who has the meats? i do!

Smitty came by with ham and fried turkey and smoked turkey from the Thanksgiving feast at his and Mary's. He had all three of their kids and all of the grandkids, too, including baby Ava, daughter of Zach and Krystal. Very nice! I know because he sat and talked with me for about an hour! That was a lovely gift to me!!!

So, not only did he bring a container slap full of meat, but he also brought me enough low country boil leftovers that I can have it for three meals! That wasn't something he cooked. See, we didn't have the S&K Friday Fiesta yesterday, as the Georgia Bulldogs were set to play at that time. He and Mary were over at Mark and Paula Norman's, and they are the ones that went crazy cooking low country boil. In that photo, that was my dinner tonight. I've still got enough in the fridge for at least one more time. Wow!

I had leftover dressing, gravy, and turkey from Tony and Laura for breakfast today. It was so very good! Then, for lunch, I dined on Laura's pasta salad with some of Smitty's ham. And I've had Choco-Flan for dessert with all three meals! How blessed am I to have had dessert with my breakfast!!! Christmas seems to have come early, that's for sure! I'm glad I straightened up the living room and had my tree set up before my brother got here. That way, he knows I have the holiday spirit!

I've even done a little 'Black Friday/ Cyber Monday" shopping this afternoon. I've needed a new GPS ever since I returned from Tallahassee, so I'd started looking at them online. After Smitty left, I bopped over to Best Buy, as I'd ascertained that they had them in stock. I was there just in time to grab the last Garmin Drive 53 on the shelf. Perfect timing! Even my odometer agreed! i thank You, God. (smile!)

four cousins at thanksgiving!

"Four? Were you in Hinesville this year?"

 

Nope! I was at Tony and Laura's again! He had invited me over.

 

"Wait... I thought you'd been invited to your cousin's house in Waycross?? Was that not correct?"

Well, that had been the plan, but I never heard anything more from Linsey or cousin David about doing that. I don't know what happened on their end, but it's all good! I'm pleased to be with Dood this time! You know what he said to me? I'm come into the back yard where he was smoking the turkey and when he saw me, he lit up! Then he thanked me, right in front of Damon, for being there for him for so many years when he was in Summerville. I tell ya, we were both nigh on to tears as we were hugging. Right place, right time.

 

"I am so happy for you! What a wonderful moment with your youngest brother on this special day of thanks. What all do you have on that plate?"

 

Smoked turkey, dressing with gravy, mac'n'cheese, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes... oh, and two desserts! Quite a feast!

 

"You and your 'dessert with your meal' thing! Is that the pumpkin pie from the Bananas? Did it have any of that fruit in it?"

 

Yes, that was the pie, alright! And it was just a standard pumpkin pie. If there was any other fruit in there, none of us detected it. That's Sebi, Hope's 12-year-old, tucking in to that piece. He ate every bite!

 

"I'm sure he did. He's almost a teen and probably eats anything and everything. What was that other dessert on your plate?"

 

Oh, that was Choco-Flan! Hope made it, as it's a favorite of her kids. In the photo, she's explaining to Tony that it's upper part is like flan, and the lower is chocolate cake. Get this: it's all combined together when it's mixed, but then density is what causes the two different parts to separate. Density!!! She used chemistry to explain it!!! How great is that??? And she even made it with Bert, her 9-year-old, and he understood about the different densities!

 

"How very cool!"

 

Right?! When it cooks, the lighter cake portion floats to the top of the pan and the heavier custard sinks to the bottom. Then, when it's turned out of the pan, the light-colored flan is on top, like a frosting. I really liked it and took a huge piece home! You eat both sections simultaneously, as the custard sweetens the cake.

 

"That's rather different than most American desserts."

 

That may be part of why I liked it. Now, here's a photo that shows Carissa with her two male cousins. She turned 16 in May, the day before my birthday.

And here she is with her brother, Dylan. He surprised all of us when he came today!!! He's so tall and grown-looking! He's 18 now and should have been graduating from high school this year, but he's dropped out. At least Tony serves as an example of an adult who saw the value of that degree, getting his GED while he was locked up.

 

"Oh, I do hate that Dylan has dropped out!"

 

He's got a girlfriend and is talking about marrying her, but hopefully that will wait. I told him about me getting married at 19 and how that was over in just 3 years. Then again, I know folks from high school who have been married since graduation. It all depends on the people and how much work they want to put into the marriage.

 

"That's for sure. Well, I'm thrilled for Tony that he had both of his kids and most of his grandkids there today. I know that means a lot to him."

 

You're right, this was surely a blessed day! i thank You, God!

parade highlights for me

The first thrill was the appearance of Huntrix.

I still don't know the band, but 'Lisa Simpson' sure did!

Bart even made sure the whole family had tickets to see the concert... what a nice brother!

The second was Taylor Momsen, with a solo song.

Remember her?

Little 'Cindy Lou Who' is 32 years old now!

Yes, indeed, that rocker was the little girl who helped a heart to thaw and grow.

After her number, the Grinch was right there to applaud her, too!

That movie celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

I choose to believe Jim Carrey was in that suit, braving the cold to show his support.

(smile!)

thanksgiving note

Dearest Tony,

Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving as you gather with friends and loved ones!

Say what?
No, your sister has not lost track of time, she's simply being frugal. Here's a lovely card that would otherwise hang around idle, waiting for next Thanksgiving, and who's to say it wouldn't get lost along the way? What a shame that would be!

The sentiment is good, too. An attitude of gratitude fits right in with the spirit of Christmas!

with much love!

two Thanksgivings for breakfast!

Yes, I am most definitely grateful!
This year, I was treated to Thanksgiving feasts not once, but twice!
The first was actually on Thanksgiving Day, here in the USA. (You do know that Canada celebrates the occasion on a different day, right? Yep, on the second Monday in October, eh?)
The lower half of my plate contains some of the leftovers from that feast. The dinner was in Augusta, at my paternal cousin Bev's house. You may recall that she is quite a chef and the reason I supported a cookbook campaign on kickstarter.com. I do have to wonder now if that Brussels sprouts dish might have been one of the recipes in her copy of the book? True, I could simply look it up in my copy of "A Dollop and A Pinch", but I'm busy writing.
(smile)
Whatever the source of the inspiration, that medley sure was good this morning! The bacon got good and crispy and the apple caramelized just a bit more... I tell you, I ate every bite!
The miniature pumpkin pie was from the second of my Thanksgiving meals. This time, I dined in town, at my first niece's house. Turkey, dressing, rice and gravy, green bean casserole (the secret was the mozzarella cheese!), corn souffle! And a plethora of desserts, garnered from pinterest.com, her latest craze!
I was able to make off with several of the mini pies, one of which is featured in the top of this breakfast plate. Should I count it as dessert or another vegetable? After all, a pumpkin is a type of squash. I'll let it count in both categories!

carcass o'plenty

Today, I ate the last of the meat I had garnered from the carcass of one of the Thanksgiving turkeys my biggest little brother had prepared for the family feast this year. On that day of thanks, I had waited too late to prepare a to-go plate. By the time the rest of the family had gotten some of this and a bit of that, there were just carcasses, some cranberry jelly, and some s'more cookies my eldest niece had made.
My sister-in-law helped me bag, and then double-bag, the largest turkey carcass. I had said I would try my hand at making broth with the bones. I rightly thought that would be all I do with it, as the bones had been picked pretty clean.
So, she sent me home with the bones, the jelly, and the cookies. I put them all away when home, then settled in to watch a marathon of "Monk" and to psych myself up for making broth.
I knew I had seen a recipe for New York Penicilln in my worn copy of The New York Cookbook. This is one of the best cookbooks I've ever had! The recipes are those of (mostly) famous people, accompanied by stories and anecdotes - quite entertaining, especially for a book of recipes! As it happens, the soup recipe I recalled reading was from Guardian Angel Curtis Sliwa's elderly aunt. (How appropriate! A guardian angel led my memory to that recipe!)
Sure, I hear you now: that recipe was for chicken broth. To you I say: Fowl is fowl and poultry is poultry.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. It was already approaching 8 PM and the recipe called for all of the ingredients to simmer for four hours.
FOUR HOURS.
Good thing I'm a night owl. Hoot, hoot!
So, I grabbed my largest pot, poured in the gallon of cold water, submerged the bird remains, and set it to heat. The recipe called for garlic (got it!), an onion (whole, peeled, but not sliced: got it!), and two carrots ("peeled, cut into hunks": got baby carrots!). It also requested celery, a bay leaf, parsley, salt, peppercorns, and chicken feet or chicken wings or a turkey wing.
Oh, and it started with a whole chicken, not just bones.
Hmmm... nah, didn't have it, so didn't add any of that. I was cooking turkey broth, so I figured I was free to make other alterations.
(By the way, that's fairly typical for me to use a recipe as a springboard, not a rulebook. Used to drive my ex crazy.)
It was well past midnight before the broth was done. Then, the decision to be made: go ahead and strain it and gather the bits of meat and discard the bones - or, close it all up, put it into the fridge, and tackle the onerous task of picking some other time?
You mean, when it would all be cold?
Nah, that didn't sound appealing. At all.
So I took care of it then and there.
Pulled out and discarded the larger bones and the onion and the carrots, as the recipe said to do.
Fetched my strainer and pulled up spoonfuls of meat and gunk, drained them, then picked out the meat.
Repeat, Repeat. Repeat.
By the time I was down to just broth, I had about four cups of meat.
WOW!.
I had thought I came home with no turkey and here I had four cups of ready-to-use meat!
It was also 4 AM and definitely time for bed, after covering the broth and setting it in the fridge to cool, so I could de-fat it later.
I ended up with about six cups (1500 milliliters) of broth!
Quite impressive. Especially as I thought I took home bones.

Since then, I've eaten quite a bit of turkey. Sometimes (four days) as breakfast sandwiches, made with dill pickle dip mix in "sour cream", on hearty white bread (4 grams of fiber per sandwich). What a grand way to start the day!
I've also had turkey and mayo sandwiches (twice), turkey with pasta and vegetables (twice), Italian ribollita (twice, made the quickie way with a pint of my broth, some fresh onions and chopped broccoli, and a cup of stove-top stuffing mix), fajitas (twice, using leftovers from a veggie fajita lunch with my first niece and some Ro-Tel of my own).
Today for lunch, it was the last of the turkey meat, fresh broccoli florets, leftover red rice (from the Post 36 fundraiser on Friday), and some of the cranberry jelly. Oh, and toast points, for a little crunch.
I still have two pints of broth in the freezer, too.
Not a bad haul from bird bones.
It just shows to go ya: Appearances can be deceptive.
Don't count something as worthless before it truly is all used up.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

thanksgiving greetings from the C-Port

whooo whooo!

word of the day: benign

After almost two weeks of waiting, I finally got word from my doctor: benign.

Once I knew I was in the clear, I thought it best to let folks know. Heaven forbid they should find out somehow and wonder why they had NOT been informed. I would have never heard the end of it! So, here is what I wrote:
"Just to let you know...
On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I had surgery to remove a lesion on my vaginal wall. I suspect it was a ruptured cyst, but it had been there for several months and was not healing. Surgery, requiring me to be put under, was required, as the lesion was near my left urethra and the doctor wanted to make sure he didn't run into any complications.
The surgery was at 7 AM on the 21st and I was home before 11 AM.
My elder stepsister knows, because she was on duty at the hospital on the 20th when they were making the call to let me know the time of my surgery.
My bfe took me there, brought me home, and took general care of me - and custody of my car - until the 25th. He was amazing, pretty much leaving me alone to sleep and recover and making sure I didn't try to jump back into my busy schedule too quickly... which I certainly would have done.
Yesterday afternoon, I had the post-op check-up. Benign! Benign!!
Thank God.
Now to be patient while the wound finishes its healing.
I am so relieved!
Due to the sensitive nature of the location (i.e., interior vaginal wall), I didn't really want to talk about to everybody. I had not informed my eldest brother, my middle brother, and my first niece (my ICE) until the Sunday before the surgery (the 18th). My eldest brother and his wonderful wife, as well as my first niece, brought me Thanksgiving dinners and visited briefly, again allowing me time to recover from the anesthesia and surgery.
I only took pain meds for three days and never had the intense pain and cramping the doc had said I would, nor did I have heavy bleeding. Good!
So, I did want you to know, in case you might hear about it somewhere along the way."

Here are some of the responses I received. I truly am blessed to have such caring people in my life!

my SAR bf (who had a cancerous kidney removed about two months earlier) said:
"Y'know, you didn't need to have sympathy surgery to show that you care.....
Glad to hear that everything is, as my sister put it, "unremarkable".
Isn't anesthesia fun?
On my end, my MRI came back clean this week. Next thing is a CT scan in
March to monitor the suspicious location in my lung. So it looks as if
I'm clean for now. (Time for a victory dance....oh yeah, oh yeah...)
How long is your recovery time? Are you back in the swing of things yet?"
my reply:
"Victory dance is good!!
I'm glad this is the end of the term. Mostly, I'm grading Final Exams, so I'm on my butt and off the streets... mostly!
<3
Glad to hear all you are passing all of your tests with flying colors!
:D"

My copper friend proclaimed "Am verrrryyy happy for you!! Bestest news I've heard all month!!"

My first niece said:
"I take it you got the results from the cyst?
I love your word for the day then.
I love you."

The Canadienne wrote:
"whoopie Benigh is Awesome. Been saying quite a lot of prayers, nice to know they were answered..
Ok Time to Happy Dance xo nice pic too of the canteen lol. Now working at a local bar for only 8 hrs a week, looking for a second one too. HOpe you have a really wonderful Christmas too. My youngest daughter is coming to Windsor. Love to all! xox"
my reply to her:
"Happy dance all around! <3"

my melaness (the cystologist) said:
"omg girl that's scary!!! Usually those are benign unless you've had abnormal paps. Ill pray for you to have a quick recovery! NO SEX either!!!"
my reply was
"No sex???
That's what the doc said, too.
Not even with my toys.
Damn.
For at least three more weeks.
Damn!"
She nearly fell off her chair, laughing!

The ex, when I told him, said:
"I am so thankful that everything went well and that the biopsy was negative. Thank you for letting me know.
Pending vacation approval, I'll be driving down for Christmas, traveling December 21-22 and on December 31- January 1. I'll let you know more soon."
I told him:
"Please do let me know as your plans evolve.
I'll be away, but returning on the 23rd, with no plans for further travel.
I have NO idea what is going on for Christmas Eve this year... I have heard nothing about a family get-together."
(Turns out my eldest brother was to have passed the word to me... oops!)

my stepmom told me:
"and again, Thank God it was benign…
I am sorry you had a confining Thanksgiving.
Your bfe sounds like a really good guy…
Let me know when you can spend some time together…I can come to Savannah if that would be better..
No more surgeries …"
I say, I sure hope not! This isn't the first time I've had a little alien hanging out where it doesn't belong. I do hope it will be the LAST.

My paternal aunt put it into perspective:
"Needless to say I didn't know about your problem, so glad that it was not "BAD". My middle daughter's was of course. Had a complete hysterectomy. Has finished the kemo and radiation. Her hair is comming back in. We had Thanksgiving dinner there this year. She had just had her last radiation treatment the day before but I didn't know that, she was afraid we would not come if I knew that {probably right}. I am happy that things proved good for you. We love you."
Nothing like hearing the grass is NOT greener on the other side of the fence.
"Oh, my, I feel like such a wienie. I'm glad things are improving for Beverly... I had no idea. Thank you for letting me know."

This points out two important things.
1. Stay in touch more often.
2. Realize you are not the only one.

odds

I seem to be at odds today. I'm pretty sure it's because my schedule has been thrown out of whack from yesterday's day off.
Heck, for that matter, Wednesday was pretty much a wash for me, too. I had felt like it was Friday all day; even though I didn't have to go to work that day, I had gone briefly, then I kept my usual afternoon schedule for a Wednesday. But, no, not quite. I did have a dental appointment that afternoon, which made it Friday-ish again.
I need to have a schedule, during the daylight hours especially, to help me run on an even keel. Holidays tend to upset that schedule by encouraging me to alter my body clock, sleeping in later, staying up later. Today COULD have been a Sunday, but the only news program I watch (CBS Sunday Morning) was not on to begin my day. Ergo, this was NOT Sunday. Nor was it a Saturday, because surely that was yesterday... right? If the day before was, indeed, Friday?
I remember not having such difficulty keeping track of the days of the week when I was once a shift-worker. True, that was MANY years ago: in fact, about three decades ago. I was obviously much younger then and somehow didn't pay as much attention to the actual DAYS of the week. The schedule was 2-2-2-80 and encompassed the working of forty-eight hours (six eight-hour shifts) over a span of five days, then having eighty hours off (slightly more than three days). The eight-day schedule very much suited me, as I needed to rise early only for two days of evry eight. Better yet, I had a three-day "weekend" that rotated through the actual days, allowing me to have days off when the majority of folks were at work. That meant the beaches would be nigh deserted there in Panama and Okinawa and San Diego, allowing me to enjoy the ocean and sun and sand uninterrupted. Very nice!
So, today, on this extra Saturday-esque day, it was odd for me to feel off-kilter. In an effort to feel more "normal" and to acknowledge this period of time to be a Friday, I even worked for a while today, spending several hours completing the grading of the last of the lab reports. (Yeah!) Then I went to a movie, as I tend to do sometimes on a Friday afternoon. But I had no plans for later this evening... which made me question whether this was indeed a Friday. Sigh. Back to square one again.
Perhaps tomorrow will set me straight again. We shall see. I do hope so.

thanks, e.e.

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

- e.e. cummings

The first verse is my signature line for my emails and has been for years. Sometimes, you may even spot me walking along and speaking the words, or almost singing them from my open car window.
Try it some time.

hat trick

What a curious phrase, but I find it was the first one that leapt to mind last Wednesday. Although the sport of hockey is the one I associated with the term, it apparently is also used in quite a few other sports, including marbles. The term, dating back to 1879, was originally associated with cricket, a game I've never witnessed and cannot fathom. Hockey, on the other hand, is a game I enjoy watching, no doubt ever since Paul Newman brought it onto my radar with Slap Shot in 1977. Raunchy, action-packed, and hilarious - and me, newly in the Navy, away from home and discovering THE WORLD! Several years later, while stationed in San Diego, I attended my first game in Los Angeles, with a Canuck as my guide to the finer points. I've even cheered the South Carolina Stingrays, live and in person in Charleston, several times now and try to be at the Savannah Civic Center for the college games in January. Good times! But I digress.
My "hat trick" has naught to do with sports of any kind. Rather, it's more on the order of performing an act of love for each of my three brothers. I had not intended to try to perform three kindnesses for my three brothers. The cosmos just arranged for the scenes to be set and for me to recognize the magnificent opportunities afforded me. Incredible and great serendipity.
For my eldest little brother, I agreed to represent his presence at the home of our long-lost cousin in Augusta. Not in so many words did I agree to this act. he asked what I was taking and I told him of the cake and chocolate pecans. He had been smoking turkeys all day for various friends and neighbors and he rather spontaneously made an offer of half a very large bird. And so, I accepted and transported his gift of cherry-wood-smoked turkey, even completing the cooking of it and making sure it arrived warm and fragrant.
My middle little brother was there at the smoker, too, having been dropped off by his boss to quaff a few beers and serve as a taster with the other fellows from the old neighborhood. When I went to leave, he had no ride, so I offered to take him to his place, and along the way we talked about SAD and how it affects our family. I even treated him to dinner with me and we were graced with a very sweet waitress at IHOP that evening.
As I dropped him off at his apartment, I was thinking about how great the evening had been and I noticed it wasn't yet 7:30pm. Quick as a shot, it occurred to me that I had long postponed a promise made to my youngest little brother. I had gone to visit him for his birthday and he had said that ten dollars a week would mean a lot to him. I had relayed the message to family members and my stepmom had given me the money for five weeks for his account. Several weeks had passed and I had not yet made the deposit. (Head hangs down.) So, down Chatham Parkway I went, conscious now of my need to fulfill this promise to him, my need to do a kindness for each of my brothers, my need to complete this cycle on this night. Done!
I felt that my steps had been guided that night. Thank you to my angels for helping me SHOW love to those I love. Especially at the time of Thanksgiving.