I hate waste.
Really. It PAINS me to throw food away. It’s a family curse. There are many stories of my father eating food that was er…. let’s just say…past its prime. And there is so much Thanksgiving food left over that you just want to turn it into something else, because the thought of tossing it all is just ghastly.
So a couple of nights ago I became resourceful and created the following dinner:
The delicious cornbread stuffing with chestnuts, bacon and dried pears turns into Stuffing stuffed mushrooms! Thank you CHOW for some amazing ideas of how to use up the leftovers. Genius! And yes, they tasted better than they looked…
The wonderful mushroom butter-basted turkey turned into a delightful turkey noodle soup. People, this soup was to die for! And I of course used the turkey carcass to make stock (because you can never have enough stock, right?)
The leftover ranch-flavored mashed potatoes were lovingly turned into this amazing potato bread thanks to Ivonne who introduced me to the daring bakers group. I think this was most daring thing I could do and hopefully means I can join the group because I didn’t really follow the recipe, but wanted to rock the frugalness of using my leftovers, which were about two cups of potatoes that already had quite a bit of herbs and scallions already added to it. And the flecks of red potato skin throughout was just wonderful. Can’t wait to have it as toast tomorrow!
And last, but certainly not least for dessert, I used the leftover cream and half and half to make ice cream. Oh–just not any ice cream, but ice cream with Trader Joe’s Holiday Joe-Joes, which are the best version of Oreos in the universe. Not mint flavored Oreos–but oreos that have crushed candy canes put into the frosting inside.
True heaven. And guess what–it tasted AMAZING!!!! Worth every deviant moment off of Weight Watchers for that.
So, the biggest reason I have not been knitting has been this: my hands and arms cried mutiny on me.
Yes, I’m giving my arm brace the finger. Screw you, arm! We had a deal that you were going to keep me knitting for years to come and now this? You are SO fired, arms!
The last time I knit was in July. And I’ve spent the past few months going to the doctor, doing physical therapy twice a week, doing exercises, dealing with forced stretch breaks during my work day thanks to my RSI software, NOT going to meet Annie M. and learn combination knitting and getting weekly massages on my hands (OK, the massages didn’t suck). All to have the pain go away. And some of it has, but if I push myself with even 20 minutes of mousing my arms begin to bitch at me. I’m going to a specialist next week, but my original doctor said it could take 18 months to get over it all.
Imagine, knitters, not being able to do the thing that brings you such joy and relaxation. The thing that you’ve invested thousands of dollars over the years and have so much yarn stashed that you could get through Armageddon and still have a few balls left to knit. Heck–I started this blog because I love to knit. But without the knitting, my blog just seemed to lose a bit of purpose for me recently.
I sometimes think it’s more painful emotionally than physically. And it kept me away from blogging to be honest. It made me not want to hang out in our ‘crawfice’ (that’s our little fake word for ”office/craft room combo” BTW). Interweave Knits would be pushed into the magazine pile instead of poured over for hours. In a horrible act of knitting angst I even went through my yarn stash and pulled out this from my bookshelf of yarn.
Fortunatley, Mrs. Jones saved me from getting rid of all of my yarn, but some still went to other homes where it will hopefully be loved and knit into wonderful items.
But whinging about it in this blog and getting blue and OK even crabby at times really doesn’t really help that much and it is a bit self absorb, so I will shelf knitting for a bit. And I have so much to be thankful for. This is just a wee bump in the road of life. Just something I need to work on and truly, I am so lucky to have my family, my friends, my career, a good house over my head and so many other things that really I can’t complain.
So, I’m picking up the blog fever again and I hope I stick with it and don’t let the insanity of life suck me away. Thankfully this blog is called Good Crafternoon–and there are slews of other crafty things and wonderful life-giving hobbies and joys to chatter on about!
And I will post tomorrow my Thanksgiving leftovers bonanza. I swear, it isn’t as bad as it sounds…
So onward and upward, my dears! Please expect more pictures around cooking, sewing, and just plain living in 2008 and beyond.
Thanks for staying all three of you that still read this blog!
- Leslie
PS: So, how many of you thought my reason for not blogging was that I was pregnant! Hee hee! Not this time!
I’m alive, but just not blogging. And there is a reason for it. For all four of you knitters that might actually still be checking out this old blog–I give you this–the past couple of monhts in pictures.
Hanging with Eric and Everett…
Hanging with Jen…
Hanging with Eileen…
Cooking…
Babyshowering Karen…
Pipsqueaking…
Trying not to get wet…
Working and just living my life, but tomorrow I’ll give you the really big reason why I haven’t been blogging…
