Winter Wondering Land

Yes, it's been a little while, with a minor distraction along the way. It's called Thanksgiving, and I am ever so thankful that it is gone for another year. Maybe it'll not happen next year?! Here's the menu I submitted for approval to Aged Parent, a good week before:

Brussels sprouts soup with garlic croutons
Salmon en croute
Mashed potatoes
Julienned green beans with slivered almonds
Cranberries
Corn Pudding
Biscuits
Pumpkin Pie
Apple pie
Indian pudding 

So the day before the holiday I start preparing some things for the next day. The croutons, for example, which I baked in the oven after tossing them with olive oil, grated garlic, chopped parsley. They were lovely. But they did trigger an alarm with Aged Parent over the heat in the oven. She decided there and then that nothing could be cooked in the oven over 400 degrees F. Nothing. Because it would "blow" the oven, apparently. Yes, blow it. AP suggested I just cook everything at 350. I said it doesn't work that way. No amount of rational discussion could sway her. She even extended it to not wanting the oven on "all day"  (good thing we hadn't planned on a turkey...).
So the menu became this:



Brussels sprouts soup with garlic croutons*
Salmon en croute
Mashed potatoes
Julienned green beans with slivered almonds
Cranberries
Corn Pudding
Biscuits

Pumpkin Pie
Apple pie
Indian pudding


* Yes, the croutons were served only because I had cooked them the day before.


So welcome to the Baby Food Thanksgiving. It was odd...and frustrating, to say the least, but the good humor of my fellow adults (and the one 8-year-old) saved my sanity. Another thing to be Thankful for.


And on to Xmas! Also, a new year. A purely societal contrivance (when starting in January as opposed to, say, springtime), I admit, but so very convenient when one really needs to think there's a new start. My plan is to burn (really) my datebook from the heinous 2010. Remove the mojo of the Year o' Hell (well, maybe Heck, since many people do have things far worse than I). So, bonfire on Ocean Beach anyone?