From my kitchen with love

This blog post is more than long overdue and for that I’m sorry. And despite being a little unseasonal, I will be telling you all about my first ever Thanksgiving Dinner preparation adventure!

About one week before Thanksgiving Cody and I went grocery shopping. I was a little apprehensive about doing the dinner since not many of our girl friends had committed to coming, but Cody was optimistic and decided to buy the largest turkey and ham he could get his hands on. He even opted out of buying a Butterball turkey simply because the ones at the grocery store were not large enough.

As the weekend approached a few more people committed to coming, but it was evident we would still have way too much food. Cody didn’t see this as a problem because he was already dreaming of Turkey sandwiches and leftover potatoes. And if we didn’t have enough food, on Saturday Cody and I spent the day in Grande Prairie and come home with more potatoes and brussels sprouts (Cody’s special request, I think they’re disgusting) to add to our already very large list of Thanksgiving Day offerings.

In the weeks leading up to thanksgiving I was also practicing my bun making skills. Unfortunately I did not master them prior to Thanksgiving Monday, but the ones I made for Hot Lunch on the following Thursday were pretty well near perfect. Perhaps that’s because my dear boyfriend leant his helping hand, and together we got the buns in the oven and ready for 50 hungry teenagers.

When Monday morning rolled around I got out of bed at a decent time and drove over to Cody’s place. He was already up and preparing to bring a large table over from his parent’s house to set up in the living room. The table was perfect. While I got started on stuffing my first turkey, Cody continued to clean the house and do other things.

Stuffing the turkey was easier and less gross than I thought it would be. I also got the ham ready for the crock pot (one part ginger ale and one part water, topped with pineapple slices, made for a delicious piece of meat). Five hours later I began to panic. My beautiful turkey was still quite pale and the kitchen smelled of everything but turkey. Cody’s mom came over to check things out and advised us to turn the oven way up. Thankfully I was cooking a thawed turkey and with the oven at a much higher temperature, things were ready to be served at the right time!

When everyone arrived we were not quite ready, but that was ok. Cody and I got all of the food moved out to the table. Are you ready for the list? We had turkey, ham, potatoes, a mandarin orange romaine salad, broccoli salad, brussels sprouts, carrots, beans, a delicious mushroom and snow peas dish prepared by Cody’s mom, homemade buns, cranberries, and squash. There was a lot of food. For dessert we had homemade pumpkin pies with maple whipping cream, pumpkin pie cheesecake squares, macaroons, pumpkin cookies, and peanut butter cookies.

Delicious.

During dinner Cody remembered that I had told him of a tradition my family does each year at Thanksgiving. Each year we go around the table and list one (or many) things we are particularly thankful for. This meant the world to me and really made our Thanksgiving dinner feel like it does at home. I found out later that apparently my family neglected to follow through with this tradition this year, which is kind of funny.

The boys (Mat and Cody) cleaned up all the dishes while the girls went for a walk around the block. All in all it was an excellent day that I couldn’t have pulled off without the help of Cody and the gift our guests gave us by being there.

It was a beautiful Albertan Thanksgiving.

I probably should have listened to my mother more

Today I worked for a few hours in the afternoon and then went home to start preparing a bumbleberry pie, without strawberries as I would prefer for my dear boyfriend to live to see another day. Anyways, I made the crust at my place and then packed everything up to go to Cody’s because we were having Sunday Soup for dinner (I know, I know Sunday Soup on Saturday doesn’t make sense, but trust me, it works), and I needed to add barley and noodles to the soup so they would cook before Cody had to go to worship practice.

After the soup was on the stove to re-heat with noodles and barley added, I got to work preparing this pie. I had originally thought I would make it because Cody and I thought we’d visit our pastor tonight. His wife has been in Mexico the last few weeks and every time we bump into him he tells us how empty his fridge is. I figured a pie would be a great thing to bring along.

I finished the pie and cleaned up the counter all before Cody noticed exactly how much flour was all over his kitchen. I thought I had been doing a good job of cleaning up after myself. The counters were sparkling, the dishes were done and put away and the soup still simmering on the stove. Apparently I forgot about all the kitchen cabinets I touched and drawers I opened with floured hands…Cody’s kitchen cupboards are dark, so it didn’t take long for him to figure out exactly where I had been in his kitchen.

After dinner and once the pie was complete Cody left for worship practice. As he was leaving he said “I’ll see you when I get back. Make yourself at home. (pause) Wait, don’t. You make a mess.”

My mom always told me that whomever I chose to date and possibly spend my life with would pick up on my messy ways. I never thought I was that messy (unless you entered my teenage  room…that was very messy), but now that I’ve met Cody, I can see I’m going to have to start remembering all those meticulous house-cleaning lessons mom gave, since the above-average cleaning lessons aren’t quite doing the trick.

P.S. Pastor Rob, if you’re reading this and wondering why you didn’t get any pie, it’s because we couldn’t get a hold of you – so we fed it to the worship team.

From October to December in just one weekend

Elvis and his showgirl

It’s gorgeous here.

It is currently snowing lightly and the trees are covered in snow. Driving to court this morning I had to remind myself it is just Oct. 25, not Dec. 25.

This weekend was busy, but absolutely lovely. Most of you are thinking the weekend was lovely because of a certain man. While that’s partially true, other wonderful things happened this weekend too. But I guess I can start with that man (because I know he wants to read about himself in a positive light in this blog).

This man is from Ontario (breathe deeply family, I did not go and find myself a Albertan) and lives about two hours from where I do. This distance may become annoying, but I’m going to go right ahead and say he’s worth the drive – and he agrees that I am too 🙂 

 On our second date we went for a walk, had dinner and finished the evening in storybook fashion, sitting in the back of his truck, watching a fire down by the river. The whole evening was unplanned and perfect.

On our most recent date, we went to see an Elvis impersonator. I had to go and take photos for the paper and he was sweet enough to attend with me. Along with Elvis we were honoured to experience a Cher and Patsy Cline impersonator as well as enjoy the “skills” of two Vegas showgirls. My new man wondered how a person might apply to become a Vegas showgirl, which I agreed would be a strange aspiration.

Then, on Sunday I went to the Peace Players children’s production of Beauty and the Beast. I expected to be bored, but I guess I should have known better. I loved it and was very sad to be kicked out of the theatre at the intermission. The Peace Players had oversold the show and a woman very abruptly came up to me and said “Kristin, you have to leave.” A bit rude, but I guess I understood.

Watching this production made me miss the theatre and I’m currently searching theatres in northern Alberta. I’m going to see a play soon, I can feel it.