Our Thanksgiving was great, although the turkey was a little overdone. We had delicious turkey sandwiches last night on Dale’s homemade bread, so it couldn’t have been all that bad.
There was an incident involving the oven. Dale roasted a pork belly the night before, and apparently grease splattered, creating a lot of smoke when I was getting ready to put in the cheesecake. I had to turn on the fan and open windows. Luckily, it didn’t affect the food, and after the oven cooled, Dale wiped down the inside so we wouldn’t have a smokefest when he started cooking the turkey.
We didn’t argue about it, but I could tell he was annoyed that I was annoyed with smoke. He thinks I overreact, and that might be true, but I don’t see any advantage to embracing smoke and fire as a byproduct of cooking inside the home.
Dale went to bed early, but I stayed up watching the Downton Abbey movie. I love the series and felt like I was reunited with old friends – oh, look, there’s Anna! And Mr. Bates! And Mary’s hair … so chic. But all in all, it was pretty disappointing. I have this vision of the actors putting on their old costumes and laughing hysterically. As in, “Can you believe we’re getting paid to do this?”
My pumpkin cheesecake was fantastic. I’m experimenting with freezer action. Once the pieces are firm, I’ll wrap them in plastic and put them in a tub or or add another layer of foil.
I am not a Christmas person, but I’m not going to get all grumpy about it, either. I’m just happy to be here. Dale is more into it than I am, but he doesn’t want to put up a tree until about a week before. However, if you don’t go soon, the trees are gone – especially with Thanksgiving coming right at the end of November this year.
Dale is not exactly methodical about getting things done, so I’m not saying a word. I’m hoping he procrastinates until there are no trees to be had. The only potential downside is my annual holiday tradition of drinking single malt scotch while he decorates the tree. I feel certain I could find another excuse to enjoy a wee bit of scotch, if the tree shortage should come to pass.
I finished all my books, and as it turns out, the library is open today! I’ve been avoiding crowds, but the library is reasonably safe. I suppose I’ll have to find something to wear other than jammies and head over there this afternoon, hopefully before the rain kicks in.
Yes, it’s California, but the rainy season is finally here, and it is quite chilly by my standards. I am proud to say I’ve walked about an hour every day. In terms of motivation, I had to dig deep, as I am such a wuus about the cold. But it was fine once I got started.
The rain and cold also affect my golf schedule – what Dale calls, “The Tour.” He usually asks me on Sunday what the tour schedule is this week. I didn’t play last week at all. I’m going to try and squeeze in a round early Tuesday. The rain is supposed to start in the afternoon. I welcome the rain, but I’m already sad about the unpredictability of winter golf.
When golf season is in full swing, I hardly bother with
crafts projects. But now that the rainy season has started, I’ll resume my activities
in the artist’s studio garage. I still have all the stuff for coasters, as
well a piece of discarded fence I think will be interesting to play around
with.
My little cannabis plant looks healthy, but it doesn’t seem to be growing much. I think it needs more light, so I caved and purchased an LED lamp. It should arrive today, and Dale said he would help me hang it – the guidelines suggest about one foot above the plant. For some reason, I was thinking of Robert Frost:
My little plant must think it queer to grow without a light source near.
Dale wants to take a turkey break today, but we have yet to discuss what we’ll have instead. I always make soup out of the carcass, so I’ll probably do that Sunday or Monday. Rain tonight, I think, and tomorrow looks like a washout.
I’m looking forward to next week, when everybody else goes back to work!
My oldest daughter has lived in LA for over a decade now and complains about the “cold” when it goes below 50. The cheesecake looks delicious! It’s understandable that you didn’t want the cheesecake to have a smoky flavor. We spent 3 days cleaning the oven (mostly my DH) because we used baking soda overnight, then cleaned off the white gunk, then used the self cleaning function. We’re going to start dry roasting vegetables because I don’t want to go through that again. I hope you’ll post photos if your coasters.
Sounds like your daughter and I are on the same page! Your oven project sounds miserable. Last year, I used baking soda on the inside of the glass door, and some of the water leaked in between the glass. Now it’s all streaky. Oh, well.
I’ll be sure to post coaster pictures. Some of my earlier experiments are on the gallery tab at the top of the blog.
Why does it seem ovens have become tougher to clean? My self-cleaning oven is a joke. That did nothing. I tried a baking soda mixture and it was challenging to remove. After using the oven a few times afterwards, I had white flakes all over the bottom. I ended up vacuuming it out!! What was so bad about Easy Off and those strong chemicals? 🤪
I like self-clean better than the old stuff, but I admit we should run it more often. The door is another issue. I still feel bad about the water leaking between the glass. I don’t think there’s a solution.