Thanksgiving

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Five for Friday

It’s the Friday before Thanksgiving! I am in full on pre-houseguest, pre-holiday panic mode. 

  • I have managed to work out several days this week. It is a relief to be getting back into a routine. The workout I did yesterday was a weighted cardio and strength routine. Usually I stick to strength training videos and I was reminded why: I am too uncoordinated to manage the cardio! Tracy would give a quick little demonstration of how to do something, like a high knee kick with a punch, and then she’d jump right in… and it would take me at least 20 of the 45 seconds allotted for the move to figure out how to do it. If I could do it at all. Oh well. No one is grading me on how well I can copy the moves. But my complete inability to follow the moves reminds me why I prefer to work out at home.
  • It’s been a while (yes, Suzanne, a whole year) since I’ve revisited my Thanksgiving Planning Documents. I really need to open them up and start making my grocery lists and planning out what to do when. But I am feeling, more than usual, the weight of how much work it is to carry off this holiday. (I almost typed “stupid holiday,” but refrained. But that’s where my grump level is at the moment.) Bleh. If I could go back in time, I would tell my mother-in-law that I was not up for hosting Thanksgiving this year. But Past Suzanne was full of naivety and optimism and everyone has plane tickets so I’m stuck. It’s not that I’m not looking forward to seeing family! I am! We haven’t seen any of these family members in months, and none of them have seen the new house, and I am dying to spend time with my niece who continues to be more delightful every time I see her. It’s just that the whole undertaking is so MUCH. The houseguests and the cooking and the cleanup. It will be fine. It’s not a big deal, nothing is terribly difficult on its own. It’s just a one-foot-in-front-of-another kind of situation. I do wish I’d done some advance gravy work though. There is never enough gravy. 
  • One thing I have not planned for is DESSERT. In years past, our traditional Thanksgiving dessert has been pumpkin bars. But a few years ago, my husband admitted that he has grown sick of them. Neither he nor I like pumpkin pie, and while I would be fine with someone else making it, I don’t really wanna. We are getting a free apple pie from our real estate agent, so we’ll have that. Except a) no one besides me and my husband like apple pie and b) we have to pick it up on Monday and I don’t know if it will keep until Thursday. (Can you freeze an apple pie?) Perhaps I will eat it for breakfast. But that leaves us without a dessert! One of our guests likes chocolate things – and so do my husband and daughter. Two of our guests either avoid dessert entirely or eat it very sparingly. My choice might be cranberry crumble bars, because they are easy and I love them… but I don’t think most of the family members really like fruit desserts. What do you think I should make? Or kindly ask one of my guests to make?
  • Another thing I am fretting about is the accommodations. We have a guest room; my in laws will stay there. My niece will sleep on a futon in Carla’s room. My sister-in-law will sleep on a mattress in my daughter’s craft room. I feel a little bad about the mattress! I mean, it’s a perfectly nice mattress, and I have sheets and blankets and a comforter that she can use. I did not have any extra pillows, but Target resolved that problem for me very quickly. We have a little end table and a lamp that we can borrow from elsewhere so she’ll be able to have a makeshift nightstand. I bought some extra nightlights to help her navigate from room to room. She’ll have access to an adjacent closet and bathroom. But what else should I do to make a craft room into a comfortable-enough guest room?
  • My in laws called my husband last weekend to chat, and asked what the plans are for Thanksgiving weekend. Plans? What plans? My plans are to spend all week prepping for Thanksgiving dinner, then spend Thanksgiving day making dinner, then eating dinner, then collapsing from exhaustion for the rest of the weekend. I had sort of thought people would entertain themselves? We have games and puzzles, and there’s bound to be some sort of football game to watch. Should there be other plans? I am feeling like a terrible hostess! It does look like there may be a new Trolls movie out, so perhaps some faction of people could go to a movie the day after Thanksgiving? And there’s always walking, as long as the weather is amenable. Or people who like shopping on Black Friday can do that. But that’s really all I can come up with, and that will have to be enough. 

What are you doing this weekend? Are you fretting about anything in the lead-up to Thanksgiving? Any ideas for how we in the US can persuade the country to move the holiday back to line up with Canada’s Thanksgiving? 

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Diabetic-Friendly Thanksgiving Side Dishes and Dinners This Week

It is somehow the week before Thanksgiving and I am trying to tamp down my panic through denial and distraction.

One distraction is that I keep thinking about what diabetic-friendly side dishes I can offer for the family member who is pre-diabetic. We make the same things every year, because everyone has their Favorite Thing they don’t want to give up: dressing (my husband’s favorite), mashed potatoes (my favorite, and honestly the only thing I want to eat on Thanksgiving), sweet potatoes with marshmallows (Carla’s favorite), and turkey (the source of the gravy). We have tried adding a salad in the past, because honestly I like salad much more than anything else on the Thanksgiving menu, but no one eats it and salads do require a significant amount of work. (Plus, my plan is make butternut squash soup and a big salad for dinner the night after Thanksgiving, and those who like leftovers can eat those too. I don’t want to make a big salad two days in a row, is what I’m saying.)

The idea of adding another side dish to the rotation is awful, but I want every family member to have something to eat – and something enjoyable to eat, at that. So I think it would be highly worthwhile to find another dish that my pre-diabetic family member can enjoy without worry. (Before you suggest that I simply ask this person for suggestions, know that I have considered this idea! But this person is notorious for not wanting to be a bother, and I am SURE would simply say, “Oh, I don’t need anything extra! Don’t make a fuss!” and then would eat only turkey on Thanksgiving Day.) 

There are complications, of course. Ideally, this mystery dish would be something I could prep, at least in part, before Thanksgiving. And, ideally, more than one person would eat this additional side. If it were Brussels sprouts, for instance, I think only three of us would eat them. My mother-in-law loves creamed spinach, and I am 100% sure she would make it for us… but again, only three people would eat it. Maybe that’s enough people. 

(Also, just to clarify – my guests are all from out of town and will be staying with us. So there is no way to ask them to prepare a dish and bring it with them. All the food will be prepared here in my house. Mainly by me, because I am a control freak.)

In my perusal of internet options, here are a handful that sounded workable (although I honestly don’t know how truly diabetes-friendly they are):

  • Balsamic Oven Roasted Carrots: I hate cooked carrots with the fire of a thousand suns, but maybe other people would like them?
  • Steamed Broccoli with Lemon: This is a standard side dish in my house, and it’s easy, and if I steam it in my steamer basket I can use the microwave and don’t need to find another spot in the already-crowded ovens. (Yes, we have two ovens this year, although it is debatable whether one of them heats fully.)
  • Holiday Rice Salad: This sounds hearty and different, and I could make it ahead. (Perhaps without the golden raisins; raisins are my sworn enemy.)
  • Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic: This sounds easy and yummy… but the only thing more hotly in demand than the oven on Thanksgiving is the stovetop, so I don’t know if this is really doable.
  • Lemon-Herb Asparagus with Pine Nuts: I think it was Kae who said she is ordering the entire Thanksgiving meal this year, and I am 100% behind that. It doesn’t work for our family, because my husband likes a very specific stuffing, and I like a very specific mashed potatoes, and Carla likes a very specific sweet potatoes… we are difficult, is what I’m saying. But I am getting our turkey from Whole Foods, and they have ready-made sides like this asparagus dish… maybe it would be good?
  • Green Bean Salad with Toasted Almonds and Feta: Hmmm. This requires cooking on the stovetop, so it may be a no-go. But it sounds yummy. 
  • Low Carb Cauliflower Stuffing: I really, vehemently dislike regular dressing (soggy bread? no thank you), so this sounds preferable. (We would still have regular dressing.) I bet I could prep all the veggies in advance, ask my mother-in-law to put everything together the day of, and maybe there would be space in one of the ovens??? 
  • Rosemary Roasted Root Vegetables: This sounds delicious, but it would require a LOT of chopping and peeling. Probably doable mostly in advance, though. And maybe with two ovens, I could manage this. I would skip the beets and maybe the potatoes. Maybe carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash? I wonder if I could throw some cauliflower in there too?

Do you have any low-carb or diabetes-friendly sides you swear by?

Okay, even though my mind is already in the thick planning for next week (HOW is Thanksgiving NEXT WEEK), we have to eat this week too. (Why?) So let’s think of some easy meals to make.

Dinners for the Week of November 13-19

What are you eating for dinner this week?

I am kinda sorta attempting to complete NaBloPoMo, with the full expectation that life will make it impossible any day now. If you want to follow along, or join the fun, check out San’s blog here. 

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Post Holiday Slump

I have about a million words of partial and near-complete blog posts written (fact check: 7,066 words) and yet instead of finishing any of them I am going to write a few words of nonsense.  

Partly this is because I spent all day finishing Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I am in that peculiar funk of appreciation, marvel, and sadness that follows finishing a really good book. It was SO GOOD that I want to take you by the shoulders and force you to read it. However, this novel came out in 2015 so everyone has read it already but me, including my husband. It was a finalist for the National Book Award, for Pete’s sake, and there’s already a miniseries based on the novel. So I’m a little grumpy that it’s done and that I can’t force you to read it and that it’s unlikely you and I can even discuss it because you probably read it so long ago.

After our recent snowfall, we have had very unseasonably warm weather. My mom and I went for many walks this week, with nary a jacket. I took my walk without her. It was pleasant – the air was cool, the sun was warm, neighbors were out in shorts and T-shirts putting up Christmas décor (is this what it’s like to live in Florida?) and mowing their lawns. But it was also a little sad, because my parents left this morning so I was walking alone. 

(Also, while I do okay during the walking, my feet are in agony after I get home and sit for a few minutes.)

My father fixed our horribly broken and embarrassing gates while he was here, and undertook some other repairs, and my mother was such a huge help in the kitchen, approaching pie baking and sweet-potato mashing and gravy whisking with such efficient good nature. They are so good with Carla, playing games with her and coming up with sewing and repair projects for her to participate in. They stayed with her overnight so my husband and I could go on a mini-getaway, and the getaway was LOVELY and restorative and too quick. I am feeling so grateful for them and yet behind the gratitude is this shadow of panic, a shadow of despair because I am far too aware that they won’t always be around. There’s no reason to think they won’t continue to be with me for many, many years! And yet the specter of that dark future without them is lurking there in the background and sucking some of the color out of everything.

I am trying to ignore it.

I ate the last of the mashed potatoes this morning, which is good; the potatoes themselves were good, and it is good that they are gone. I am weary of Thanksgiving food, even though all I did was eat it on Thanksgiving and then have a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy for two consecutive breakfasts. I just don’t enjoy Thanksgiving food and am craving something with crisp colorful vegetables and SPICE. Not enough to make anything though; we are ordering pizza for dinner. 

We still have remnants of guests: far too much fancy cheese in the fridge, a few sips of eggnog, an unopened bottle of pomegranate juice. I bought a bottle of gingerbread cream liqueur on a whim a few weeks ago, and we each had a glass of that this week; it wasn’t really good enough for a second glass, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to throw it out yet. The pumpkin pie is long gone (it was delicious, although it made the roof of my mouth itch), and Carla ate the remainder of the cranberry sauce. My husband will continue to chip away at the stuffing and turkey remnants, and I think there’s a tiny bit of gravy left for him as well.

In addition to reading and walking and feeling glum, I’ve been doing laundry all day. We let it pile up over the week. Our bed is already freshly made; I saw my husband trudge upstairs with all of Carla’s clean bed linens, but I am not confident that he made her bed. I really need to strip the guest bed and launder all the linens, so it will be fresh when my mother-in-law arrives in a week. The clothing is still all in piles everywhere; this week will be full of – my favorite and yours – excessive folding.

Today was a nice day, I would say. The three of us interacting only occasionally, otherwise engaged in separate pursuits in our separate quiet areas of the house or neighborhood (Carla spent a fair amount of time in the backyard or out riding her bike). My husband and I each did some gift buying, and submitted our gift lists to his side of the family; my parents brought our gifts when they came for Thanksgiving. And I, being wildly on top of things for the first time ever, had already done all the shopping and was able to send them home with their gifts from us. 

We have tomorrow to (dis-)engage in similar activities, finish the laundry, tidy the basement. And then it’s back to normal, until my mother-in-law arrives. (She is fine; just coming for quarterly tests and scans.) I am really, really looking forward to normalcy. It has been too long since I’ve written anything other than a blog post.  I am eager to get back to a more moderate and less carb-heavy meal plan. Carla needs to be back in school.

It’s still November, and I have my husband’s gifts almost covered. I have already purchased a gift for each of my sisters-in-law. As I mentioned, my parents are taken care of. Our holiday cards arrived and are lovely, and just need to be addressed and mailed. 

All is well. And yet, I have that slumped over feeling of petulant lowness that sometimes follows a really nice vacation or a really nice visit or a lovely holiday. 

Hopefully it passes soon. Perhaps some pomegranate margaritas will help, what do you think?

What are you up to this weekend? Does anyone else have a bit of a holiday hangover?

It seems as though I am doing NaBloPoMo this month, which is 30 blog posts in 30 days. (Will I make it??? Only time will tell.) Details at San’s blog here.