Hey! Long time no see. ;)

Is anyone still out there?  I don't blame you if you've moved on.  I haven't been around much, so why should you.
Seems that every time I have something that I might want to blog about that I remember all the folks who could see what I have to say and decide that it really isn't all that important.

And of course since I'm on Facebook so much, I really haven't spent much time anywhere else.  I do check to see if any of you that I'm following have posted anything new.  And with the exception of a few, I'm not the only one to have moved on...so I don't feel too bad.

In an attempt to update you...

Back in July I put myself on a diet and managed to lose 20lbs.  Which now that it's the holidays, I seem to be trying to gain all back.  LOL  actually I've been trying to counter all the calories by also consuming large amounts of fiber...so far so good.  Hopefully by January I won't have much to resolve.

I've also started a new adventure.  After over 17 years of not working, I took a part time job.  It's less than 20 hours per week, but it's money.  Which reminds me that I need to turn in my time sheet.

This year's Thanksgiving was a very small quiet affair.  Just Dh, Darly, Lilly & me.  Here's what we had...

1/2 a Turkey.  The last time I made a turkey, I decided to take half of it and put it back in the freezer.  So I pulled that out, it was already brined and ready to go.  We're going into day 3 and still have plenty for dinner.  Eaten by: everyone

Mashed Potatoes - I think that I made too many as we still have a lot left-over.  Made with butter & milk.  So partially fatty.  ;)  Eaten by: everyone

Gravy - oh boy did this give me fits this year.  First the turkey didn't want to give me any drippings (probably due to being just half and the way I cooked it.)  So I pulled out some turkey broth.  Then I got the pan too hot, so I had lumps and had to strain those out.  I did manage to get a decent gravy...it just took a lot more work.  Eaten by: DH & me

Corn - Darly made this...just dump frozen corn in dish and microwave it.  Eaten by: everyone

Green Beans - These were from fresh and Darly was NOT pleased to have to wash and snap all the beans, but so worth it.  We just steamed these in the microwave with salt & seasonings...Dh won't eat the casserole, and I don't need the calories.  Eaten by: Dh & me

Squash - Butternut squash.  I learned a tip online for getting these buggers cut...microwave them for 3 minutes.  This helped a lot with cutting through the seedy part, but the stem was still as hard as ever to cut...oh well, at least I got help with half of it.  Speaking of half, since I'm the only squash eater...I put half of the squash right into the freezer for later.  Eaten by: just me

Rutabaga - speaking of hard to cut...whoo!  I took my meat mallet to slam the knife through the rutabagas, which since DH was in the kitchen caused a lot more fuss than it should have.  He didn't appreciate the extra noise.  I pressure cooked them with some brown sugar...oh so yummy!  Eaten by: just me

Yams - Darly fixed these.  We got the canned yams, she added brown sugar and butter...then baked them.  I hear they were wonderful.  I wouldn't know as I don't like them.  Eaten by: Dh & Darly

Mushrooms - This is my stuffing replacement.  The pickies won't eat stuffing, and I don't need the extra calories, so I just steam the mushrooms with seasonings.  Gives me the stuffing feel w/o all the extras.  Eaten by: just me

Cranberry sauce - just the jellied stuff from a can.  Eaten by: Darly & me.

Rolls - from frozen dough.  A bit burned on the bottoms...bad oven.  Eaten by: everyone

Pumpkin Dessert - yummy dessert from DH's family.  It's like an upside down pumpkin pie with more seasonings than your traditional pie.  This year I made the recipe which should go into one 9x13 pan in two 8x8s so that we could take one to Church for Thanksgiving Eve service.  Small turn out so we had more than half left over... we still haven't started the second pan yet and I'm looking for someone to donate it to.  Eaten by: everyone

DH complained that I made too much food.  He doesn't like (for some odd reason) seeing so many dishes.  Yet I argued that half of the dishes were foods I made for just me that he won't touch.  His parents drilled in his head this silly "clean your plate" thing and his mom always insisted that they finish all the left-overs.  Hard to break the habits even though I've had him longer than his parents did.  sigh!

We forgot to take Thanksgiving pictures...so last night I set up the camera and took our picture.  It came out blurry...I had space issues.  Sorry.