Ann and I used to trade off holidays. One year we would go to my family Thanksgiving, one year we had our own. I don't miss the labor of getting up early to cook, but Thanksgiving won't be the same without Ann.
We did an unusual and yummy thing, instead of using traditional stuffing. Ann could not digest wheat, so I mixed uncooked brown rice with chopped nuts, spices, veggies., and fruit. We might have ginger-pear turkey with nuts and veggies. Or we might have pineapple (in its own juice) turkey with almonds sliced and celery and carrots.
Since Ann hd a documented severe sleep disorder, she slept in. I would get up and mix the stuffing we had already discussed, Or, if I had an advance plan, make it a surprise.
Ann learned something on a cooking show which made our turkey Look weird, but Taste Better. The chef on the show would mix up the stuffing, slit the turkey's skin and insert some stuffing into each slit. This was especially helpful with the white meat, which can get a bit dry. But it gave our turkey bumps, Braille turkey? No problem.
The meat took on some of the flavor of th fruit (juice included) and spices used in stuffing.
There are foods Ann cooked which I miss and cannot duplicate. She made Wonderful fried chicken, once every couple of months. She devised a cornmeal and spices coating which I came to prefer over flour, bread crumbs, or cornflakes.
I tried using her spice mix and baking the chicken. But she drained it so well that my baked version was much more greasy, yuck!
Ann also made wonderful creative omlettes. I can make good scrambled eggs, but Not omlettes.
And Ann made French toast. When she first suggested this I was Not enthusiastic. At the state blind school they had to make mountains of the stuff and pile it on plates. So it just tasted like soggy, eggy (no it ain't a word) white bread. But Ann used glutten free bread and mixed spices and sweetener in with the eggs. It was Very Good. She could also make pancakes, turned over at exactly the right time, not me.
But I still have Much to be Grateful for! I am dry (it has been pouring and cold here) have a place to rent, have running water, and am alive. Besides all of that, I have a computer used to communicate with others and food to eat and share. And doll clothing to sew.
Without Ann it is Hard to feel thankful, but I am and I do. People have been very kind to me this year, to help me survive it, and the pleasure of learning about dolls has been part of that kindness.
I thank each of you who have taken the time to write, I have enjoyed our correspondence. Thank you to those of you who write blogs also. I can learn things I wouldn't otherwise know and just enjoy reading about products I did not know existed. If you are spending Thanksgiving alone, have a peaceful and creative day. If you are sharing it with others, have a peaceful enjoyable day with your company.
I am glad that you have your memories of times with Ann. I enjoy reading about them.
ReplyDeleteI think the recipe where the chicken or turkey breast was stuffed with stuffing was on America's Test Kitchen or Cook's Country. Christoper aka Chris Kimball is the main host. I love watching that show. Someday I might actually try some of the recipes - big smile at the thought.
French toast is tricky because people usually use store bought white bread like Stroehmann or Bond. Ick. I prefer rye bread or pumpernickel or Indian Naan bread or bagels sprinkled with sesame seeds. Yum. On Cook's Country, Chris and his cooking team discovered that challah bread (the spelling is tricky because the "c" isn't pronounced - it is a Jewish bread) challah would be a better bread for making French toast. And I think the bread has to be dried out in the oven for a bit before soaking in the egg mixture. Stale bread retains some water in its composition; toasted bread loses the water so the French toast is not as soggy. More complicated than I suspect either of us would like, lol.
I learn a lot of things reading your blog, too. I have always lived in the city so anything about rural living is new to me. I have never had to kill anything to make it meat. The idea of being in the woods, beyond the mapped out city, scares me. But there are a lot of things to fear - out of the city and IN the city - so I try not to focus on those things.
You are kind to listen to my doll blathering. My Mom will occasionally listen, but none of my other friends - outside my online collecting buddies - would listen to me. So there is a mutual exchange. I am thankful to have "met" you "online."
Dana
Re-read my comment. I want to clarify a point because I think it sounds critical. And I didn't mean it to sound so. Where I write that I have never had to kill anything to make it meat. I don't mean that in a sense of horror that animals are killed and that they then become meat. I understand that meat is not pumped out of a factory machine. Someone somewhere along the line killed a pig to make me bacon or killed a cow to make me hamburgers or steaks. I know that. I don't write people to protest them producing bacon and steaks. I just realize since reading your posts that I am sort of like a baby bird whose parents - usually the mother bird - kill and rip up other animals to feed their child. Like I am less adult. Boy am I dependent on a lot of other people to get my meat - and hey, vegetables as well - to me.
ReplyDeleteDana