Alright Already

Happy Thanksgiving.  Hope you and your family are safe and ready to head home soon.

What a day yesterday!  I cleaned the house on Tuesday, top to bottom and even bathed the dogs because I forgot to make the appointment for the vet to bathe them and they were slammed full for the holiday.  The new, larger shower with the long hose and wand set up actually made it quite easy.  The worst part was the bending over.  My back has been killing me for a couple of days and this did not help at all.

But the dogs were cleaned and not too traumatized.  They naively went into the shower, which is large enough to be another room anyway. I probably won't get them to walk into the shower ever again though!

Post from Charlene:  Bonnie Hunter has a new mystery quilt you should do.
Reply:  No

I cooked all day yesterday.  I made carrot cake cupcakes with the requisite cream cheese frosting, candied yams with three Louisiana Yam varieties one of which was purple topped with Louisiana naval oranges, long green beans and long carrots done in the instant pot, cranberry sauce done in the instant pot, banana pudding and whipped cream, fried apples in the instant pot from North Louisiana apples and Brown sugar and Pineapple with Dijon mustard glazed spiral cut smoked ham.

My neighbor sent








 her famous fudge and Frank's cousin Patsy brought the Louisiana Pecan Pie.

I used about 5 lbs of Louisiana cane sugar, 10 lbs of brown sugar and a few vegetables.

Post from Charlene:  All you have to do is to make a couple of 4 patches.
Reply:  No - she will want 5,736 of them.  

We drank wine, beer, fancy root beer, Dr. Pepper, cokes, Sweet Southern Iced Tea and chocolate milk.   And ate ourselves silly.

Sawyer loved his Aunt Patsy and Aunt Stacey.  He had such a big grin when he saw them!  And he played them for all he was worth!












We discussed contrails vs chemtrails and how the government is trying to knock us off.  And ancestry.  Frank's side of the family goes back to Daniel Boone's uncle Jeremiah Boone.  But when Frank got his DNA results back there was no Native American in there.  And his genes were mostly English and the Boones were Dutch.  Who knows that far back though.  He did have that coonskin hat when he was a kid in the 50's.

Post from Charlene:  All you have to do is make 12.  You can make 12 just like that. 15 minutes tops.
Reply:  No, she will never stop wanting more.

Frank went out last night to get a jump on the Black Friday Sales.  He bought some things, he said, although I didn't see them come inside.  I am hazarding a guess here that he has bought my Christmas present.  In a heated argument last week I told him that he always ends up going out at the last minute and trying to find a present for me.  And I am tired of old lady jewelry from J C Penneys and Sears.

My neighbor two doors down just returned home from a massive hospital stay.  She  was stabbed by her brother in law trying to help her sister.  He was stabbing her sister and ended up killing her.  My neighbor was critically injured and has a lot of stab wounds.  She is healing physically, I imagine it will be a while for the mental healing to come.  I can't even imagine.  So far, the police have not found him.  I guess he is long gone from here by now.

Post from Charlene:  If you don't like them, you can just send them to me.  come on, you can do it, can't you?
Reply:  What size?  You know I am going to hate this, right?

I talked to my other cousin, who has her son home from the Naval Academy.  She is playing proud Momma this weekend.  I know I would!

Post from Charlene:  Come on...….you may end up loving it!
Reply:  I won't, I refuse to like it.  But I will see what I can do.

My fiber group met and we shared some really interesting work.  I am going to direct you to Our Fiber Exploration Blog for this month's sharing pieces.

Fiber Explorations Post click here
Fiber Explorations post click here


Post from Charlene:  That's the spirit!  You go girlfriend!
    Reply:  I refuse to reply...…

I am too busy making 4 patches...……..

Thanksgiving Season is Officiially Over!

We hosted the family, well, Andrew's family today for dinner.  All in all, 12 people. 

We had Fayne's incredible roast and gravy, real mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, my father's Corn Casserole, turkey, my famous cornbread and apples dressing, the requisite green bean casserole and Frank's oft requested salad.

For dessert we had salted caramel mousse and mini pumpkin pies.

And Sawyer had turkey and gravy baby food with a chaser of formula.

These are the other grandparents.   Sawyer had lots of people to hold him and indulge every whim.

I failed to get photos of the Uncle Michael and Aunt Jamie and their kids.  We were too busy eating I guess!

The men sat around and watched football, the women gossiped in the kitchen like every Thanksgiving household in America.

And, just like every Thanksgiving household in America,

the day ended like this!

Thanksgiving Dinner

 Carrie gets so upset when we arrive even 5 minutes before the exact time she gave us.  So we try to time our arrival to be close to "our specified time".  And we ended up getting there nearly a half hour earlier than we were supposed to.

You are not going to believe this.  Those cutesy pictures I took of the Dogs and Frank coming in from their walk in the morning post?  Well,  I never put the stupid SD card back into my stupid camera. 

And thusly I have no photos. 

The food was incredible.  I bought a pumpkin pie and an apple pie I totally invented through necessity. And I brought the stuffing with walnuts and apples that everyone loves. And my Dad's Corn  Casserole I love.  The other Mother In Law brought green bean casserole, mac and cheese with spaghetti and brocoli and cheese casseroled.  And a pecan pie   Carrie roasted a perfectly browned turkey she had brined for 24 hours.  Frank made his Italian salad  Michael's girlfriend bought a plate of cookies she and one of her kids made and a mirlaton casserole. 

She was quiet, didn't help with the dishes, which is a big deal with the moms.  I asked her what she did for a living and she said she worked for a packaging company.  I askked a few more questions, I actually have a friend who does that, and just got some vague answers.  So no mystery solved there.

The day was wonderful and the best part was after it was all over, Carrie came and hugged me and said she was glad I  had come early because I took a lot of stress off her shoulders by taking over some things.  I hugged her back tightly, loving it!

Thanksgiving and Winning

I am a WINNER!  A BIG Winner at that!

I won the Sea Urchin Pinsie Pin Cushio from Karen Griska at the Selvage Blog!  I was blown away by the email I received yesterday telling me I had won!  I never expected that.

Check out her pincushions by clicking on the highlighted blog name above.

THEN:::::::::::::::;

I entered a contest at Urban Elementz, the pantograph people at the Houston Quilt Show and won their prize of $50 worth of pantos!  Can't wait to choose those babies!

And then I won big with the Thanksgiving dinner.  I had a table of 7 people and two turkeys cooked to perfection.  There were

Sweet potatoes from the fields of LSU (probably experimental with glow in the dark things in them) and
Rolls from Texas Roadhouse so sweet you didn't need honey
and
Green bean and french fried onion casserole
and
fruit salad
and
Pies in the Mason Jars......they were a huge hit!  Seven people ate 12 mason jars!

And we had wonderful guests........Tiger and Ann and Press and the Daughter and Son in Law

And the bassets did not steal a single turkey leg (because they were relegated to the outside at all times, except for one escapee who snuck inside during the football game)

We had fun, food and laughter with good friends............

but I failed to take but one picture after I already started carving the huge perfect turkey!

glen:  hope yours was a winning day as well.!

Where Is My Time Going?

McGee who is lucky to be alive...

Who knows where all my time is going?  I thought I would have time to do some sewing but I have not had a single second to sit and sew.  Maybe today.

You have no idea how much time it takes to keep that turkey McGee from killing himself by running after DiNozzo at top speed and throwing a pulmonary embolism because of his heartworm treatment.  Poor boy just wants to have fun!  Soon, my boy, soon.  Every morning and every night we go outside and wait for Frank and Chloe and DiNozzo to come home from their mile walks around the block.  It is a highlight of his day!

And I have a ton of friends coming for Thanksgiving this year.  I defrosted a turkey breast and then decided to get out a big turkey too.  The more the merrier, I say.

Apple filling

Homemade salsa in oregano

I am working on a new dessert.  I made some testers and baked up two of them last night.  Yes, I think I got it!  It involves mason jars and fillings.....I won't tell you any more, you have to come tomorrow and see what I am doing.

I will do a post on the wonderful-ness of my new find tomorrow..........I need to go to the grocery today.

Yesterday I cooked the Louisiana Sweet Potatoes from the LSU Farm that Ann brought me and they are ready to be made into casserole.  I have the makings for the green bean casserole, just add more cans of green beans for more people!  And the lovely desserts.  And gravy, I need more gravy.  Cranberry sauce will be cooked today.

Brining the breast

I found a recipe for Cranberry Gravy I will try today.  I really don't care for turkey gravy, too many unsavory parts go into it for my tastes.  I am not that kinda girl.  But cranberries are clean and healthy.  It is made with port wine and cranberries and sour cherries.  Much better than gravy from body parts that clean the body of toxins......just saying.

And rolls.  If I were anybody, I would bake me some rolls.  But I bought the Hawaiian Rolls which are soooo good.  The desserts will make up for not having homemade rolls.

Who wants to come to my dinner?