Mainly food

Friday, 9:47 pm

By Kate

Dec

22

2006

Dunno about the rest of you, but my second home this week has been the grocery store. Tonight I finished up with all the things I’d forgotten from the previous lists. Plus I bought the Christmas turkey tonight.

A few words about this twelve pound Butterball turkey—the price tag said $23.19. Isn’t that kind of steep for 12 pounds of turkey? But, of course, with my Rewards Card, the turkey only cost me $14.60. That’s a pretty hefty markup for the people who don’t have a Rewards Card. What a rip.

So anyway, having gone through my menus and recipes, I now have all ingredients for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and a couple of days after. The top request for Christmas dinner, aside from the turkey, was green vegetables. Anything green and fresh. And lots of it. Especially fresh green string beans. Never thought I’d hear that. Christmas eve must include stuffed mushrooms.

On Christmas Eve we’ll have the beef stew in the bread bowls with some stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer before we dig into the stew.

Christmas Day will be the turkey, mashed potatoes, home made stuffing, home made gravy, fresh green beans, broccoli, acorn squash with maple sugar and butter melted inside, fresh rolls, and a small spinach salad with an herby vinaigrette.

A day or two later, there will be Jumbo shells stuffed with ricotta, Parmesan, cream cheese, eggs, and herbs; smothered and baked in a combo of vodka tomato sauce and Alfredo sauce.

The left overs plus a turkey pot pie and turkey soup/stew will keep all mouths passing through the door filled for at least a week.

I’m hoping not to see the inside of a grocery store until January 2nd.

Meanwhile, the lad is off to his Dad’s house. I tracked him down and the Dad came up around 7:00. This is a man I know pretty well and I’ll tell you, I haven’t seen such unabashedly happy eyes in a long while. The man literally glowed. The lad wasn’t in the best of moods, having had to cut his day short, so I dragged him upstairs on some pretense. Once I had him out of earshot, I told him pretty bluntly that there will be few enough occasions in his life where his mere presence will light up someone’s face like that. It’s a gift and a blessing and it’s not something to be taken for granted. He has the power to make someone that amazingly happy for no other reason than the fact that he merely exists. Treasure it, kiddo. He lost his attitude on the spot. They will have a fine weekend.

And I am, admittedly, a little glad for a two day respite.