A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Turkey Pasta Soup

Ruth over at Once Upon a Feast hosts a great weekly food event called Presto Pasta Nights.  She posts a round up every Friday of the previous week's great pasta dishes. 

I'm getting back into the groove of  pasta night with my turkey leftovers in a pasta soup last night.  It's all about the broth, comforting in its turkey goodness with an attention-getting mix of pasta shapes to devour.

One of the interesting little secrets about this soup was that I followed Gene's initiative and spooned it over some leftover dressing from Thanksgiving.  It may sound odd but it's really yummy, giving the soup just an extra weight and oomph, turning it from "just soup" into a full meal for Gene.

Oh so Politically Correct

(Photos from ecofriend.org. )

Is your child having a birthday party soon? 

QUICK!

Run to this web site: Eco Friend and get tons of politically correct ideas on how to host a "green" themed birthday party.  While you're cutting organic vegan cake you can take the opportunity to "teach" your six-year-old's friends all about rare plants and animals, eco-friendly housing construction, and alternative fuel sources.

OR... you could stop being an asshole and go rent Chuck E. Cheese so the tyke can have a real birthday party with a dinosaur cake to keep his classmates from kicking his ass on the playground.

My God in Heaven, if my mother baked me the organic vegetable garden cake as a child they would have had to pull in a priest in to exorcise me. My head would have spun with projectile vomiting so fast the world would be off its axes now.  What kind of nerdy retard came up with that one? Even Al Gore gave his kids real birthday parties, folks. 

Give me a break.

Potato Bread: A Daring Bakers' Challenge

Our challenge for this month was Potato Bread, something I already love but had never made myself at home.  But I will now! Many thanks to Tanna at My Kitchen in Half Cups for picking this recipe.

This recipe was simple, easy to follow, easy to construct, and turned out beautifully. My niece Jordan and I made this as our Thanksgiving bread. The only quirk we added to the recipe was that we doubled it and added a cup of grated parmesan and chopped 5 green onions into half the dough so that we had both "white" potato rolls and parmesan chive potato rolls. Also, on the whole wheat we used white whole wheat from King Arthur flour so that the picky eaters couldn't tell they were eating anything wholesome.  Ya gotta be sneaky like that with my family sometimes.

As with all the Thanksgiving prep, Jordan was a great helper and we had wonderful Auntie/Niece time in the kitchen followed by a long evening of fun, family, and feasting. 

To see how all the other Daring Bakers fared, click here:  Daring Bakers.

Thanksgiving, At Last

The Family.

By the way, I'm on a new quest to break the fingers of every teenager who does that finger sign thing in photos. I don't know what it means and I don't care.  I hope in 20 years they're embarrassed they ruined family pictures with that crap.

The turkey.

Need I say more?  Well maybe not but you know me. I will.

So....before we get to the food...is everyone's family hysterically dysfunctional or is it just mine?  I have to wax philosophic for a moment. For the last 20 years my crazy family has driven me...well...crazy but I've finally found the "lighten up" button and while I don't always find the family antics hilarious, I have learned to not ruin my own good time wondering about the crazy levels of those around me.  I've finally learned to chant "It's not my life. It's not my responsibility" non-stop and loudly in my head to drown out my own screams of "What the F*** are you thinking?"  I've now developed and am in the process of developing a highly refined sense of mentally conjuring up my own imaginary narcotics to dull the family pain in my brain.

I'm speaking, of course, of the brother who was told the party was at 5pm even though it was at 6pm but still arrived at 8pm because apparently he didn't leave his home 45 minutes away until after 6pm and then decided he needed to do some miscellaneous shopping and get a haircut before arriving...what planet does that even make sense on?  I'm also speaking of the same brother's new girlfriend who, after trying to make a stink with him saying that I didn't properly invite her, sat in the living room all alone all evening watching TV instead of joining the family in the kitchen, dining room, and sunroom.  A couple of people did try to go talk her out of the cocoon. I wasn't one of them. That's just silly and smacks of drama queen.  I don't have time for that noise. I was busy laughing with my other brother and sister and cousins about "the good ole' bad ole days" when we used to be forced to sit at the "children's" table together at family holidays, and yet, when the dust from filled plates settled, we found ourselves with the auntie, uncle, Gene, and James (old people :-) ) in the dining room and all of us same cousins in the sunroom together laughing about stupid shit. For the rest of the night, it was officially the "Children's table" room.

So, you know, the moral of the story is that a little family whack never gets you down, it just makes for great stories later.

On to the play by play:

Happy Thanksgiving

Seriously, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I wish you all a wonderful day of blessings and family and love.

I will spend the day with Gene and then go in to the hospital to work overnight and I'm happy to do that. Last year, I spent quite a bit of time with a dying woman and her son who both have no one but each other on the holidays and you know what? I was happy to be there.  Not everything in the hospital is great but even the depressing things are only depressing if you let them be.  I like being with people who HAVE to be there.  For the most part, they're making the best of it too and we're all looking forward to spending a little "nice" time together and eating dry turkey and bad pumpkin pie from the crapeteria. 

I know. It sounds weird but it's actually a very positive experience.  There are also always "frequent flyers" in-house, the folks we've come to think of as family that I like stopping by to say "Hello" to even if they're not officially on my patient list.

Saturday is my family's shindig and I'm really looking forward to that too.  I feel so blessed to have two families in my life: my blood family and my patients/coworkers.

I hope you all feel blessed today too. Good thoughts today. And as a dear friend of mine always says "no worries."

Thanksgiving Eve Cartoon

What Would It Take to Kill Me?

For those folks, including my husband, who've been concerned about the two Rock Stars I drink on nights I work overnights, you can MAYBE lay your fears for my death-defying drinking habits aside. 

Here's the scoop on just how many energy drinks (since 2003 when ephedra was outlawed and therefore removed) I would have to shotgun to kill me:

Rock Star, Full Throttle, Jolt:  95+ cans

Coffee:  120+ cups

Mountain Dew, Pibb Xtra, Wild Cherry Pepsi, Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper: 300+ cans

Everybody feeling safer for me?  I know I am.

To calculate your own death-by-caffeine levels, click here:  Energy Drinks

EDIT:  Just for Deborah, of Play With Food, I have one more Death-by-Caffeine fact to add:

It would take over 1,000 Hershey's Kisses to kill me.  What a way to go!

Thoughts for Food

"The devil came to me last night and asked what I wanted in exchange for my soul. I still can't believe I said pizza. Friggin' cravings."    — Marc Ostroff.   

                                                    

Carrianne and the Marshmallow Fondant

My friend Carrianne does some cake decorating. As a matter of fact, she and her mother made HER wedding cake. It was very pretty and sleek.  She's been asked to make the cake of a friend and this is her fondant practice piece, using the marshmallow fondant recipe I posted a while back and used on Jessica's cake.

Isn't this pretty?  I love both the dots and the colors, blue and green together make me happy, you know what I mean?  The cake is white with raspberry jam between the layers, just like Carrianne's own wedding cake. That's one of my favorite combinations too.  Did she share? Noooooooooo!  LOL!  Just kidding. Great job, Carrianne!

Looky What I Found in the Grocery Store this Morning...

I see pulled pork sandwiches with cole slaw and pickles in our near future....