All Done

I woke up bright and early this morning with a cat yowling outside my bedroom door.  Not quite ready to get out of bed, I let her in and got back into bed.  Where I was as very quickly joined by the aforementioned yowling cat. 

Needless to say, I didn't get back to sleep.  Probably just as well, because I had quite a to-do list to get through. 

The first thing I did was to finish with the Christmas cards, and I'm pleased to report they've all been addressed and the first batch is already winging their way to their intended recipients.  I'm sending 48 this year, so I'm mailing the in batches so as to not overwhelm my mail carrier.  I considered driving into town and mailing them all at the post office, but didn't really want to get dressed.  Maybe I'll run them in Friday or Saturday, or maybe I won't.  Eh, I'll get them mailed eventually.  

On a slightly related note, look what I found.

The top card is my sister and her family.  Her oldest boy is the one who got married in August.  The bottom card is from my aunt and uncle -- my dad's oldest sister and her husband.  I have a hard time tossing old Christmas cards out, especially if they're photo cards like these. 

OK, back to my list.  The next thing I did was to make the first layer of my aunt's strawberry Jell-o salad.  So to speak.  Now, if you'll look in my right sidebar, you'll see a link to a post with a strawberry Jell-o salad recipe.  That is my aunt's recipe, but I've adapted it a bit.  The main thing I did was double it, because it's so popular, and I leave out the pineapple.  Oh, and I use fresh strawberries, not frozen. 

Other than that, it's my aunt's recipe.  

Once that was done and gelling in the fridge, I put together the broccoli casserole, because it's the most labor intensive.  One thing, I've never been able to cut an onion.  Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I looked up a Gordon Ramsay video on YouTube.  Man, he made it look so easy!

He was over there saying, "Cut the onion like this."  and I was over here saying, "Slow down!"  I kept having to pause the video, but in the end I did a pretty good job of cutting that onion.  Much better than I usually do.  The trick will be remembering how to do it next time.  Or I'll just have to look up the video again.  

Then I brined the turkey and made two pies and wonder of wonders, found room in the fridge for all of it.   Needless to say, between onion skins, bits of celery, banana peels, and strawberry tops, my composter got a good feed today.  

I think tomorrow when I cook the turkey, I'm going to stuff the cavity with some of those apples I'd originally bought for the deer.  Someone on Facebook had posted a meme basically asking what advice older cooks would give to someone cooking a turkey for the first time.  My advice was to not trust the pop-up timer, but get a good meat thermometer and use it.  Several people mentioned stuffing the cavity with apples to keep the turkey moist, so I decided to try it.  

I'm going to google some recipes as soon as I get off of here, which I should probably wrap this up and get busy, but before I go, here is your Thanksvember Twenty -second:  I'm thankful for those friends from my childhood who stuck with me, even though at one time, I was an obnoxious little not-nice person.  

And I'm thankful for the friends I made when I got older who helped me see how obnoxious I could be, and made me realize I don't want to be that way.  I still don't have great people skills, but hey, I'm a whole lot better than I used to be.