Thanksgiving, the sweater and my poor car.
We decided to do Thanksgiving at our house this year. Eric felt he had to redeem himself from last year. See it's a family tradition for he and I to have Chinese food on Thanksgiving Day and then go see a movie. We started this when he was stationed at Hill AFB and we were so far from family. Well last year, all the Chinese restaurants were closed! And the lines at the theatre were loooooooong. We had invited some friends over last year and well, he felt he hadn't given them a "traditional" Turkey Day.
So this year, the heat was on him! :P
I didn't do a damn thing but take pictures, and eat. Well, and help with the cleaning... but still. All during that food prep and cooking, I was doing other stuff. Here's Eric preparing the turkey:
He got a self basting turkey, some poultry rub, and then with spread some vegetable oil on the turkey with a brush and patted on the entire can of rub. We thought it would be a bit much but that it came out sooooooo good! And good looking too. See...:
I had wanted to get a typical "here's the bird" shot but he started carving it before I could get the camera out! *shakes fist* Either way, you can see how golden brown it came out. Juicy too! He made stuffing (which you can see sitting wrapped in cellophane on the counter in the pic below) and some carrots with brown sugar. (That's what he's working on in the pic below.)
Our friend Maura stopped by and decided to make a checkerboard cake. It was her first try making it and it was really good! But a bit messy to make. :)
It required that you make three layers with alternating flavors of cake and then you had to stack them up to make the checkerboard pattern. To get the alternating pattern, you had to pour the batter into a mould that allowed you to keep the batter separate until you had it all in, then lift the mould out and bake the cakes. Voila! They looked like this:
There were actually three layers total and of course required delicate stacking:
She then came over the next day (Thanksgiving day) to finish making the icing for the cake and it was done!:
When cut it was nearly perfect. The squares were a little lopsided but the cake was moist and yummy! I'd say it's not bad for her first try on that recipe...:
Our friend Justin came over too. He's studying to be a chef so he roasted some hazelnuts then made a quick sugary coating for them and rolled them in it. They were soo good too!:
We then set the table and prepared to stuff ourselves:
It was great having Justin around. He's a pro at cake cutting. Look at him go!:
Once everyone left, I did a bit more knitting on my sweater. It's coming along and I'm nearly done with the sleeves. I should finish this weekend and be able to start on the body. :) Here's a better close up of the stripes:
My sock progress has slowed somewhat though. I have a belt test tonight for my TaeKwonDo so I've been pretty busy with all my free time at work practicing my forms for that. Wish me luck!
Oh , I almost forgot! Right, so on to my poor car. Eric had to work the day after Thanksgiving and on Saturday, decided he wanted a taco. Really, really wanted a taco. He had a two hour lay over in Charlotte (his base) which meant the car was there and he could leave the terminal to get some food. His original plan was to spend under $5 for lunch. He called be right after and said "Um, I think I spent a bit too much on lunch." Yeah...:
Whoooooo! $1397 worth of damage. He more than doubled me when I destroyed the nose! I only did $642 worth of damage there. Thank the gods for USAA and a small deductible. It'll only cost us $50 to get it repaired. Of course, while we're there getting the estimate Eric realized, "Hey, I'll save $5 on a car wash. Heck my lunch is down to $45 now!"
I love how he can see the good in nuking the ass of the car. Oh by the way, the way he did it was when he got out of the car, he forgot to set the hand brake (and one would assume put it in gear) and while he was ordering his lunch, a man came into the restaurant to ask "Who's driving a silver Saturn cuz it just smashed into my trailer." A homemade, steel trailer that didn't even end up with a scratch on it. You can see what that steel did to our car.
So the grand total for damage on that poor Saturn?
This will be it's third ass (he got rear ended a few months after we bought the car)
It's on its second nose (see above)
It's on its second driver's side mirror (a dangerous sapling destroyed it many months ago)
It's on its third windshield
Not bad for having 120000 miles on it. :)
So this year, the heat was on him! :P
I didn't do a damn thing but take pictures, and eat. Well, and help with the cleaning... but still. All during that food prep and cooking, I was doing other stuff. Here's Eric preparing the turkey:
He got a self basting turkey, some poultry rub, and then with spread some vegetable oil on the turkey with a brush and patted on the entire can of rub. We thought it would be a bit much but that it came out sooooooo good! And good looking too. See...:
I had wanted to get a typical "here's the bird" shot but he started carving it before I could get the camera out! *shakes fist* Either way, you can see how golden brown it came out. Juicy too! He made stuffing (which you can see sitting wrapped in cellophane on the counter in the pic below) and some carrots with brown sugar. (That's what he's working on in the pic below.)
Our friend Maura stopped by and decided to make a checkerboard cake. It was her first try making it and it was really good! But a bit messy to make. :)
It required that you make three layers with alternating flavors of cake and then you had to stack them up to make the checkerboard pattern. To get the alternating pattern, you had to pour the batter into a mould that allowed you to keep the batter separate until you had it all in, then lift the mould out and bake the cakes. Voila! They looked like this:
There were actually three layers total and of course required delicate stacking:
She then came over the next day (Thanksgiving day) to finish making the icing for the cake and it was done!:
When cut it was nearly perfect. The squares were a little lopsided but the cake was moist and yummy! I'd say it's not bad for her first try on that recipe...:
Our friend Justin came over too. He's studying to be a chef so he roasted some hazelnuts then made a quick sugary coating for them and rolled them in it. They were soo good too!:
We then set the table and prepared to stuff ourselves:
It was great having Justin around. He's a pro at cake cutting. Look at him go!:
Once everyone left, I did a bit more knitting on my sweater. It's coming along and I'm nearly done with the sleeves. I should finish this weekend and be able to start on the body. :) Here's a better close up of the stripes:
My sock progress has slowed somewhat though. I have a belt test tonight for my TaeKwonDo so I've been pretty busy with all my free time at work practicing my forms for that. Wish me luck!
Oh , I almost forgot! Right, so on to my poor car. Eric had to work the day after Thanksgiving and on Saturday, decided he wanted a taco. Really, really wanted a taco. He had a two hour lay over in Charlotte (his base) which meant the car was there and he could leave the terminal to get some food. His original plan was to spend under $5 for lunch. He called be right after and said "Um, I think I spent a bit too much on lunch." Yeah...:
Whoooooo! $1397 worth of damage. He more than doubled me when I destroyed the nose! I only did $642 worth of damage there. Thank the gods for USAA and a small deductible. It'll only cost us $50 to get it repaired. Of course, while we're there getting the estimate Eric realized, "Hey, I'll save $5 on a car wash. Heck my lunch is down to $45 now!"
I love how he can see the good in nuking the ass of the car. Oh by the way, the way he did it was when he got out of the car, he forgot to set the hand brake (and one would assume put it in gear) and while he was ordering his lunch, a man came into the restaurant to ask "Who's driving a silver Saturn cuz it just smashed into my trailer." A homemade, steel trailer that didn't even end up with a scratch on it. You can see what that steel did to our car.
So the grand total for damage on that poor Saturn?
This will be it's third ass (he got rear ended a few months after we bought the car)
It's on its second nose (see above)
It's on its second driver's side mirror (a dangerous sapling destroyed it many months ago)
It's on its third windshield
Not bad for having 120000 miles on it. :)
posted by Lisa P at 11:37 AM
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