As promised...

I ended up having some free time (meaning I procrastinated and haven't yet packed for my trip), so here are the photos I promised!

The infamous turkey:

The tree:

Our ingenious (aka cheap) ornament turned tree topper:

Ryan and Taz enjoying the tree:

All good things come to those who wait...

After a relaxing, friend- and family-filled Thanksgiving break, Ryan and I spent Sunday maxing and relaxing around the Nut. We watched the Chiefs lose (boo), did some laundry and then proceeded to officially kickoff the holiday season by fixing our first big turkey (in years past we’ve only been brave enough to cook a turkey breast) with all the fixin’s.

I should have known we were doomed when we first began the “cooking” process. I say “cooking” because, well, you’ll see.

First off, I had one heck of a time getting the damn bird out of the package. Then, even though the turkey had been in the fridge for nearly four days (the package said three would do it), the inside of it was still icy. Not being patient enough to wait another day for it to thaw, we forged ahead, removing the neck and delving into the semi-frozen turkey, searching for the little bags of giblets or gizzards or whatever the heck turkey-part they (God knows why) save for you. Of course, we couldn't find them. I assumed at the time that was because we bought a cheap Best Choice turkey, and maybe they don’t give you that. And really, it’s not like I knew what to do with it anyway.

So, we slather the bird up with olive oil, herbs, salt, onions, apple slices, etc. and pop it in the oven. I set the timer for 3 hours, the time the package recommends for a 10-13 pound turkey. For the record, ours weighs in at 11.89 pounds.

Around hour four, the turkey is still hovering at 150 degrees. I turned the temp up 25 degrees, figuring it can't hurt..

Four-and-a-half-hours into it, I start suspecting that something is off, seeing that the turkey’s temperature was now dropping. At first, I thought we were being taught a lesson for not properly thawing the turkey. Then I noticed that the oven wasn’t as hot as it was…turns out, when Ryan went to drain the potatoes for mashed taters, he accidentally turned off the oven in addition to the stovetop. And, neither of us noticed because our oven has two dials – one for the temp and one for bake, broil, etc. So although I was trying to turn the temp up, my attempts were futile (talk about a poorly designed oven).

Anyways, to make a long story short (too late, I know), our three-hour turkey dinner took seven hours. We also found the turkey parts...no idea where they were wedged but they fell out of the cavity (SICK) when we pulled it out of the oven.

Despite our Thanksgiving debacle, there is some good news. We have a great first Thanksgiving as a married couple story and, during the extended cooking, had ample time to put our Christmas tree up. And, I have to brag, despite the screw ups, the turkey did come out tasty, and it hasn’t given us salmonella...yet. Not to mention that we have one of the cutest trees I’ve ever seen. (Thanks Erin and Alan!)

I plan on posting pics of the difficult turkey and our Christmas tree soon. I’m going out of town for a few days for work, so I’ll post those when I get back. Adios amigos!

Did that really just happen?

I'm still in disbelief over last night's game. It almost seems like a dream...a freaking awesome dream. And one heck of a game. I give mass kudos to my KU peeps for a game well played.

In celebration and after eating a ridiculous amount of food and meat during the game (along with spending time with Ryan's parents, my parents and my childhood friend and her baby, who wins the prize for cutest baby ever), a bunch of us went over to Lew's after the game to enjoy some (more) drinks. We all did a car bomb -- closest thing we could get to black and gold -- and then practiced our champion poses. See below:

Jeffersonian pose:

The Make-No-Mistake-We're-Good pose:

The Thinker:

Don't Eff with Us pose:

The I'm-Going-to-Eat-You-Alive pose:

The I-Knew-We'd-Win pose:

Rock Hard pose:

Token KU :( Face pose:

It's game day, yo

Kansas City is a fun place to be right now. Not many rivalry's can match MU's and KU's mutual hate for one another (although after living in Lawrence for three years and having countless friends there, I can't hate too much -- just a smidge). And during the last couple of days, leading up to this momentous game which will determine who goes to the National Championship (CRAZY), things have been nuts, in a really good way (minus those idiotic people touting Missouri 183, Lawrence 0 --- that isn't cool nor funny).

Last night, in the Power and Light District, tigers were all over the place after the Mizzou pep rally. Ryan was wearing Tom's Mizzou hat and we routinely had people singing the fight song to us. Then this morning, Ryan and I went to the grocery store today and just about every darn person in there was decked out in either MU or KU gear. Same thing at the bank. Our teller went to K State and was actually hoping that both MU and KU lose. Good luck with that, buddy.

With the big game just hours away, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the awesomeness of this day and the game...who would have thunk it would be this big?

In celebration of the big game, here are some pics from last night's poker tourney. Check out these game faces!

Mark, aka "Brown Sugar":

Tom, aka "T Monkey":


Mike, aka "Price" and Brown Sugar:

The husband with tie:

How will the chips fall tonight???

Happy Turkey Day!

Just wanted to say a quick happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Here are just a few things that I'm thankful for:

1. Health
2. Friends
3. Family
4. The husband, Ry-dawg
5. The excitement of having a good college football and basketball team to root for
6. The excitement of KU also having a good college and basketball team to have a fun rivalry with (and it should be fun, people -- no craziness!)
7. Getting to know Bert
8. The Nut and all the joys of owning a home
9. Grape tomatoes (I really love them...I think I'm addicted)
10. Kiwi Power and its ability to rescue my chi!

I feel special now

My former carpool buddy and fellow blogger Mary tagged me. And, I'm quite honored cause that girl has a lot of friends. The goal here is for me to tag five other bloggers. Unfortunately, I really only know four people who blog with some regularity -- Mary would make five. So....instead of me just not playing, I'm going to tag four and encourage them to each tag five. Fair? Good. Here are the rules of the game:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
4. Let them know they've been tagged.

Five facts about me
1. I think Patrick Stewart is hot.
2. I own each and every album Paula Abdul has ever released (even Shut Up and Dance the Remixes and her failed "comeback" album, Head Over Heels). I even know most of the lyrics to the songs.
3. I don't like any beer except for the really dark ones like Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout.
4. I, along with my parents and our guide, survived a semi-dramatic hot air balloon landing between power lines in Kansas.
5. Sliced deli turkey meat makes me naseous.

The four lucky choosen ones:
1. Tish
2. Lizzy
3. Erin
4. Vikkie

Pumpkin Extravaganza

In lieu of the holiday tomorrow, I've decided to get all seasonal and bake not one, but two pumpkin pies. The first one I made is your traditional run-of-the-mill pumpkin pie. I bought the crust, assembled the ingredients (don't tell the fam but it's actually low-fat ), baked it and voila -- pie!

Not to mention that Bert got some serious use from all the afternoon baking. Here's a shot of Bert in all of his grandeur (if you look closely you can see me taking the pic...so dorky):



The trickiest thing about traditional pumpkin pie is that you have to be a bit creative in baking it. See, the pumpkin filling has a loooong bake time -- at least an hour. Well, no pie crust can handle that, so in order to have a cooked filling and an unblackened crust, you have to delicately cut and place little strips of aluminum foil all around the crust. As I learned, I kinda suck at that. From the looks of this photo, I also suck at cleaning my oven frequently. (Add that to the list of things to do this weekend.)



While waiting for the above to bake, I got started on my frozen pumpkin mousse pie. I bought a graham cracker crust (I had every intention of making my own ginger snap crust, but all the ginger snaps had already been snatched up at my g-store), some pumpkin puree and light vanilla ice cream. I mixed it all together with some spice, poured it in the crust and stuck it in the freezer. If the batter leftover on the spoon I used to mix it all together is any indication of the pie's tastiness, it should be a new holiday favorite. Here's a pic of that (not a great shot of the pie by any means, but I like how the cheap pie plate is all wrinkly):



I think everyone will like the pies...or at least be nice enough to say they like them. I'll keep you posted.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!