Thursday, November 27, 2008

Dear Guitar Hero (aka: next door neighbour)

Good Lord, man, it's 8:30 am on a HOLIDAY! Shut up with the bad guitar playing!

What the heck is wrong with people..? Seriously, guitar at 8:30 am? On Thanksgiving? Some people would appreciate being able to sleep in on a day off. I'm up (shopping online... lol) - I always get up early - but my poor husband is trying to sleep. I really hope you can't hear this in the master bedroom. And it's not even good... that's the worst part!

Sheesh... oh well, he only lives in his townhouse a couple days a week so at least we don't have to hear this every morning but still (and he is our only attached neighbour so I suppose it could be worse) but come on! Bit rude, don't you think?

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008 Menu

As promised, here is the plan for Thanksgiving this year. It's really not much different from last year since I had lots of repeat requests from family members... oh well, made it easy to plan!

I still need some kind of appetizer but I'll think of something! I still have a week :)

Main meal
Turkey - My mother-in-law is taking care of that.
Vegetable Filo Roll Extravaganza (Moosewood) for me (yum!)
Sausage and cornbread stuffing
Cornbread and fruit stuffing (vegetarian; I'm just using this recipe and skipping the chicken-apple sausage and changing veg broth for chicken broth)
Brussels sprouts amandine (I have no clue how to spell that word for "with almonds" - and I took 5 years of French... my teachers would be ashamed)
Green beans amandine (for the people who don't like Brussels sprouts - ie: my brother and DH's family... don't know what they're missing!)
Brown sugar glazed carrots
Some type of potato (still have to figure that bit out. My dad does amazing things with sweet potatoes and orange.. maybe I'll have to borrow his recipe and make those)
Homemade cranberry sauce (my mom is taking care of that but it will just be plain cranberry sauce so I might make another version that is a little more adventurous.. I have a couple recipes I've been needing an excuse to try!)
Homemade apple sauce (I'll do this)

Desserts
Apple pie (from me) - I'm going to try to make a lattice crust
Pumpkin pie (my mom's)
Pumpkin bread (MIL's)
I think my mom mentioned something about minced pies (yummy British Christmas dessert that we, naturally, add lots of booze to!) and a fruit cake (Australian version from my Welsh aunt who has lived in Australia for 20 years [my family is just so fabulously international...lol] - nothing close to the brick-esque American fruit cakes! Sorry... but people actually eat [and enjoy!] our fruit cake)

In other words, far too much food for 7 or 8 people! But isn't that half the fun of the holidays? :) Actually, thinking of the appetizer, I may just say sod it since we have so many flipping desserts!

Menu - November 22-28

Ah... a blissful week off :) I am on Thanksgiving break from work and I'm done with school (talk about something to be thankful for) so I'll be enjoying a week off - hopefully spending lots of time in the kitchen discovering some new things and dusting off old favourites.

We won't be having Thanksgiving until Saturday, Nov. 29 since my dad will be on a plane coming home from Italy (must be nice, eh?!) on Thanksgiving day. My in-laws are hosting but I've volunteered to do most of the cooking so I'll post my T-day menu in a minute.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to brave the crowds (and insane car parks) and go shopping on "Black Friday".... maybe if people get me their wish lists before then!

Saturday (11/22) - Grilled veggie pitas with lemon saffron rice and a salad for me; fish sticks with cauliflower (shocks me that my picky husband loves cauliflower!) and salad for DH.

Sunday - Tuna melt/caprese panini for lunch; homemade ravioli for dinner (Italian sausage for H, sundried tomato and olive for me)

Monday - Split pea and lentil soup with salad for me; Parmesan pork chops for DH

Tuesday - Stuffed baked potatoes (I'll add some BBQ chicken with homemade BBQ sauce for DH)

Wednesday - Quinoa and black bean stuffed tomatoes (I could eat these every day!) for me; beef stew for DH (he always jokes that he doesn't understand how his veggie wife can make such great beef stew)

Thursday - Spaghetti with homemade marinara/marinara with homemade meatballs

Friday - Pineapple-cashew quinoa stir-fry (mmmm); margarita salmon for DH

Have a lovely Thanksgiving!

I'm back! With a little addition... ;)

I took a little break so I could focus on finishing my Masters degree! Yes, I have turned in my very last assignment! What a lovely feeling :)
The little addition, by the way, is the MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) I now get to add at the end of my name... heh
Er, maybe I should wait until I get something official from the university before I jinx something!

I need to actually blog the new things I made during all that time off..!