serinde

My potato bread does, in fact, kick impressive amounts of ass. (I may make it again tomorrow.) The soda bread is a bit ehh and dry, but I was kind of expecting that. Gangs of New York is still a pretty excellent movie that is woefully encumbered by a pointless, gratuitous, generic romantic subplot pastede on yay (and the last ~half hour should be its own extended music video or something).

Our D&D group is in combat, and according to custom, have appropriate movie-soundtrack background music.

DM audiovile: As soon as we get our Big 60" TV, you should all come 'round and watch it.
Emo Wizard's player, to Heretic Cleric's player: Or we could watch it on yours, right? You have a big one now, don't you?
Heretic Cleric's player: Yeah, 56"
Emo Wizard's player: That works for me! Like a good girlfriend, I won't notice the four inches.

Everything appeared on the table a) roughly on-time, b) in the expected form, and c) without losing my shit in any way, shape, form or fashion. Win! This in spite of the oven catching fire at one point (the foil roasting pan I'd got for the 2nd turkey had, it developed, a hole in the bottom, whence escaped some liquid fat. Hilarity ensued). I would also like to seize the opportunity to commend sous-chefs elibalin and jdev, who did lots and lots of chopping and similar tedious, time-consuming chores to help the trains run on time.

I did not stuff either turkey. The one in my normal pan took 2 hours; the other 2:15. (I put them into a 500 deg. oven and turned it down to 350 after ten min.) This brining thing seems to be A Great Goodness, indeed; the turkeys were amazingly juicy and nice. I refrained from salting the skin because blah blah brine blah; but it wasn't actually that salty at all. Oh, and after all my woe and agitas? We didn't even finish the first turkey. Sheesh. Well, LOTS AND LOTS of turkey leftovers makes me happy.

Did the stuffing separately. I still like it better if it's been soaking up turkey yum for hours; I had put some broth in to moisten, but it isn't the same. The TJ's "texas toast" makes a good bread base. Also needed more salt.

I'm happy that gravy is now a familiar and unstressful process for me, at least if I have enough of the correct fat and correct liquids. I'm also relieved that 2c was enough, which I had not thought it would be.

Cranberry sauce: the best I've done yet. Even if I forgot to put it on the table til halfway through the meal.

The mashed potatoes were performed by jdev and were exactly how I like 'em. Much leftovers, which I shall use for Nigella's fishcake recipe today or tomorrow, or possibly make potato pancakes.

Steve ate his ceremonial quarter of the mashed turnip rutabaga and the rest was junked.

The green beans were not a big hit. For full disclosure, they are lightly boiled then tossed with roasted shallots and a dressing consisting of olive oil, vinegar, anchovy, and a fuckoff lot of roasted garlic. I could sense from my result what a wondrous thing it would be in the hands of the actual restaurant, but I didn't really Achieve It. Probably didn't help that I had to do a bunch of the work far earlier than was desirable.

The roasted cauliflower salad supposedly served 8. Yes, maybe if that's all they're eating this week... LOTS of leftovers. It is from a recipe they serve at Steve's work cafeteria, and he was somewhat surprised to see actual salad greens in it. (!) Apparently the samples they give out is just the roast cauliflower tossed with the dressing, some pine nuts, and a wee bit of radicchio. Done according to the actual recipe, the cauliflower & nuts are more of an accent than a focus, and I think I would scale back the greenery in future. (Even if it's good for us.)

Pumpkin pie: old familiar hat, this, but a particularly good one even so.
Dense chocolate cake: also just right.

During movie time was cheese & salami brought by elibalin, and I pushed the apple crisp back to then as well. (Did not make the bar nuts. May do today or tomorrow.) Apple crisp: even older familiar hat, and astoundingly simple to make, so I am not even giving myself a back-pat for it. (In my family this is called "apple pudding", I don't know why; it is like neither American pudding nor British pudding.)

During late-night PS2 time was TJ's dark chocolate pistachio toffee. My complexion will be utterly doomed next week. But oh my Christ is that stuff good.

For some reason, it's harder to sit down and organize my thoughts on the train these days; and I don't have time to do scribblies in the morning, so I keep ending up in a giant tangle of O Noes, What Should I Be Doing When?. Therefore, I am wilfully taking five minutes of work time plus coffee to get my poop in a group as regards Operation: Thanksgiving.

( Menu: )

Last night I bought wine, made the cranberry sauce and the chocolate cake, and realized I was out of baking soda. ... Though I'm not sure I'll need it for anything else, at that.

Tonight I'll be at sweh's, so no prep.

Tomorrow evening I make the pumpkin pie and set out the stuffing bread, and maybe do some advance chopping of celery and onion.

Thursday I go ballistic and make everyone around me cower in terror. Step 3: Profit?

elibalin and I are going to the comics con today. Will probably be there in the 10-5 range if you want to meet up; text me. And I can tell that I am utterly damaged because I am fretting about what to wear. As dariodevil put it yesterday, "the neckbeards won't notice anything but your breasts anyways". (He is not going, as some sort of masochistic exercise.)

...I just discovered that feeding "Nerd Prom" into Wikipedia does, in fact, take you to the San Diego Comic-Con page. <3

Edit: For those with a deep emotional involvement in my quandary--I think I've gotta wear my Suicide Squid t-shirt. OBSCURER THAN THOU, motherfuckers!

Tagged by tactisle for this one (well, okay, I ran into his outstretched palm). Ping here to be forced to explain six of your own icons.

Forthwith, his curiosities:

This is a magnet I picked up at the Imperial War Museum when Steve and I were in London. I just loved it to bits; it sums up exactly what the Nice Cup of Tea is about, for me, and it represents gathering my energies and/or thoughts for the next wave of action. A Post-12 Recovery Phase, if you will.

A rare color picture of Clara Bow. I came across it when we were looking for old-timey pictures to represent our characters in Steve's Call of Cthulhu campaign. Though I in no way resemble the divine Ms. Bow, nor can I hope to, the picture encapsulates the allure of glamour, fashion, and elegance.

This is a panel from the pinnacle of Frank Miller's unparalleled run on Daredevil, the story arc called "Born Again". I have dariodevil to thank, of course, for introducing me to this most excellent work. This particular panel takes place after DD has fought a semi-super-soldier called Nuke, who is a juiced-up psychotic hyper-patriot (he has the American flag tattooed on his face) used by elements within the military for serious dirty work. Captain America is following up to find out who this Nuke guy is. And so he asks... This, I felt, perfectly encapsulated how I feel about the way our country and its very real, very important values & purposes are being utterly debased by vile people who are wrapping themselves in the flag and calling everyone else traitors.

Happier matters: my maneki neko mug! I saw this at an Asian imports store (they mostly carry jewelry, really nice stuff at that; I have several pieces from them) and fell instantly in love. I love the way it fits my hand; I love the feel of the pottery; and I am inordinately fond of fortune cats. It makes me happy in every possible way, far beyond what a chunk of clay should.

This is not the Hulk. It's J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, who is (among other things) a shapeshifter. This particular image is from a plotline during the storied Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League International era, in which J'onn gets dependent on Oreos Chocos. Booster & Beetle, being their usual impish selves, hide his stash, sending one of the most powerful sentients on the DC Earth on a rampage. Hilarity ensues. What better to signify my self-control and impulse issues?

Oh, Murdoc... It's undoubtedly very, very wrong to have a crush, however brief, on an entirely fictional and fairly vile character. But when the video for Clint Eastwood hit, we were all completely blown away; and in that vulnerable state, my yen for The Wrong Kind Of Guy took hold. I got better quick enough. But, Murdoc's attitude was just about right for a FOAD icon (though it was harder than I thought to find an image where he actually looks cranky).

I've been feeling a bit constrained in my workly garb of late (usually dress slacks, and a blouse or button-down shirt of some kind)--and I feel a touch overdressed by turns, compared to my colleagues--so I pushed the envelope a bit last week. I dug out an old favorite (which had been put away when I went up in size, and it now fits again, YAY) that some of you will have seen: black turtleneck under a brown plaid wool jumper. (...That is, American-style jumper, you right-pondians; I did not go to work clad in nothing but a sweater. kthxbye.) Now, I had been accustomed to accessorizing this a la Mod with torn fishnets, black rubber clogs, my London Underground lunchbox-purse, either a Hello Kitty necklace or my heavy locking chain, and if I wanted to really make Steve uncomfortable with the schoolgirl imagery I'd do my hair in twin braids; but none of this seemed appropriate for $CURRENT-ORK. So instead: black silk leggings, black leather ankle boots, tasteful white-gold necklace, and regular purse. (I did forget that it looks even better if I wear my glasses instead of contacts. Well, next time.)

I thought it struck a tolerably good balance between self-expression and professionality. (I also got a compliment from one of my officemates, viz. "Work that miniskirt, girl!". *smug*)

ObMusic: iTunes appears to be as psychic as my MP3 player.

We are trying to find homes for four (adult, male, neutered, currently indoor, with-claws, people-friendly) cats. Two are the former Panix office cats; they are brothers--enormous mellow lazy white beasts with a few grey spots (though they kept the office rodent-free for a number of years, in spite of their indolence). The other two are former lawn cats of Beth's, and are black-and-white Jellicle cats: unrelated, though they look like they could be littermates. One is a husky, handsome tuxedo boy and quite a Cat About Town; would probably be happiest as an only cat, where he can hog all the attention, but has been getting along with the others without too much fuss. The other is born to be a lolcat--definitely the class clown, and with absolutely hilarious expressions. He's also more energetic than the others, and is prone to just randomly running around from time to time.

If you need a cat, or know someone who needs a cat, or anything, please post here or email me. I'm willing to drive them a fair way, so don't count yourself out even if you're not in the NYC metro area.

Got an update from Mom. Grandma's gotten much worse psycho-emotionally again (though by turns, she has times of realizing that she's unclear on a lot of what is reality and what is not--is that better, or worse?) and now, as a result, she's declining physically. It doesn't help that her therapy has been declared Complete and so they won't be doing anything to help maintain her physical self.

Not sure what happens next. No idea how long a person's mind, body, and spirit can sustain in this kind of state.