebook account of her own. But even with all that, I had decided just to hide them from my newsfeed.  (Right about now, if you don’t use facebook, you are wondering what the hell I’m talking about. Sorry.) Hiding them seemed less harsh, less confrontational. I don’t like confrontation. Not one little bit.  And then there is my belief that you can never have too many friends. Add to that my own experience with being “unfriended”, and you will see that this wasn’t a simple thing for me to do.

 

 

 

But, this morning I woke up with the words “a choice has to be made” in my head. And so I heeded the inner voice (much better to heed its commands than to spend all day arguing with it. My inner voice is quite persistent when it wants to be.) and logged on to facebook and proceeded to go through and cull friends from my friends list. It worked out not to be all that big of a deal, but you know me, I love to angsty-angst about every livin’ thing!

 

 

 

Everyone left on my list is someone that I am happy to call my friend, and they add humor and fun and interesting insights into my day.  (Well, there is that one that I just can’t work up the nerve to…Um, never mind that last part there.)

 

 

 

If you would like to participate in NUD, here is an article of things to consider when deciding whether to keep or delete someone as a facebook friend-“10 Reasons to Unfriend Someone on Facebook”.

 

 

 

Happy NUD to all and to all a good night! 

 

xoxoxox,

jane

 

Easing in to November

Every. Damn. Day.

 

All I have to do is to post something on the ol’ blog everyday for a month? Easy.  Except I’m extremely flighty.  I’ll give it a shot, that’s all I can do.  It can’t hurt to have a goal, right?

 

 

Here’s a link to the NaBloPoMo site.   Go there and sign yourself up!

 

 

One more thing-Today is National Love Conquers All Day. It’s an ancient holiday that had its inception way back in aught-8.  To join in the celebration, you merely have to go out and love people.  Even when they doesn’t deserve it.  Especially when they don’t deserve it. And then you let them know that of course they deserve love.  Not too difficult, is it?  Easier than picking out a Christmas gift for your 84-year-old aunt, that’s for sure!

 

xoxoxoxo,

jane

Love is kind of crazy…

Because I like my pizza the way I like my wenches-saucy!

Happy jack-o-lantern pizza

Scary jack-o-lantern pizza

Boooooooonilla shakes!

Happy Haunting!

Halloweenies

 

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It’s the happ-happiest time of the year! (At least for the pagans among us) The Halloween weekend has been a fun one so far and there is still the treating of the tricksters to come tonight. 

We made scary zombie fingers to take to a party last night.  The boys are getting pretty good at making chocolate covered pretzel rods.  And they are a hit wherever we take them. After Halloween last year, I found the molds to make these scary fingers and bonus! I actually remembered to get them out and use them this year.  It helps that I put them in the pantry right where I had to see them everyday for 362 days…

The pumpkins are carved and the costume essentials have been purchased.  We are ready!

Bring on the scary!