Time to make the pumpkin pie ---

Happy Turkey Day

Gotta get up and fix the turkey.
5 am?
-nope
6 am?
-nope
7 am?
-nope.
Alarm went off at 7:30.
Up at 7:40.

Eat pumpkin pie for breakfast.
Make the stuffing. (chop celery and onions/ cook in turkey fat and butter and water/ mix with stuffing mix and let set)
Clean the turkey.

Well, this was supposed to be a 10 - 12 pound fresh turkey, so I had bought a throw-away aluminum roasting pan supposedly large enough for a 15 pounder.
As usual, the fresh turkeys grew larger than planned and we ended up with a 14 pounder.
Still should fit, you say?
-Wrong.
The darn thing has the longest legs of any 14 pounder I've ever seen. Legs extend over the pan. Body fits snugly into the pan, leaving no room for turkey juices (for gravy) to gather.

Make trip to grocery store to buy larger pan.
Toss first pan.
Insert stuffed and buttered turkey into second pan.
Insert into oven.

And go back to sleep.

(I had wanted ham, but was overruled, again, by my family's pathetic cries of, "No Turkey? It's not Thanksgiving without Turkey!")

Now the family, plus my husband's brother, are sitting around the woodstove, waiting for the turkey to be done.
So,
how was YOUR Turkey day?
-wendieO

Thanksgiving Day

Happy Turkey Day, everyone!
We're cooking a fresh-killed turkey. No, not a male turkey, like the picture above -- a fat female one. Every year I order a turkey from the nearby Weber's farm. I ask for the smallest they have. (with only 3 adults and 1 child, who needs a big one?)

Every year they give me --
a large one.
This year it was 23 pounds.
They claimed that it was the smallest they had.
Now, just what am I going to do with that much turkey?
It's going to take 8 hours to cook.

I'll send half home with my husband's brother, but I don't know what I'll do with the rest since the almost 10 year old doesn't especially like leftover turkey and neither do I. (I keep swearing that next year I'll do a ham. I mean it this time.)

I went to find a nice roasted turkey picture from Google images, but got stopped dead by what GOOGLE was using for their nameplate today. Here it is:

Isn't it great? Turkey and pie and everything. (no, it's not a link, sorry)
Well, off to check if my pies are done. Good thing I have a double oven. I can do pies and the turkey at the same time.
-wendieO

The end of Turkey Day

Well, Thanksgiving was a week ago. Time to clean out any leftovers. Actually, that's my basic rule all year 'round -- any food leftover for a week gets tossed. (or if no one can remember when we served the food -- out it goes.)

It's the week before Vermont College Packets are due, so it's a busy one for me. Plus, since this is the final packet, there are all sorts of end-of-semester reports to do as well. It's an exciting time -- the last Packet. But it's also depressing -- it's the very LAST Packet. From here on out, my short stint at college will be winding down and by the end of January it'll be over. It was fascinating, stressful, wonderful, and awful -- all at the same time. And I'm going to miss it very much.

With any luck, I'll be able to keep in touch with some of the writers in the program. They also suggest that I give myself strict deadlines and continue to put the pressure to write on myself to keep producing. Good advice for all writers.

-wendieOld

Happy Turkey Day

Happy
Turkey
Day
(just a few days late.)

Well, we survived Turkey day. And it was a great day, too -- so they tell me. I was inside doing the preparations while others enjoyed the 60 degree weather. Then it crashed down to freezing and we had frost last night. Good-by nice weather. Hello normal late fall.

Friday we braved Black Friday sales. Nothing we bought was on sale. There's something wrong with this picture. Oh well. That's what I get for simply following the Christmas lists from my children.

Saturday the 7 (almost 8) year old spent the day with her best friend, so I rushed around doing errands and picking up a few gifts for her. Plus, I had some quiet time in my office, so I sent off three more manuscripts and two queries to agents.
Total manuscripts worked on and sent out is now up to 8. Worked on the Mother's Day book a little bit more. I wonder if I'll get it done in time to include it in the November count, or will it be a December submission? Time will tell.

-wendieO