Sick (and Thanksgiving)

[mamadeb]

Colds are annoying. Even more annoying is having your second cold in two weeks. I had to pass on my landlady's son's wedding because of this.

Okay, fine. Not a huge loss - judging from the people at the aufruf(*), I wouldn't have known any one at my table, and honestly, I'm not such a friend of Susan that I'd do more than the required dancing with her. And I really don't know Aryeh or his bride at all.

But my nose is doing an impression of a faucet *and* I'm at work. Why? Because if I were at home, I'd be sitting in front of my computer anyway. So I might as well get paid for it. I have two boxes of lotion tissues, so I'll be fine.


In terms of Thanksgiving - I have an 18.5lb turkey thawing in my fridge, along with a pot of leela_cat's Roasted Squash, Pear and Ginger Soup. I have leftover uncooked squash, so I'm going to cut it into dice and bake them to be a garnish, along with a cilantro leaf.

All I need to do now, if I even want to, is toast almonds and fry onions for the green bean dish (I'm mixing french-cut beens with fried onions and almonds, leaving a cup or so undoctored for my niece) and sauté the onions and mushrooms for the dressing. I also need to find Imagine No-Chicken broth - I have the vegetable broth, but I'd rather have this - to use as the liquid for my dressing. Which I can make the night before because I'm NOT stuffing the bird. The idea is that the only meat for the dinner will be the turkey. Everything else will be pareve, so my brother-in-law is a full participant. I'll bake him a tilapia fillet for his main course. He loves tilapia. I figure I'll cover it with fresh tomatoes and onions. Easy.

Mother-in-law is making a pumpkin custard and the cranberry sauce (she's making the latter with my niece as a grandma thing to do. Too bad it's made with Splenda, which makes it taste wrong to me.) To everyone else's disappointment, I am NOT making hot sweet cider. It's just one more thing to do, and I don't even know if I'll have the pot or the time, and I don't have the spices or the means to serve it.

(*) aufruf - the Sabbath before his wedding, a bridegroom is called to the Torah, gets a special blessing and people throw candy at him.

Comments

[karmenghia.livejournal.com]

When I can be bothered, which is seldom, I make hot cider or mulled wine in a crock pot. Just a thought. Because you know more about what you're doing in the kitchen than I do. The last holiday I hosted in the previous century was delightful, but I'm still recovering from it.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I think that might work out very well. Thank you!

Activate crock pot cookin' powers!

[karmenghia.livejournal.com]

Yay! Crock pots rock!

I recently made steelcut oats in my crock pot. It was easy and they were delicious! I felt so healthy and accomplished.

Happy holiday. I don't celebrate TXGVN, but I get two days off work, so I celebrate that.

Re: Activate crock pot cookin' powers!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I've heard good things about oatmeal in crockpots. If I ever got a dairy insert for mine, I'd do that. (Okay, I'd probably use soy milk anyway, but my husband uses the real thing.)

But, yes. I love my crockpot. It's like someone else cooked dinner.

Re: Activate crock pot cookin' powers!

[karmenghia.livejournal.com]

If you had a dairy insert, whatever that is, would you put the milk in while you were cooking it?

I let mine cook overnight on low. First I sprayed it with a no-stick spray and what a difference clean up was. I used 2 cups of water to 1 cup of oats with a handful of dried fruit (yummy!). I put milk on after I dished it up (I could have used soy milk, I had some in the house), but that might not work for y'all. It was good; I didn't even want to sweeten it.

Re: Activate crock pot cookin' powers!

[(Anonymous)]

My crockpot, like so many others, has a ceramic pot insert - where you put the food. Since I cook meat in there, it's fleishig - I can only cook meat or vegetarian (no dairy) food in it - and it makes anything I cook in it fleishig as well. Which means that if I cook oatmeal in that pot, I can't put milk on it. It's entirely possible to buy replacement inserts, and have that be dairy or pareve, but my storage space is limited.

Re: Activate crock pot cookin' powers!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Sheesh. When did I get logged out?

Re: Activate crock pot cookin' powers!

[karmenghia.livejournal.com]

Ah. (I thought that was you.)

The penny dropped that the pot was fleishig as I was walking to another office. I've been reading your LJ for years, some of it has sunk in when I can remember it. :)