Cooking Up A Thanksgiving Meal . . . for Two

Our plans to visit my mom for Thanksgiving kind of fell through. I was slightly upset, but I'm actually glad that we don't have to deal with Drake's screaming for each 5 1/2 hour drive that the trip would take.

Rj's idea of Thanksgiving involves pretty much the typical stuff . . . and nothing less. And also, nothing more.


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Rj: What? We're not having turkey?
Me: What about a Cornish Hen?
Rj: Um, is that a turkey?
Me: It's pretty damn close. The two of us are not going to eat an entire turkey.
Rj: It's not Thanksgiving without a turkey.
Me: (huffing) Fine.

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Me: What kind of dessert do you want?
Rj: Pumpkin pie
Me: Well, what about Grand Marnier Sweet Potato Pie? Or maybe Chocolate Rum Pudding Cake?
Rj: No, pumpkin pie
Me: (huffing) Fine.

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Me: Do you have to have that green bean casserole crap too?
Rj: Yeah.
Me: Do you even like it?
Rj: Yeah.
Me: Well, what about a broccoli casserole instead?
Rj: (stares blankly)
Me: (huffing) Fine.

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Rj: And we need cranberry sauce. (with 'that' tone) Nothing homemade. Nothing fancy. Just the jellied shit that you plop out of the can and slice into circles.
Me: (with a tear about to fall) But, but . . . (Spicy Cranberry Sauce with Pinot Noir)

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Me: Ok, I bought some of the stuff we needed for Thanksgiving dinner. Sweet potatoes, canned pumpkin pie mix, pie crust* . . .
Rj: Did you get Cool Whip?
Me: No, I didn't get any damn Cool Whip! You have restricted everything else that I'm making and I'd like to have just one thing my way, so we're having real whipped cream on our pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, not fucking Cool Whip!


*If it wasn't for the fact that I am being forced to make a damn feast for two people, then I sure as hell wouldn't be using canned pumpkin pie filling with refrigerated pie crusts. I can assure you that I will be making plenty of stuff from scratch. PLENTY.

Time to Get Down to Business

Ok, so now that I've discovered that people are actually reading my blog, perhaps that'll give me the motivation I need to update regularly. And maybe if I tell myself that I only need to make three posts a week, then I won't feel so pressured to make a post every day - since that's the kind of pressure that results in me delaying my posts for THREE FREAKIN' WEEKS!

I've also decided that I'm going to branch out a bit on here - not every entry will be a recipe. It'll still be food related, but sometimes I may just point you in the direction of a great recipe whereas others will be me bitching about my ridiculously small kitchen.

And that brings us back to something I made in my very first post . . .

I don't have a microwave.

I am aware of how barbaric that sounds. I hear it every time my sister comes to visit me. To include this past weekend. Her boyfriend asked me if it was hard to do stuff without a microwave - and for the first time since the absence of a microwave, I actually gave that some thought.

It's no secret that leftovers taste much better when they're reheated in the oven or on the stovetop. Sure, it's a pain sometimes to wait 20-30 minutes for something to warm up, but it tastes so much better, so it's actually worth it.

But there are a couple of instances that it would be nice to have a microwave around (but not taking up any of my counterspace)(also, one of those little cart things that they make specifically for this type of situation will not do either: one word - toddler).

Melting butter. I recently discovered that the glass dessert bowls that we have are NOT oven-proof.

Defrosting meat. All to often I'm bitching about the meat that I removed from the freezer at lunch time not being thawed out completely by the time I'm ready to make dinner. I'm slack and cannot for the life of me write out and follow a meal plan, so I usually decide what we're having for dinner the same day.

But that's all. And those are good enough reasons to give up any of my counterspace. But I can assure you that when we move into a house, there will be a microwave in my kitchen. We'll probably still continue to live without television though.