So...whats for dinner?

Bob brought home the "Just Us" dinner from Cellars--it's enough to feed 4-5 people! My back hurt too much to go with him--and so I missed a glass of Veuve Clicquot with the staff (he graciously drank mine). Wish he'd called me to hobble into the car and come over. We sat down to "pre-leftovers:" what we will likely be eating for the next 2-3 days. They were out of turkey breasts and sweet potatoes, so they gave us a double order of brussels sprouts & bacon, and a whole 12-lb. turkey! (Been years since I've had to carve one: we'd either gone to restaurants, gone to our friends' house where the host did the "hacking," or he'd do the carving when I hosted). Dessert was pecan pie and Sauternes.

Friends called at 6:30 for a Zoom toast. We raised glasses of bubbly, another friend had a Shiner dark holiday wheat beer, and our godson & his wife (in Seattle) teetotaled--they just announced I'm gonna be a "grand-godmother!" Trying to virtual-clink was difficult, as all four screens (our laptop, my friends' iPhone, my god-kids' iPad and our other friend's desktop monitor) had different arrangements of the four "splits" so we couldn't aim our glasses at the onscreen "corners." Our cats slept through it all--they didn't even beg dinner.

minus - great work on the holiday package wrap and hand off! I am such a wrapping procrastinator I sometimes end up wrapping on Christmas Eve and then am slightly annoyed when everyone tears the wrapping off hours later, lol! I really need to get better about doing it further in advance. I will have to mail to DS in CO and BFF in CA. I have a pretty short gift list - we don't exchange gifts with any of DH's sibs - we started out buying for all, then we drew names, then we just bought for the kids, then we abandoned all together - mutually. I have a few local friends that I exchange gifts with and usually make food related gifts for DH's office folks - but so many of them are working form home I am not sure what the plan is there.

Dinner was successful, but as is the custom we ate too much! DD made the corn casserole and the artichoke heart dip in the grill at her house, worked out great and she was able to make an Instagram post so that pleased the Traeger people - they reposted it immediately. I think they liked that she wasn't doing a turkey and instead doing a side and app. For some reason I resisted decorating for fall and just brought out stuff to decorate the table yesterday. I will be putting it away this weekend and bringing out the Christmas stuff, lol!

lacey - I have sometimes made leftover mashed potatoes into a patty of sorts by adding some cheese and other stuff. Here is a recipe link. This is something my mom did as I was growing up. I want to have fried turkey at least one time. Popeye's here in Tampa does them at T-Giv. DH has had it and says it is yummy. I love fried chicken so I think I would like turkey as well - and you're right it is a big thing here in FL. What did you think of it? I have never wanted to deal with the actual preparation though - a lot of oil and danger, ha! I did see once on Valerie Bertinelli's cooking show that Butterball has made a kitchen version, she cooked a relatively large turkey that way in it, in the house! Side note - she went to my high school, lol!

https://www.thespruceeats.com/crispy-potato-patties-recipe-482848

illimae - I am super impressed with your dinner - all done with an incomplete kitchen - great job! Thank goodness the friends brought an alternate cooking method and you guys improvised!

reader - great looking yummy cake! Sorry about the lack of family involvement - I totally get it and you are not alone. My BFF in CA is single, has no children, has an uninvolved only sister and niece/nephew, and she is often an afterthought. Their mom is still with us, she's in an assisted living facility, so they talk infrequently about coordinating things with that. On their last call the other day, she learned that her niece got engaged a couple of weeks ago - nobody bothered to call her and tell her, nor the mom. DH and I regard BFF as part of our family and she is more up to date on our kids than her own family. She is used to it, but I know it still hurts. My parents and only sib have passed away, I don't have contact with SIL and nephews - for many complicated reasons. DH's parents are also gone, his sibs are not local, and he is closer to his sisters than brothers. They make more of an effort. He hears from his brothers on holidays and birthdays with a text or short call, but his older brother is retiring from medical practice next month and just moved about 45 mins away from us, so we may see more of them once the pandemic calms down. A complicating factor is a rift between this brother and the sisters when their mom died two years ago - there was some unacceptable behavior from the older brother's wife and daughter toward the sisters and he sided where his bread is buttered. This puts DH in the middle, which is problematic. Family is hard, right?

I need to learn how to Zoom - it sounds like fun. I am somewhat technologically impaired...but it is never too late to learn, is it?

Love seeing all the pictures and hearing the descriptions of foods consumed and loved. Your potpie sounded delicious Carole and others who mentioned various types.

Special, thank you for your empathy. Families can be hard. A lovely endnote is the niece who attended sent a tear-inducing note later thanking me for making the effort and coordinating zoom. That helped a lot. In your family descriptions I did "recognize" some personalities as others probably did too.

Today needs to be a light eating day. Overdoing it has not improved with age 😉.

Tonight will be of course leftovers.

Well, yesterday turned out quite well. DD was home and Sharon and DD bought MIL over for dinner. Acorn squash stuffed with quinoa-onion-cranberry-"other stuff", a small turkey, mashed potatoes, onion gravy, turkey gravy, stuffing, sourdough dinner rolls, mom's sour cream-mandarin orange slice-crushed pineapple-shredded coconut desert dish, pumpkin pie and apple pie. Everything except the turkey and turkey gravy was vegan and amazingly enough, doing all this was actually a relaxed endeavor. Even more amazing was that everything came together and was ready within about 10 minutes of "when I said it would be ready" (4pm). .

Again, the two ovens and nine stovetop spots were most useful. Since the 2nd stove-oven is outside and about 20 feed from the inside one, I did get quite a bit of pre-eating walking "exercise". :-) Basically the "fiddly stuff" and the things that didn't take long to cook were done inside, while the longer cook time stuff that didn't need much attention was put on the outdoor stove-oven.

I'm sure just about everyone on here has made something similar! :-) It's in my grandmother's old cookbook and I noticed an almost identical dish when I was looking through an early 1950s Camp Pendleton Officers Wives Club cookbook. I also found it in a late 1950s Camp Lejeune Officers Wives Club Cookbook, so it looks like it was a popular dish among USMC families.

The recipe is basically a mixture of a can of drained crushed pineapple, a can of drained mandarin orange slices, enough sour cream to make it "look right" (which is about the same amount as one of the cans of fruit) and enough sweetened flaked coconut to "seem about right". I save the juice in a drinking glass and will add the juice, and more coconut, if needed, to get it to taste how I think it should taste and the consistency "how I like it". Also, if the dish is going to be made ahead of time, I've noticed the coconut will absorb some of the liquid so I keep the juice so I can readjust the mixture's thickness just before I put it on the table.

Extra stuff, if I have them, are crushed walnuts and/or the tiny marshmallows. If I do use the marshmallows, I'll add more of the reserved juice to counteract some of the sweet taste, and then some extra coconut flakes to "re-thicken" the mixture.

I use whatever sized cans of fruit that are the same size and it's sometimes 8, 9, 10, 12 or 15 (weight) ounce cans and I use all of the fruit, so the measurements are a bit "lax". :-)

“Jump ups” for the next couple of days. Then heading back to Houston for medical stuff and to finish clearing the house. The view is great here but it’s about to get too cold for the primitive outdoor shower. We’re bring a tub/shower combo and an oven back with us, yay!

Minus, I’m chilly but we’ve got an electric blanket and space heaters. It’s 50’s/20’s now but we’ll be back before it hits the teens. I think we’ll live in the new travel trailer this winter while working on the cabin, should stay warm enough.

Dinner last night was a pot roast with small potatoes and carrots. There is enough left over for dh's dinner tonight if that meal appeals to him. I am feeling "cooked out." My dinner may be a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.

We're having dreary weather today, and the temperature is supposed to drop into winter cold.

Not technically dinner but does anyone else like peanut butter on pizza? I enjoy it this way on occasion and the warm melty peanut butter is so yummy.

Sandy - I much prefer a recumbent bike to sitting up straight. Hope that works w/your back.

Cold here too - 58 & dropping. You know Eric - our friends back east are laughing at us. Anyway in honor of the "cold", I tried a new recipe for Beans Provencale. It's a navy bean base with spices & tomatoes. I added celery to the onions & garlic. I didn't have even dried thyme or basil in my spice cupboard (though the recipe called for fresh) so I substituted tarragon & rosemary. Actually quite good. I'll use less water next time since I like my beans chewy.

Mae - Pizza? What are the other toppings? I think I prefer my peanut butter on toasted English Muffins.

We had pouring rain the last two days so I missed 2 days of walks. I tried to make it up with 6 miles on Thanksgiving morning and another 6 miles this morning. Now I'm doing the one thing we ALL love (not) - paying bills. This evening I'll try to get all the rest of the Christmas presents wrapped.

I love peanut butter and eat it on a piece of toast with a drizzle of honey most mornings for breakfast. But not on pizza.

I think DH is planning to make chili tomorrow. i will happily turn over the kitchen to him.

I made a mess on the stove today. Put a pot of fresh cranberries on to cook and forgot about them. We like cooked fresh cranberries on cottage cheese as a lunch meal.

Totally surprised today reading the Target advert. Did you all know that Rao's make frozen (TV) dinners? Target has frozen "family meals" on sale 20% off. Meals by Stouffers, P.F. Changs, and Rao's .

I like the recumbent elliptical because it's easier on the back & knees than either a standing elliptical or a recumbent bike. It's called a NuStep, and also has an arm workout function. If you have an Athletico near you, that's what they use for warmups. (Never could get the hang of a standing elliptical, nor a stairmaster--I have actual stairs anyway).

So glad you have a meticulous gym, Judy!

The last of the T-day leftovers will be my solo dinner tonight (Bob has office hours and will likely eat whatever pizza the staff orders in). Whatever turkey doesn't get carved off the ever-dwindling carcass is going into the freezer. We killed off the stuffing & cranberry sauce last night, so I'll just nuke the leftover veggies, supplemented with a small Caesar. Not touching the last of the pecan pie--maybe a satsuma mandarin if I want something sweet. Tomorrow night will be leftover steak, asparagus, spuds, carpaccio and lobster mac & cheese. (I will add more asparagus, as I'll be spurning the spuds and all but a couple forkfuls of the mac & cheese).

Brunch today was French-style soft-scrambled eggs (2 jumbo) with chives and truffle oil, plus a slice of low-carb toast to mop it up.

This must be the night for mac & cheese! We had homemade curry mac & cheese with sausage - Yum!

We have a high pressure system over the West Coast so we've got sunny, mild 60's in the daytime with low 30's at night.

Moving on to the Christmas season.

Jane