The Monday After...

I went back to work after 4 days off.

I am feeling a bit... off. I think that's why I don't take too much time off. Sigh.

Alas, it is December! I hope you all got your eat on, got your shop on and all that. And oh yeah, I hope we all remembered to reflect and be thankful.

Like I said last week, I went to my sister's house for thanksgiving.

I am still full.

And that gal, she know she was cooking it up.

And here are a few pics.

First of all, she made my day by having liter bottles of my favorite Italian water available.

I can't pronounce that! But my sister knows I like water in glass. And she had to hear me go on and on about it.

"Water in glass," I said. "Nothing like it. Tastes great, absolutely no aftertaste. Water in glass!"

I said that with every sip. You would've thought that I was singing a song.

Heck, I didn't even have to eat anything. But I did.

So, I saw this sitting in the middle of the table:

I got excited. "Oh, we're having soup?"

"No," my sister said. "That's the pot roast. I was trying to keep it moist."

Oh yea, the pot roast. Keeping it moist. Under an inch of water. Ah yes.

And it worked. I had a little piece. It was good. And moist.

I made some cabbage. 

I bought it already shredded, and I added some sliced onions. I sauteed it, and it went super quick. Gonna try it again.

She wanted some of my favorite dish... the butternut squash, pear and cranberry bake. That was really good. (Is that a glass of brown liquor next to the beans?)

 The color was retained this time! Oh joy!

And her string beans were awesome. I took a container of that home and I've been eating them all weekend.

Dinner rolls!

Rice!

Beverages!

No brown liquor here... only tea and soda. The water in glass was for me... hence, it is NOT on the table.

A million dollar pie!

Go look up the recipe. The ingredients are something kin to condensed milk, whip cream and pineapples on a graham cracker crust. Sweet, but VERY good.

Double chocolate cake!

I've made that before.  My friend Dawn calls it the "Better than Sex Cake".

Humph. I am puzzled every time I hear my friend say that. It doesn't quite register. I guess she just REALLY likes chocolate cake. Really.

My sister said she wanted to make that cake. I asked if she needed a copy a recipe. It turns out she copied it from my Southern cook book a few years ago. 

That's it for our Thanksgiving dinner. She fried some chicken also. And she wanted some ham, but she didn't want to go buy a whole ham.  There was some sliced ham at the Whole Foods hot bar, so I got her a few pieces.

It's easier to buy a few slices than to buy a whole one. That was enough for her.

I also made some dressing.

I don't care to chop veggies for dressing for some reason... But here they are:

I do well when I lay everything out like that.  I think I chopped it up while watching the news.

Here is the dressing before baking:

 Here's the finished dressing.

That was super easy because I had two slices of cornbread in the fridge. I bought one leg quarter and boiled the hell out of it. I sauteed up some mushrooms, onions, peppers and celery and that was that. Super easy. It could have used a can of chicken broth, but it was very good.

I roasted some Brussel sprouts. 

Those didn't make it over to my sister's house, as I was eating those all morning long. Maybe next time!

All in all it was a good meal. My sister cooked a ton of food. I think she just wanted to cook. Nothing wrong with that. She had friends coming through, and she has her leftovers for the week. Good for her.

And good for me. I got all my veggies. And my water in glass.

And my sister got her "Cook on".

Most important of all... we spent time together.

And that's truly what matters to me.