Restful Saturday? HA!

Today we had to get up early to be at Church to practice for our Christmas Program tomorrow & on Wednesday night. (not sure why we're doing it twice, but whatever...now DH can see it! He has to work this weekend.)

So at Church it is confirmed that I will have to make a pot of chili for the luncheon...they needed 10 pots and were having trouble getting folks to offer to do it. I offered a pot of Mac-n-Cheese cuz my kid won't eat chili...but when she wasn't getting anyone to make the chili, I offered that too.

I also had to make my turkey cuz I thawed it out!

So we go to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for the chili...I've never seen a recipe like this...but it turned out very tasty...although I added some cumin to it. ;-) I also chopped the veggies and then ran them through the food processor so you can't find them in the chili. I thought it might make more kiddos willing to try it.

So the chili is simmering and I try to get the Turkey started. But my oven decides it is going to give me something to worry about! It send up some code that means the control panel needs a service call and shut off. But I think I've figured out my oven's problem. See the thermostat for the oven is on the left side, which is also where my simmer burner is. This stove has a burner where you click a button and it holds the temp there...no cycling on & off. However the extra heat from the simmer button was bothering the oven thermostat. Being the very smart person that I am, I decided to see if cooling down the stovetop would help with the oven.

So I put a pot of ice on the stovetop over the burners where the chili had been cooking...and what do you know? It worked!!! For a bit there I thought I would have to see if I could cook this bird in my neighbor's oven. :p

So then I had to transfer the chili into a crock pot for tomorrow. I borrowed one of the Church's crockpots so then I don't have to worry about getting mine back. but I didn't want to dump hot chili in the crockpot... so again, thinking quickly... I take the pot of chili out to the garage. I put ice under the stock pot and under the crock pot and slowly transfer the chili as it is cooling. It wasn't entirely cold when I put it all in the frig...but close enough. Gotta love mother nature for providing a free frig system! ha ha

Right now my turkey is still roasting, should be done in about an hour. I should go make the mashed potatoes here soon. Then after dinner, I'll make up the mac-n-cheese. Nuttin like making 3 dinners in one day! Too bad only one is for me!

I think I have another great idea... tonight there is a Church service...so the building is open. I could take my already finished chili and put it in their frig. Then I'll have one less crock pot to carry in tomorrow...AND I could borrow another crock pot to make the mac-n-cheese in tonight and not have to take that home either! Woo Hoo! I'm so smart today...I wonder how that happened? hee hee