Turkey Day - Let's Recap

I hope everyone out there in Etherland had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! We did here (although Sluggy's suggestion of letting the menfolk do the dishes didn't quite pan out... oh well - LOL!). This year, I cooked our turkey (a nice "small" 13-lb frozen grocery freebie) in an oven bag, and that really did seem to (a) speed up the cooking process and (b) keep the meat very moist and tender. I think I'll continue fixing our birds that way in the future. I usually get an 8-lb roaster chicken and stick it in the oven (unbagged) for 2 hours. This 13-lb turkey cooked at the same 350-degree temp for the same 2 hours and was perfect! I also usually put various root veggies in around the bird (coated with a little olive oil and some s&p) and decided to put them inside the bag so they could cook in the bird's juices as usual - worked great!!!

I followed Rachel Ray's generic advice to take the help where you can and let the nice folks at Stove Top do my stuffing (we had cornbread this year - a first, and very tasty), and the nice folks at Wegman's store brand fix our garlic mash (I'm guessing pretty much the same as Betty Crocker's but cheaper). I had hoped for a good salad as our greens but I badly misjudged the use-by date on my one bag of Spring Baby Greens and found it to be a bagful of slimey dead greens - I hated throwing it away but there was no saving it - so I popped a bag of Steamer peas in the wave and those were very sweet and yummy. Gravy I actually did myself (gasp!) with the bird juices and a little flour.

So all in all, it was a ridiculously simple meal that tasted quite good in the 10 minutes it took the three of us to inhale it. LOL! DH and I had one serving, then DS basically cleaned all the bowls out in multiple repeat helpings, but he's the one in the family who could stand to add a pound or two to his long, lanky frame. So no complaints at all (and it always does a mom good to see her son eat her cooking... for some reason).

This morning, I didn't exactly sleep in because DH has to go to work so needed to get up at the usual time, and the kitten decided to give my arm a tongue bath, which actually sort of hurt after awhile (like a little moist grater rubbing my arm over and over and over), so I figured I'd get up and enjoy some coffee and the newspaper and NOT going Black Friday shopping.

But I sort of succumbed anyway... Mindi Cherry over at Moms Need to Know posted again about the $49.95 flip video cameras at 6pm.com, and even though I literally put the last 4GB black on in my shopping cart just to have it snatched away because I didn't finish my order fast enough, I did manage to snag two (the limit) of the 2GB white ones. So I'll give one to DS and one to DH-and-me as Christmas presents. We already have a very nice video camera, plus both of our point-and-shoot still-shot cameras actually take video for up to 10 minutes, but somehow this Flip just seemed like a nice compromise for getting something like DH's band's stage performances up on the Web more easily. No fussing with miniDV tapes and various cables.



And now, our in-house wifi router is dying (we've had to reboot it about 10 times already this morning), so we may end up having to venture out to Best Buy or Staples to pick up another one. PLUS, my prescription pain killers for my aching jaw ran out this morning (not good!), so I need to get to the Target pharmacy for a refill. I shall try to not look at anything else in the store - promise! :)

...to be continued

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all my blogger buds out there!!! The turkey's in the oven, everything else is ready or easy to fix at the last minute, DS is asleep in his old room, DH is downstairs doing guy-fixing-things stuff, and the kitten's on my lap while I watch football. *happy sighs*

Here's hoping everyone has a wonderful day with friends and family!!!!

Another Company Underestimates the Internet

Just received this in my email



Wildlife Forever was amazed at response from outdoor enthusiasts like you to our offer for a free wildlife calendar. Only 1,500 requests were expected but unknown to us several web sites re-posted our offer and suddenly we had 130,000 requests. The response was literally overwhelming.

We looked for a way to send a calendar to everyone, but the money was just not available and we are unable to send you a free calendar.

We sincerely apologize.

It is our hope that this experience does not reduce your enthusiasm and support for fish and wildlife conservation.

Clearly, Wildlife Forever is not so good at giving away free calendars but we are very good at helping wildlife. Wildlife Forever has successful conservation projects in your state.

Luckily, my husband has designed a wonderful calendar for this year that his company is printing, so I should still end up with a nice calendar to hang in our hallway :)

Healthy To Go - Yuck!

I wanted to quick-like-a-pissed-off-bunny follow up my last depressing post with a more level-headed product review :)

In my mail a few weeks back were two samples of a product called Healthy To Go. The basic idea is yet another drink mix to add to a 16.9-oz water bottle.



I love drink sticks in general and use them every day, so this sample really appealed to me. It's specifically titled Omega To Go, and that's a good thing, getting more of those Omega 3 fatty acids that help the body function better, plus fiber and lots of different vitamins. And when I checked the calorie and carb numbers for each packet, I was pleasantly surprised -- 10 calories per serving (so 20 calories if I add the whole stick to a bottle of water) and only 3g carbs (or 6 for the full stick). That's all fine and dandy (not great, but certainly okay given all the other goodies packed in).

Anyway, today after I penned my emotional post, I decided to get myself a drink from the kitchenette and use one of these sticks. The two samples I received are both flavored orange, a nice flavor, so I looked forward to drinking the first test stick.



I'm sorry. It. was. Dreadful (capital D intentional). There was some orange in there, but no sweet at all -- I don't like REALLY sweet stuff, but a little would be nice. It basically tasted like I was drinking orange-flavored children's aspirin with grit even after more than a minute of shaking the bottle. Seriously. Ugh.

In fact, for the first time EVER, I threw a bottle of drink-mix drink away. In fact, I couldn't wash the bottle out fast enough and get a drink of something into my mouth that tasted good :P

So while I really like what these folks at Health To Go are striving for and offering customers, they desperately need to improve the flavor if they want these drink mixes to take off.

Blehhhhhhhhh