I don't ever recall Thanksgiving being particularly stressful, as a kid, but really, what's there to be stressed about other than the inevitable battle for that first slice of turkey breast with the big piece of crispy skin.* I'm sure it was much harder for the adults with all the cooking, cleaning and kid/drunk in-law wrangling, but as a kid, it always just seemed like lots of good food and playing with the cousins. As adults, I think Leo and I have kept a lot of the same relaxed attitude. We don't tend to make a production of the holiday, thought we do like some good lumpy mashed potatoes and crispy bird skin on a plate. Since we have yet to really put our new kitchen through the paces, we did (and by we, I mean me) a whole chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, dressing and cranberry sauce and dug in at our leisure. I'm still working through the last of the starchiest bits.
And being the long weekend that Thanksgiving is, we had plenty of time to fit in a trip to the ocean on Saturday. It was brisk but dry and that's pretty much good enough for us. I don't think the dogs have ever been put out by a little cold weather.
1. Leo got frenched by a puppy, 2. Thea takes a victory lap, 3. Birds, 4. Throw it again, 5. Lift off, 6. Manzanita Oregon November 27, 2009, 7. Manzanita Oregon November 27, 2009, 8. Manzanita Oregon November 27, 2009, 9. More birds, 10. Manzanita Oregon November 27, 2009, 11. Manzanita Oregon November 27, 2009, 12. Manzanita Oregon November 27, 2009, 13. Where'd it go?
Created with fd's Flickr Toys
I also finished spinning about 200 yards of some angora, alpaca and soy silk I hand carded together. Using a bit of Kool-Aid, I dyed it in three successive dye baths to get a rich orange shade.
Bath 1: 1 orange + 1 lemon aid packet
Bath 2: 2 orange + 1 lemon aid packet
Bath 3: 1 tropical punch packet
I love the color and it smells so sweet. I find dyeing really stressful, because you can't really undo it if you blow it, but this time seem to work out great.
To finish off the long weekend, I made a big batch of lemon garlic crispy kale.
Click either image for the recipe, inasmuch as it is one.
I hope all of you had a lovely weekend too.
*Most of my teen and college years, I did thanksgiving at friends houses and I watched in horror, one year as my friend's mother whipped her mashed potatoes (no lumps!) and removed the skin from the turkey after cooking. I've never fully recovered from the memory.
Sounds like a perfect Thanksgiving to me!
Yummy! The Color, the kale, the beautiful puppy pictures :-}
Where's your kale smoothie?
Gorgeous photos...the whole family (minus you, of course) looked like life couldn't get much better.
Thanks for sharing the photos and the lovely fiber.
Removing the skin from the turkey? I suppose they peel the potato's too. Some folks just weren't raised right.
You actually kind of CAN undo some dying! I had an unfortunate dying incident with cotton/lycra yarn and Kool Aid and someone told me to get the Rit dye remover packet and that took most of the color out. I was then able to use the proper dye to get the color I wanted. Thank goodness!
Sounds wonderful.
Isn't the point of Thanksgiving the lumps and crispy skin? I wouldn't be surprised if you were still having flashbacks after that year. ;^)
The Kool-Aid dye job looks great! Thanks for sharing the recipe for the kale. I'm definitely going to try it out!