Out with the Old

Yesterday, T set to work securing some loose boards on the front porch.  While she was under the porch I took care of some fall clean-up chores, some of which had been delayed earlier this month as I dealt with my beak.  Most of the leaves in my yard get spread over the garden to take advantage of some cheap natural mulch; others get left on the grass because they are good for the lawn.  The extras get bagged up and placed at the curb for the township to carry away to their own giant mulch pile.

The pumpkins were mulched and fall-themed decorations on the front porch were put away, in an out-with-the-old tradition.

I began to organize the outdoor holiday decorations.  Some are familiar favorites, like the holly-trimmed wreaths that hang from the flower pot hooks.  Others are brand new, like this snowman that my folks gave me for my birthday.   

Next week, I'll put the boy to work hanging some lights on the porch.  I love the sight of twinkling holiday lights and greenery, especially in the cold twilight of the short days in December.  It brings cheer to the evenings and is a welcome tradition at Sassafras House.

Thanksgiving Journal

When I first learned to cook, I was impressed by people who could get all the food on the table ready to serve (hot things hot; cold things cold) at the same time.   At first, I would make a plan for myself to get the timing right.  As I got more experienced in the kitchen, the timing of the process came easier to me.  But for an affair such as Thanksgiving, I revert to my planning mode.  The night before Thanksgiving, I sketch out a plan.  This year, as the Thanksgiving cooking unfolded, I kept track and made pictures so that I would have a digital record of the process.

The Thanksgiving menu was a very traditional traditional feast:

- roast turkey

- mashed potatoes and gravy

- cranberry sauce

- cornbread dressing

- roasted brussels sprouts

- sweet potato casserole

- cheese & crackers

- rosemary rolls

- pumpkin pie with whipped cream

The days before Thanksgiving, I made the pumpkin pie and the corn bread for corn bread dressing.  Thanksgiving morning, I was up early to get things started.  The goal was a 1 pm Thanksgiving feast.

7 am - set rolls out to rise

 8 am - get turkey out of the fridge to bring to room temperature (it was already defrosted)

- prepare cornbread dressing

- prepare cranberry sauce

9 am - prepare turkey to roast; set oven to 400 degrees

- prepare sweet potatoes to roast

9:30 - turkey in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes

- sweet potatoes roast for 30 minutes

10 am - hit a snag with the sweet potatoes, which I hoped to remove roasted from the oven; they need to roast longer

- stir together streusel topping for the sweet potato casserole while the potatoes roast some more

- add broth to cornbread dressing

- place room temp cranberry sauce in the fridge to cool

- reduce oven temperature to 350; continue to roast turkey

11:45 am - assign T to peel potatoes while I trim brussels sprouts for roasting

- brush rolls with melted butter & sprinkle with fresh rosemary

noon - set potatoes to boil

12:15 - remove turkey from oven to rest

- increase oven temp to 425; roast sprouts & start sweet potato casserole, cornbread dressing

12:30 - remove roasted sprouts

- lower oven to 350; continue cooking sweet potato casserole & cornbread dressing

- T carves the turkey.....whose picture I failed to make when I fetched it from the oven....oops!

12:45 - place rolls in the oven; make gravy

- start to set food on the table

1:15 Happy Thanksgiving!

Favorites

On Tuesday, as the pre-holiday fervor hit a crescendo in the Middle School, my 6th graders and I took time to share our favorite Thanksgiving foods.  I heard a lot about mashed potatoes and roasted turkey.  Deserts were also mentioned.  The kids laughed and exchanged nods as shared favorites were identified.  I thought about those conversations as I was doing some pre-holiday cooking this morning, making a few items ahead of time.  First up was pumpkin pie.

I also made the corn bread for cornbread dressing that I will stir together tomorrow.

Both of these dishes are at the top of the list of favorite foods at my house.  I love holiday cooking and find the organization and planning just as enjoyable as the meal itself.  Later today, I'll set out my antique dishes, getting ready for the feast.  Tomorrow we'll roast turkey and brussells sprouts.  Mashed potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce, rosemary rolls, and sweet potato casserole will also set on the table with my favorite cornbread dressing and T and JT's favorite, pumpkin pie.  It will be a feast with leftovers to spare.  We'll count our blessings and enjoy the day, thankful for all the things that make us smile.

Real Life Conversations with JT: That Blows edition

The backstory:  For years, JT could not blow his nose.  No matter how hard I tried, the skill escaped him.  By the time he was 10, he figured it out but not before multiple episodes of heartache and frustration.  I learned how to blow my nose a long time ago but my recent nose surgery left me unable to blow my nose.  I found it annoying.

Mama:  Oh my God, I wish I cold just blow my damned nose.

JT (calm and disinterested):  Why?  I couldn't blow mine for years and I survived quite nicely.

Obviously, this is a first-world problem and I should just suck it up.

Worst Selfies Ever

My go-round with the Mohs Procedure on my nose left a nasty scab and, worst than that, the prospect of a significant scar and a nostril so deformed that it might eventually collapse.  That seemed like a bad idea so I consulted a plastic surgeon.  Last Friday, I had a little plastic surgery.

And by a little, I mean that there are 12 stitches and it looks horrid.  This was as promised by the plastic surgeon, who told me before we began, "It's going to look a whole lot worse before it looks better.  But it will look better."

Sounds like fun!  I started with a divot on my nose scabbed over and unpleasant looking.  In this picture, you can see that my nostrils are no longer an even match, so I was confident that the surgery was warranted.

The surgical process required a sedative and then a lot of numbing.  It lasted for about 90 minutes and I don't remember much, though I do remember the pre-surgery pregnancy test.  When T and I sought to re-assure the nurse that I couldn't possibly be pregnant, she explained to us that they run a pregnancy test for all women who are eligible to be pregnant, "12 year olds, lesbians, widows…..it doesn't matter.  There was at least one immaculate conception!"

As if the world doesn't have enough problems, there is a prospect that a profane 46 year old lesbian would be the mama to the second coming?  Frightening.  I passed the pregnancy test and then T and I repeated the nurse's line all weekend long.   

The first day after surgery featured plenty of swelling and some oozing along the line of stitches, seen here coated in Bacitracin, per the doctor's requirement.

On the morning of day 4, it's looking and feeling better, though I am hardly a glamour girl.

It looks far worse than it feels; the discomfort is controlled with ibuprofen.  So I am taking this nose with me to work this morning.  No doubt the middle schoolers will have some rich comments.  Stitches come out on Wednesday and I expect that soon enough I will forget these few weeks.  Though I think we can safely conclude that my commitment to sunscreen will be on-going.

The Beak

Later on this morning I have the plastic surgery that will fix my nose.  Despite the many jokes that I am seeking a Michael Jackson-like appearance, I just want to return to normal.  I would also like to reach an eventual goal of not having a bandage on my nose all the dang time.

In the meantime, I'm up early so that I can get in some extra worry time.  I can't eat or drink and that means I am without my customary cup of coffee  So in addition to fretting about the IV (I dislike that process immensely, especially the medical tape to hold down the line…..yes, I'm weird) I have some time to regret the fact that there is no coffee in my life this morning.  Oh, the headache I shall have.

All of these troubles are very first world, so the indulgence will end shortly.  Before and after photos will be available next week.  Here we go….

Man Child

Though I sometimes wish I could re-play a day in the company of a pre-schooled aged JT, he's no longer a lap-sized bundle of silly little boy.  I know that.  The problem is that in my mind, I am the mother of this boy.

Or this one.

Reality these days is somewhat larger than these boys.  While he isn't yet fully grown, he is running headlong into manhood.  Sometimes I feel my little boy slipping away and I just want to stop and embrace the moment.  These days he is big and strong and all sorts of teenaged madness, thankfully with a sense of humor and the confident knowledge that his mama thinks he hung the moon.

Soup Weather

Last week was cold and blustery, a reminder that winter is on its way.  In my mind, days like this demand a warm bowl of soup for supper.  This was last Thursday's chicken noodle soup supper.

A bit of warmth returned for the weekend but the week's forecast promises more cold days. The leaves have mostly fallen and the wind feels more blustery then refreshing.  Winter is knocking at the door but that's okay.  I've got some soup to keep me warm.

In Which My Dignity Takes a Hit

Tuesday's surgical proceeding has left me with an unpleasant scrap of gauze and tape on my nose.  I'm under orders to leave the wound covered until a plastic surgeon sees it and develops a plan.  This is rather a challenge to my personal dignity.  Basically, I'm a Middle School Assistant Principal making it incredibly easy for every kid in the school to make fun of me.

Super.

The day of the procedure I was in the doctor's office awaiting the pathology results of the second surgical scrape, with a bloody bandaid on my nose.  A small child looked at me and said, "what happened to your nose?"  So I pretty much knew how my next day at school would play out.  

I took the challenge head on and wrote a quiz question on the board for each of my classes:

Ms. Sassafras has a bandage on her nose because:

a.  she picked it too much.

b.  she got in a fight.

c.  she should have used sunscreen when she was a kid.

We had a nice conversation about sunscreen and the importance of using it.  Then we agreed* that we would all pretend that I didn't have a scrap of gauze and medical tape on my nose, though I will look this way for several more days, perhaps more. 

Awesome.

*Note: by "agreed" I mean I insisted.

Stereotype

I grew up in California and my sister and I spent days in the pool, never with any sunscreen because we were the brown-as-a-berry type girls.  Also, it was the 1970s.  In my adulthood, I have reaped the rewards of this lifestyle in the form of the occasional spot of skin cancer.  It's the basal cell type; inconvenient and unattractive but not really dangerous.

This summer, I had a spot scraped off my nose.  The resulting pathology showed that the margins were still funky.  This spot would require a Mohs procedure, which is as much fun as it sounds.  I underwent that procedure on Tuesday of this week.  An 8 mm chunk on the surface of my nose is gone (as is the skin cancer).

Having casually assumed that everything would be just fine (the first scrape healed beautifully), I was rather horrified at this development.  A plastic surgeon is in order.  Conveniently, I live in New Jersey, and we are awash in cosmetic surgery opportunities.  And so I'm seeing a guy next week and now I've become a New Jersey stereotype: a woman of a certain age with a plastic surgeon's number on her phone.  I'll let you know when it goes to speed dial.