11/19/2023 | Juggling school and Thanksgiving entertainment.
Sunday. My parents.
My parents came out for Thanksging for the whole week to be followed by by brother, my brother-in-law, and my sogros (Portuguese for parent-in-laws). I couldn't be happier. They surprised me by bringing the family dog, Midnight. They said they weren't going to but boy was I surprised! We had spicy italian chicken sausage and chips and salsa for appetizers at the counter while we caught up. For dinner, I prepared my pumpkin marinara with roasted green beans. For dessert, we had by this new brownie recipe I recently developed (and I'm pretty obsessed). I'm pleased to announce that everyone really enjoyed dinner.
Monday. PhDing.
I did a run through of a Continuing Education webinar I'm running in a few weeks. I got some pretty good constructive feedback. I'm a little nervous, but also looking forward to sharing what I learned with people. I had a mentorship meeting in the afternoon then my mom and I got our nails done. I found out that the powers that be did not give me permission to collect my dissertation data, so I have to deal with that and I'm not too jazzed about it. We picked up a bottle of 12-year-old single malt highland scotch for my dad and husband to enjoy. For dinner, we had my vegetable bourguignon and my parents absolutely LOVED IT! I was so happy. We eneded the night with the Eagles vs. Chiefs game, which we were all looking forward to. Can you guess what team we were rooting for?
Tuesday. Salmon.
Josh picked up the turkey we ordered from the local butcher six weeks ago. It was a beautiful 13 pound, locally-raised, free range bird. I prepped the dry brine, and he spatchcocked and seasoned the turkey. We left it uncovered in the fridge until Thursday morning. We went out to a nice restaurant in town. I had the salmon. It was so good that I forgot to snap a photo - sorry!
Wednesday. Thanksgiving prep.
I took the day off of work from the clinic and school to relax, focus on family, and meal prep. I prepared the stuffed mushrooms, and carmelized onion and goat cheese crescent rolls so all I'd have to do is bake them before apps. I prepared the filling for the apple pandowdy so I can just dump it in the frying pan and add the pie crust on top. In the evening, mom baked the cookies, a gluten free dessert for my mother-in-law, and the filling for the sweet potato pie.
Thursday. The day.
It was beautiful. We were surrounded my one of my bothers, my brother-in-law, my sogros (Portuguese for parents-in-law), my parents, and three of our friends. We laughed, we ate, we drank. It was magical.
Friday. We aren't shoppers.
After several years of working retail at a Simon outlet and shopping malls in high school and through undergrad, I still don't get the hype around Black Friday shopping. After all that entertaining, I'm exhausted. The last thing I need is to be shoved aside left and right. We used this time to pick up our Christmas tree - a beautiful 7.5 ft. fraiser fir that the nursery named 'Ariel' - pick up some things from the grocery store, and rest.
Saturday. Arch nemesis goes down.
We took a drive to Purdue's main campus to see the Purdue-IU football game. If you follow Big 10 football or are from the northern Midwest region, you may know that Purdue and IU are rivals. We had great seats: ninth row at the 30-yard line. At 40 degrees F, it was a great day for some all-American football. Purdue won by a nose with a touchdown with less that four minutes to go. We warmed up at home with Thanksgiving left overs.
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