A recipe

Cranberry Business

12 oz bag fresh cranberries, chopped in food processor

2 3 oz. boxes lemon gelatin

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained

2 cans mandarin oranges, drained

Dissolve sugar and gelatin in boiling water, stirring till thoroughly dissolved.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Chill until set.

I cooked all day

And now I have huge pans of green bean casserole, scalloped corn, do ahead potatoes and stuffing in my extra fridge in the garage.  I also baked two pumpkin pies, a two-crust apple pie and a pecan/chocolate tart.  Hallie is currently working on a cranberry dish and a sweet potato dish.  (I don't like sweet potatoes, so if she wants 'em, she has to make 'em herself.)

Tomorrow, all I really have to do is turkey and gravy.

It has begun...

Today, I made three batches of double-crust pie crust.  I'm planning to make four pies, two pumpkins, a pecan and an apple, but the apple has a double crust, so that'll give me one extra crust to work with.  That Libby's pumpkin pie recipe makes a pretty full pie, so I usually make those in a deep dish.  So six crusts ought to be about right.

I also bought all my Thanksgiving dinner groceries today.  Hallie asked the Fitkins, our friends whose house burned down and who are joining us this year, if they had any dish that it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving if they didn't have, and they said green bean casserole.  I don't usually make it, but I like it and it's easy, so I added it to the list!  I also bought a can of that jellied cranberry sauce that you push out of the can and slice.  I know some people really like that, so we'll have that and also home-cooked cranberries.  I'm also making my sister's do-ahead mashed potatoes for a crowd and scalloped corn.  I'm going to have Hallie bake a couple of loaves of her famous bread, too.

I Started!

Christmas shopping, that is.  Nothing too much--but a small gift for Dave, a couple of things for my sister, and a few things for Hallie.  I'm rolling!

In honor of our HUGE game with Texas Tech tomorrow, I present, for your amusement:

Ring that bell, baby!

A New Day

Since I am MOST decidedly not a nervous wreck any more, I figured it was time for a new entry.  I don't have much going on, though.

It's Thursday, which means I'm getting ready to go to church for an 8-hour marathon.  I love it, though.  We have our 4-6  year olds choir, then our elementary choir, then we (my boss and I) go out for dinner and a planning session, then we come back for handbells and chancel (grownup) choir.  I absolutely CHERISH every second with the children.  They learn new music so fast that they remind me of a giant sponge.  I can't feed them fast enough.  My accompanist and I both laugh at how if I just mention the title of a song, they begin singing it with such gusto that it takes me five minutes to quiet them down and explain whatever point I was trying to make.

I have the sense when I'm with them that I'm doing exactly the RIGHT thing to do.  It feels like I'm doing what I was designed by nature to do.  It's a feeling I've really never had before in my life, and it's grand.  (But it's a blessing I don't have to try to make a living doing it.)

I'm about to leave for the gym, and I've already been three times this week.  I'm also doing very well with Atkins this time--staying on it effortlessly and having that curious energy that you get when you're in ketosis.  So that's good.

I am a complete idiot.  I'm involved in a gigantic argument on a message board.  I am "fighting" with a bossy, Southern fundamentalist "Christian" man who thinks he is right, and "righteous" about everything.  This argument got started, unsurprisingly, because of my feelings about Prop 8.  He looks down on homosexuals, believes that the government should be Christian, believes that life begins at conception and that abortion is "murder" (I don't know why he thinks it's ok, then,  to murder those innocent "souls" who are the product of rape.  I guess they are less deserving than other fetuses.)  He has a scripture to quote for everything.   He has said that I don't know the Bible, that I "seem like an atheist."  He is indescribably, infuriatingly smug and his reply to nearly all my responses, was "oh come, if you're such a Biblical scholar, you can do better than that."  By the time I departed the argument, I was so upset that my hands were shaking.  Why, oh why, do I get myself into these things?  I asked him, as I left (for good, because he's not worth letting my day be ruined) if he thought that his behavior and attitude were worthy of Jesus, if he believes that he is helping others find faith with his words, since that is the primary responsibility of any Christian.  I'd like to go back and see what he said, but don't let me!  Please, don't let me!

Peace out.

I'm a nervous wreck

It's gonna be a squeaker, and it could go either way.

Prop 8--all about hate

I am sick at heart at the behavior of my community concerning California's Proposition 8 (which would repeal same-sex marriage in California.)  Yorba Linda is BLANKETED with "Yes on 8" signs.  They're everywhere.  And we actually have protestors--chubby blonde soccer moms and their chubby blonde children, grinning and waving and carrying "Yes on 8" signs on street corners.  Why on earth do they care about who somebody else marries?  Exactly what kind of intolerance are they teaching their soccer players?

Hallie read an article that said the lion's share of the money backing Prop 8 is from the Mormons, which just sickens me.  Of all the outfits to go all righteous and holy about the "sanctity of marriage"..."

Between the racism directed at Obama and this awful Prop 8, I feel weary of being a part of the human race.  You broards are all that's giving me hope.