November 27, 2013

Thawing the Turkey

November 27, 2013

It seems to me that I am always trying to get the turkey thawed out at the last minute for holiday meals.  The directions will say how many days ahead you need to move it from the freezer to the refrigerator for it to be thawed in time.  They must not keep their refrigerator as cold as I keep mine.  For a while this evening I put it in cool water in a pan to thaw it and now it is back in the refrigerator and I hope by morning it will be thawed enough to put in the oven.

I spent the morning and early afternoon at the office mostly waiting on customers and starting some of the end of the month bookkeeping activities since we are almost at the end of the month!  I got a deposit prepared and around 2:30 Ron offered to let me go home to start cooking for tomorrow.  I went to the bank and then stopped at the drug store on my way home.  Don't tell Ron, but I stopped to take some bird photos on the way home.  There is a Resaca not too far from the office where I often find a nice variety of water birds.  We have had several cold, dreary days and today the birds were out sunning themselves and preening.  These White Ibises looked so lovely.

 

This immature White Ibis is surrounded by turtles that wanted to sun themselves on the branches in the water.  The immature White Ibises stay brown for about a year and a half.

I failed to mention how I started the day.  Normally I take a shower in the mornings so I can wash my hair.  Today I could have been a cartoon character.  I opened the shower curtain and saw a tiny spider so I squashed him, but in doing so, I knocked the bar of soap off the soap dish.  Since I was concentrating on the spider, I forgot about the bar of soap and as I stepped into the shower, my foot hit the bar of soap right in the center and just like in the cartoons, My feet went up and down I went.  Thankfully, it was like it was in slow motion and I didn't hit with a big bang or as it probably would have been in the cartoon a "Kaboom" or a "Splat".  I think a one inch bruise on my leg is the extent of the damage, but I must admit, it really woke me up and shook me up.  That is not how I want to start my days!

When I got home this afternoon, I made the cooked dressing for the apple salad that is a tradition in our family that came from my mom's mother.  We love her apple salad.  Then I started on pies.  Our dinner group tomorrow will be very small, but I baked four pies.  The reason for that is that we were planning to take all the food to Ron's mom's house and eat there, so I was going to take one each of two kinds of pies and leave two at home for us to start on tonight and have for the weekend.  Then about the time I put the last pie in the oven, Ron came home and said his mom had decided she felt well enough to come to our house for lunch tomorrow.  So we are well stocked on pies, but I must say the Lemon Meringue pie is the best I have done in a LONG time.  I had a piece tonight and was very pleased.

Our daughter-in-law Vickey called and we chatted for a while, but as usual, there were a few times I just could not understand what she was saying.  That is very frustrating.  We did have a nice visit.  They are having 15 at their house tomorrow for Thanksgiving.  She and Bob love to have people over for meals, especially on holidays when others like themselves may have no other family near enough to visit for the day.  Vickey had everything ready that could be done ahead, so she took a break and called just as I was ready for a break.  The pumpkin pies were in the oven and I was delighted for an excuse to sit and chat. 

Early tomorrow morning I think I will have to wake Ron up to have him put the turkey in the oven.  I managed with the lemon pies, partly because he wasn't home or I would have had him get them out of the oven.  I did have him get the pumpkin pies out.  I think the turkey is past my level of recovery from the broken elbow.  You may recall in the beginning my goal was to be able to take the turkey out of the oven by Thanksgiving.  If I had to do it, I probably could but I don't think it is worth the risk.  Even pouring the fillings into the pie shells this afternoon was too hard - I spooned it in.

There are so many things we have to be thankful for not only in our home, but in our country.  There are things going on in the country that disappoint us, but America is a wonderful country and there is no where else I would rather live.  I have visited a few other countries and although there are beautiful spots in them, I love the American way of life and the attitude most people in this country have.  May God continue to bless America in the years to come.