Desperately Seeking Joy: Thanksgiving 2020

 

We had a great at-home Thanksgiving this year. First we enjoyed our meal in the "dining" room. It's a fancy room with tons of antiques and breakables. I think I've only eaten in there 3 times in my whole life. I remember an Easter when we celebrated in there. I think my mom was really excited to be able to eat in there and really appreciated it.

The day started with a visit from the wild cats who live under the neighbor's porch. My daughter loves them and we both enjoyed them a little bit today.

Then it was time for our Turkey Trot around the lake! We skipped Starbucks this year, because, while a tradition, it just didn't feel worth it.

Then it was time to put on MST3K on ShoutFactory. Sadly, it didn't hit all the buttons for all the family members. My mom and daughter went to take a quick mid-morning nap while my husband enjoyed a 20 year tradition. After everyone had a chance to rest, we got the meal going. It only took an hour to get everything ready.

We enjoyed a simple meal:

• Pre-cooked Festival Turkey
• Stove-Top Stuffing
• Canned Corn
• Jarred Gravy
• Bob Evans Potatoes
• Ocean Spray Cranberry Jelly
• Pre-made Dinner Rolls
• Homemade Green Bean Casserole (We use Chicken ala King instead of Mushroom Soup)
• Homemade Keto Sex in a Pan Dessert

My mom and I spent a good bit of time sharing stories in the dining room while my husband cleared the table and watched some MST3K. The majority of the afternoon was spent relaxing and digesting. But as I was scrolling through a feed, I saw this Thanksgiving Mad Libs and we did it together was a family.

Thanksgiving from a Kid’s Point of View

Today we are celebrating HALLOWEEN dinner at TRUMPY’s house. When we arrived, my DAUGHTER greeted us with a big, METALLIC kiss. Kisses are so CLANGING! Now we’re just waiting for the LION to come out of the oven. My dad is watching SOFTBALL on TV. He always shouts, “FUDGE” when his team scores a HOUSE. Yesss!! Only 20 more minutes until the CAT will be ready to eat. I wonder if my mom will let me try the PIZZA first. My grandma makes the best SWEET pie! It smells like a TOWER. (Much better than my GRANDCHILD. He/she smells like LEAF.) Happy CHRISTMAS!

Before it got too dark, my mom had some papers to burn, so we went out together and tried to start a little fire in the pit. Some things were too damp, so we couldn't get the whole pit going, but we got some burning done.

The rest of our day was spent relaxing. We put on some holiday movies that were playing in FreeForm. It was a lovely, relaxing day. What a nice and simple Thanksgiving. The only changes from our normal Thanksgiving is that it wasn't held at our house and I didn't home cook everything. 

Desperately Seeking Joy #3

 

I started the day off with some breakfast that the family loved. It was Orange Cinnamon Rolls from the Pillsbury can. It's one of those childhood throwbacks that reminds me of "home." 

I tried to watch some movies and things. I even baked an apple dump cake, but it was really difficult to feel a radiating happiness.

Being on the internet didn't help, because there are just too many triggers to my sadness. It could be people posting their own happiness everywhere, because that's what we've been told should only be out in the universe. Or they post what they THINK is inspirational messages, but really to someone who is struggling, it is not inspirational. Instead those messages make me feel like a failure, because of what I'm going through. It is said that we CHOOSE to think positively. I will never agree with that. I don't want these sad and debilitating thoughts all day. I seek to find the positive. I seek to find the distraction. But sometimes people don't get to choose. We have to battle the darkness.

IGGPPC Camp 2020: S'mores in a Bag

My daughter and I shared a small bag of s'mores for breakfast! I didn't purchase a "bag" of cookies, so we had to make some changes.

I took a gallon Ziploc and stapled wax paper inside. Then I dumped in some mini marshmallows and a few chocolate chips. I laid the bag flat in the microwave and let it go for about 45 seconds (always check during the time, because all microwaves are different). Then we dumped in our Chocolate Chip Mini Cookies, stirred with a spoon, and ate.

IGGPPC Camp 2020: Almond Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

First camp cooking recipe! I had to adjust the recipe to accommodate the keto lifestyle of my husband. If I'm going to make delicious cookie bars, I better use keto ingredients. So here's my changes to the original recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup Swerve
1 cup natural almond butter/peanut butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups almond flour
1 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk (or milk of choice)
1/3 to 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, to taste (Lily's Chocolate Chips)

Absolutely delish! What a great bar idea. Regardless of changes, this was a very solid recipe.

Lay's Flavor Icons 2020

We had done a run to the store and found these waiting for us in the aisle. A very, very naughty splurge, but we do it every year. Each of these Flavor Icon chips is sponsored by a restaurant's flavors. 

Philly Cheesesteak - Geno's Steaks

This is a standard Lay's chip. It offers a very subtle flavor. Not really cheesy. It has a kind of steak sandwich taste and my husband pointed out the light touch of onion. It is an easy one to just chow down on with your sandwich for lunch. (To be fair... Geno's is one of the two Cheesesteak places in Philly that claim to be the original. We like Pat's better.)

Nashville Hot Chicken - Party Fowl

The Nashville Hot were hot! A standard Lay's chip with powdered fried chicken flavor, it packs a punch, but is finger lickin' good. If you like hot and spicy chips, check this one out for sure.

Wavy Carnitas Street Taco - El Torito

I usually feel the wavy chip is the one that is begging for dip. The Carnitas Street Taco chip doesn't need a dip, but sour cream could be a good dip option. The flavor, though, is very faint. Mostly the cilantro comes through the strongest. It was the most anticipated, but least impressive of the four. Not that any of them were bad, mind you.

Kettle Cooked New York Style Pizza - Grimaldi's

Now, I'm not bias because my Marvel RPG character is from Brooklyn, but this was the best of the four. The Kettle chip is usually saved for a heftier flavor. I wasn't sure what to expect from a margarita pizza, but oh my goodness you could taste all the little flavors. My favorite. I could eat this one for the rest of my life. At least as of this moment I could.

It is worth checking out these chips if you like new and unique things. They're only around for a limited time, so check out your local shop and grab a bag to share (or keep for yourself).

Friday Night Movie #3

I found last night right before bed what troop I'll be in for the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Summer Camp 2020!

Welcome to Troop Slayer, where vampire hunters and those that they seek come face to face. Bound together by friendship and garlic, these brave and curious campers aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Spooky mansion? Haunted graveyard? A bump in the night? Troop Slayer is ready to investigate! Grab your stake or sharpen your fangs (or both if you happen to be Blade) – it’s time for some fun and adventure. Welcome to camp!

So that was an exciting way to end last night. Today, though, started with a power outage! Those are exciting, because you never know how long it'll take them to fix the power out here. It went out around 1:30AM and they had it back up by 5:30AM. So we were lucky this time.

Most of today was spent watching movies, doing hourly walking challenges, and cooking.

I started out watching Monty Python's Life of Brian. Oh goodness... Graham Chapman was in blackface at the beginning of the movie. It was part of the 3-wise-men bit. It was clearly blackface. This bothered me something fierce, because you take these other episodes off of streaming services, because someone had mud on their face or whatever, but here you have someone clearly playing someone else and it's alright? I'm starting to think it's things where the show or movie draws attention to the fact that the person is in black face. But I was so shocked, because I hadn't heard anyone start to rage against Life of Brian. I will say, some of the bits in it were quite modern. There was a section where Eric Idle's character wants to be known as Loretta and they discuss the rights of the womb. Oh goodness. While a funny bit, it still was interesting and political. There were a few spots like that, which is why I think I like the movie. Life of Brian has always been my favorite Monty Python movie.

When that movie was finished, I put on Tootsie. I don't know why, I just felt like watching it.

While the movie wrapped up, I began the process of making zucchini bread with my friend Char's zucchini! My husband and daughter had gone out to do our grocery pick-up, so I had the house to myself for quiet time. I mean, we can all be in our separate rooms away from each other for individual quiet time, but there's nothing like having the house to yourself while the neighbors do shared-wall-home-improvement projects!

To distract me, I put on The Queen after that, because it just felt right. I, personally, appreciate the Netflix show's portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II more than Mirren, but Mirren did a good job at the time, maybe... I don't know... I feel more educated about her now and I wonder if that's how she really was or is...

During this whole time, I was also making sure I put in 500 steps an hour, minimum, so that by the end of my "day" I'd have the 6,000 goal I currently have set. Yeah, we're supposed to aim for 10,000 - whatever. I have to start with little goals to help build up to the greater goals. Build in little routines so that it doesn't seem like such a massive shift and then it becomes part of the daily existence. That kind of thing. I did meet my 6,000 step goal for today, but I did not meet my 250-every-hour goal on my Fitbit. I just didn't get up doing our movie night, because I was watching a movie with my family.

When The Queen ended I put on JFK (1991), which I haven't seen in years! Oh my goodness it was a wild movie. Also, watching it now, that Jim Garrison was kind of crazy! It almost felt like he took Shaw to court just to be able to present his "conspiracy" theory. That might be what Stone wanted us to get from the film, but oh my goodness...  Oh! And Michael Rooker (Yandu from Guardians of the Galaxy and Merle Dixon on The Walking Dead) is in the movie! I flipped, because his character always stood out to me and was so interesting, despite the twist at the end. Boy did he look young and not at all like how we know him now.

I also informed my husband that I still am an official "second shooter" conspiracy theorist. I do NOT think Oswald acted alone. After I told him that, it dawned on me that I watched two movies that deal with conspiracy theories: The Queen - Princess Diana's Death and JFK - Who REALLY killed Kennedy?  Yeah... that was an interesting duo.

Then it was time for dinner. I prepped the rotisserie chicken leftovers with some broccoli from the farmer's market. Then my daughter and I made Wonton S'mores! It was our movie treat!

That was our movie treat instead of popcorn, even though my husband and daughter had most of them. I, instead, snuck some pretzels with onion and chive cream cheese.

Our movie for the evening ended up being:

My daughter had apparently never really sat down to watch Ghostbusters, despite our insistence on numerous occasions. Tonight she watched it. She really enjoyed it. Now she wants to watch the second one! WOOHOO! She also can't seem to sit to watch a movie for longer than an hour. We're concerned about this, but will backburner it for another day.

As a last hurrah for the evening, I had learned it was Tequila day today, so my husband and I made a mule drink with Tequila! It was actually really good, but mine ended up being really spicy and that was confirmed by my husband (that mine was spicier than his). I guess my little slice of jalapeno sat in the liquid longer.

It was a good day! Here's to tomorrow!

Safer-At-Home Hoopla - Foodie Friday: Zucchini

(See Entry HERE!)

My friend Char gave me some zucchini from her garden. I was so excited to use them, the first thing I made was Zucchini bread.

Turned out pretty good. Wish I hadn't used the Lily's Chocolate Chips. Doesn't blend well. Butter, though, on the bread is delicious!

Keto Zucchini Bread Recipe