Sunsilk De-Frizz hair goop, which I have been looking for all over hell and creation (or at least in Target and the grocery store) and have been unable to find and was certain had been discontinued. And they were $2.50 per bottle, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been paying at least $3 a bottle, so I bought two.
Then I was looking around some more, and as I wandered through the kitchen section, I realized that we do not have ANY serving platters, and since we’re serving not one, not two, but THREE different kinds of meat at Thanksgiving, we might need a serving platter or two. There were very simple, plain white serving platters there for $3.50 each, so I called Fred and double-checked with him, and he reminded me that we needed a gravy boat if there were any available, and also perhaps some simple serving bowls might be in order and oh yeah, how about some serving spoons?
So I looked for a gravy boat, but alas there were none. I did find serving bowls that matched the platters, so I bought three of those (for $1.50 each) and then I found two big serving spoons and a ladle for 99 cents each.
And so I went into Big Lots to look for plain, simple, matching glasses, and ended up with glasses, hair stuff, serving bowls, serving platters, serving spoons, and a ladle for somewhere in the area of $43.
But I saved $8.88! Go, Super Shopper, go!
Then I went to the movie store to return the movies, and while I was there I rented Hairspray and Live Free or Die Hard. Then I ran over to the grocery store to buy milk (and given the price of milk and how slowly we use it, I am seriously considering starting to immediately freeze half of the half-gallon I buy so it doesn’t go to waste. Did you know you can freeze milk? You won’t want to freeze it if you’re planning on drinking it straight, but for use in recipes, it’ll do just fine.) and while I was there I was distracted by the display of dishes they sell, and guess what? That’s right, they were selling a gravy boat!
But I don’t need no stinkin’ $14 gravy boat, thank you, so I bought my milk and I went along my merry way.
Today, I have a hair appointment and since I’ll be headed that way, I very well might stop by Target and see what they’ve got in the way of gravy boats. Depending on how busy they are, that is – if they’re packed, I’m not stopping. Fuck gravy boats, anyway – we’ve got bowls and we’ve got a ladle, who seriously needs a damn gravy boat for real?
* * *
1. How will you be spending your Thanksgiving this year?
Fred’s mother, stepfather, sister, and her husband are coming here for dinner, which we’ll be eating around noon.
2. Will you be cooking or are you just an eater?
We’re cooking, but not a huge amount – mostly meat, the greens, and squash casserole. Fred’s also making a carrot cake.
3. Do you watch the parade every year or football!!
Neither.
4. What’s your favorite float?
I can’t remember the last time I watched the parade, if ever.
5. Dark meat or white meat?
A little of each.
6. Leg or breast?
A little of each!
7. What is your favorite dish besides the turkey?
I really like the
sweet potatoes. Deviled eggs, too.
8. Homemade cranberry sauce or cranberry sauce from the can?
I don’t think I’ve ever had homemade cranberry sauce, but I really like the stuff from the can.
9. Do you decorate for Christmas on Thanksgiving day?
HELL no. I’m lucky if I get any decorations up by Christmas Eve!
10. What are some special family traditions?
I don’t think there are any hard-and-fast family traditions. People show up, people eat, people leave. Works for me.
11. Pumpkin pie or pecan?
Pumpkin!
12. What is your favorite thing to do with the leftovers?
Eat them? I like to make turkey soup with the leftover turkey carcass.
13. How long will you spend eating your thanksgiving meal?
I don’t know – an hour? I never timed it.
14. Are you worried about putting on weight this Thanksgiving?
Not particularly.
15. What do you normally eat at Thanksgiving?
Turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, gravy. A little of everything, really.
16. What will you be thankful for this Thanksgiving?
My family, my health, my home. (And that Spot can’t jump up on the bed anymore without a struggle, so he can’t kill me in my sleep.)
17. What is your best Thanksgiving memory?
The time Leroy thought he’d be funny and told my mother he was going to eat gravy “The way the good lord intended”, then stuck his entire nose in the gravy bowl, honked up a snootful of gravy, lifted up his head and showed us a wide, victorious gravy grin, then choked on the gravy dripping (pouring) down the back of his throat and horked it up all over the table and half the family. Leroy’s the only one who found it funny at the time, since a coating of gravy and snot didn’t engender a great deal of uncontrollable amusement in those of us so coated, but in retrospect it’s a fond memory. Good ol’ Leroy. Family gatherings just aren’t the same without him. Le sigh.
18. Do you give cards or presents at Thanksgiving?
Fuck no. Do people give PRESENTS at Thanksgiving? Seriously? What the fuck?
19. Are you planning on going shopping the day after Thanksgiving?
Online, maybe.
20. Will you be waking up early to hit the sales?
HELLZ no.
* * *
Pretty, pretty Elle.
Sweet, goofy Felicia.
Skittles, keeping an eye on something.
Time to tap the lens cap.
“What IS it?!”
*****************************
I think it’s safe to say that Madame Stinkerbelle is not going to be a small cat.
* * *
Previously
2006: Right. Because six is perfectly normal, but SEVEN would be lunacy.
2005: Every time I contemplate reading those books, I get a “Good god, I DON’T WANNA!” sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, which to me is a sign that, y’know, I DON’T WANNA and YOU CAN’T MAKE ME.
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: Fuck him, too.
2001: It don’t get any better than that, nosir.
2000: I see enough nasty stuff in my life.
1999: No entry.]]>
Aren’t you doing Netflix?
Hee hee, I reread your entry from last year about all the not-your-cats.
Robyn, I am glad you will finally find out whether John Mclain “Lives free” or “Dies hard!”
For question Friday: in the time ago you used to have an occasional cat video. Will you be doing that again soon?
I used to buy 10 gallons of milk at a time and freeze most of it when my sons were still at home. If it’s whole milk, you just have to shake it up really well after thawing and it’s perfectly drinkable.
Oh, and here is a funny story about sweet potatoes, “I has a sweet potato” http://littera-abactor.livejournal.com/7748.html
In a pinch, a glass liquid measuring cup works for a gravyboat you know! That’s what I’ll be using this year since I can’t find mine!
Instead of a gravy boat, look for an insulated coffee pot type thing. Keeps the gravy warm and pours better than a boat.
I’ve never owned a gravy boat (I hate gravy). My sister used to COLLECT gravy boats and had about a million of them. Just thought I’d share that.
Hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I hope you’ll be sharing photos with us.
You can drink frozen milk 🙂 Daycare centers do it all the time. We have a family of 7 and go through phases with milk. Some weeks they drink 4 gallons and other weeks 2, so I freeze what they don’t drink. I shake it well, open the gallon, pour off a small amount to allow for expansion, freeze with the cap loosly placed on top and reseal after completely frozen. When needed for drinking I move the frozen gallon to the fridge and allow to thaw. As it begins to thaw I shake it well occasionally till fully thawed. When fully thawed shake well and drink! I don’t know how well whole or anything else would do but since studies have shown that only children under age 2 need milk fat, we only use skim, why add the extra calories!
BTW, I just discovered that you can cook a turkey from frozen! Did you know this? Did everyone but me know this?? I had always been told to thaw first! (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Turkey_Alt_Routes/index.asp)
I also use the large glass measuring cups. I’m sure I have gravy boats in this house somewhere, but since I’m having 15 people, the measuring cups will be in use. Tacky? Yep, but hell, at least I offered to host the dinner!
Robyn, I hope you and Fred and family have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thank you for all the laughs throughout the year!
We have that same problem with milk. Since we use it only for recipes, even if we buy it by the quart it still goes bad before we can use it up. So we started buying Silk soymilk instead… that adds like, a whole extra MONTH of shelf life!
Gravy tastes just fine ladled out of a bowl, btw. Screw the gravy boat (although our Target does have a couple different kinds), you don’t need it.
Frozen milk?! OhhhEmmmmGeeee!!! You are Amazing!!! I never even thought you could do that Duh. It always seems that no matter how small of a container I buy, we only use 1/2 of it before it goes bad. Do you freeze it in the container or do you measure it out say like by the cup so you can just thaw what you need?
Brillant I say, absolutey Brillant. Gotta go, got milk to freeze.
Kthxbye
We use a Pyrex measuring glass thing (the ginormous ones) for our gravy. Do you think that’s white trash? Hee!
I wanted to ask you what company do you use for making your Christmas cards? Happy gobble gobble day!
About the milk—I don’t drink it much but my husband does (and there’s just the two of us now at home) so I buy the non-fat dry milk that comes in packets that make 1 quart each (WalMart or Kroger). So he gets his fresh milk and we never run out, there’s always some on the shelf. It may cost a tad more but I think it’s worth it. And it doesn’t taste as bad as it used to either, you know, back in the “olden” days. So just a thought. BTW, I didn’t get a notify today so had to go to your site to get my bitchy-fix for today. Happy Thanksgiving!
Anyone use the ultra-pasteurized milk? Lasts longer than a month in the fridge. Tastes just fine. I buy Horizon Farms Organic, in the organic refrigerated section of my grocery store. While the whole “organic” part is just a ruse, the ultra-pasteurized part isn’t!
Happy Thanksgiving, Fred, Robyn and Spud (I was going to say up in Maine, but it seems to me like you’re somwhere else)!
Who’s LeRoy? Even my wife, a dedicated reader, didnt know.
Presents and cards for Thanksgiving? What the cluck?
Though, it would come in awfully handy if someone brought you a gravy boat for Thanksgiving. Hee.
The gift I am giving my family this Thanksgiving is that I will not bite their faces off when they ask 173 times when we’re eating. I’m sure they’ll be grateful as plastic surgery is rather pricey these days.
Robyn, you and Leroy just sent me into a coughing fit that lasted nearly 5 whole minutes. I got the visuals and everything on that story. Hysterical.
I have a gravy boat but my son inherited the “gravy is a beverage” gene from me, so we’d really have to have a gravy ocean-liner for it to make sense for us to use it. I either ladle it straight from the pan or, as Nance said, use a Pyrex measuring cup (the 8-cup one that I used to mix up the cornstarch thickener).
My mom used to freeze milk when we were little, but it’d get… kind of… particulate. Little chunks of milk-bits floating around in nearly-milk watery stuff. I use 2%; I wonder if that makes a difference? Oh well, as much chocolate milk as we drink, we never have the problem of it going bad anyway. But on the “did you know you could freeze…” topic, I didn’t thank you for pointing out that you can freeze bell peppers. I knew about milk, but not the peppers. So, thank you!
Happy Thanksging to Everyone at Crooked Acres!!! This means all furkids too !!
And at my Grandmothers house years ago, she would use a big old brown teapot to serve gravy in… kept it warm and no slopping around with a drippy spoon!!! MMMmmmm gravy… a wonderful food group….
I use the Pyrex 4-cup glass measuring cup for my gravy too. So what if it’s white trash. I love that thing! Best 50-cents-at-a garage-sale thing I ever bought!
We freeze our milk all of the time. Saves on running to a store (we live in a rural area). We use it for drinking too. Just be sure to shake it up good before drinking it. It’s fine. I’m old enough to remember when the milkman would deliver in the winter. The milk used to freeze all the time back then and we survived.
Why don’t you guys just buy a cow to save money on milk? You’ve got plenty of room, and she can join the other present and future animals on “the farm”.
Debi said: “I’m old enough to remember when the milkman would deliver in the winter.”
We live in small town Iowa and our milk is delivered now! In the winter it freezes all on it’s own for us. I have people asking me all the time what it is like to get milk delivered. Nothing like it was when I was a child…then it was glass bottles instead of gallon jugs!