Scattered Sundays and Meal Plan
Steve Carrell has grey hair now and I have to say I am HERE FOR IT.
We were watching SNL (on Hulu because we’re not young enough to actually watch SNL live) and I was like “helllllllllo” when I saw him. Sign me up!
For those of you who celebrate, how was your Thanksgiving? And what I’m really asking is what is the best thing you ate all day and how is your leftovers situation? Have you tried Leftover Turkey Casserole With Rice or maybe a Simple Shepherd’s Pie With Turkey?
We ended up with 30 people at our house. It was loud, crazy, and oh so fun! Everyone brought something and we had more than enough per usual.
I had ordered a 28-pound turkey from our local butcher and it was enormous! Typically a bird that size would dry out in a heartbeat, but I used the trusty dry-brine method from Bon Appetit. It’s amazing, so easy, and produces the best results. It’s the inspiration for my post on How to Make a Perfect Roasted Chicken Every Time.
One of the best parts about Thanksgiving was two last-minute guests we were able to host. Troy’s sister’s husband had a military coworker who didn’t have a place to go for the holiday. His wife was also in the military and neither had family in the area. My sister-in-law texted me the day before asking if maybe we could squeeze in two more.
Listen, there is always room for more, even more so when it involves servicemembers! When you have enough you don’t turn people away; you just get a bigger table and put out a few more chairs. You might have to squeeze by a few more people in the living room or wait a little longer to get your food. #firstworldproblems
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. <—-legit wise stuff.
Well, I think we all know why the dinosaurs are really extinct…
Did anyone venture out to do some Black Friday shopping? I avoid it at all costs because it is a guarantee that I’ll get arrested because I truly hate crowds of stupid people. No deal is worth that. But I did support Small Business Saturday by venturing out after all the bonkers shoppers had retreated to their respective corners.
Troy and I started watching The Bodyguard (not the Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston movie) and the first 10 minutes of it I had my heart pounding and was feeling quite jumpy. We have only just started the second episode but it seems really well done and the lead is quite easy on the eyes.
Here’s something I don’t understand though and I should probably just turn on closed captioning, but…when they are talking to a woman in-charge are they saying “ma’am”, “mum”, “mon”??? I noticed this with the recent James Bond movies (when they were talking with M) and I’ve just never been able to understand exactly WTF they are saying!
I have updated my Shop this week some new goodies, so if you’re looking for awesome kitchen gear, amazing cookbooks, or other nerd stuff, take a look-see.
Comment/Review of the Week
This five-star rating for Homemade Ramen Noodle Bowls comes from Monica:
Just made a vegetarian version in about 20 min. I used Trader Joe’s Miso Ginger broth and added more white miso. Deeeeeee-lish! Thank you!
On Sustainable Cooks This Week
Homemade Ramen Noodle Bowls – An easy favorite comfort food recipe – Ramen Noodle Bowls are a crazy tasty 15-minute dinner. Everyone can build their own bowl with their favorite mix-ins and toppings.
2018 Epic AF Holiday Gift Guide – An epic gift guide with a gift, stocking stuffer, or idea for anyone on your list!
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls {Make Ahead Cinnamon Rolls} – Imagine waking up to the amazing scent of soft, gooey, and delicious homemade Overnight Cinnamon Rolls baking in your oven. Spoil your family with these fresh cinnamon buns with homemade orange cream cheese frosting.
The Five Most Popular Posts This Week
- Instant Pot Sous Vide Egg Bites
- Homemade Ramen Noodle Bowls
- Baked Brie in Puff Pastry With Roasted Garlic
- The Best Orange Cranberry Sauce
- Addicting Garlic Hummus Recipe
The Garlic Hummus recipe is an oldie but a goodie. I’ve recently updated the post a bit with new photos and shared it with the peeps over on Instagram. And this recipe had a nice little reboot. It is one of my favorite recipes and I hope you love it too!
Hop in the DeLorean
Last year the top post from this week was: Seven Things I’m Afraid to Tell You
Meal Plan
Monday:: Chef’s salads. Jack has informed he is now obsessed with hard-boiled eggs (related: Easy Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs) and loves them on salads. So there you go!
Tuesday:: Baked potato bar! I’m making Crispy Baked Potatoes and salad
Wednesday:: Trying out a new recipe. I’ll keep you posted! Or not (it could suck).
Thursday:: Frittata
Friday:: Out! Date night redux (last time Troy’s poor grandma broke her hip).
Saturday:: Trying out a new soup. Because soup RULES!
Sunday:: Family dinner
What We Bought This Week
Local butcher: $79 for our big ass free-range AF organic turkey. Troy named it Mark. It (he) fed 30 people, gave us leftovers for sandwiches, was the star of the show in a turkey version of Chicken Pot Pie Soup, and made 15 quarts of bone broth (related: How to Make Chicken Bone Broth).
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I have a British Dad. They are saying Marm, a variant of M’am. Reference to a woman in authority, like a schoolmarm 🙂
Ah ha! Thank you for the translation because it’s driving me crazy!
YAAAAS to the Body Guard! I watched it in 2 days…legit…when I was supposed to be working! The lead also played Robb Stark on Game of Thrones, which is also worth a watch if you haven’t jumped onto that wagon yet!
We are only on episode 3 (it takes us forever to get through things) but when he opened the door to the bathroom on the train, I think I peed a little. And then when the shooter came down off the roof in the second episode I’m pretty sure my shins went numb. I didn’t even know that was a thing!
I loved you before and now I love you even more! Thanks for taking in some fellow military members that were far from home. It SUCKS hard core being new to an area right before a big holiday (even if you are bah-humbug like us and don’t really celebrate). My hope next year is to celebrate Appsgiving and invite all the new folks over.
We drove all the way to Iowa (through Chicago no less) for Thanksgiving and nobody was making a Thanksgiving meal!!! Lucky for me I ordered two turkeys from a farmer friend. We are having a traditional Thanksgiving meal this weekend, and I will save the other turkey for sometime in February probably.
Is Jack sporting a Gizmo? We had one for Emma for a few years and really loved it (when we actually remembered to use it). Now my nephew has it and he has fun with it also.
I LOVE that Bennett is your sous chef. If he’s ever looking for more work, I’d be willing to hire him.
I recently splurged on myself and got my hair cut and styled. I was toying with the idea of coloring it, but once she was finished I fell back in love with my graying hair. I had to laugh because she told me a lot of people are paying money to get the same look! Only downside to how much I love my new do is now I have to relearn how to use a blow dryer and straightener.
Awwww, love you too girl!
Wait, so you went all the way to Iowa and no one was cooking? What in the world were they planning to eat?
Jack is sporting a Gizmo. We got it after I almost left him at a soccer practice where the coach never showed up (and it was far out in the boonies). I never use it to track him but we do send messages a few times a day. And he loves the pedometer aspect of it too.
Love the new hair on IG!
They did cook, but it was meatballs and some sort of sides. Most of the food wouldn’t have been anything we could eat anyway, so we just showed up after the eating was done.
I loved tracking Emma when she would take the train with Gramma. It was fun to see their progress! Most of the time though, it just got forgotten at home.
Thanks!
Oh my goodness I am glad that you mentioned Bodyguard. I hadn’t thought to check it out but I checked it out after reading your post this morning. I am really digging it! Your ramen bowls looks so yummy! I will need to try them soon. I can’t chose a best thing that I ate on Thanksgiving. There was lots of yummy stuff. The only leftover that we have is cranberry sauce. We’ll have no problems finishing the cranberry sauce, but to change things up a bit I made cranberry mustard dipping sauce to go with soft pretzels served with black bean soup tonight.
When he opened the door to the bathroom on the train I swear I peed a little!
Cranberry sauce freezes too if you need to store some for Christmas. The dipping sauce sounds awesome though.
The dipping sauce was yummy. Sadly, I finished the cranberry sauce stirred into some overnight oats this morning. I think we will need to make a double batch for Christmas. I am sad for it to be finished already. I am glad to know it freezes well!
Oh yeah, it freezes for months and months! It sounds delicious in overnight oats; so festive!!
Looooved Bodyguard! And it’s “ma’am” but the formal British pronunciation is like “marm” which in an English or Scottish accent comes out similar to how you’d say “Mom”.
THANK YOU!!!! Mystery solved at last.
I’m going to be *that* person and point out that it’s Bodyguard and not The Bodyguard; it doesn’t really clear up the Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston confusion for the uninitiated, however. I wholly apologize for being that person, too. I’ll see myself out. ???? I blame it on the fact that I’m a braille transcriber and we are German-level anal retentive about details.
Ha, ok! I’m always head down in my laptop and Troy has the remote so I usually call it “that British show”. That does help differentiate it a bit at least. LOL.