Would Someone Please Let My Brain Out of the Hamster Wheel?

...'Cause the thoughts keep goin' 'round and 'round in no particular order.

Good heavens, look at all those apostrophe's!

Before I go any further, I must direct you to this post by Busy Mom that made me laugh so loud that brain lubricant blew out of my nose.

Ahem.

I have a day "off" today. Supposedly, I will use it to relax and recoup from my wonderful-but-too-busy life.

However, relaxing and recouping, in Groovy English means "Taking online classes, making cookies and table decorations with the girlies, cleaning the house (at least somewhat) to get ready for a par-tay on Monday, and trying to track down my grandkids for a visit".

Oh look! A ladybug!

Sorry, got distracted.

I am also distracted by the tedium of trying to type correctly. Gaaaahkkk! Forget it. I'm MUCH faster INcorrectly! Don't worry though, I'll keep practicing with the typing program and I'm sure I'll improve. My pride is not going to allow me to be out-typed by an 8 year-old!

OK...This is pretty lame. I can't think of a single interesting thing to say.

NEED. MORE. COFFEE.

Let's see...

Last night I made a meal for a family that's been going through a horrible time. Papa Dan has diabetes and an aggressive form of prostate cancer and consequently can't work (can you say, "financial woes"?) AND their 20 year-old son was recently killed in Afghanistan (Scout was a pall bearer at his funeral). Dan had surgery for the cancer and then Suzy-Q and their daughter got sick, so housework and cooking - on top of doctor visits, some stressful home remodeling (some generous folks at the church are building a new, much-needed downstairs bathroom for them), prescription runs etc. - were just overwhelming.

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We interrupt this touching moment to ask What the heck was THAT???? I swear I just heard a dog sneeze.

We don't have a dog.

Ruby? Nope, she's sleeping. Besides, I am well acquainted with hamster sounds.

Groovy gets up to investigate.

Ok, I looked all around and checked with the girls. They heard it too, but none of us can figure out what it was.

Weird!

Anyhoo, back to my story...

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I got the food all ready and Mulletman decided that he and the girls would join me in making the delivery. I'm so glad he did! Dan really seemed to enjoy the company and had a lovely time showing off their incredible (as in: I wish I had taken a photo!) antique wood stove. Suzy-Q looked all in, but we were able to visit for a while before she had to leave for an errand. In the meantime, the girlies were having the time of their lives playing with Zoe, the adorable boxer and with Scatty, the giant dust bunny. Well, that's what I thought she was until she stood up and mewed. It was a cat! I have never, EVER seen a cat that huge and fluffy.

I want one.

In other news; I've already had one cold and felt quite smug when I overcame it so quickly. Then Girly-Girl got it. However, it was no big deal. She had a one day fever and then felt fine but had a slight cough. BUT, we also shared it with Grampy. Not good. HE had a five day fever and is still coughing! We were earnestly praying that we wouldn't have to take him to the hospital. He spent last Thanksgiving in the hospital and we didn't want a repeat! Happily, he seems well enough to take a day trip to visit extended family. Huzzah!

Except I now have another cold. UN-huzzah. Same symptoms too - chest congestion and coughing. Ugh!

Time to pull out the extra vitamin C and zinc gluconate. I'd also take elderberry and echinacea, but I don't have any and I'm not going out to buy some because THIS IS MY DAY OFF! In case you'd forgotten.

I didn't buy a turkey for Thanksgiving. Instead, I got a large turkey breast. (I just mistyped that as "turkey beast" and laughed so hard I spit pumpkin oatmeal all over my desk. Sheesh!) I have a lovely recipe for cooking turkey breast in a crockpot. It tastes fabulous and it frees up my oven for other goodies like homemade rolls. :-)

Finding a turket breast was no simple matter though. Rather, I should say "Finding an ACCEPTABLE turkey breast" was no simple matter. Store A, though a large chain, said they weren't even going to carry turkey breasts. So pooh on Store A! I went to Store B. They had turkey breasts but good heavens! What is up with all the chemical injections????

The first brand of meat I picked up was injected with a 10% solution of salt, broth, sugars, and chemicals. I was appalled! The second brand had an 8% solution of the same garbage in it. It was on sale for $1.49 a pound - a very good deal, IF you like your meat full of manmade nasties.

Finally I found a hormone free bird breast with only a 3% solution of natural broth - no chemicals. It's still not exactly what I wanted, and it was painfully expensive, but I brought it home for the feast anyway.

Mulletman and I are planning on running Christmas the same way we did last year. There will be stockings for each other, the girlies and GrammaJ and some little surprises for the grown kids and grandkids. But the bulk of our funds will go to purchase goats and chickens and what-have-you for the needy from World Vision's gift catalog.

It makes our Christmas stress just completely dissolve. Aaaaaaaaah.

Mulletman works on Christmas Day (praise God for nurses!) so we'll have our family get-together on Christmas Eve. The folks always stress over it when he has to work holidays, but it doesn't bother us a bit. I'm considering rebelliously going non-traditional with the food this year. I'm thinking seafood: Crab legs and fried shrimp and broiled scallops with potato leek soup and garlic herb biscuits and homemade coleslaw. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. The rest of the fam can throw in some cranberry sauce if they feel deprived.

Seriously, Mulletman and I have no attachment to "traditional" foods. Neither he nor the girls are overly fond of the usual turkey or ham meals - and they DON'T eat leftovers. And me? I love adventure. So trying something new is always a draw. The only problem with varying from the norm is Grampy. He MUST HAVE the traditional meal. So if I throw a monkey wrench in the works, he'll actually make Grammy cook a whole other (or a whole 'nother, as the case may be) "traditional" meal. Groovy rolls her eyes. I love Grampy big bunches, but sometimes he can be...difficult!

Alrighty. I've rambled on in an aimless fashion long enough for one day. Now I need to buckle down and focus on "NIMS (National Incident Management System) Resource Management".

Can you feeeeeeeeel the excitement?

Have a wonderful weekend. If you manange to find a chemical free turkey breast (good luck!) you can try this wonderful recipe from Crockery Cookery (1975) by Mabel Hoffman. And before I share the recipe, I MUST share this awesome pic of Mabel in the 70's. If she's still alive, she'd be 87 years-old now.



Stuffed Turkey Breast

5 pounds makes 8-9 servings.

1/4 cup melted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1 (2.5 oz) package bacon croutons (I just make my own)
1 cup chicken broth or bouillon
2 Tbl fresh, minced parsley
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning (once again, I make my own blend)
1 whole turkey breast (or 2 halves) - about 5 pounds
salt and papper
Cheesecloth
Dry white wine

Combine 1st seven ingredients. Cut turkey breast in thick slicesf rom beast bone to rib cage, leaving slices attached to the bone. Sprinkle turkey with salt and pepper. Soak the cheesecloth in white wine. Set the turkey on the cheesecloth. Stuff the bread mixture into the slits on the breast. Wrap the cheesecloth around the stuffed breast and place on a metal trivet in your crockpot. (I'll have to improvise the trivet...) Cover the bottom of the pot with wine. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours until tender. Remove from pot and immediately remove cheesecloth. The breast can be browned in the oven at 400ºF for 15-20 minutes, if desired.

Let stand 10 minutes. Drippings may be thickened for gravy.

Easy-Peasy and Quite Delicious!