Thanksgiving and the Weekend - Where did it all go?

Every year we host Thanksgiving at the farm. The guest list includes my mom and sisters and their families, Kits mom and dad and siblings and their families, and then some of those families in-laws and also various cousins and relatives who are in town. We love hosting because we have room to host, a huge kitchen, and selfishly... by hosting I get to have everyone come to us, so that we don't have to pick sides on this Holiday - and I also get to control how the meal goes down. Not that I'm controlling, but well.... I'm controlling. I just want to eat a nice meal on nice linens, and drink wine out of nice glasses. So, I make that happen, and that keeps me from getting really bitchy. I think that's a benefit for everyone. I think a number of years back I pretty much made sure that "store-bought" food wasn't welcome at my Thanksgiving too. It has to be home made - and if you don't like to cook, no problem, the rest of us do, so you can bring booze. 

This year we had 2 turkeys, one smoked turkey, and one oven roasted. We also had a delicious ham and all the fixins - sweet potatoes, gravy, onions, cranberry, rolls, brussels sprouts, great salads, more food that we needed of course. My cousin and I both made stuffing, mine in the bird, and hers baked out of the bird - both from my Aunt (my cousin had a direct recipe, mine a recipe from her through my mothers interpretation over the years!) Both were yummy - and I'm happy to say we had leftovers, which means either nobody else liked either of our stuffings, or we just got lucky.

Everything went great - only one broken glass - no injury's, no fighting, and no major problems. Highlight was my brother in laws Mom teaching my sister Steph how to tap dance. Pictures to follow, but c'mon - now that's a successful evening. Minor event - my cousin's (first cousin once removed- whatevs... you get it, let's just say cousin) daughter left without her stuffed animal - which normally wouldn't have been a big deal except it was on loan to her from her classroom - apparently this animal (a kangaroo puppet) went home on weekends with students, in this case as a reward for improvement in reading. Well, during the party, the little kids were playing with the kangaroo, and it got "hidden", but nobody seemed to know where. So I spent some real quality time looking for the lost kanga, my sister finally found it the next day in a desk cupboard - waiting to be found out.

This little guy took hours to find.

The only bad deal about hosting Thanksgiving is the ramping up and tearing it all down again. 

1 WEEKEND DAY BEFORE: We started set up a weekend early, rearranging the house - living room furniture into the dining room, dining room into the living room to accommodate 22 people. Then clean the house and get the guest rooms ready. Buy turkeys in advance.

DAY BEFORE: Take day before Thanksgiving off work, get to grocery store for all the things necessary to make day awesome. I meet my mom at the farm around 12:00noon, we visit, start making food. She usually makes the cranberries - they are beautiful. Then we eat lunch and I start sweeping, mopping, getting things in order. I make the giblets for the stuffing in advance so they will not be scorching hot when I put the stuffing together. I brine the bird for the smoker and put him outside overnight to brine. I make pate, Moms recipe, for my appetizer for the next day.

THANKSGIVING DAY: I set the tables, make sure the wine glasses don't have spots, organize the bar glasses and clean the house again. Everyone shows up and it's mayhem - and they all go home and we site exhausted in the living room dining room. This year I was so sentimental that I cried all through people's gratitude speeches - so I didnt really get to eat my dinner. Everyone said it was good.

DAY AFTER: Get up and wash all the glasses. We save those til the next day - I don't like other people to wash them, they are fragile and hard for other people to wash. I know them, so I wash them and Kit puts them away. Then I start the process of cleaning up and putting the rooms back together. 

And now its SATURDAY and the weekend feels like it's almost over - boo hoo. So... I love Thanksgiving, but it goes by so fast! 

I had lights in the living room for Thanksgiving and now I've moved them into the kitchen
for Christmas - feeling like I'm a hero because I got one Christmas thing done.

And, finally - what do you do with leftover mashed potatoes -
make potato pancakes! Awesome!

Hope your weekend was as much fun, but not as much work. And now we're on to Christmas, the BEST PART OF THE YEAR! WHOHOOOOOOO!

Product I love

Have you gotten a Soda Stream yet? We did, in fact we got two of them. One for the condo and one for the farm. The lovely husband was in charge of the choosing, there are many choices as far a design and price point – so these are the ones we (he) got.

Here’s why I love this product. I get so bugged by all the plastic water bottles all over the place. The soda stream will save us all from having a zillion plastic bottles to recycle or throw away.  And yes, there are still some people who just chuck their plastic into the trash – because they are too lazy to recycle. Speaking of that, have you heard of that huge mass of floating garbage  in the Pacific Ocean. I think it’s mostly made up of plastic water bottles and it’s something like twice the size of freaking Texas. So…. Let’s avoid adding to that fiasco, shall we.

Here’s another reason why I love it. No more flat sparkly water or tonic. Just make enough to drink, use it. Make more. You don’t have to buy liters of sparkly water and then waste what doesn’t get used.

And…..there are flavors. We’re not very much of a “soda” family, so we go for the plain sparkling water, but………they have TONIC. So, when you are making your summer Gin and Tonic’s, you can make enough tonic this way and you won’t have old tonic laying around getting bad. I was sort of suspicious of the Soda Stream Tonic mix, what if it wasn’t as good as “real” tonic…. But IT IS!  I’m happy to report, you won’t even notice a difference, and now you’ve just saved more cans and bottle recycling. Awesome!

Other flavors are basically all the flavors of soda and juices, so you can pretty much find whatever you need. And they are sold in the same place as the Soda Stream.  Notice, they are at all the stores, so you should get out there and take a look. And…. The last great part is that the CO2 refills are at the same places – and you can just bring your old cartridges back there too.

Ah, sooooooo thirsty!

Advice You Need #857

It’s true, I’m known for a few things. Listen up; this one might be the most important.

It’s just poor manners not to have a well-stocked bar! This is pretty much my motto! And everyone should live by it. I think I came up with this motto after about the 100^th grown up adult party where the bar offerings just sucked. If you are going to invite friends over for cocktails, or dinner, or cocktails and dinner – get with the program man! Put your bar in order. Here’s what you need. And this isn’t for the super fancy; this is for regular people – people that you know, for regular occasions. If you want to embellish for a special occasion like Thanksgiving or Christmas or if you’re serving a specialty cocktail that’s fine, but here is what you need for a good solid proper bar:

1. Top shelf booze, not the shitty cheapest stuff you can find. You want your friends to like you, right? Don’t serve them crap that doesn’t taste good. Get a good gin, vodka, rum, scotch, bourbon, tequila. That should cover you for basics. I have faves, but you should pick what you like - but just make sure it’s good stuff. I get Tanqueray, Stoli, a good rum, I let my husband pick out the scotch since he likes it more than I do, we always have Maker’s Mark on hand for bourbon, and then I try to get a decent tequila.
2. Mixers! Club soda, tonic, maybe diet also, ginger ale, coke, maybe diet coke too, simple syrup, Roses lime juice, triple sec, vermouth and maybe bitters. Also, don’t forget that some of your friends don’t drink or don’t drink anymore – make sure you have enough sparkling water, juice or soda to make them a nice non-alcoholic drink too.
3.  Extras! Lemons, limes, olives, maraschino cherries.
4. Proper bar glasses and bar gear – high balls and DOF’s and martini glasses, wine glasses and have a good muddler, martini shaker, bar towel, shot pourers, stirrer and toothpicks or whatever else.
5. Bar book – learn now to make the standards. And make them well; don’t make your guests a messy shitshow of a drink. This is a reflection of your good taste, get it together!

That’s pretty much it for the basic bar. Now you’ll be ready for all people who want a proper drink. You now have at least one drink available that pleases everyone. Again, if you are planning something special, you can add more, like if you want to serve Bloody Mary’s at a brunch, or Aviation’s (see earlier post on Aviation!) or whatever else. You’ll eventually end up with all the additional liqueurs, Kahlua, all that stuff, but you don’t need that to get started.

Ok, I can hear you yelling! How much freaking money do I have to dole out to get this thing up and running? Here’s how to do that. If you are, say 26 years old, and this is your first foray into the large quantity purchase of hard “A” – think about throwing a “BUILD MY BAR” party. Ask guests to bring something bar related to drink and to share. You’ll end up with just about everything you need to make drinks and have semi-full bottles of stuff leftover – unless your friends are total alcoholics and drink the place dry.

Last but not least. Beer and wine. Have some real beer (good stuff – like Manny's) and some light beer like Coors or Bud Heavy or Light – lots of people like crappy beer. And have white and red wine. Maybe a nice sauvignon blanc for summer, and a pinot noir or cabernet or something that the wino’s will like. Now you are covered completely and people will say nice things about you behind your back. And that’s what it’s all about! Happy Boozing!

Really Good vs. Really Affordable

We are in major major need of new patio furniture at the farm. Right now we have a mishmash of old teak folding chairs and old director's chairs - plus an old Ikea table that has now been recovered with a large piece of plywood. Sounds super classy, I know - you're not going to see old Martha running this kind of shit-show are ya?!

We've been checking out some options, the first REALLY GOOD one being the Thos. Baker Furniture Outlet near us in Poulsbo. We've driven by it every weekend for years, and finally went in and let me tell you, it is fabulous. I had no idea. Also, this company is based on Bainbridge Island, so it would be great to support a local business. The furniture is great quality and there are beautiful things to choose from, and not cheap in any sense of the word. We are currently admiring the huge Craftsman Teak table that has a butterfly extension, and the Veranda chair - which is really comfortable and looks great with this table. The Craftsman table does have chairs that match but we prefer the Veranda chair. 

Thos. Baker Craftsman Table - now $1295

Thos. Baker Veranda Chair - $395

The outlet store has great pricing (often some reduction from regular retail), and there is also a ding-and-dent room with some sets and sometimes onesies of various items in various states of damage, sometimes so little that you can't find the problem. That's a great little room, worth checking out again and again!

The other option is the REALLY AFFORDABLE one - straight from Cost Plus World Market. Their outdoor furniture is all on sale now, and it's so well priced - I'm wondering if maybe we should save a bunch of money and go that route - even though the table I like below doesn't match the chair I like. I think I could fix that with a quick paint or restain - but take a look and see what you think. Good looking and pretty great pricing - 

World Market Laguna Chair - now $79.99

World Market Laguna Pool Lounger - now $199.99

World Market Bali Table - $149.99

Obviously the Thos. Baker furniture is more sturdy and will probably last the rest of our adult lives. But, in thinking about having a full dining set and what that would cost, and then thinking that in the next few years we will expand our patio to add more lounge area, etc.... should we wait on the expensive and go for the affordable now, and then when we have the "perfect" patio - go for the really good quality later? I'm kind of leaning that way, but ahhhhhh, I love the nice nice quality. 

The bigger question - does anybody care? I think the less expensive can look just as charming as the fancy, and I probably wont have a fit if someone spills on it or stabs it with a knife or lights it on fire..... so that is probably the smart move. Thoughts?