Like I was saying...
Let's see... What else has been going on?
Thanksgiving happened. I drove me and AJ over halfway before pulling the preggo card and having him drive the last three hours once we were around Mt. Airy. I prepared three desserts for our families. I wanted to try out sweet potato casserole for the first time, since my former sister-in-law Cindy used to bring it every year. And since Robbie and Cindy got divorced, Cindy has understandably not been bringing her casserole to the family gatherings.
So here's what happened: I found a recipe online for sweet potato casserole. Then we went to Walmart for supplies. Apart from brown sugar and the actual sweet potatoes, we had everything else (I've made many s'mores pies over the past few months, so I have a surplus of marshmallows). I hesitated before buying the sweet potatoes, as the recipe didn't specify how many, what size, or if they should or could be canned. I tried calling my mom, since moms know everything, but she didn't answer her phone. Needing to make a decision, we eyeballed the sizes of the sweet potatoes and guessed how many would fit in our square glass casserole dish, determining that three was a safe number.
My mom called while we were pulling out of the parking lot and said that canned is the best way to go, but we were already in the car, so we asked what the next best thing was. She said to rinse them, wrap them in wet paper towels, and microwave them for a few minutes, as cooking them the old-fashioned way would take too long. She indicated that the skin would practically fall off, and then I could mash the sweet potatoes in the dish and go forward with the rest of the recipe.
This is not what happened. Instead, the sweet potatoes remained solid. I decided to use a paring knife to slice off the skin and then figure it out from there. I had my laptop at the kitchen counter with the online recipe in one Firefox tab and another tab open for Facebook chat. I asked for Jodie's advice, which was to stab the potatoes a few times, re-wrap them with wet paper towels, and put them in the microwave for a few more minutes. I finished slicing off the skin first, as I had already begun this process and wanted to finish it, and then I tried the microwave once more.
No good.
I called my mom again and asked what I was doing wrong. She had no idea. She said to slice the sweet potatoes and then microwave them again, as they would absorb the heat more easily in tiny pieces. I began to slice and was getting increasingly frustrated over how time-consuming this was. I let out my frustrations on Facebook with status updates like, "These sweet potatoes are indestructible..." and then I got a response from my friend Nicole asking, "Have you tried blending them?" Hallelujah! I'll try that! I tossed half of a sweet potato into the blender. I called my mom before proceeding, in case this was a ridiculous rookie move. All she said was not to blend it too much because I wouldn't want it to be pureed. I started on the lowest setting and then gradually increased the power. The blender whirred futilely while the sweet potato set atop the blades lackadaisically. Mockingly. I screamed at the sweet potato while AJ called from the basement (he was getting his game on), "You're so cute, sweetie!" "WHY DON'T YOU BLEND?"
At this point, it had been over an hour, and I had gotten nothing accomplished. I decided to call it quits and went back to the store in search of canned sweet potatoes. I had no idea where they'd be kept, so I wandered the aisles frantically until I found THE LAST CAN on an otherwise barren shelf. It was made by a company named GLORY. How appropriate. I could almost hear the angels singing.
I took it home, trashed the sweet potatoes, dumped the can into the casserole dish, mixed the spices and so forth with it, added the marshmallows, and put the dish in the oven. Prep time: about two minutes. Then bake time of something like an hour or maybe just half an hour. I'm not looking at the online recipe, and my memory doesn't retain positive things as well as it does negative ones.
Anyway, so I made sweet potato casserole for my family dinner. My mom reminded me that Phillip wanted me to make my Peanut Butter & Nutella Cheesecake as well. She explained it to me like so, "Phillip said to come with the cheesecake or to not come at all." Okay, so two desserts. Got it. Then I realized I hadn't thought of what to make for AJ's family. Then I remembered that AJ's mom sent back a box of pumpkin bar mix with AJ when he came back from his three-week training. I confirmed that AJ's mom wasn't already making a batch for Thanksgiving and knew that I could make that for their lunch. All three desserts were delicious. :D
And amazingly, Thanksgiving was 98% drama-free! The only issue that came up, which wasn't even major in comparison to past events, was my mom feeling put out over not smoking around Daniel and Holly's daughter Riley. I think my mom was kind of on the fence on how she felt about it because on the one hand, she respects them for their decisions, and on the other hand, it's her house, and she's always been adamant about how she'll behave in her own house... even though she did relent when they brought the baby to dinner. She just made a comment in passing at one point near the end of the night, but if that's all, then I say the night was a success. Politics weren't discussed at all. They almost were. My mom had made some comment about Democrats and Republicans and then immediately said, "That reminds me, Miki, Aunt Di read that status update of yours again..." I was seated next to Wade at the dining room table, who falls far to the right, while I lean to the left. "Can we not talk about politics at the table?" "Who said anything about politics? I just mentioned your update. You linked it to politics." "It was strongly implied." Then Wade asked, "What'd you write on Facebook?" because Wade is anti-Facebook and has no idea what I wrote. "Something that would make you hate me." "Oh, I could never hate you." Then AJ saves the day with, "MIKI, TELL THEM HOW CRAZY YOUR EMOTIONS ARE NOW THAT YOU'RE PREGNANT!" so I got to talk about Jim Jeffries and King of the Hill to them. And the day was saved.
I have a few more stories. For instance, maybe I should explain how the ultrasound went, even though I spilled the beans on the results in the last entry (briefly). I also need to talk about how AJ wrecked his truck (he's fine-- spoiler alert). But I think I can take a break from catching you up now. Maybe I'll remember to tell you about these stories later. If not, just know that they happened.
Thanksgiving happened. I drove me and AJ over halfway before pulling the preggo card and having him drive the last three hours once we were around Mt. Airy. I prepared three desserts for our families. I wanted to try out sweet potato casserole for the first time, since my former sister-in-law Cindy used to bring it every year. And since Robbie and Cindy got divorced, Cindy has understandably not been bringing her casserole to the family gatherings.
So here's what happened: I found a recipe online for sweet potato casserole. Then we went to Walmart for supplies. Apart from brown sugar and the actual sweet potatoes, we had everything else (I've made many s'mores pies over the past few months, so I have a surplus of marshmallows). I hesitated before buying the sweet potatoes, as the recipe didn't specify how many, what size, or if they should or could be canned. I tried calling my mom, since moms know everything, but she didn't answer her phone. Needing to make a decision, we eyeballed the sizes of the sweet potatoes and guessed how many would fit in our square glass casserole dish, determining that three was a safe number.
My mom called while we were pulling out of the parking lot and said that canned is the best way to go, but we were already in the car, so we asked what the next best thing was. She said to rinse them, wrap them in wet paper towels, and microwave them for a few minutes, as cooking them the old-fashioned way would take too long. She indicated that the skin would practically fall off, and then I could mash the sweet potatoes in the dish and go forward with the rest of the recipe.
This is not what happened. Instead, the sweet potatoes remained solid. I decided to use a paring knife to slice off the skin and then figure it out from there. I had my laptop at the kitchen counter with the online recipe in one Firefox tab and another tab open for Facebook chat. I asked for Jodie's advice, which was to stab the potatoes a few times, re-wrap them with wet paper towels, and put them in the microwave for a few more minutes. I finished slicing off the skin first, as I had already begun this process and wanted to finish it, and then I tried the microwave once more.
No good.
I called my mom again and asked what I was doing wrong. She had no idea. She said to slice the sweet potatoes and then microwave them again, as they would absorb the heat more easily in tiny pieces. I began to slice and was getting increasingly frustrated over how time-consuming this was. I let out my frustrations on Facebook with status updates like, "These sweet potatoes are indestructible..." and then I got a response from my friend Nicole asking, "Have you tried blending them?" Hallelujah! I'll try that! I tossed half of a sweet potato into the blender. I called my mom before proceeding, in case this was a ridiculous rookie move. All she said was not to blend it too much because I wouldn't want it to be pureed. I started on the lowest setting and then gradually increased the power. The blender whirred futilely while the sweet potato set atop the blades lackadaisically. Mockingly. I screamed at the sweet potato while AJ called from the basement (he was getting his game on), "You're so cute, sweetie!" "WHY DON'T YOU BLEND?"
At this point, it had been over an hour, and I had gotten nothing accomplished. I decided to call it quits and went back to the store in search of canned sweet potatoes. I had no idea where they'd be kept, so I wandered the aisles frantically until I found THE LAST CAN on an otherwise barren shelf. It was made by a company named GLORY. How appropriate. I could almost hear the angels singing.
I took it home, trashed the sweet potatoes, dumped the can into the casserole dish, mixed the spices and so forth with it, added the marshmallows, and put the dish in the oven. Prep time: about two minutes. Then bake time of something like an hour or maybe just half an hour. I'm not looking at the online recipe, and my memory doesn't retain positive things as well as it does negative ones.
Anyway, so I made sweet potato casserole for my family dinner. My mom reminded me that Phillip wanted me to make my Peanut Butter & Nutella Cheesecake as well. She explained it to me like so, "Phillip said to come with the cheesecake or to not come at all." Okay, so two desserts. Got it. Then I realized I hadn't thought of what to make for AJ's family. Then I remembered that AJ's mom sent back a box of pumpkin bar mix with AJ when he came back from his three-week training. I confirmed that AJ's mom wasn't already making a batch for Thanksgiving and knew that I could make that for their lunch. All three desserts were delicious. :D
And amazingly, Thanksgiving was 98% drama-free! The only issue that came up, which wasn't even major in comparison to past events, was my mom feeling put out over not smoking around Daniel and Holly's daughter Riley. I think my mom was kind of on the fence on how she felt about it because on the one hand, she respects them for their decisions, and on the other hand, it's her house, and she's always been adamant about how she'll behave in her own house... even though she did relent when they brought the baby to dinner. She just made a comment in passing at one point near the end of the night, but if that's all, then I say the night was a success. Politics weren't discussed at all. They almost were. My mom had made some comment about Democrats and Republicans and then immediately said, "That reminds me, Miki, Aunt Di read that status update of yours again..." I was seated next to Wade at the dining room table, who falls far to the right, while I lean to the left. "Can we not talk about politics at the table?" "Who said anything about politics? I just mentioned your update. You linked it to politics." "It was strongly implied." Then Wade asked, "What'd you write on Facebook?" because Wade is anti-Facebook and has no idea what I wrote. "Something that would make you hate me." "Oh, I could never hate you." Then AJ saves the day with, "MIKI, TELL THEM HOW CRAZY YOUR EMOTIONS ARE NOW THAT YOU'RE PREGNANT!" so I got to talk about Jim Jeffries and King of the Hill to them. And the day was saved.
I have a few more stories. For instance, maybe I should explain how the ultrasound went, even though I spilled the beans on the results in the last entry (briefly). I also need to talk about how AJ wrecked his truck (he's fine-- spoiler alert). But I think I can take a break from catching you up now. Maybe I'll remember to tell you about these stories later. If not, just know that they happened.