Our First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Surrounded by family with TONS of delicious food and football followed by sleeping and then pies...what could be better? Kevin and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife and as Minnesotans. Although the meal was excellent in the end, I also learned a lot about my favorite holiday today.

#1: Frying a turkey, while not impossible, is a little tricky.

When Kevin found out we weren't going to Conway for Thanksgiving, he went out and bought a turkey fryer to try to recreate my Thanksgiving experience from home. Yes, he is the best husband ever. :-) My dad fries several turkeys every Thanksgiving, so it was a great bonding experience for them. We put the fryer together last night and got the turkey ready by covering it in mustard and spices (trust me - best way to eat a turkey ever!). Today, Kevin moved it all outside and got it started. In order to start a turkey fryer (at least ours) you have to start a timer as a safety precaution. When the timer goes off, so does the fryer. We didn't know this before we put the turkey in. Oops. So halfway through cooking the turkey, the fryer shut off. Kevin had to take the fryer pot off the flame (yes, the pot that was full of super hot oil and a half-fried turkey) and we had to restart it. It turned out GREAT in the end, but it was maybe not the safest things we've ever done...

The turkey!


Kevin setting up the turkey fryer


Mustard + seasoning = AMAZING fried turkey


Kevin setting up the fryer outside


I forgot to take a picture before I started cutting - it looks a little dark, but trust me, it was fantastic!



#2: Carving a turkey is hard.

Tell whoever carves your turkey thank you. It's not an easy thing to do. I did okay with the turkey breast, but just massacred the rest. I just started hacking away and if it came away from the bone, I assumed it was edible and put it on the plate. So take some time to give a special thanks to whoever cuts your turkey into edible pieces.

This is all that was left. What piece is that, you ask? I have no idea.


#3: Cranberry sauce isn't just something you get in a can at the store.

Amazingly, cranberry sauce can be made! Who knew? I've never really eaten cranberry sauce with turkey or anything else for that matter. Something about the way it comes out all can shaped... :-/ However, today while I was cooking, Kevin told me he enjoys cranberry sauce. Well...I did not buy cranberry sauce. I'll admit, I panicked a little. Thank goodness for the internet. Did you know that cranberry sauce can be made with water, flour, maple syrup, red wine, and craisins? All things I had in the pantry! It was the best cranberry sauce I've ever eaten. I actually ate it with turkey and really loved it. Kevin really liked it, too! :-D

Yum!!


#4: Tablecloths hide in upstairs closets.

Seriously, the tablecloth just appeared seemingly out of thin air. It really made my day.

I think Essence adds a special decorative touch, don't you?


#5: Timing isn't everything, but huge microwaves with racks are.

I told Kevin before today that timing on Thanksgiving was everything. All of your dishes need to be ready around the same time so everything stays hot until you serve it. This year I discovered that if your microwave is large enough, timing can be a little off and everything will still come out hot. :-)

Ta da! I love this microwave.


#6: Thanksgiving is a very large meal for just two people.

Even if you make a small amount of everything, there's just SO many dishes you have to make. Plus, turkeys only come so small. You can't get a pygmy turkey for Thanksgiving. I'm so glad Thanksgiving food is one of my faves...

Yikes!


#7: Stores are open on Thanksgiving.

This is an awesome thing to find out when you realize you have no plan for gravy.

#8: People in Minnesota are really nice...almost Southern nice.

We were invited by our neighbors to eat with them not once, but twice. The second time, our neighbor tried to bribe us with both his adorable children and a professional pie maker (??). We were also invited to join a faculty member of Kevin's department. Although we enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving with just the two of us, it's nice to know we would have had places to go.

#9: You don't have to dress up for Thanksgiving if you aren't going to see anyone.

You know how you get all dressed up because you're spending time with family and then you help cook and you get all hot and feel yucky? Yea, you don't have to do that when it's just you and your husband. For example, Kevin and I both wore Minnesota Twins t-shirts for Thanksgiving today (we matched on accident...we're not that couple). It was comfortable and perfect for cooking and frying a turkey.


All in all, it was a wonderful day. Although I didn't spend it in Conway with the rest of my family, they sent a great text before they started eating. I'm so thankful for my family and the love and support they give me even when I'm so far away. It makes me feel so much closer to home than I really am.



I'm also thankful for my friends, both far and really, really far.
:-) I never imagined we could stay so close while separated by so many states...or oceans. :-P Thank you all for everything you do for me.

And last, but certainly not least, I'm thankful for my husband and the life we've made here in Minnesota. He provides for me and supports me and I would be completely lost with him. Our life together is more than I could have ever asked for.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope your meal was as delicious as mine!

Much love!!

Pomegranates

Today, while flipping through the coupons and sales sheet from our local grocery store, I noticed that pomegranates were on sale. A friend of mine once had a bowl of pomegranate fruit that she shared with me and it was good. So, while we were out shopping today, I decided to buy a pomegranate thinking it would be a nice addition to my lunch. I was wrong. I learned many things about pomegranates today.

First of all, pomegranates are complicated. Being ignorant of all things pomegranate, I looked up how to prepare it. If you want juice, no problem. It's a quick roll and a few slices and BAM! Pomegranate juice! But I wanted the fruit. Most fruit is not much trouble. Apples and grapes? Wash and eat. Oranges and bananas? Peel and eat. Watermelon and cantaloupe? Slice and eat. So, I'm expecting a one to two step list. WRONG! There are 6 steps!! 6!!

Step 1: Cut off the top or crown of the pomegranate. Easy enough

Step 2: Score the rind of the pomegranate, but be careful not to cut all the way through. Let me tell you, because of all those little seeds, this is a bit harder than it sounds, but still fairly simple.

Step 3: Soak in cold water for 5-10 minutes. Seriously? Why do I need to soak this fruit? I saw this in all of the various instuctions I found, but not one explained why. Whatevs. Also easy.

Step 4: Break the segments you made earlier apart and separate the seeds from the rind and other membranes. Doesn't this sound simple? Well, maybe it is, if you buy a nice, normal sized pomegranate. However, these pomegranates were sold at a set price each. I did what anyone would do; I found the biggest and most awesome pomegranate I could. This thing weighed almost 2 pounds. I am all about getting my money's worth. Little did I know that because this thing was massive, it would take FOREVER to separate the seeds from the rind and other membranes. I sat at the kitchen counter for 30 minutes trying to get all of these tiny pieces of fruit out and get all the icky membrane stuff off of them.

Step 5: The seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl of water while the rind and membranes will float. Remove all rind and membrane pieces with a slotted spoon. Now, in the neat pictures they had online, this looked easy. However, in real life, the rind and the pieces of membrane and not in large, easy-to-remove chunks. Oh no. They are in tiny pieces and evade all attempts at removal. They also stick to the seeds that have sunk to the bottom. And the sides of the bowl. And your hands. And a slotted spoon? Forget it. There were five pieces big enough to take out with a slotted spoon. *sigh*

Step 6: Drain the seeds into a collander and pat dry. Eat immediately or store in a airtight container in the frige for up to two days. What they don't tell you is that the little membranes will stick to the seeds. And really, you might as well separate the good seeds from any yucky looking seeds while you're at it. So add another 20 minutes for sorting and picking out membrane.

Finally, I had tiny pieces of pomegranate, ready to eat. Now, I've discovered two ways to eat pomegranate seeds: you can nibble at the fruit around the seed and then spit the seed out OR you can put a bunch in your mouth, chew them up, enjoy the yummy juice, and spit the rest back out. Maybe some people eat the seeds. I don't eat seeds if I can avoid it. Even the white seeds in watermelon that are supposed to be okay to eat - I don't eat them. At first, I was so hungry, I went with option 2. This, however, was really unsatisfying. So, I started nibbling. After several hours, I feel like I've eaten maybe 20 calories worth of pomegranate. And lunch? No, I just skipped it. It took too long to get the pomegranate ready. I think it's a fantastic idea for a new diet. I'm not sure that I'll make it through this pomegranate in two days...even if I eat it constantly.

I think I owe my friend another thank you for that pomegranate fruit.

Here's a piece of pomegranate fruit in a cd - just for scale. And my bowl of pomegranate seeds...probably 2/3 of what it was initially. :-)





Much love!!

Weekend...sort of. :-)

Oh, the life of a professor's wife. :-) I feel like every week we add a new day to the weekend. Usually it's Mondays. This week, we added Friday. We started by seeing a movie - pretty much a norm for us. BTW, The Box? It's terrible. Do not waste your money and time seeing this movie. I like to think I'm pretty sharp, but I am apparently not smart enough to understand the plot or even the point of that movie. However, we also watched New in Town, a cute story about a girl from the south moving to Minnesota...sound familiar? Of course, she moved to Middle-of-Nowhere, MN while I live much closer to a big city so a lot was different about our situations, but it was still funny. They filmed it in Canada, so it actually looks much colder than Minnesota generally is...at least so far. I have informed Kevin that if the temp ever drops to 50 degrees below, I'm heading south for the winter. That's a level of cold that I never want to experience.

We're grilling tonight! It may be one of the last times we get to grill, so we're going all out. Dad's special steak. It involves marinating your steak for 2-3 days in a mixture of pineapples, ginger, teriyaki, soy sauce, and onions. It is, quite frankly, the best steak I have ever eaten. Special thanks to my Dad, who has recently become a master chef. He's come a long way since the days of Dad's special hot dogs: a hot dog stuffed with pickles and mustard covered in american cheese and thrown into a toaster oven. Sounds delicious, huh? :-P It should be a great day of college football and grilling. GO HOGS!

Much love!!

A Special 'Thank You' to Alana and Megan!!

I am a blogger! It's official. Shout out to Megan and Alana who, either through endless prodding or actual blog editing, have helped me get started.

So...I don't have anything else to say. I just wanted to make a post.

Much love!!