Yumsters!

This morning my oldest sister and her kids flew back to TN, ending the week of festivities for me.  I assuaged my sadness with some mopping and writing and now have a fresh-smelling house and a big chunk of my dissertation revised.  I haven’t done so well in getting Round 3 of student papers graded, but who am I kidding?  MB’s visits are too rare for me to grade when I could be in her company.

Neal, Drew, and I had a good time at Beowulf.  If you don’t have unreasonable expectations that the movie will be true to the poem, I think you’ll find it a fun flick.  When will we (I) learn, by the way, not to expect it?  I can count the movies that I think are as good as the book, and I can’t count very high!  They’re different mediums and shouldn’t be expected to do the same thing.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was lovely.  My sister-in-law did a wonderful job with everything, and I left the table more stuffed than the turkey!  Steve, my oldest nephew, was in cahoots with my brother who wasn’t in CT for the holiday, and via the magic of computers, we were able to see him and his wife and kids as we finished up our meal. 

I had a lot of fun putting together the food that I brought over.  After discovering on Wednesday that my grocery store was out of leeks, I made a snap decision to substitute a carrot-ginger soup.  I was worried about whether or not there would be enough, but there was exactly the right number of bowls of soup in the pot I made.  I used this recipe as a starting point. 

I was pleased when my brother asked for the recipe for the cranberry sauce I made.  It’s the easiest thing in the world; I have no idea why people use the gelatinous canned stuff when the tart ruby glory could be theirs instead.  I doubled the recipe and saved a bag of cranberries to make one more batch for home sometime.  They keep really well in the freezer, you know. 

I tried a new bread recipe, too.  Although Scout told me last spring that I should make it, did I listen?  It’s the easiest thing in the world, and you’ve surely seen it all over the Internet.  I didn’t have a dish with a cover to use in the oven, so I used my beloved Pampered Chef stoneware pan with tin foil over it.  I don’t think the bread suffered at all for my substitution.  I’m eager to have a dinner party so I can make more! 

How could I go over there sans a dessert?  After soup and bread, my favorite thing to make is dessert, even though I’m not such a huge fan of eating it.  I turned to Martha yet again and made her chocolate bread pudding.  I have a hard time eating chocolate–it makes my heart pound too fast–so I’d probably mix up a vanilla pudding next time I make it.  Served hot with some fresh whip on it?  Yumsters!

Tonight I’ll have a salad for dinner; too many sweets and indulgences over the last few days, and I don’t want to start the holiday season by forgetting to feed my body healthy, nutritious foods. 

If the sun makes another appearance tomorrow,I’ll show off some mailbox goodness!