Delirity

Since it seems like we’ve had a rough patch recently, I find it very important to keep in mind all the really great things going on in our life. Some of the things I’m thankful for:

• my wonderful husband
• a family we love and get along with
• Jesse and I are both working/going to school doing things we really enjoy
• great friends
• having safe, warm, nice place to live
• being rather happy with my life

There’s more of course – but we really are lucky in so many ways and I think it’s very important to remember to be thankful for these things, especially when we start to get frustrated with things that are happening in our lives.

On Sunday we made our first turkey. Since Jesse was at a seminar until noon, I was in charge of getting the bird ready. I felt pretty good about it, despite my dislike for pulling out giblets. I got the giblet bag out without any trouble and cleaned the neck cavity. The body cavity was another story – the bird didn’t want to let me in! There was a lot of fat in the area, but eventually I got that pulled out and was able to (eep!) pull out the neck and clean the body. I managed to get the bird cleaned, stuffed, and in the oven without too much trouble!

About 2 hours into cook time (for a 15 pound bird I was expecting 4.5-5 hours), the little timer thing popped up – totally worthless. Once we were getting close to the real time for it to be done, Jesse was home so the two of us worked on sticking a nice meat thermometer into the recommended location on the inner thigh. The temp was way too low, so we put it in for another 30 minutes before checking again. We then went out and bought another meat thermometer since ours was previously untested. We probably checked that thing 6 times – it never ever got up to the “correct” temp of 180-185, even with about 5.5 hours cook time! But, once we got it out and Jesse carved it we were able to see it was definitely done and still quite juicy.

I don’t know how we wound up with such a tasty turkey other than to say that all we did was defrost, rinse, stuff, rub with a little olive oil, stick in oven and wait. I never once basted it – too easy (just really time consuming)! Today (while I work from home since my car is back in the shop) I’m making turkey stock out of the carcass. Yum. Turkey soup and sandwiches here we come.

Ok, it isn’t really finals (especially seeing as I’m not in school)… but it feels like it. We’ve been being tested recently and it’s actually to the point where it’s getting funny.

A week or two ago (while Jesse was already stressed from school), he had an appointment with an orthopedist to get a 2nd opinion and MRI for some trouble he’s been having with his hip. Instead of small surgery to repair a hip labral tear, he may need to have that plus hip arthroscopy to repair some of the excess bone in his hip that will lead to more labral tears and eventually hip replacement. The MRI is at the end of the month and Jesse will probably take next quarter off to have the surgery done (he’ll be on crutches for several weeks). It’s not fun stuff, it’s a really big decision to try to do this, but if it needs to happen now is much better than when he’s done with school and in practice, plus hopefully it’ll make it so he feels better soon!

We’ve been having some trouble with our cars – Jesse’s went to the shop while we were in Nashville because his check engine light came on. Mon-Wed of this week my car was in the shop getting its catalytic converter replaced. I was sooo thrilled to have it back for Thursday (I had lots of meetings) and I treated it to an oil change yesterday – after which my check engine light came on again. I spent a good chunk of the day crying while taking it to Toyota service departments to figure out what to do with it. Turns out it’s probably the oxygen sensor that got replaced with the catalytic converter, so I need to take it back to the shop where I got the original work done.  Now I just need to figure out how to make my short 3 day week work without a car (or borrowing Jesse’s or renting a car).
Once I was done with the crying, napping and soaking my feet in an ice bath (my chiropractor is making me do it – ouch!) last night I finally got things together and fixed a nice dinner. I planned to hop in the shower while our asparagus/cheese stuffed chicken was cooking, when I discovered that the washing machine had been leaking. Fortunately, I just have to call the office and our apartment maintenance people will take care of that. But I half expected there to be an earthquake or a fire or something last night!

The good news is that except for my little crying fest about my car needing to go back to the shop, I’m passing all my tests with flying colors – I’m even making great dinners and pumpkin pies.

We were really busy around Halloween and as a result we only got to make a very small number of pumpkin seeds. Since I had a hankering last week, I planned to go get a few nice big leftover pumpkins for cheap and make enough pumpkin seeds to last us a lifetime. What I didn’t know was that there’s a pumpkin shortage in Portland. Seriously – I went to about 5 stores before I was told that the pumpkin season in Portland was really short this year. Finally I found a few sugar pumpkins at some local stores ($1.99/lb at one, $.99/lb at another).

With my pumpkins I made pumpkin seeds (sprinkled with sea salt & garlic powder), a pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup with smoked paprika. Yum. The pumpkin pie was gone in a day and while the rest is still around, we’re really enjoying it. I had wondered if I would enjoy the pumpkin soup because I always like pumpkin in things, but when I list those things they all turn out to be desserts. Fortunately, the pumpkin soup is absolutely delicious. My faith in my love of pumpkin is totally restored.

I love baking and cooking in the fall and winter. If this past weekend is any indicator of the yumminess to come then we’re in for a really good next few months.