Another reason why making dinner sucks

Mother's Day Dinner

Have you ever gotten the feeling from me that I am married to a meat and potatoes kind of guy?  Well that is correct.  Meat and potatoes.  Meat and potatoes.  Meat and potatoes.  Do you get what I am saying?  Only meat and potatoes.  Meat and potatoes.  That's it.  No water.  No fruit.  No salad.  No vegetable.  Happy with meat and potatoes.  Happy with just meat in fact.  The potatoes is just an extra.  So what did John make for my Mother's Day dinner?  You guessed it.  Meat and potatoes.

The Frosted Cherry

The night before Mother's Day I was up late per usual.  I finally went to bed around midnight.  As I laid in bed and my brain was going a million miles an hour, I wondered if I had left my jacket outside.  We had had a garage sale earlier that day and I wore a jacket in the early morning and put the money that I made inside the jacket.  Wouldn't that suck if I left my jacket outside and the money got stolen?  So just in case I had, I went downstairs and checked the front porch for my jacket.  No jacket.   It was inside.  Phew.  

What's this?  I noticed a box next to the door.  A box of cupcakes????  For me?????  Sweet!  I was so excited to see that someone had dropped off a box of cupcakes from The Frosted Cherry on my front porch.  If you've read my earlier posts you know that I have absolutely no self control.  There was no saving these for tomorrow.  I ate one right away.  It was chocolate with strawberry butter cream frosting and a cherry on top.  Yummy.    It dawned on me after I'd eaten one that I should've take a picture of the pretty cupcakes before I ate one.  Oh well.  So I brought the cupcakes inside and took a picture of them in almost full glory.  

I didn't want to be a pig so I wanted maybe five minutes until I ate a second one.  It was a lemon merange pie cupcake and so delicious.  I could have had another one but I decided that I'd wait until it was actually Mother's Day to finish off the rest.  I go to bed thinking of the cupcakes.

Which brings us to the next day.  It's Mother's Day so I absolutely don't move when the kids start waking up.  I'm going to sleep in because it's my day.  Around 9:30 or so (give or take another hour) I get up and go downstairs to see my cupcakes.  Ahhh!  Who ate one of my cupcakes?  Without even asking? And where's my breakfast?  It's Mother's Day.

John was the culprit of the missing cupcake.  Why must I tell him everything?  He should just know me well enough by now to know that I was planning on eating all six of those myself.    Anyway, because I'm nice I decide to share the rest with the kids even though I still want to eat them all myself.   The kids pick out a cupcake and enjoy the sugary goodness.  Well, I guess that means I don't have to make breakfast.

Thanks Holly and Charise for making my Mother's Day extra sweet.  You can count on an order from me for Roman's birthday coming in June.  www.thefrostedcherry.blogspot.com

My Week

Monday--burned the chicken.

Tuesday--burned the popcorn.  Two times.  In a row. 

Wednesday--burned the pizza.

Tried again.

Undercooked it.   Yuck!

MAKING DINNER SUCKS

Remember the red jello and orange salad I made at Christmas?

Well, I thought it was about time I got them out of the outside fridge and threw them away?  What do you think?

Making dinner has sucked more than usual because the kids have been sick.  Bella was sick for a week.  She stayed home from school and everything you have no idea how constrained I'm being right now.  Now I get to spend this week helping her with her 20 pages of school work that she missed.  How fun ::wink, wink::

This week Roman is sick and staying home from preschool.  He is the opposite of Bella when he's sick.  In fact, he likes to tell me that he is NOT sick and that he doesn't have a fever.  I have to tell him, "no, we can't go to the park today" and "no, you're not going to school."

So much face time with my kids has left me feeling BLAH.  I made mac and cheese for dinner tonight.  John had toast with jam and cheese. I know, he's weird huh.  He fixed it himself but at least he never complains.  I am so glad to be married to someone who doesn't expect dinner on the table when he comes home from work.  If I make something great, if I don't, great.  He doesn't really care.  He doesn't care if the house is a mess either.  I'm telling you I have the perfect husband for me.  He's way laid back and happy with whatever.  He even does his own laundry. 

Now on to a different subject.  Tonight I went to Albertson's because tonight was the last night of the stupid cereal sale.  I thought what the heck I'll just go so I don't have to be envious when I hear everyone else bragging about how much cereal they got for $20.  It was also double coupon day so I took three one dollar coupons for three different products.  

Now on to why I hate Albertson's and why I hate couponing.  First of all, it took me forever to decide which coupons to use.  I just kind of chose three foods:  sausage, Rhodes rolls, and cereal.  The cereal coupon was great since I was buying the cereal on sale anyway.  But Albertson's doesn't carry the type of Rhodes rolls that matched the coupon.  Ugh.  So I went looking for the sausage and finally found three, yes only three and they were hidden, Johnsonville sausage links.  They were "on sale" for 2 for $7.  What?  3.50 for a pack of sausage?  The coupon I had was $1 off two so I grabbed two.  I figured I'd pay about 2.50 a piece since the coupon would be doubled and I'd get two bucks off.  Then I found a coupon in my wallet for $1 off two Tree Top juices.  I go over to them and see they are "on sale" for 2.79.  Regular price is 3.79.  Holy crap.  At Winco I typically get my juice for 1.58.  I hate Albertson's and their crappy prices.  So then I get my cereal.  I grab 5 boxes.  Two Raisin Bran and 3 Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds.  I also get a loaf of bread.  My total is 17.57 and I get a catalina for $5  off my next purchase.  Not too bad but I should have just bought the cereal.  I'll save my coupons for Winco.

When I got home I realized that I forgot to buy more Motrin and Roman is going to need some for tomorrow.  So I run to Winco.  Good ol, dependable Winco.  Thank you Winco for having decent prices CONSISTENTLY.  Sure enough the sausage is 2.78 a pack and the Tree Top juice was 1.88.  

Bottom line--I'm frustrated with couponing.  I found I was spending a lot of money trying to "save" money.  And time.  It sucks up a lot of time.  And who needs that much Pillsbury crap anyway?

Here's my new strategy for saving money.  Every time I go to the store I write down how much I've spent.  A new concept for me since I have NEVER balanced a check book or budgeted.  I know, I'm an idiot.  But in my defense, how do you budget without an income?  The other strategy, this one is also new to me, only buy what you need.  And don't buy three of four just because you like them all.  Just try and pick one.  Ok, I know you can't just pick one because you're mental, but keep it to two.  

The other strategy that I do is I shop without my children.  This isn't so much to save money as it is to save my sanity.  Seriously, I think I have taken Roman and Capri to Winco maybe twice in their lives.   I did take them for the first time ever last weekend and I ended up buying so much junk because I have this habit of saying yes to everything.  Roman asked me yesterday if Capri had a penis and I said yes.  I told you, it's automatic.  I don't think.  I just say yes to everything.  I think it's because Bella trained me this way.  That and I'm stupid.

The other way I try and save money is by stretching out shopping trips and going without for a little while.  Boy did it suck when I was out of hot chocolate for a week.  

I also don't go chasing after good deals.  It's only a good deal if you need it.  Besides, it also messes with the environment to have 100 bottles of shampoo and lotions on your shelf.  I know they were "free" but we need to be careful with our resources.

Last, but not least, I enter blog raffles in hopes of winning something to help us get by.

Occasionally, we have hamburgers at our house. You know the ones I'm talking about. They come wrapped in yellow paper with a little bit of ketchup, a few cut-up onions, a slice of cheese, and one, maybe two, pickles if you're lucky. They also always come with fries. And a toy.

Well, tonight we had a different kind of hamburger. Something I've never had before. A slider. And not just any slider. A big city slider. Compliments of Billy Mays himself and courtesy Miss Emi-kins of Hawaii. I hope she doesn't mind that I gave her that nickname. Because I really like calling her that.

How did you come across such a fine slider station you may wonder? Especially when you are on a permanent spending freeze? Miss Emi-kins hosted a blog raffle after buying her son a Snuggie. She bought two other prizes As Seen On TV to give away in a giant raffle. Mr. Gavin drew my name out first. I couldn't believe it. The odds were nearly impossible. I felt so lucky afterwards that I almost went out and joined another raffle. And bought a lottery ticket.

When it came in the mail, I was so excited to see that Billy Mays had personally autographed it and said, "Congratulations!" Emi must have told him about the drawing.

Today I set about preparing to make sliders for dinner. Oh, I was so excited! I love new kitchen toys. First I washed it in hot, soapy water. Die germs, die.

Then I did this. Don't worry, I didn't touch a thing. It comes with a scoop.

And this. What do you think so far? Impressive?

And this.

Then I finally got around to opening up the instructions.

Um, whoops.
There's an actual recipe in here for how to make these things. Oh well.

Then after a few minutes I wonder if they are done. I put on my magical pot holder also courtesy of Miss Emi-kins. Love ya babe.

Could it really be this easy?

Yes.

Oh Yes!

There are many reasons why I don't BAKE.  

Here are just a few.  I'd rather play with Capri.

Or Roman.
Or Bella.
I'm too busy doing more important things.  (Yes, we made all those).  I can make one for you too, if you pay me.
The kitchen is ALWAYS a mess.  So there's no room to make more of a mess.  (Good strategy, huh.)
But the number one reason why I don't BAKE is:
Because I eat it ALL.  This is a picture of what happens when I get a craving.  Last week I was craving chocolate really bad and the hot chocolate just wasn't cutting it.  I couldn't find any candy bars in the house, believe me I looked everywhere, and we were out of chocolate chips.  We did have a box of ready mix lemon bars so I decided to make those.  And this is what they looked like 12 hours later.  I had eaten the entire pan.  Which screwed me up for the next four days craving all kinds of naughty stuff.  So you see folks, that is why I don't bake.  I have no self control.  None.

Dinner isn't good unless it's full of fat.

A fat-filled dinner tastes good but makes you blow up like a cow

Blowing up like a cow means you no longer fit into your clothes

Buying new clothes gets expensive

Wearing clothes the size of cows means less clothes fit into the washer 

leading to more loads to wash.

Washing more loads of laundry means less time for cooking dinner.

That's why dinner isn't good unless it's full of fat. 

Tonight I am making Basil Chicken.  It's an Olsen favorite.  I'm surprised I haven't blogged about it before.  It's easy.  You put 3 chicken breasts into the crockpot, dump an entire bottle of coleslaw dressing over the chicken,  add some basil that your sister grew in her herb garden with the help of her boyfriend and gave you for Christmas,  duct tape the lid shut, and cook on low for 3 hours.  Serve over white rice since Bella won't eat the brown rice.

If you are looking for the remote, I found it.

For a few years now I've been thinking about making cornbread.  My sister makes it and her family loves it.  I love cornbread too.  I always load up on it whenever we go to Chuck A Rama.  It's like eating healthy cake.  In the past I have bought those little bags of cornmeal thinking that I would make corn bread.  Well, you know me, I never do what I intend to do, so over the years I have thrown out expired corn meal that's never been opened.  

But last week the stars aligned.  I found a recipe for cornbread and a new bag of corn meal in the pantry, Capri was asleep, Roman was playing race cars by himself and the kitchen was fairly clean, so I thought ok, I will give this a try.  I made the corn bread which was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I didn't burn it so that was good.  The only thing was I didn't know what else to make with it.  What goes good with corn bread?  I don't know.  Probably a whole bunch of things but nothing that my family will eat.  

I ended up making chicken and, yeah, it didn't go that great together.  But hey, at least I can say that I have made corn bread now and it turned out pretty good.  The kids weren't goo goo over it but that is to be expected.  My kids don't get excited about any food unless it's chocolate chip cookies.  Then all the sudden they love to eat.  I made sure to eat lots and lots of corn bread that night to make it worth all the effort.

PS  Does anyone feel sorry for me?  I mean, I seriously can't stand this whole dinner thing.  And it doesn't feel like it's ever going to change.  Ugh.

Proof that Roman spits out his food.

I opened the dishwasher and found this the other day. 

The other night I thought I would make Rice a Roni.  Um, whoops.  You would think after burning it so many times in my life that I would learn to pay attention long enough to stand and stir, but no, I always get bored and walk away from the stove, only to remember about it later. Oh crap, I did it again.

Cathy said something once about making Hootenannies for dinner.  I asked her, "What in the heck are Hootenannies?"  German Pancakes, duh.

So I decided to give it a try.  Ya know, mix things up from our everyday, gourmet, three course meals.  The recipe seemed easy enough.  The only hiccup was the fact that I had to remember where I unpacked my blender.  In a small kitchen it didn't take long to find it and I didn't have too much trouble making these.  I didn't burn them and they didn't spill into the oven so that was good.  

Although these Hootenannies are strange looking, I thought they were quite good tasting. However, not all my children agreed.  Roman and Bella did not even try them.  Capri liked them them well enough but John said they weren't very filling.  So there you have it folks, another dinner that sucked.

Today I made ham and those potatoes.  Ya know, those ones with cheese and corn flakes on top?  We also had corn.  Big surprise.  No rolls since I figured we had all the carbs covered with the potatoes.  Here's the report.

What did you make?  Ham, potatoes, corn.

Is that it?  No jello?  No jello.

Did Roman eat it?  Just the ham.

Did Bella eat it?  Actually yes.  After telling me it looked gross of course.

Did Capri eat it?  She loved the potatoes and ham mixed together.

Did it make John sick?  No.

Did you burn anything today?  No.  A fairly successful dinner.  Except for the fact that I put the ham in the crock pot and it didn't fit so I had to put it in the roaster oven and now I have to wash the crock pot and the roaster oven. 

Will you make this again?  Yes, because I love ham.  I'm part pig.

Duct-taping Christmas Eve dinner

These pictures are not in order because I don't want to spend the time to put them in order.

Here's a picture of one of the many spills that occurred while trying to make dinner.  And here's some left over sticky stuff on my crockpot courtesy of John trying to duct tape the lid closed.  

The paint spill happened right after the flour spill.

Who needs utensils when you've got fingers?



Those are Roman's fingers in the pink mashed potatoes, not mine.
Gravy?
Here, let me do it.  (Um, no.)
My solution.  (Worked).
John's solution.  (Didn't work).

Much like Thanksgiving dinner, we sat down with Bella and talked about what we were going to have for dinner to make sure we were all happy with the menu.  No sense in making dinner if nobody eats it right? She suggested having the potatoes she likes this time.  Easy enough.  We agreed to roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, red jello, orange jello salad, and corn.  Totally doable.  My FIL gave us a roast the day before.  I didn't even have to go shopping as we had everything we need for this dinner.  At least, I hope we do.  I don't care enough to check.  It's snowing and I'm staying indoors.

Wednesday morning John calls from work and asks me if I started the roast yet.  Um,  I just got out of bed and you expect me to be thinking about a roast?  So around 10:30 I put the roast in the crock pot and start worrying that it's not going to be ready by 6:00.  So I worry and worry and worry about it.  Then I start worrying that it might not taste good.  John's the one who always makes the roast whenever we have one.  I don't know what spices he uses.  Then I remember someone telling me they put in a package of dry onion soup mix when they make a roast.  Someone gave us a box the other day so I know I have that.  I mix two packages with a cup of water as suggested on the box.  I pour it over the roast.  

That's when the trouble begins.  Because I added the cup of water, now the crock pot lid won't stay down all the way.  The roast is so freakin huge that it's lifting up the lid.  My worries that the roast won't be ready just skyrocketed.  I push and push and push on the lid but it won't stay down.  Great.  What are my options?  I could somehow pour the water out but that's going to be really messy.  I could try and scoop out some of the water.  "Honey," I call, (he's home from work now), "the roast is too big and I can't get the lid to stay down."  He comes over and inspects.  "Should I just pour out the water?" I ask.  

"We need something to hold it down."  He starts looking for something.  "Do we have any tape?"

"I don't think the tape will stay,"  I say.  "What should we do? Should I just pour the water out?"

"Where's the tape?"  he says again and looks around the kitchen.

"Honey, you just fix it okay."  My stress levels becomes uncomfortable.  "I'm putting you in charge."  I hate decisions and trying to solve problems.  Like I really hate decisions/stress/dinner crisises. 

Then he has it in his hands.  I'm completely surprised.  I think it's the first time he's found something without me either telling him where it is or me getting it for him.  He starts duck taping the crock pot lid.  I almost laugh out loud but cover my mouth as I realize a blog post coming on.  I reach for my camera and start snapping pictures.  I manage to get one picture before he realizes what I'm doing.  He goes for the camera and we start dodging each other as he protests and I insist.  We are both laughing hysterically.  "This is going to be so funny on the blog" I say as I'm taking pictures of him trying to get the camera away from me.  Unfortunately, the camera is too slow to get the picture of him flipping me off.  

He gives up and goes back to ripping off pieces of duct tape with his teeth and putting them on the lid of the crock pot.  It doesn't work of course.  

I find something that does.  It's a $30 platter I bought from Target a couple of years ago.  We've never used it.  I bought it as an accessory when I was staging our spec house.  I tried to sell it at our moving sale but nobody bought it.  It also didn't sell at our garage sale this summer.  But now it has a purpose.  The very heavy platter is going to sit on the crock pot lid and keep it closed.    

I make the orange jello salad and remember to put the mandarin oranges in it this time.   With only four ingredients you wouldn't think that I wouldn't forget the main one, but I did last time I made it.  No wonders it tasted different.  I ask John to go out in the garage and find the potatoes someone  gave us.  He brings them inside and peels them and I chop them up.  They are red.  I've seen potatoes that are red on the outside but these ones are red on the inside.  I start worrying that they aren't going to taste good.  Oh well.  I chop em up and cook em and mash em.  They are pretty lumpy so I grab the whipping cream that's in the fridge and pour some in.  Whoops.  That was too much.  Uh oh.  Now they're too runny.  I can't really peel, chop, and cook more potatoes.  Well, I guess I could but that would really suck.  So I get this really good idea and I make instant potatoes and put some aside for Bella since she wanted them anyway, and then I add the rest to the real potatoes.  Runny potato problem solved.  I smile at myself.  What's next?  The rolls.  Easy enough.  I grab the bag from the freezer and put them on the cookie sheet.  Then I open a can of corn.  It's kind of shameless how easy this Christmas Eve dinner is to make.  Oh wait.  I haven't made the gravy yet.  I don't know how to make gravy but I'm not in the mood to call my sister, so I try this one on my own.  I get out this new utensil I bought at the store that sucks stuff up, I have no idea what it's called, and I start sucking up the juice from the roast and dropping it into a pan on the stove.  As I do this I make a huge mess as I have no problem sucking up the juice but a huge problem transporting that juice to the pan. With the roast juice in the pan on the stove, I try and think of what I should do next.  Flour?  I think people put flour in.  So I say to John, "Do you think I should put flour in the gravy?"  

"Here, I'll do it," he says.

He starts to put some flour in the gravy, loses patience and ends up dumping tons of flour into the gravy,  spilling it on the stove and the floor.  Thanks.  I'll take over from here.  So I take some of that crap out and add more roast-juice spilling even more juice onto the counter. We are both idiots in the kitchen if you haven't noticed by now.  (The gravy doesn't end up turning out that good even though I fix the flour consistency problem.  It tastes too much like dry onion soup mix.)

This is when we find that Roman has gotten into the paint that Gregg and Allen gave Bella earlier in the day when they came over to exchange presents.  I pick up the bottles of paint, wash Roman's hands, snap a picture, and walk away from the paint in the carpet.  Yes, I just walk away.

I dig out the Christmas dishes that I have somewhere.  Oh yeah.  Top shelf of the pantry.  Glad I didn't forget to use them as that would kind of defeat the point of having special Christmas dishes.  I also get out the special red goblets that Bella loves.

We set the table and then sit down to eat.  Roman eats the red jello.  He spits out everything else.  Bella eats a roll, red jello, orange jello salad, corn, and some of her instant potatoes. She's mad the gravy tastes gross.  John eats the roast.  I eat a roll.  Capri eats it all.  We have leftovers out the ying yang.  

Amanda is craving a knock your socks off /smack your fanny chinese chicken salad.  

Tonight's dinner was dinner charity thanks to a good friend.  She made us chicken noodle soup and breadsticks.  Thanks Michelle!

Spaghetti--the old stand by

As some of you know, John has been sick lately so I haven't had to cook a lot.  Not because he makes me cook, just because there's really no point to making dinner if he doesn't eat it. Nobody else really cares.  But he started feeling better and I was feeling okay on Friday so I decided that afternoon to make dinner.  

First I had to decide what to make.  We had some leftover chicken from Thursday night so I thought I would make chicken noodle soup.  I call up my sister and ask her how to make it. (Are you laughing at me already?)  Then I start searching for all the ingredients.  Noodles.  Where are the noodles?  Check.  Chicken.  Check.  Bouillon cubes.  Bouillon cubes.  Ummmm.  Bouillon cubes.  Come on.  I have to have bouillon cubes.  I can't believe I don't have any bouillon cubes.  I used to have some.  Oh yeah, I threw them away before we moved because I never used them and they had expired.  Crap.  So I guess I won't be making chicken noodle soup.  Dang, that kind of sounded good.  Ok.  Now what am I going to make for dinner?  I could make hawaiian haystacks.  I know we're kind of sick of those but it would use up the chicken and Bella really likes em.  

I wash out the rice cooker.  (Are you laughing again?)  Then I reach into the pantry for the rice and where's the rice.  Dang it all to heck.  We're out of rice aren't we?  Yep, I used the last of it last time.  We might have some in the garage in the boxes of food storage.  I don't know if I can find anything out there.  I go looking but I give up after I've said about 5 swear words in my head.  You can't have hawaiian haystacks without rice so now I have to figure out what else to make.  We could have spaghetti.  That's what it's got to be.  Spaghetti, the old stand by.  We have it ALL the time.  And there's a reason we have it all them time.  Well, four reasons actually.

1.  We've had too much McDonald's.

2.  We've had too much Papa John's.

3.  There is nothing else to have.

4.  I can't think of anything else.

So reasons 1-4 applied this time so we were having spaghetti.  I make two kinds.  With meat and without.  I'm sure you know who likes the meat one.

What did you make for dinner?  Spaghetti.

Did everyone eat it?  No. I didn't.  (I was feeling sick again by this point and didn't eat anything and Roman had maybe one bite.)

Did Capri eat it?  She loved it.  

Did it make John sick?  No.

Did Bella put too much Parmesan cheese on? Probably.  I choose not to watch her put it on anymore.  

What about John?  Did he put too much Parmesan cheese on?  Yes.

Why do you care if John puts too much parmesan cheese on but you don't care if Bella puts too much on?  Shut up.

Was it easy to make?  What do you think?  

Will you make this again?  Oh you know I will.

Is it bad to feed your kids McDonald's for lunch and for dinner?  On the same day?

Does it help that lunch was a Cheeseburger Happy Meal and dinner was a Chicken Nugget Happy Meal?

Go ahead and pass it over.  Bad Mom Award.

This is really long please don't waste your time reading it

Here's an entry that I started writing minutes after eating Thanksgiving dinner.  (My mother in law was still in the house snuggling with her little boy, my DH, who was snoring on the couch. LOL).  My fingers were flying over the keyboard and she was probably wondering why I was on the computer rather than in the kitchen doing the dishes.  The dishes can always wait.  Always.

The following entry will be full of whining and complaining.  Consider yourself forewarned.

So it is days like today that I absolutely hate.  Making Thanksgiving dinner definitely sucks.  I mean when you think of the dinner of all dinners what do you think of?  Thanksgiving dinner, right?  

What kind of holiday is celebrated via dinner anyway?  Who's idea was this?  I have issues with those pilgrims I tell ya.  Where does that leave a person who hates dinner to begin with?  How are people like me supposed to celebrate Thanksgiving if we hate making dinner?  

The problem is the fact that Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Thanksgiving dinner.  The entire celebration revolves around one meal.  You get one chance and that's it. Without the meal would it be Thanksgiving?  If I were to choose to not make a big meal (or even just eat a big meal) for Thanksgiving would that mean that we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving?  Like we don't believe in it or something?  Would people accuse me of being anti-Thanksgiving?

Here's my problem with cooking a big meal.  My family--we just don't appreciate it.  Myself included.  Too much work for not enough reward.  Now if I were to go to your house and enjoy a nice Thanksgiving dinner with your family that's completely different.  I would love that.  I would also love to go out to a nice restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner.  But with three kids it'd be more difficult and expensive than relaxing and enjoyable.

But you have family in town Amanda dearest.  Why not have dinner with them?  Yes, I do have family in town and we did get one invite from my sister.  But we always mooch dinner off of her.  During my last pregnancy she brought us dinner about once a week since I was practically dead and she didn't want my family to starve.  So I feel like we've kind of used up our dinner charity for a while.   My mother also lives in town but was fixing dinner for her DH and his family.  She, too, brought dinner once a week.  

So that left it up to me to create the big meal.  Because you can't have Thanksgiving without the big meal.  Great.  I love cooking.  I love being in the kitchen.  I love service.  I love feeling domesticated.  I love turning into my mother.  And to make it even more pleasant on myself, I'll invite my mother in law and her DH.

I'll keep it real simple and I'll survive this.  I will do simple.  No new recipes.  No unique twists on sweet potatoes.  In fact, no sweet potatoes.  Just the basics.  And just the things I know we all like.  I can make it easy on myself.  I have all day to do it right?  So what do I do?  I read two books in preparation for not preparing for Thanksgiving.  Pro-procrastinator, that's me.  Pre-thanksgiving night I am up to 3 am the night before reading Eclipse.

I did do a little shopping to grab some essentials.  The whole family helped plan the extremely simple menu (I wanted to make sure we were all going to eat what I make) and I made a shopping list and went to the store.  All set.  Time out to read.  I read until 3 am.  Did I already mention that?

The house was a mess.  More than usual.  So I drug my tired butt out of bed this morning and thought to myself, okay I can do this.  I forced myself to get the turkey out of the fridge and put it in the sink.  I think okay, if I just get the turkey started and the rolls out of the freezer I can read until 1 pm...

I enlist my fam to help clean up the house and my husband to wash the turkey and put it in the roaster because I can't stand to touch dead turkeys.  As he's doing this he tells me he doesn't really like turkey that much anyway.  Thanks hun.  Let's stay on task and not make this any harder for me than it already is okay.

So he gets the turkey in the roaster and I get the rolls out of the freezer (yes, Rhodes rolls, what did you expect?) and then make a plain strawberry jello.  My kids requested the jello and it's funny that they are so excited about it.  I usually don't make jello just because it's so hard to make LOL. 

I sneak upstairs to read and then shower and get dressed as my DH cuts up the potatoes and cleans up the kitchen.  Yeah, I know I'm lucky.  I wait until the very last second to pull myself out of fantasy land until I come downstairs and start making the green salad and set the table. My MIL is coming at 2:30 to make the gravy at my request.  I figured since we're going to the effort of making real potoates we might as well have real gravy to go with it and that's one of those things I've never made.

Soon the turkey is done, rolls are done, jello is set, green salad tossed together, mashed potatoes and gravy are ready and we sit down to eat.  I told you I kept it simple.  The next part is pretty uneventful.  I help Roman eat and laugh as he spits out the turkey and balk at the mashed potatoes and gravy.  He only eats the jello (with his hands).  Bella eats mashed potatoes, gravy, and jello.  I'm a little freaked out about the turkey because I know how long it's been in our freezer so I only eat a little bit.  I love, love, love, the creamy mashed potatoes and I love the salad too.  I eat like four rolls because I'm starving.  I haven't eaten much this week since I've been too busy reading.  I am glad I didn't go to all the extra work of making stuffing or real rolls or exotic side dishes or cranberry sauce or sweet potatoes or creamed corn or anything that would have taken more of my time.  It wouldn't have been well received by my kids anyway and my husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and me, well, if someone else wants to go to all that trouble well then I love that kind of stuff.

I didn't make any dessert because desserts put me over the edge of sanity.  Especially pies.  So I bought two pies and a quart of ice cream.  My kids loved the ice cream and ate like one bite of their pie.  Roman spit his out.  My MIL's DH loved the pie so I sent it home with him along with everything else but the salad and the rolls.  I didn't want any Thanksgiving dinner reminders in the fridge.  We don't eat leftovers anyway.   

I am trying to think of what to do for Thanksgiving next year.  I'm thinking that maybe we'll go to Utah.  My aunt Pat lives in Orem.  She is an amazing cook.  And she didn't bring me dinner while I was pregnant (aka almost dead) so that would be a viable option.  Either that or grilled cheese sandwiches.