Entries Tagged 'Holiday' ↓

First things first: let’s pour some motivational coffee.

Then ask Google for some measurement conversions.

Okay, get mixing!

Turkey Brine from Anne Burrell:
¾ cup kosher salt
⅓ cup sugar
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, smashed
3 bay leaves
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 onion, diced
One 12- to 14-pound turkey

Combine 8 quarts cold water, the salt, sugar, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, bay leaves, carrots, celery and onions in a large container. Immerse the turkey in the brine and refrigerate for 2 to 3 days.

(This salt was a housewarming gift from my good friends, Bridget and Lindy — they also brought a loaf of bread.)

Just a touch of sugar!

(I’m not yet fancy enough for fresh herbs. Maybe someday.)

My sister shared some veggies from her CSA for Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Since these onions were a bit small, I used two instead of one.

Someone was very excited about both the turkey and the sunshine beaming into the house on this gorgeous Thanksgiving day. Can you believe temps in Minnesota were in the 50s? That is insane.

So, that’s a lot of brine.

The bird and the brine are wedged into a cooler to sit until late tomorrow night, or very early Saturday morning. I haven’t decided when would be the better time to remove the bird from the brine. Our friends are coming over for dinner later on Saturday, so either way I’ll have plenty of time to decide.

Sorry, Ellipses, we’ll have to wait just a couple more days!

here is my smile from last january:

here is my smile from last night:

do you see the difference?! no, probably not. but i do! i have a brand new tooth where, for the last nine or ten months, i’ve had no tooth!

my dentist gave it to me a week and a half ago, a day after my 30^th birthday. it still feels a little weird, but i’m getting used to it. mostly it feels like i have a piece of gum stuck to my teeth or something.

the appointment was quick and painless. my dentist installed my custom abutment (scary photo of my mouth, fyi) and then had to take an x-ray — which is when i took photos of my new crown sitting on the tray next to me, and scary close-up photos of my mouth and face.

then, when it was confirmed that all was sitting okay inside my jaw, they cemented the crown over the abutment. then they handed me a warranty card for the whole thing.

i am still sort of waiting for it to fall off. i’ve only tried chewing gum once since, and it felt the most weird of anything else that i’ve tried eating since i got the tooth. i’m still avoiding apples and other harder fruits and vegetables (though, honestly, i never really went out of my way to eat them before i had a new tooth, either).

i’m planning to get my second (and final) tooth implant (the other corner of my smile) next year, though i still need to contact my insurance rep and all of that adult kinda stuff.

but! thanksgiving. i’m giving thanks for my dentist, oral surgeon, and new tooth. it will be so much more fun to eat the holiday dinner because of them. jason and i are hosting some friends on saturday. i’m very much considering turning into a food blog for the next few days, by the way. i’m so excited to make a bunch of new-to-me recipes!

Honestly, I was more freaked out at my 27^th birthday. After entering my late 20s and becoming more confident in who I am (a crazy cat lady who enjoys knitting and wine), 30 didn’t seem so daunting. The only thing I was worried about was how I would celebrate entering a new decade in my life — I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to do (other than knitting, petting kitties, and drinking wine, of course).

Luckily, two of my friends from South Dakota, Bridget and Lindy, decided to take a weekend vacation to the cities. This quelled my fear that I was truly boring. If I decided to stay in and do nothing, at least I’d have friends to talk to about how much I love staying in and doing nothing!

My weekend actually began with an 11/11/11 celebration at work — finger food and Apothic Red. I’ve been with Gage Marketing for about two weeks now, and the worst thing I’ve found is the toilet paper. Seriously, so far this place is rad. I’ve had a couple small projects so far — I’m looking forward to more — but it was pretty nice to end the work week with a glass of wine.

That evening, Jason and I went to a wedding on UMN’s Showboat. Our friends, Joe and Laura, got married. The ceremony was very lovely, her dress was gorgeous, and the karaoke was great!

On Saturday, I joined Bridget and Lindy for a day of adventure. We ate brunch at Fat Nat’s Eggs — a casual joint that I pass everyday going to and from work. I ordered the “Favrito” and it was super spicy and delicious. The atmosphere was similar to that of a VFW. It was a down-to-earth restaurant, and I will definitely go back to try more of the spicy breakfast platters they offer.

After that, we went to view some Ukrainian antiquities at the Museum of Russian Art. I’ve passed the building before, but never actually gone in. We saw a lot of tools, jewelry and vases that were about 4,000–6,000 years old and our minds boggled. I really, really wish I could’ve taken photos to share with you. We also saw art from Oleg Vassiliev. Most of his art was political and a bit over my head, but I enjoyed his storybook illustrations that were on display.

Then? IKEA. Boy, did I get some ideas about things I’d like to have in my house…

So we wore ourselves out pretty well and came up with the best way to recover and ring in my 30^th birthday: we stopped at Target for part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on DVD, the fixin’s for Tater Tot Hot Dish, and some cake mix. Kristi and Jason joined us for the evening as well.

Having friends that will watch parts 1 and 2 of the final Harry Potter installment with me? Priceless. I’m a pretty lucky gal!

Yesterday morning, I made a strata and Vani came over for some chatter before Bridget and Lindy had to head back to South Dakota. I opened various cards I received in the mail and the gift that Jason got for me — remote start for my car! That will be so nice to have this winter! My brother and sister-in-law sent me the most recent A Book Apart books (because I also <3 web) and my sister and brother-in-law sent me a gift card to Amazon.com (what should I get for myself??).

So, I'm feeling pretty spoiled thankful because I have an awesome boyfriend, amazingly generous friends, and a pretty good life in general. So far this decade is off to a fantastic start!

Jason and I drove down to his family’s home in Iowa the day before New Year’s Eve for more holiday celebrations. It was crazy foggy most of the way down interstate 35 until we hit Ames – then the clouds parted and the weather was just lovely.

There was no snow in central Iowa. We should’ve brought some of ours down and shared…

Since the weather conveniently cleared up, we stopped for dinner at HuHot just north of Des Moines. (My parents gave me a gift certificate for Christmas) (Mom, Jason really liked it!) (We don’t have HuHot in the Twin Cities, we have Khan’s.) Afterwards, we continued on and arrived at Uncle Fred and Aunt Renee’s house around 8:30 or so. It was a pretty quiet night.

The next night was New Year’s Eve, of course. I was wrapping up Project 365, so I spent some time taking photos of the Christmas tree and Nikki reminisced about some of the ornaments. Afterwards we all tried to stay awake for the ball drop in New York. There was even some dancing.

I was happy to be spending a second, happy New Year’s Eve with such a sweet man. And his family. Which may be why I got a little shy when he kissed me at “midnight” (11 p.m. central time, 12 a.m. eastern).

The next day, we celebrated Christmas with the whole gang! And once again, I was stunned by their generosity and general wonderfulness. They sure know how to make a gal feel welcome!

It was Jaxon’s first Christmas! (and he had his first birthday on the 6th!)

Nicholas even wrapped special gifts for everyone – nursery rhyme books, coloring books, etc. It’s pretty adorable to see kids get into the giving spirit. He was begging Jason and me to open his gifts for us since the moment we arrived.

I opened the brown paper bag first.

Off to a good start – both of these wines were from vineyards in Iowa!

I gotta start telling Jason’s family about other things I like… though these are awesome gifts! I’m really enjoying the goblets, but I think I need to start exercising some more restraint when pouring wine into them.

It’s nice that Jason was there to take some photos of me, too. (Some of the photos in this post are from his Flickr stream.) I don’t have any photos of myself from Christmas celebrations in South Dakota in my family… I’ve become the family documentarian, I suppose.

And he even makes eggnog cookies! He’s a keeper, for sure.

I was made fun of for taking even more photos of the beautiful Iowan sunset. They don’t realize how lucky they are.

Later in the evening, we played the infamous dice game. They play it a little bit differently than my family: there are enough gifts for everyone to choose one. Everyone draws a number, which determines the gift-choosing order. As everyone chooses, they also open the gift. They can then decide whether they’re going to force anyone else to trade gifts. The person who draws #1 has the best advantage, because they get one more chance at the end to trade their gifts with any other gift that’s been opened.

Nicholas got #1, so he was very serious for the duration of the game – studying all of the gifts being opened, weighing the advantages of each… I ended up with that “In a Pickle” game he’s holding (and I have some pickle-flavored chapstick to look forward to), because I opened a very big flashlight set – which I traded for a Wal-Mart giftcard and LEGO penguin keychain. Nicholas really wanted that LEGO penguin. All for fun!

The next day we had to return to Minneapolis. We tried taking a new route, and ended up driving right past the Des Moines skyline (adorably tiny) and the capitol building.

If we ever take this route again, I’ll be sure to use a nicer camera.

bryan, karyn, hannie and i drove down to south dakota on christmas eve – despite really nasty winter weather.

my mom was thawing a ham for the family meal on christmas day. it was my brother’s ham, so it was like he was there with us. right?

but for christmas eve dinner, mom made two giant vats of soup – chicken noodle and split pea. yum!

hannie likes bread best.

as we finished eating dinner, dad got a phone call from a friend. “looks like someone hit the front side of your van…” he said. dad looked outside, and though there was no damage to the van, there was a very large package next to it. bryan and i ran outside to bring it in…

a 55″ lcd hdtv! dad was stunned and hannie was very excited.

bryan, dad and i went to wal-mart to get a new entertainment center for the tv, while karyn, mom and hannie frosted and sprinkled cookies.

hannie had an icing mustache, which was pretty funny, but she wouldn’t let me take a photo of it.

so, that was a pretty exciting night.

we also had a turducken for christmas day lunch. this was very exciting for everyone involved, i assure you.

hannie got really excited about opening presents, so she got to open her stocking right away. i also let her open a small present i got for her.

so many presents for hannie!

but there were a few presents for the rest of us, too. fun!

jason gave me a wii for christmas and now i have a new game to play on it – epic mickey! i started the other night. it’s kinda dark, but will be fun once i get into it, i think.

karyn got her very own masher! wahoo!

“hannie, are you silly?” “yeah!”

mom and dad got a new camera for their trip to taiwan next month! take lots and lots of photos, okay, guys?!

karyn disguised my last gift (which hannie helped me open) by wrapping it with a few random other things inside at least 5 different bags and boxes – it was a new ipod nano!

we went to uncle tom’s & aunt kim’s for our first christmas day meal. grampa bob brought some “mystery wine” he made at home. it was pretty tasty!

but kim opted for poinsettia cocktails instead.

newest christmas tradition: cousin micheal’s robotic santa.

tur! duck! hen!

then it was time for the always hilarious dice game.

shih tzu party central.

cousin jenny and jeremy got married this year. they still seem to like each other, so that’s good, ‘eh?

cousin jon got a pregnancy test. let’s hope it negative!

hannie got a whoopee cushion. i have a video, which i’ll upload to youtube… someday…

all tuckered out! i guess that was a pretty exhausting gift exchange for the puppies.

oh, wait! one more gift for jeremy from cousin micheal!

… it’s an… alligator?

and for another oddity, steve made a christmas poo. but it was delish!

for dinner, we joined aunt deb, gramma d, and cousin brock just down the road.

gramma d got just a few more owls for christmas.

good thing hannie was around to help gramma open all of her presents!

we went home around 9pm. sioux falls was a-glow as we left it.

we had to get on the road back to minneapolis by noon, but i was glad that kelsey and aurora could come over before we started packing up.

can you imagine what life would be like to be that adorable? those eyes! she’s such a sweet little babe.

hannie was a little unsure about not being the center of attention, but she hung around anyway.

thanks for the visit, ladies!

when we got back to minneapolis, jason picked me up and whisked me away to st. paul for that night’s wild game. i won the tickets through email bingo at work! so even though the wild lost (unfortunately), we still had a pretty good time.

the final score was 1-4.

when i finally got home after the game, santa had brought jason another, special gift to give to me. santa sure is a sweet, generous guy!

i’m feeling very blessed this holiday season – lots of great family, a wonderful boyfriend, and really super friends. i’m currently in indianola, iowa, with jason’s family – waiting for 2011 at midnight and a few more christmas festivities tomorrow. i hope you’re having an equally fantastic holiday season, too.

happy new year!