gratuitous food photos

A good majority of today was spent making an early Thanksgiving dinner for myself and a gentleman friend, along with a couple others once I realized just how much food there was going to be (a lot).



I've been looking forward to this for a while. I love the challenge of cooking a big meal alone. There's a lot of math, logic, and problem solving involved. There is way too much strategerie going on in my head when I'm in the kitchen.



There is also the uncontrollable, unconscious need for me to show off how domestic I am around a new boy. Do you get like that too? It's not our fault we've been programed like this for centuries, right? Look how good I am at holding a baby! Let's see how many side dishes I can fit in the oven at once! Did you see how well I mopped that floor?



Crescent rolls: Pillsbury

Apple galette: lovely miss Sarah

[served with homemade whipped cream: 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, 1.5 tbs sugar, drop of vanilla; beat until...whipped-cream-y]



Green bean casserole: 1 pkg frozen cut green beans (boiled quickly & drained to defrost), 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup, 1 small can French's fried onions, pepper

Mashed potatoes: 3 medium size Russet potatoes (peeled, cut into apx. 1.5" cubes, boiled until soft), 1/4-1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, 1-2 tbs butter, salt, pepper



Turkey: 3lb boneless turkey breast (defrosted in cold water in the plastic, changed out & rotated every 30 mins, for apx. 2 hours before roasting), melted butter, salt, pepper, roasted @ 350F until internal temp was correct (apx. 2-2.5 hrs)

Stuffing: Stovetop

Gravy: (the small turkey breast doesn't yield a lot of drippings, so in the roasting pan..) boil all pan drippings & 1/2 cup dry white wine, cook down about half the way, add 1 small can turkey or chicken stock, whisk in cornstarch solution (apx. 1 tbs cornstarch + 2 tbs cold water) slowly until desired consistency



The rest of the photos were taken just before the sun went down, so this plate photo is artificial light and not too appetizing. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was really, really good.

Going home to see my momma tomorrow, where we'll do it all over again!
Whew, who else is starting a diet Friday?

party all the time

First of all, in regards to my last post:
I have sold three things on Craislist,
and I have donated an entire trunk full of stuff.
There is still a lot more work to do, but the weight is slowly lifting, I just know it!

So, Thursday night we had a house show to kick off Mark's band's first mini-tour (just for the weekend).

This is the kind of security I use when having house shows:



And it totally works.

The downside of my boys being gone is that I get to clean up after the party all by myself.
I haven't exactly started yet.
This is what my kitchen floor looked like just a few hours after I mopped it Thursday afternoon:



Hahaha. Ugh.

Friday was Elsie's birthday (yay!). We went and got drinks at a fancy grown up bar where I was totally out of my element. I kind of felt like a kid. :) But it was still super fun.

This is what I wore:



I am really bad at taking pictures of myself.
This dress is from Red Velvet! I am all kinds of in love with it. I was just in dropping off some work when I saw it from across the room. I knew it had to have just been put out because....I might have the inventory memorized. Maybe. It reminded me of what my favorite dress would have been when I was six years old. The one I would have worn to my piano recitals and to Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. Eeek, I'm getting all sentimental. :')



I like this picture because not only does it show just how bad I am at self-portraits...but you can see my vintage tiger embroidery I recently put up! When I found it, it was in an ugly wood frame and the glass was soo grubby. All it took was a fresh coat of paint and a good wipe down and now it's one of my favorite things.

And because my head (and shoes, which were patent leather red flats) kept getting cut off, I took 50 pictures of my face which were equally bad. Here is the only one I am not too embarrassed of...



A little too intense. I was getting frustrated. :)

Well, guess I better get to cleaning!

a little peek inside

Do you know why I rarely share pictures of my (otherwise lovely) home?
I'm messy. And not cute messy.
Gross messy.
I've kind of been a hoarder-in-the-making my entire life.
Just one completely traumatizing life event from being buried in Wal-Mart bags, empty cereal boxes, and cat fur.
Wherever I live, no matter how big or how small, there are always boxes lining the walls.
I'm never completely unpacked.
But I'm working on it (mentally, physically, emotionally, et al).
And someday I hope to be able to blog pictures of my home. Not fake pictures where I move some stuff from one side of the room to the other in order to get a good shot.
Real, clutter-free, moving-box free, junk-free pictures of a beautiful home.



We moved my doll cabinet out of Mark's room (previously my sewing room) finally, into its new home in the dining room. I was hesitant, but it looks amazing. I even spent a few hours very carefully drilling new holes in order to move the bottom shelf up. Call me crazy, but I think a doll collection looks much more grown-up when they're standing.

[You can see better shots of my collection on my flickr here, here, and here.]

Now for a little much-needed advice:

1) See those packing peanuts where the glass meets? That was my genius solution for keeping the doors from banging whenever someone so much as tiptoes by. Is there a more attractive solution out there that I'm not aware of?

2) What should I put on the middle shelf???