The agony and the ecstasy - a Thanksgiving recap

What was to be a hassle-free, easy, laid back holiday ended up being a stressful, hectic, emotionally draining experience. There was yelling, there was crying, there were silent treatments and cold shoulders abound, and that was just from me. In a made-for-TV evening, though, everything turned out fine. That's the holidays for you.

It all started on Wednesday. I made extra vegetable stock, then created the most wonderful cranberry sauce I've ever had. I was pretty proud of myself as I started working on the pumpkin pie. Long story short, the crust never cooked properly, and what was to be a pumpkin pie ended up being baked pumpkin pudding. I felt like a failure. Later in the day I decided to make a spice cake to serve in addition to the pudding, and went to bed feeling slightly better.

On Thursday I woke up in a fantastic mood. I floated downstairs, made myself some pancakes and coffee, made the spice cake, and settled in to watch the Macy's parade on TV. Now that I no longer work for the company I can enjoy it along with everyone else. Unfortunately for me, someone decided that this was the perfect time to vacuum, and while the Rockettes were doling out high kicks, all I heard was a loud roar. Between the confirmed unwanted company I was dreading, the pie fail, the ruined parade, the dogs raiding the trash, and stressing over whether my neighbor was going to be alone and if I should take her a plate, I hit my limit. I was so pissed I started crying and swearing, then refused to acknowledge any and all attempts at apologies. My beautiful Thanksgiving was ruined and I'd be damned if I let anyone try to fix it.

But then it was time to start the Tofurky. That little ball of wheat gluten and tofu always makes me happy. I made this convoluted marinade consisting of, but not limited to: soy sauce, EVOO, canola oil, poultry seasoning, maple syrup, liquid smoke, brown sugar, salt, white pepper, ground ginger, and onion powder. There is no science to it, I just kept playing with it until it reached the smoky sweet taste I was going for. And it was perfect.

The rest was not smooth sailing, and dinner was half an hour late, but we finally finished and set up a buffet on the counter. I did take pictures with the digital camera, but I don't have the camera software on my laptop and I don't feel like waiting until the desktop is available, so here's a cell phone picture of some leftovers I had today:



That's the Tofurky at the top, followed by green beans, cranberry sauce (my crowning achievement), Mom's sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes & gravy, and a sweet gherkin in the center. There were also dinner rolls (I just didn't throw one on my plate for the pic), assorted olives, stuffing (*gag*), and our guest brought soda bread. Everything was sooooooo delicious. Both of the omnivores loved the all-vegan meal, which pleased me to no end. Then came dessert!



That's the spice cake with a "buttercream" frosting and nutmeg sprinkled on top, and then the pumpkin "pudding" with Soyatoo! soy whip. Sorry for the lousy photo quality, my phone did the best it could. Anyway, both desserts were super yummy. Quick note about that soy whip... OMG that stuff is amazing. I didn't notice any difference between that and dairy whipped cream. I had some with my coffee this morning too. Bliss!

So everything turned out fine. Neighbor ended up not being alone, I saw her boyfriend come home in the afternoon. And having a guest wasn't really that bad, and she would've been alone otherwise. I'm not that much of a Scrooge, jeez. Ti, our gargantuan tuxedo cat, loved all the attention that was showered upon him, plus the tuna I gave him as a treat. He may very well have had the best Thanksgiving of all.

With all the chaos, I didn't have time to make a Thanksgiving meal for the dogs, so I did it today. I boiled some organic peas and carrots, served with a tiny dollop of mashed potatoes, and used Earth's Best vegetable turkey dinner as gravy. Yeah, I gave them organic baby food because I didn't want them having a lot of sodium and fat. I didn't take a picture because it didn't look very good when it was all mixed together. I'm assuming it was at least somewhat tasty because all three of them devoured it. So now everyone has been covered.

I could happily eat these leftovers for a week straight, but we've all been systematically pecking at it, so I give it another day or two, tops. I've been enjoying seeing what other people had for dinner, and now my sights are set on Christmas dinner. >:)

I'm not turning this into a food blog, I promise. It's just that I love to cook (and eat!), so it'll make its way in from time to time. Anyway, I ended up having a nice Thanksgiving after all, and hope everyone else did, too. :)

That's gratitude for you.

That financial ruin I alluded to recently is getting closer. We'll be fine for December, but come January we really don't know if we'll be able to make rent. Someone mentioned maybe we should look into local animal rescues in case we have to surrender our pets. After hearing that, I just shut down, both physically and mentally. A sad amount of wallowing took place yesterday. An equally sad amount of pancakes were consumed in the pursuit of comfort. I was too angry and miserable to get any writing done, which doesn't help things at all. Yesterday was just... bad. And while I'd like to say it's nobody's fault, that would be a lie. But whatever, I'm not here to point fingers.

Yes, I am. *points upstairs*

Anyway, it snowed last night. Keep in mind that I've spent almost my entire life in Florida, so this was a big deal to me. It wasn't a lot of snow, but enough that it lifted my spirits a bit. It's cold enough that most of the snow was still around this morning. I needed some flour, as I wasn't feeling all that confident about the whole wheat pie crust I made. I needed all purpose flour for a new one. So I pulled on my boots, slipped into my jacket, and set off on foot for the nearest grocery store.

Who needs alcohol when you have snow? Trudging through the slush, I forgot all of our problems. The world was a beautiful, wonderful place. I was almost in tears, I was that happy. The only thing that could have made things better would've been... more snow! I slipped once or twice on small patches of ice, I couldn't feel my ears, and my jacket made me a little too warm in the trunk, but it was perfect. I got my flour, then decided to take the long way home. I saw all kinds of birds, there was a lady at a park with her kids and dogs, people were flocking to Starbucks, there wasn't much traffic, everyone seemed to be in a good mood. *sigh*

I don't think I can convey how happy snow makes me. The first time I saw any was when we were driving through Wyoming during our move to Oregon back in May. The hills were covered with it, and evergreen trees dotted the landscape. It was like a Christmas card, it was so lovely. I did cry then. *lol*


The photo doesn't do it justice.

Truth be told, if I were rich I would buy a tiny cabin in Montana, surrounded by hundreds of acres of wilderness. I'd have tea parties with bears and square dances with wolves and book clubs with elk. Alas, I am not rich. And I like where I am anyway. But still, you get the idea.

When I came home the dogs were thrilled to see me. That always feels good. I made some coffee and looked at the paper. I even did the crossword. I took the Tofurky out of the freezer and moved it to the fridge so it'll thaw completely by Thursday. I finally get to start cooking tomorrow, which is killing me because I want to do it NOW. I'm milking this chilly high for all it's worth. Some of the heaviness of our circumstances has seeped back in, but I'm trying to stay positive. If nothing else, I will enjoy this Thanksgiving.

My point is, not a day goes by that I am not grateful for living in Oregon, but today it was that much more profound. No matter what the future brings, I have today. And it's sappy as hell, but I am thankful.

Don't worry, sarcasm and pessimism will return after Thursday. ;D

Let's try this again, shall we?

Once upon a time, yours truly wanted to be a blogging star. And then I didn't, so I stopped writing here. I did, however, continue to post on my Myspace blog. I'm vain enough to enjoy seeing how many blog views I get everyday. Recently, Myspace has made a lot of changes, all of which I absolutely hate. Hate! So from now on I'm going to post here. Let's all take a minute to say thanks to my laziness, as I meant to delete this blog, I just never got around to it. So... yay!

So what am I doing now? I'm taking a stab at being a romance writer! :D And it's horrible! D: On October 25th I started writing what was to become a 90,000 word novel. I then decided to scale it way down to a 15,000 word novella. It is now November 19th and I'm STILL not done with it. Almost, but not quite. What's the holdup? Pure, unbridled, raw, extensive terror, that's what. What if my writing isn't good enough? What if no one wants to buy my manuscripts? Maybe I should get a "real" job? I don't know. I'm inching along toward the finale of this story, though, and I will see it through. I will. I have ideas for other stories as well, it's not like I'm banking my entire future on 15,000 measly words. Still... rejection hurts. So does poverty. I should probably be working on that instead of writing this. Oh well!

Who cares about real life when Thanksgiving is right around the corner?! Not me!!!! Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite day of the year. It's better than Christmas. It's better than Superbowl Sunday. It's better than just about anything you could come up with. Think about it, it's so perfect. You wake up, have breakfast, and watch a parade! Then you either watch a dog show, football, or you get your ass in the kitchen and start cooking. Regardless of what choice you made, at some point you'll end up in the kitchen anyway, it's only a matter of time. And then... you eat the greatest meal ever. EVER. Then you have pie. Then you lie around in a gluttonous stupor, wondering both how and why you ate so much. Maybe you watch a movie after that, maybe you just pass out on the couch. And you'd better get to bed early, for the Christmas season is going to tackle you the moment you open your sleep-crusted eyes in the morning. Those strands of lights aren't gonna put themselves up, ya know!

Heaven, all in a 24 hour period.

I've been hardcore stressing over this year's dinner. Money is suffocatingly tight (I'm losing cell phone service next Wednesday, it's that bad), I didn't know how we'd manage it. Today I took all the money we had for groceries for this week and spent it all on the dinner. Yeah, I didn't buy anything to eat between now and next Thursday. Genius, I know. Other housemate will have to pick up a few things so we don't starve between now and then. All together, the cost of the meal is a little under $50. That's not bad for 3 people. I'm hoping it'll only be 3, but we might have a 4th person. I'd rather not have company, but whatever. Yes, I'm being ugly, but come on, we're gonna need those leftovers!

This year I'm making the pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce from scratch. No cans involved! I've already made the pumpkin puree, and I'll make both dishes the day before. I didn't bring my potato masher when we moved to Oregon, so I had to get a box of mashed potato flakes. The shame. But but but, we're making the sweet potatoes from scratch! That has to count for something. For the 3rd year in a row, the star of our meal will be a Tofurky roast. For some reason, many vegetarians are very anti-Tofurky, but I love it. LOVE. So we'll have the roast, mashed potatoes, gravy (I make my own), sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, cranberry sauce, stuffing (*gag*), a relish assortment (olives & gerkins, basically), and... a homemade pumpkin pie. I even got soy whipped cream. Yummmmmmm.

Did I mention I'm a vegan? One vegan, one ovo vegetarian, and one omnivore. That's our household. If our possible guest brings some turkey I will be unfailingly kind and not scream at her. I promise. *crosses fingers behind back*

I'm happy today. Despite probable economic ruin, I am happy. While running errands this morning, the music on the radio was superb. It's a gray day, my favorite kind. I am going to have the Thanksgiving I want, and it MIGHT snow this weekend. And I'm blogging again. And I'm almost done with my story. Somehow things will be okay.

Somehow.