tobermory's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two Families/Two Dinners Have Goldfish crackers always smiled or is this something new? I know the repulsively colored ones are sort of new but I was unaware that the fish were suddenly happy at being consumed. Upon closer inspection, only some of the crackerfish are smiling. Maybe they�re the dumb ones who don�t know their time is up. I spent some time catching up on Gilmore Girls episodes last night. I hope the dog goes away at some point. Despite my love of all furry four-footed things I find Paul Anka and the ever growing list of thing the frighten him to be a really lame stab at humor. I mean c�mon � Peas? It�s just dumb. They are keeping up on the rapid-fire pop-culture references though so perhaps there is hope that they have not yet Jumped the Shark. I thought I caught that one of the DAR ladies was named something like Catherine Thurston-Moore, which totally cracked me up because Thurston Moore is the guitarist for Sonic Youth. I�m sure that was a totally intentional slip-in on the hipster writers part. I need to do some Thanksgiving prep tonight. I�m stuck with the annual Two Families/Two Dinners problem, which, in addition to meaning that I need to eat just enough (and slowly enough) at both meals so that I don�t have everyone telling me to eat! more! which would cause me to explode later with a moist popping sound leaving Steve with no wife and a horrible mess to clean up, means that I have to make something to bring to each dinner. I think I�m making a pumpkin pie for my mom�s dinner and for my in-laws dinner (more of �supper� really because it�s in the afternoon) I need to bring some sort of appetizer that doesn�t need to be heated in any way so as to avoid turkey/oven conflict. I guess it�s time to crack open the 1950�s appetizer cookbook that I bought at a Wisconsin Antique Mall this summer � they must have some sort of oddball concoction that uses things like water chestnuts or stuffed olives or deviled ham (or all three) that would be both festive and (more importantly) edible. Looks aren�t important as one of the in-laws most favorite appetizer is some sort of seasoned, cheesy ground beef broasted onto cocktail rye that looks a bit like cooked dog food on a coaster (or the infamous shit on a shingle). It is tasty, but if taken on looks alone it leaves something to be desired. The animal shelter holiday bazaar is also this weekend which means I�ll be spending most of Friday over at my mom�s making use of her multiple ovens to bake cookies for the Famous Cookie Walk. I usually bake double batches of 3 or 4 kinds of cookies from the Nancy Baggett International Cookie Cookbook, but it seems kind of loserish to bake simple variations of chocolate chip cookies � that�s stuff anyone can do. So this year I have a couple of new recipes that I want to try � one is some sort of cookie with drizzled chocolate and dustings of finely chopped nuts (courtesy of Cook�s Country Magazine) and the other is a chocolate sandwich cookie with crushed peppermint sticks around the edges (Bon Appetit Magazine). I figure if people are coming out to buy cookies at this thing, they should have a pretty holiday selection to choose from � not just a bunch of easy drop cookies that they could make themselves. I�m always tooting my own horn about what a great baker I am so I should put my butter where my mouth is and do something that takes a little more time and skill. This all reminds me I need to go out today to buy butter � one of the local grocery stores has it for $1.68/lb. (limit 2) and that�s a pretty good deal. I�ll probably try to figure out what I require to bake all the cookies, the pie and appetizer and do one big shopping trip all at once either tonight or tomorrow. I�m sure the grocery stores will be a nightmare whenever I go, filled with panicked shoppers buying last minute Thanksgiving dinner necessities. I�ll try to remain zen about the congestion and not start passive-aggressively ramming people in the ankles with my cart while I look nonchalantly at the displays and then feign dismay at how I ran into them �by accident�. I guess technically that would be more aggressive than passive. 2:50 p.m. - 2005-11-22 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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