Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year's Eve!


I hope you all enjoy your last day of 2008 today. Tonight my hubby, boy and self will be celebrating with some friends at our local downtown for a "First Night" celebration. It's a no-alcohol family night with lots of free entertainment, and food booths. We've never gone before though we only live less than a mile from it. So that should be fun...though me and hubby have been fighting allergies, and don't really feel like getting down....with our bad selves.



now, onto turkey talk:
So, I brined my turkey after defrosting for 3.5 days. I brined over night with this here Turkey Brine recipe that turned out AMAZING. Yup, my first turkey ever, and we all agreed, it was the best turkey ANY of us had ever tasted! Wow! How amazing am I??? Hee hee. Honest tho, it turned out good because I followed some great recipes. I kind of threw together 3 different ideas. First, I brined with that thar recipe, then when I cooked it, I did the Laurel method for the first 1/2 hr. Then I covered with foil TIGHTLY just like P.W. said too, and I baked and buttered according to her Roast turkey recipe. Maybe that sounds complicated, but here's the summarized version:

1. brine night before

2. first 1/2 hr 450, then 275

3. follow P.W.'s recipe completely
Is that easier?


Here's a pic of my beautiful turkey! That whole there on top was from where I had to fork it...and then of course i had to taste it, bc it tore off a little. (btw, it was a Zacky turkey)


And ummmm... a beautiful me...dang I'm looking pale.


And you can see here, the tryptophan was doing its job by successfully knocking out my BIL later that evening.
See, it had to be good.


In other news, my fam went up to the local mountains for some snow fun. This is me spinning down a snowy hill.



My boy racing down.....

Me and my honey at a little coffee shop we went for lunch...





My whole little family... I forget to tell my boy to take off his goggles dang it.





So, there ya go, I've updated you way MOOOOORE than you EVER really wanted! So.. How was your Christmas? Do tell me what you made. Probably something waaaaaay more exotic than the silly turkey I made. Anyone try for prime rib??? Yumm that sounds so good right now. Did anyone try making any new desserts?? Do tell....I'm waiting right here until you do.



I'm still waiting.....

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

brining and a turkey

I have always been frightened out of my head to make a turkey, but I'm 46, and by-gum, it's time to try! The biggest fear is the defrosting. I started defrosting Sunday, and tomorrow night, hopefully, I will put it in a brining solution. Yup, two brand new things for me! Then...with many prayers, ashes and sack cloth..I will have a turkey look just like this: Dontcha think??

The rest of the meal will be pretty conventional. Pretty Thanksgivingy, more than Christmas I guess. But I hate ham, so I have to give this a whorl. Is that actually a word?? Ooooh, I just remembered I haven't planned dessert. Hmmmm, I'll have to pick up something. I hope you all have a great christmas!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Sunday before Christmas


So...the last few days I've been mixing, cooking and finally yesterday baking. I LOVED the lemon cookies, and the whoopie pies..... were o....kaaay, (they are the chocolatey looking ones in the plastic wrap) but a way bit toooo sweet for me. On the other hand, those folks that LOVE sweets, went on and on about them, and how amazing they were. Of course I say that with all humility. My platter, trays, gifts came out darned cute if I do say so myself, as you can see here.


Got together for family gift exchange last night at my Auntie's. It was nice to see everyone. Some of these folks I only see once or twice a year, so that was nice. I'm always shocked at the little ones who sooo drastically change in one years time. And it's always nice to hear about new romances that have popped up, and sad to hear about a very possible break up of my niecey and long term boyfriend father of their child. (man it would be sooo much easier to just say hubby, but they aren't married...)



The hard part of the evening was explaining many times over, that NOOOOOOOOO I'm not a nurse yet, nooooooooooooo, i'm stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiill not done with nursing school, yeeeeeeeeeeees, I failed and must repeat. So danged embarrassing, and humbling. Ah well, whatcha gonna do. They were all very nice and understanding, and hopeful for June. Dang I hope I get back in...

So I am not thrilled with this camera in which you see these pics. My daughter bought one less expensive with seemingly better outcomes. I am thinking of returning, though I've had it quite a while. And it got scratched up in my purse due to a file floating around with it. I wonder if Costco would take a return after over a month??? Just thinkin'. What do you think of these pics?

Well I do pray that ya'all are having a lovely Christmas season. That you are not toooo harried, and that you are eating something good and fattening. Other than that, praise God for sending Himself to this very imperfect world to save us VERY imperfect people. Merry Christmas.

Monday, December 15, 2008

rubber face...

Yep, that's how it feels. Got a crown done today at the dentist. I am talking funny, and I feel like my tongue is 5 inches thick. Don't you just hate that feeling?? And I guess it's justice that I LOOOOOVE to give shots, but I'm a big ole baby when I get them.

About graduation? That day is passed, and I am feeling better. Lucky for us (those of us who didn't pass) it's the holiday season with lots to do, see and have fun with.


Today I am planning on a bake day. I like to make baked treats to give as some of my gifts. Here's what my semi-plan is:






Whoopee Pies (from a cookbook at home; America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook).


Or if you have any ideas concerning packable "salty" or "savory" ideas, I couldn't think of anything else.

Friday, December 12, 2008

graduation today

So today is feeling much harder than I had hoped. Today my class is graduating. I wish I was there. So, any prayers, thoughts, sent out to me today would be greatly appreciated. My head knows this time can only be a benefit to me, my faith knows that God is using this "no stress" time to help with family stuff etc. My heart on the other hand is breaking today. No poor poor pitiful me, just some tough truths. God is in His heaven, and tomorrow will feel better. Thanks y'all.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

scrappum frustrations...



So I've been working on that Xmas scrapbook and you know what I've found out? As your kids get older ~remember, mine are 13 and almost 17~ you do less Christmas stuff. So I'm taking a picture a day like your 'spose to, and have discovered that my pics are like...the gym, Del taco (tonight), the farm, my daughter home sick, some tupperware of soup...you get the point. And as you can see, these really don't lend themselves to looking very "christmasy". Maybe this is a mistake.... um, maybe I shouldn't take a picture every day like you're supposed to, OOOOOOOOOR, I could just cut out some pictures from Martha's magazine and paste it in my little book. At best the book will be a lesson in what not to do. But I've already made the skeleton of the thing, so I will continue and finish dang it. Just don't expect much, I mean really, lower those expectations...

Well we have decorated our tree and house, so there have been that, but um.... that's about it. Most of the shopping is done, all I need to do is wrap. OOoooooh that'll be a good one eh? And I still need to some Christmas baking...there's another one, yipee.

I met w/dean of nsg, but didn't find out much more, other than we'll find out if we're back in, in January. So I will enjoy my time off in the meantime. The graduation for my class is Friday, and I'd like to see everyone and the slide show, but I have reserved the right to chicken out at the last minute. I don't know if I can actually handle it.

So what's new with you?

Thursday, December 04, 2008

so far..


A quick picture of our home on christmas last year. No really, it is. Shut up, I'm not lieing. Alright, I photoshopped in the tree on the left, but that's it.
Never mind, moving along....
just thought I'd share how far I've come on my album... worked all day yesterday on it... okay, so this isn't actually myyyy mess, I googled it. But I did make quite the mess, but here's some actual scrap pics... you might wanna laugh at. (you have to click on it, to see what is written I think)

But honestly though, here's a pic of myself, Brenda and Cheri scrapping our little hearts out yesterday. My hubby kept letting me extend my time until I was there from 12 noon until 10pm! Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh it's good to be out of school!

Although I am DIEING to dig right back in today, I WILL NOT. There, I put it in caps, so I can't go back on it. Since I wasn't very domestic yesterday, today I am paying penance by making some Cockie Leeky Soup, and no, I'm not kidding, check out the recipe. I changed my mind on the potato leek soup, bc i am just not in the mood for a creamy soup. And, I think I might even clean a little. Yup, just a little, I don't want to go too far for pity sakes. Although I have been just goofing around on the computer until oh... noon. Shame on me, I'm gonna go, so I can at least have the appearance of getting something accomplished. I hope you are having a lovely Thursday.






Tuesday, December 02, 2008

On the first wk of Christmas...

So I hit some of the black friday sales, and got a chunk of my shopping done. Though, the gift thing has never been gigantic, like some folks I talk to. Some have to shop for all their aunts, cousins, uncles, grandparents etc, here and away. We shop for our nuclear fam, get gifts for wee ones, and all the rest, we pick a name. Easy hah? Yup, pretty stress free really. And luckily no one expects expensive stuff.

Gosh, I hope I didn't sound braggy.

My goal for this wk, is to make some sort of potato leek soup or cockie leeky soup. But it has to stay cold for soup, so we'll see. I also want to make a christmas album.
Here's the site if you want to take a look-see. December Daily Album 2008 It's kind of a look at your life for the month of december.

Studying? Well I've gotten rather lazy about that so I bought a new calendar, and a MON-FRI list to get myself going. I know what I want to get done, but it is hard to be motivated when you don't even know if you'll be back in school in the Spring! It will be by lottery since there are so many of us. But I need to get back on track. If I don't start in the spiring, then I will definitely go for the LVN boards and try to get a nursing job, so I don't forget everything!