An update to the most recent MIL saga

As expected my MIL freaked out when I responded to my BILs email saying "the reason we never responded was because we were never actually invited".

Completely unexpected was that she actually responded to me.   Well partially.   She responded to me and said that Hubby and I were most certainly invited - she sent an email to Hubby and BIL to check on dates.   Also, that the dates I recommended (Monday before Christmas, Monday after Christmas) wouldn't work because FIL teaches on Mondays.

She then emailed Hubby an invitation for hanukkah (see, we were invited...) and then emailed Hubby a separate email saying they would look at the calendar and see what can be arranged, that we were most certainly invited, despite my response to BILs email, and that they wanted Hubby to call MIL because they "are quite upset at this turn of events".   Then MIL called Hubby 3 times that morning.

At the same time, SIL asked if I wanted them to push the Monday thing, or if I just wanted to get out of going.   I told her not to worry about it, but she decided to push it and here are the responses they got:
- FIL teaches class that night (the night after Christmas)
Oh, schools are closed for holiday break?   Then...
- FIL has a faculty meeting that night (again - the night after Christmas)
Oh, you say that's the day after Christmas?  Then...
- MIL has a faculty reception that night (not only the night after Christmas, but she works at a catholic school)

Then she went on to tell SIL and BIL that with family's growing, we can't always be together for the holidays because we have other family committments.

So let's review:
- The email MIL claims to have sent to Hubby and BIL was ONLY sent to BIL, and only had BILs email address on it, not hubby's. (again, because they don't care about us since we don't have offspring)
- The invite that was sent after I pointed out that we weren't invited, was sent AFTER the fact, therefore it just doesn't count!
- MIL continues to make craptastic excuses as to what they have on that Monday after Christmas - No one is working or has a holiday reception when you work for a community college and a catholic college!   I bet a lot of money that I could drive by their house that night, and they would both be home doing nothing.
- MIL continues to use the excuse of "as family's grow we can't all get together for holidays".   This is the second time that we weren't invited to a holiday function (in my opinion, completely on purpose) and then MIL eventually used this excuse about families growing and not always being able to spend holidays together. 
- Subpoint - my sisters are able to spend the holidays with both sides of the family and their families on both sides are the same size or larger.   Do any of you have both sides living in the same town, and just can't see them both for some reason?
 
The final result is that we will not be seeing them for the holiday, BUT I guarantee we receive an email or phone call in the next couple weeks asking when we are gonna come see them...

P.S. Look out in the next week for my "Dear MIL" letters that I would love to send!

$905,000 wasn't enough

Being the superintendent of Philadelphia must be an awesome job:
- You get paid $350,000 a year.
- You get to hire all your friends to sit in an office with a cushy job and get paid six figures.
- You run the district into a $630 million deficit
- You get paid $905,000 to leave your job
- After getting paid $905,000, you get to file for unemployment and get paid $573 weekly

Obviously, that isn't really how it goes down - but thats how it went down for Arlene Ackerman with that last bullet point just coming out in the news.   There are thousands of people out of a job because of her inability to keep a balanced budget (or even semi-close to a balanced budget).   Those same people receive unemployment checks that are probably half of what she is getting and they struggle to survive on it, and they pray to get a new job before the checks run out.

There are others, like my hubby, who lost his job and then lost his fight for unemployment benefits because his company claimed he quit, and it was he said-she said.   Ackerman was virtually got fired (and got paid to leave) and yet she gets to take money from the government that is STRUGGLING to stay above water.

I understand that we all pay into unemployment, and its your right to take the benefits, but at some point you have to listen to your better judgement.   Additionally, at some point, the government needs to stand up and say that the rich can't take money from the poor!

So many yummy desserts

There are a ton of desserts Ive been eyeing since I started to follow a bunch of different food bloggers the last month or so.   I starred the recipes and was just waiting until I had time to make them, which finally started to come this weekend

I was able to make a couple (and reviewed them here), but I made another one on Sunday so I could bring with me to Sunday dinner with my family.   

I had leftover desserts from Thanksgiving that I brought, so I didn't really need to make another cookie, but I had the butter out for softening, and I really wanted to try these, so I squeezed the time into the day to get it done.  

I put about 20-25 cookies on the plate for 8 of us, plus I brought the leftover pumpkin, white chocolate and mac nut cookies and 3/4 of a strawberry/rhubarb pie (no recipe as it came from the store) - and in addition to finishing off the pie, we pretty much finished off the new dessert (in addition to making a dent into the pumpkin cookies). 

It was so good, that I had requests for the recipe - so now that I got you all excited and never even mentioned the cookie - you wanna know what it is?

Too bad, just wanted to get you all excited :)

Obviously, Im just kidding.   They were caramel apple cider cookies and you can find the yummy delicious recipe here.   I would agree that you should heat the cookies up in the microwave for a quick 5 seconds to warm up the caramel inside, but even if you don't they still are fully of tons of yummy-ness as we never heated them up.

Enjoy!

Waiting for the phones to start ringing

I just replied to an email with a good deal of inferred attitude towards my MIL and I know the phones will start a-ringing as soon as she reads the email.

I got an email from my SIL this morning asking if we were ever invited to celebrate Hanukkah with my ILs because they were invited with a variety of dates to choose from and when they responded asking whether we were invited my ILs said that they have not heard back from us.

Guess why they never heard back??   You should be able to guess really easily. 

Ready to see if you guessed right?   Im confident you probably did.

We never responded because we were never invited!!  No phone calls, no emails, no nothing.  

My BIL responded to MILs email and included us in on it to say what worked for them and ask us.   I then responded to all thanking my BIL for inviting us and bluntly stating "we never responded because we were never actually invited".   Unlike my MIL, I was taught not to lie - so I just stated the truth - maybe with a little attitude, but oh well, Im sick of their lies.

Let's see if she faces the truth head on and calls Hubby to yell at Hubby (ie us) and say how untrue that is (she lies so much she believes her own lies) and say how rude it is or if she hides from the truth and just ignores the email because she knows we caught her in the lie.   I guess the former.   Whatever the case, she will never actually face me about it - she is too afraid of me :)

The Thanksgiving Feast - Dessert Edition

Yesterday I reviewed the recipes I made for the main meal, and today I wanted to share some of the desserts we had on the dessert buffet table.   I had my guests provide the desserts, but then as I was procrastinating on cleaning the house on Wednesday and couldn't start the turkey and sides until Thursday morning, I decided to make some sweet recipes that Ive had my eyes on.

A couple weeks ago, I gave some ideas of what to do with leftover halloween candy, and I couldn't wait to make to make the recipe for leftover halloween candy bark.   So while I was doing my food shopping for Thanksgiving, I decided to also buy the ingredients I didn't have to be able to make this.   Instead of using bittersweet chocolate, I had dark chocolate chips on hand, so I used those instead.   Other than that, I followed the recipe.   It was good, but the idea sounded better than the product for me - but others really like this one - which was evidenced not only by the response, but also by the minimal amount left.

That wasn't the only candy bark I made though.   I also saw this recipe for halloween candy corn bark on one of the blogs I follow, and since I LOVE LOVE LOVE candy corn and white chocolate, this was right up my alley.   I have to admit - I can't wait to make some more!   Its almost gone and it was really good.   My one sister found this to be too sweet, but she also admittedly has the same issue with white chocolate  which accounts for this.    With that being said, I love the level of sweetness, but it could definitely go for a little less oreos (maybe 10 instead of 14) and a little more pretzels (maybe 2 cups)

The last thing I made was this recipe for pumpkin cookies with a few substitutions.   My turkey day surely was not a kosher affair (although it was a kosher turkey) so there was no reason to use margarine in place of butter, as butter is yummier, bakes better and isn't full of the trans fats that margarine is.  Also, I don't like walnuts, so I substituted macadamia nuts as they are a great compliment to white chocolate.    There also was another change to the recipe that wasn't on purpose.   While making the cookies, I was grinding sea salt into the recipe for the small amount of salt when my salt grinder broke and the sea salt went pouring into the batter.   I was able to pick most of it out, but there were plenty of sea salt rocks that I did not get out, so there was more salt than should be and it was in the form of rocks and not ground.   Many of the cookies do not give that salty flavor, but the ones that do still taste good, but I also like salted caramel and such.

But even better than these recipes were some of the desserts my guests brought.   Hubby's Aunt and Uncle (FILs brother) made two AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS pies that she made last year as well.   From here on out - this is what they will always be bringing :)   If you want to try your hand at these recipes, you can find them on her blog here: Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie.

Another of hubby's aunts (MILs sister) brought her yummy brownies.   I don't know this recipe - but she has been to three of our gatherings and brought these brownies each time - and I wouldn't have it any other way.   I am not a big chocolate lover - but these are nice and fudgy and perfect for chocolate lovers and chocolate not-so-lovers!

And for the healthier options, my mom brought some delicious fruit, which amazingly was the first thing taken by two of the kids (even before the "dinner").   To accompany the fruit, I made a healthy pumpkin dip - it tasted good, but was overlooked by the yummy, unhealthy stuff - which just means more for me when I try to get back on diet today (or more like Monday when I can "dump" all the unhealthy food on my co-workers).

A Thanksgiving Feast

For the second year in a row, Hubby and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house, with a lunchtime buffet, for our family (minus MIL and FIL) and in addition to having a great time with our family, we had some yummy (and not so yummy) food, and I wanted to share the recipes I made and the reviews.

Hubby carving his first turkey

The center of any Thanksgiving is (supposed to be) the turkey.   Although we hosted Thanksgiving last year, my parents graciously made the turkey last year, so this was my first time making the turkey and hubby's first time carving the turkey.

"Grilling" our turkey

For our turkey, I was searching different recipes, when I randomly found this one for BBQ Turkey.   I really don't know how I found it, but it really caught my eye and sounded really interesting, so as soon as I saw it I knew it was the one, so we grilled our turkey.   As you can see from the picture, although it cooked on the grill, we really didn't grill it, in all reality the grill was just an outdoor oven, as it was cooked in the roasting pan.

Some of the turkey plated - YUM!

As for the recipe, I did make some adjustments.   I couldn't in my right mind include 2 - TWO! - cups of butter in and on the turkey.   That's EIGHT (correction - this is FOUR, which is still a lot of) STICKS!    I think in the end, I used 1/2 stick to a stick, so about 1/8 cup to 1/4 cup - much more reasonable.    For the chicken soup base, I was going to use chicken stock, but all I had was chicken broth, so I used that.   For the onions and apples, I cut all that up, but I barely crammed 2/3 of it in, so I just threw the rest around the turkey to add to the gravy flavor.   I also only used about 1/2 of the bottle in the turkey, so I also put that in the roasting pan to keep everything moist and add flavor.   Then I just let it cook.     I set my alarm for 4 hours, but for some reason it never went off and 45 minutes after it was supposed to go off I realized I never took the turkey off.   The sugar in the (dry) wine caused some burning, but it didn't burn the turkey or anything - and it all turned out delicious!   I actually would probably overcook again to add that flavor to the turkey and the gravy.

Now, although the turkey is the center of Thanksgiving, everyone really fills their plates up with the sides (as I just ate a plate of leftover sides - YUMMY!), so that is really where I put a lot of my thought and time.   I had everything planned out for the recipes and then the night before when I started one of the sides that could be made early and reheated, I realized I didn't look at the recipes to see how many the recipe was able to serve - UH OH!!!  With that, I used what I had on hand to increase the serving sizes, all of which worked out fine but one of which could have been better, so without further ado - the sides:

The soup simmering...

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup - My sister is allergic to apples, so I substituted pears for apples.   That same sister is also a vegetarian, so I used veggie broth instead of chicken broth.   Other than that, I followed the recipe (btw - its missing the step where you are supposed to saute the leeks in step 2) and it was AWESOME!





Mashed Cauliflower - You can follow any recipe, but here is just a sample.   I made way more of this than needed - what can I say I have that jewish gene in me that makes me provide way more food than necessary.   For this, there really is no need for the reserved liquid, and you just need a tiny amount of oil for liquid and flavor.   I also then baked it to try and crisp the top and remove some of the extra liquid.   I thought this came out great and I got some good reviews.

Cranberry-Pear Sauce

Cranberry Pear Sauce - Typically we just have canned cranberry sauce, but I really wanted try to make one this year.   I was very pleased with this recipe.    Also, my brother-in-law made a gelatin cranberry sauce that was really good, so if I get that recipe, I will share.




Sweet Potato Casserole - This is one of the recipes that I realized I might not have enough, but I happened to have a can of Yams, so I used that to supplement the sweet potatoes.  I also didn't add the pecans because Im not a fan of them, and I also killed the health factor by doing a little more than scattering the marshmallows.   But with that, I also made a smaller one without the marshmallows for the vegetarian family members and those that don't want all the sweetness.   I think the fact that this was pretty much gone sums up its rating.

Spinach Gratin - I kinda screwed this one up - and I wasn't a fan of it, and I don't think others were either.   There were tons of leftovers, but I do have to say it was better the next day, but still not something I would make again.   Now with all that being said, I really didn't follow the recipe and did some other things to mess this up.

• I didn't think it was gonna be enough so I added an extra package of spinach and then guess-timated what I needed to add from the other ingredients without actually sitting down and doing the math
• I put the spinach in the fridge overnight to defrost, but forgot to take it out in the morning to fully defrost.   Because of that, the spinach was still pretty much frozen, and I decided to take my chances and rush it and didn't take the time to defrost it under hot water and squeeze out all the liquid.   I tried to soak some of it up with some extra flour
• I used 1% milk instead of 2% because I knew we would never drink the extra milk leftover if it was 2% (I usually buy skim milk)
• I put A LOT of parmesan cheese in there to again soak up the extra liquid - which it didn't do at all.
• I didn't bother to measure the cheese on top and just loaded it up

I might give the recipe another shot later on following it more accurately, maybe add a little more salt and nutmeg because it still needed some flavor - possibly add another spice, just not sure what.

Beer Cornbread - would go great with Chili

Beer Cornbread - I made this using yeungling.   It was good, but probably would have been really good with a lighter beer like a Hefeweizen (Blue Moon).








Check back tomorrow for some of the dessert recipes...

Happy Thanksgiving

Hubby and my first turkey - cooked on the grill!

I want to wish all of my friends, family and followers a very Happy Thanksgiving!   On this thanksgiving, there is much to be thankful for...

• the amazing husband I have.   He loves me even when I'm an anal, OCD wife and annoy the crap out of him - even if he doesn't admit it, I know its true :)
• great parents who are always there for us when we need help, even when I don't admit it or ask for the help.
• two great sisters who are always my best friends even when I just want to fight like we did when we were younger (and man did we fight)
• great extended family, new and old.   Its always great to see them, hang out and catch up!  Wish we could do it more often.
• some of the best friends in the world, even if I don't get the chance to talk to them as often as I'd like, we can still pick up a phone and talk for hours.
• two lovable and amazing dogs that we rescued from the streets in the south.
• the fact that Hubby and I are both gainfully employed for only the second time since we have been together in 2008.
• that after a couple years at work, I'm finally really enjoying myself, my coworkers and my boss.
• that I'm able to afford the mortgage on my house, the utilities to heat and cool our house, the food in our house and all the "extra's" that allow us to live the life that we do - even when we struggle, we still live much more comfortably than many others.
• for the great thanksgiving lunch with my family and some yummy food

Overall, I'm very thankful for this great life I have to live with some very amazing friends and family who stand by me through all the ups and downs.

What are you all thankful for?