Jodi's Blog: November 2005 Archives

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November 24, 2005

Thanksgiving: The Turkey

I'll skip over the events of Tuesday and yesterday and just get right into today. We had planned to join Leslie and her clan for Thanksgiving dinner at the Waterfront on pier 70 in Seattle. Richard started getting snotty sick earlier in the week, and I tried to fight it off, but it finally tackled me yesterday and today. This morning, and I use the term "morning" loosely, I got up with a splitting headache, full sinuses and unable to breathe through my nose. Whee. So I called Leslie and talked to her and she said I should go back to sleep. Talked to Leslie's mom and she said I sounded horrible :)

So, thanksgiving was quiet this year. I scaled back in the cooking department. I think like 2 weeks ago, I got a really great deal on a 24 lb turkey. It was frozen so I let it sit in the fridge to thaw. I was sure that I had let it thaw too much (i.e. it had thawed days ago and was now rotting in the fridge), but when i finally got around to throwing it in the oven at midnight Tuesday night, it still had ice crystals around the wings.

I didn't bother to wash the turkey off, I just removed the giblet bag and tossed that, took the neck out and put that in the pan along side the bird. Turkey was breast side down, and I shoved a bunch of fresh sage, a bunch of fresh thyme, and a stick of rosemary up the butt. I preheated the oven to 350, and tossed the bird in on the bottom rack. Baked at 350 for 1 hour, then reset the temp to 200 degrees, and baked for another 23 hours. Yes. 23 hours.

While the turkey was cooking all day Wednesday, I made my frozen corn salad that I enjoy (Richard doesn't, so it's just for me) and my yummy raw cranberry sauce. I knew what I was going to give Richard (turkey, instant mashed potatoes, and canned green beans) so really the rest was just what I wanted. I was feeling crappy yesterday, and I had a lot of other work to do, so I figured that the corn and the cranberries would be plenty to get me through the meal we'd be having at midnight. If I wanted more stuff I could always make it tomorrow.

So midnight rolled around, I took the turkey out of the oven, turned the heat up and popped in a Marie Callander's frozen pumpkin pie to bake. Now, I was going to make gravy, but I was just not feeling motivated. So I decided that we'd just eat the turkey thigh meat last night, and deal with the typically drier white meat tomorrow with gravy.

We finished eating and I let the turkey sit a bit more (but less than 45 minutes out of the oven total, because as the pie's time was going off at 65 minutes, I'd finished cleaning everything up). Then I decided to get rid of the carcass tonight, so I picked off all of the stuff that wasn't the two gigantic slabs of breast meat. I ripped away the bones and skin and plopped the two gigantic breast slabs into another dish and covered them in foil and tossed them in the fridge. I then strained the broth into another bowl and let that sit for a bit and put that in the fridge too.

Then for lunch today when I had my first turkey, I saw that the juices had all stayed in the breasts and they were absolutely delicious. When I microwaved the turkey, juices actually came up to the surface! It was not dry and it has a really great velvety texture that is to die for. It will be easy to use up the rest in a variety of dishes.

The only addition I made this evening was some gravy with the leftover gelled turkey broth. I peeled the fat off the top and then threw about a cup and a half of the jelly into a pan, melted it, tossed in a packed of mccormick's turkey gravy mix and a pack of onion gravy mix. Stirred those in to make sure there were no lumps. Then I dumped in some milk (not sure how much, maybe another cup). Then finished the gravy with about a 1/4 tsp of Bell's Seasoning. Holy crap was that good gravy! On excellent turkey! What a meal!

Posted by jodikins at 6:48 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2005

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LELLIEBUNNY!

man alive, we're getting OLD! :D

Posted by jodikins at 9:12 AM | Comments (0)

Back on schedule

Hopefully at least. I got up yesterday at 7:30 with the pup, ate breakfast, showered and dressed by 9:30ish. Leslie and I then went and did some pre-birthday shopping around 11. We went up to the outlet mall in Marysville as we were hungry and there lies the Ranch1. I decided to go with the philly chicken this time, and it was okay. The people working at Ranch1 are a little scary though. Not ex-con kind of scary, but short bus kind of scary. Workers aside, the quality is still on the sucky side, especially the fries, so next time we might do Mongolian bbq instead.

Leslie bought me some birthday gifts at the Coach store -- a purple wallet that matches my purse, and the coolest tape measure ever! She also was kind enough to get me a pair of fleecy pj pants from Maidenform that were actually labeled "XL ASS" on the hang tag (pictures to follow at a later date).

Then we headed down to Bellevue Square to pick up some pants that Leslie was having held for her, and to talk to the Helzeberg fuckers about my "extended care" plan. Apparently the diamonds are covered for life, but the gold settings are covered for 3 years for $14.99. Still utter bullshit, but I just won't renew it. And we had to talk to scary dragon lady with the bizarre painted on eyebrows. Helzeberg is right next to the New York Cupcake place. I got the NY Black and White cupcake, just like the last time... except this time it sucked. It had been sitting in the display case for quite a while and the cupcake was dried out and the icing had that icky rubbery layer. This is a good thing though as I no longer crave cupcakes from there :)

After that we walked over to the new Lincoln Square and visited the Container Store. I was giddy about the infinite possibilities, but only ended up spending $12. I got a nice borosilicate jar with lid for pickled eggs! and a small silvery cardboard box for potential treats to send to people this year.

After the shopping had concluded, Richard and I took GBIC to get groomed and spiffy for the holidays. While waiting for her, we went over to the Vitamin Shoppe and got some melatonin to reinforce my getting to bed earlier. Unfortunately by the end of the night, Richard was still on his old schedule, and he was restless as hell. His tossing and turning and pillow shuffling and his complaining about my snoring (I've been getting really congested at night) left me with next to no sleep. I'm still groggy from the melatonin and I'd like to fight through that today and just keep a better schedule.

Posted by jodikins at 8:23 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2005

Coyote Cutie

While I was shopping in QFC tonight, Richard called me from the car and said that a coyote was right in front of the car... in the parking lot at QFC! Unfortunately I still had lots of shopping to do, but that's the third coyote sighting in the past few weeks.

In other news there's been this magnificient fog for the past few days and nights. It's kind of Silent HIll, but it's also really pretty. I'm being extra careful when walking gbic, watching both for cars and for coyotes and other wild things.

Posted by jodikins at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)

Bleh 2: Electric Boogaloo

Feeling slightly better. Went to lunch and coffee with Leslie and Adam yesterday, it was nice hanging out. Last night, Richard and I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and walked away with $400 of items -- I finally own a toaster! I cleaned bathrooms before bed and put some things away. Today was Petco, laundry and cooking. More on that later.

Posted by jodikins at 6:21 PM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2005

Bleh

This isn't something that I was going to publish, but last night I had a miscarriage. I'm not really heartbroken or anything, just pretty sore overall.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it would have been crappy timing to have a baby. On the other hand, I'm almost 34 and that's pretty much getting to the end game as far as fertility goes. It's good that it was early enough along so that I wasn't "officially" pregnant -- I think I'd feel a lot more fucked up about it then.

Gory details in the extended entry, you've been warned.

I didn't realize that I was pregnant, though I suspected it. Last night around 11:20 I had an amazing spontaneous flood of clots. I spent the better part of half an hour in the bathroom as these clots just flowed out of me. Just when i thought it was finished, I'd try to get up and there'd be more. I had richard bring me more toilet paper and new panties and some maxi pads so that I could make it upstairs and shower some. Heather was actually online and talking to me through this. At that point I wasn't really thinking of it as a miscarriage, though I was just praying that the bleeding would stop without intervention. I showered, and there were some more clots and cramping. I took an aleve, and went and layed down for a bit. When I was feeling a bit better and really pretty shaky (hadn't eaten since 5pm and this was 1:30am), Richard and I went out to Jack in the Box. Came home and went to sleep around 2:30. The bleeding had slowed down -- I was no longer filling a super pad and then some every hour, and the clotting had stopped.

Posted by jodikins at 1:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2005

So. Tired.

The good news is that I managed to get to sleep a little earlier last night (2:30). The bad news is that Richard woke me up around 6:30 when he went to the bathroom and I've been up ever since. I worked some more on the kitchen, and I made a big breakfast. Fingerling potatoes make cute little round hashbrown coins! Now I'm ready to crawl back into bed, but I'm really trying to fight it. I woke up with a scratchy throat, probably from walking the dog last night. I believe last night was the first hard frost we've seen. Temps got down to 32! It was really pretty to see everything glazed over.

Posted by jodikins at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2005

One CD case down

and one to go. At least finding them, I haven't even started importing it all. I need another cd binder to hold all the crap that I found and imported a few weeks ago. I also found a ziploc of other loose discs and more of the liners, but nothing looks very must rip now. I've made small progress on cleaning tonight, but measurable progress. Sometimes it gets frustrating because I can't see the results because I'm just clearing away the surface. This time I can actually see less clutter.

Actually, I've made some major progress tonight. The Kitchenaid is not only unpacked, but actually is sitting in it's final resting place on the counter. On the clean counter. I need to wash my knives tomorrow and then that whole area will actually be put together and a-okay.

Posted by jodikins at 7:49 PM | Comments (0)

Liz rocks and Aleve is my bestest friend

Last night was fabulous! Missy Higgins was excellent and made a good show. And Liz absolutely rocked. It was nice seeing the contrast between the accoustic show a few months ago at Crocodile Cafe and seeing her last night. Neumo's is okay, but I forgot that I was old before we left and neglected to take my preemptory Aleve :) 4 hours of standing and light rocking out is too much at my advanced age. Amazingly, or disturbingly depending on how you look at it, I was not the oldest person there -- not by a long shot. There had to be people who were 50+ at that show, and they held their own right up at the front of the stage. Hah! There's hope for me yet! Leslie and I contemplated bringing our own chairs next time though :)

Cellphones are annoying at concerts thought. Some guy standing next to us was text messaging throughout most of the show. Dude, just tell your wife you don't want to go to the damn concert instead of annoying the crap out of the rest of us all night. Next time we're at a GA show, I'll look out a little more for Leslie. I didn't realize she'd not been to a club type GA show, and didn't really know to knock the crap out of anyone who tried to step in front of her :)

By the end of the evening, my hips and back were feeling the burn and locking up, but we made it home just fine. I remembered to take an Aleve before bed and I feel pretty okay this morning. Speaking of sleeping and morning, I think this might have reset my sleep schedule a little bit. Went to sleep around 2:30ish, and got up at 8:30, which is respectable by all accounts.

Posted by jodikins at 9:10 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2005

Liz Phair!

Tonight! With Missy Higgins! Never heard of her before, but I found her website and listened to some songs, and she rocks. Bought the album on iTunes and have been happily bouncing along since.

Long day today, I'll probably require a nap in a few. I slept from midnight til 3am last night, and have been up since then. Walked the dog thoroughly, had a lean cuisine, played several rounds of scrabble, called my mom, found Missy Higgins, did some research. Whee. I need to get up again at 10 to shower, go to the bank, and stop by the stupid fucking apartment management office. Thanks for accepting a package for us. A fucking week ago. And not bothering to notify us at all. HATE THEM SO MUCH.

So, I want to go to Bellevue today and pick up my dual feeder foot and maybe hit Avenue for a new sparkly tshirt that I saw online and that I have a coupon for. I just feel like being sparkly tonight -- that matches my mood. Hopefully Leslie will be in a sparkly mood too :)

Posted by jodikins at 6:39 AM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2005

Centered and Focused

Sometimes it's hard to see what a drain someone is on your well-being until you stop interacting with them for a while. The spiritual/mental/emotional housecleaning has inspired actual housecleaning, and I just feel much lighter and less ineffective with life.

I cleaned tonight while watching some tv upstairs, and I cleaned some downstairs (mainly my desk and the area around Richard's chair). Took the garbage bag out to the dumpster, came back in, and said to myself: This is doable.

In other news I'm waiting for something big to happen, but there's no guarantee that it will happen, or if I'll like the results long term. We shall see. I'm also trying to gear up for the holiday season. If I can get through my boxes of knicknacks I can set up a sewing area either here or in the garage. Then it's time to start on the Christmas crafts. Two weeks til Thanksgiving, three weeks and a day til my birthday.

Posted by jodikins at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)

November 9, 2005

CSA, Session 2, Week 1

This all started with a flyer in the community newsletter packet from Redmond Ridge. Willie Green's Organic Farm was offering winter CSAs in various configurations. When we lived in California, I did a Planet Organics box every two weeks, and it was wonderful. Aside from being able to stick it to the Man and to supermarkets who stock nothing but crappy, wilted produce, and helping small farmers to stay in business, CSAs provide wonderfully fresh organic produce.

For the winter, Willie Green's offers four 4 week sessions, so you don't have to sign up for too much, or make a huge commitment. I did the math and decided to do a small customizable share for the remaining 3 sessions (12 weeks total). It works out to about $21 a week ($250 total). Willie Green's works on a credits system, and assigns each item a credit amount. For the $250, I bought 360 credits to use however I'd like over the course of the 12 weeks. Each week I go online and select what items I'd like that week. Then on Sunday, the farm drops off a cardboard box at the ROA building here, and I can pick it up there -- it's even walkable.

Here's what I got the first week:

* 3 Gala Apples: These were amazing. It's been years since I had a ripe apple -- supermarket crap does not compare.

* 1/2 lb Romano Beans: Flat Italian type. Haven't had a chance to cook these yet, and they looked a little "end of season" which is understandable.

* 1 bunch Chiogga Beets: The candycane striped ones! Haven't had a chance to cook these yet (tomorrow hopefully), but they looked great. I wish I had a compost pile because these came with a huge bunch of beet greens on top. Hippies would eat those too, but I think they're icky :)

* 1/4 lb Red Russian Garlic: This was a HUGE bust. They looked horrible in the box, two very ratty looking heads of garlic, half rotten and dirty. I tried to use some of the cloves -- cutting off the brown yucky spots -- but this was just crap. Never again.

* 1 bunch Winterbor Kale: This looks lovely, I'll be cooking it up tomorrow with a little bacon and onion and vinegar. Yum!

* 1 Baby Head Lettuce: This was an odd one -- it was actually green leaf lettuce in the smallest little heads imaginable. I got 6 or 7 heads counted as one unit. Unfortunately it only made one salad for Richard, so it's not cost effective, but still worth trying again.

* 2 Anjou Pears: I hate pears. Sometimes I forget this fact :) That being said, these were actually quite good as far as gritty yucky pear flesh goes. Texturally pears are just gross, but the flavor was bright, fresh and sweet. But, I still hate pears, so no more of those.

* 4 oz Spinach: This was nice. It came very clean in a bag, but it seemed to have a bunch of "not spinach" plantlets mixed in. Maybe the baby plants were starting to bolt, but having grown spinach from seed, this didn't look like baby spinach. I picked those things out and the rest was wonderful. Definitely two good salads worth.

* 1 bunch Thyme: Wow. This was just amazing. Really stocky thyme plants with nice plump leaves that looked liked they'd been picked that morning. This went straight into the freezer for enjoyment all winter.

* 1/2 lb Fingerling Potatoes: Also haven't had a chance to cook these, but they look lovely.

All of the above totals 32 credits, and I think it was worth it. This week: more apples, some more lettuce, squashes and potatoes!

Posted by jodikins at 6:52 PM | Comments (0)

November 8, 2005

Hail!

We had pea-sized hail this afternoon, woo hoo! This weekend was great. We got up late on Saturday, but we still managed to hit Stupid Furniture (didn't have anything I wanted but had overall nice pieces), and Theno's Dairy (no eggnog yet, probably not til Thanksgiving proper). Sunday we managed to get up at a decent hour. Went to lunch at Canyon's (don't go on Sundays in the fall if you don't like football).

Then we picked up my organic produce CSA share from Willie Green's. I think it was a little smaller than I expected, but the quality of the produce was totally worth it. And the convenience can't be beat -- I can walk to pick up the box each week. Sarah thought it was too expensive, but honestly for organic produce it's not that bad. Even if it ends up averaging out to more than the supermarket, I'd rather the extra money going straight to the farmers. And holy crap, when was the last time you actually tasted a RIPE apple? I'm going to start a CSA section for the blog so I can keep track of what I got and what was good.

In other news, I'm feeling really old. Well, let me rephrase. When I look in the mirror, I look older. I'm noticing a few more gray hairs. With another birthday lurking just around the corner, I think it's time for a change. I picked up some red henna at the store tonight, but I think I'll just sell out and go to a salon and get something semi-permanent put in.

Posted by jodikins at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)

November 5, 2005

Cleaning

Spent some time cleaning tonight. Richard has to stay up for a 2am maintenance, so I decided to organize what I need to do tomorrow.

I made blueberry muffins tonight for breakfast tomorrow. I'm debating soaking the brown rice for the cajun rice tonight. I might do that just to get a head start on the cooking tomorrow. We're going to go to the Stupid Prices/Stupid Furniture outlet tomorrow. I want a coatrack (since I seem to just throw my coat down in the entryway), a small cabinet for the powder room, and some sort of a towel rack system for the master bath.

Posted by jodikins at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)

November 4, 2005

Sleep and coyotes

Today I decided I needed a break. So. I reschedule the cable dude appointment for next tuesday, and I informed Richard that I'd been feeling really anxious and depressed lately and that I was going to take a day off. I made a big breakfast for both of us, walked the dog, and then went back to sleep. I slept more or less until 5pm. And it was GOOD. I'd been running around so sleep deprived and it was making me cranky and made me foggy and really kept me from getting anything *done*.

I think I'll even be able to sleep tonight, amazingly enough.

Oh, and we saw a coyote (!!!) at the crossroads here. It was a little disoriented with the cars at night but it safely got across the street to the Redmond Watershed Preserve.

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