Thanksgiving, Squash Soup, anyone?

Thanksgiving, yum. I vacillate between whether Thanksgiving or Christmas is my favorite holiday, it probably depends on which one I’m getting ready for. Right now, it’s Thanksgiving. I called a halt to costume stuff (although I’ve done a little, I have to admit) so I could concentrate on Thanksgiving.

Well, I've also been getting ready for the first photo shoot with models which is on Sunday. Vintage store coming up soon! It's just my little family today, nobody else, which is both nice and low key and sad at the same time. We're a long ways from family and holidays are about family. If I had my way, we'd have everyone here every time. Ah well, reality in the form of time, money and distance intrudes.

Today has been almost all Thanksgiving – I made pie crusts early, they’re chillin’ in the fridge right now, waiting for Cody & Krystin to roll them out and do the filling. Cody is our pumpkin pie maker, he took this job on when he was about eight and at 19 makes a mean pumpkin pie. Actually he's a pretty good cook in his own right and Krystin is getting there too.

Usually he does the crust too, but I had a new recipe from Lisa I wanted to try, so, I went ahead and made that, with some adaptations. Krystin is making the pecan and I’ll do the apple, which uses a different crust – actually I use a different type of crust for each type of pie - but they both have to help peel apples, Jeff too! The turkey has been in brine for two days now, so it will be good and juicy!

Right now I’m working on squash soup. I baked my squash and sweet potatoes (for sweet potato casserole) earlier; carrots are sautéing right now, waiting for the addition of onions, garlic and ginger. Then I’ll add my spices, a little flour and the squash. Some broth, salt & pepper and we’re good to go. It gets put away until tomorrow, because soup is always better the second day! Still to do today, sweet potato casserole filling, cranberry orange relish and the beginnings of cherry, pecan & pine nut dressing.

Taking a recipe break, here’s my squash soup recipe – approximately. I’m going to write it as I do it, and hopefully can get the proportions right instead of trying to remember after the fact. This is Squash Soup with attitude. 

I've had the sweet kind of squash soup, it always tastes like baby food to me. I prefer a bit of a kick and so does my family. Especially at Thanksgiving, where we already have so many sweets a curried squash soup with a bit of a kick makes a nice counterpoint.

I used four squash this time – three “carnival” squash and one butternut. I like the combination of flavors. They are all baked, now I just have to scoop out the insides and puree them. I know people frequently cut them & scoop out the innards before baking but I find it easier to just bake the whole thing at a low temperature, let it cool and then clean it out and scoop out the flesh. 

Squash Soup – Makes a lot – probably 14 or 16 servings

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1/3  cup butter (real stuff, not margarine – ugh)

4 squash, baked – I like to mix and match varieties to give the flavor more depth.

2 onions (I like to use one yellow spanish onion and one sweet onion – I like the combination)

5 or 6 cloves of garlic

About 5 or 6 carrots, peeled & roughly sliced, or a couple of handfuls of baby carrots.

About an inch or so of fresh ginger, peeled & roughly chopped or sliced

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp curry powder

¼ - ½ tsp cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you like it.

1/3 – 1/2 cup flour (how thick do you like your soup?)

½ - ¾ cup cream or half & half

Crème Fraiche or Sour Cream

Home-made croutons 
 
About 6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock (I usually make my own, but I thought I had a bunch in the freezer and went looking only to find that I’d already used it and didn’t replace it – so Krystin had to make an emergency run to the grocery store because I didn't have enough base on hand!).


Honestly, that’s something that should always be on hand!
Melt butter in olive oil at medium low (melting butter in olive oil keeps it from burning, plus it’s healthier without sacrificing the flavor of butter).

Add carrots, sauté for a few minutes – maybe four minutesAdd onions, garlic and ginger, sauté until tender. Add spices & cook a minute or two. Add squash, sauté a few more minutes, add flour.

 Slowly stir in about a cup or two of the stock. Once it’s smooth (the base mixture, there will be vegetable lumps!), turn off burner, take the pan off and let it cool a just a little.
 

Transfer to the food processor in batches and pulse until smooth and return to pan. If you prefer a chunkier soup, only puree about half the vegetable mixture but you might want to use a potato masher on the squash. My family likes squash soup smooth, so I puree the whole bunch.

Add the rest of the stock. Simmer for about 30 – 45 minutes. Add Salt & Pepper to taste.

If serving immediately, you can add about ½ - ¾ cup cream and make sure it’s heated through. Serve with home-made croutons & a dollop of crème fraiche or sour cream.

If saving for the next day (like I do –I promise, it really is better!), refrigerate. The next day, take as much as you want to serve and reheat on low. Add a little cream (if you’re not using the whole batch, use less – you’ll have to eyeball and use your own judgment, I always freeze some for later unless I have a big group. Squash soup makes a great starter for a winter dinner party!). Heat through & serve with the Crème Fraiche or Sour Cream & croutons. Enjoy the raves. 

This was some truly fantastic squash soup.

This post actually started yesterday while waiting for vegetables to saute, so hopefully everyone else has a Thanksgiving to be thankful for too, I know I did. Once we finally finished cooking (the turkey took about an hour longer than it was supposed to - why does that always happen?), it was great to sit down and eat. It always amazes me that two days of cooking culminates in a meal where we sit at the table for maybe an hour, at the most?

 Crazy, but totally worth it.

After dinner, we played Clue, which went amazingly quickly considering we were all halfway asleep because most of our blood had deserted our brains in favor of our stuffed stomachs. Then we watched James Bond.  Both kids were home and it was lovely. I have a lot to be thankful for.

Room full of Teens & my "issues" Oh boy.

My TV room is full of teens right now. A bunch of my daughters’ friends who are in the high school musical with her (for which I’m doing costumes – oh yes, my latest full-time job I am not getting paid for and can obsess about at 3 AM) are here. Today was their last day of school before Thanksgiving break. They are watching The Breakfast Club, one of my favorites when I was the same age, which I find pretty funny. A few of them had to leave early due to the Michigan driving law that 16 year old drivers have to be home by 10pm unless they’re returning from a school sponsored activity. A law I am fully in favor of, for the record.

I picked Krystin up from rehearsal at about 6:45 tonight and when she said people were coming over at 7:30 I pretty much freaked out.  I have literally done nothing but costuming for the show for the past two weeks because we were so far behind when I came on board as staff. My house is an absolute disaster – I am SO not exaggerating. Thanksgiving is in one day and I have done NOTHING to prepare. Right now I’m waiting for brine to cool so I can put my turkey into it (brining turkeys makes them so yummy – if you haven’t tried it before do it!). So the thought of a houseful of people tonight just about put me over the edge – I don’t like surprises anyhow, I really don’t and I also hate having people in my house when it’s not clean.

My poor reaction to surprises is well documented. During high school (any high school friends I’m still in touch with who read this will attest! Unfortunately.) I had friends show up early in the morning to take me to breakfast a few different times (on my birthday at least twice) and I refused to go. I have actually progressed, I would never do that now and I’m mortified when I think about how rude I was at the time to people who were trying to do something nice. It’s a good thing they are and were good people and much nicer than me.

The fact that I actually do have a group of teenagers in the next room is a testimony to progress in my ongoing battle to be more flexible. I’m trying, I really am. Living in England helped with that, no question. For those who don’t get that reference, in England, when you tell someone, “we’ll have to have tea or lunch sometime” that means show up at my house anytime you feel like it, which definitely took me by surprise! About tonight though, I have to say, none of the kids seem to care what a mess my house is – which is what Krystin said - although they could be just being polite.  They are an extremely well mannered bunch – obviously brought up well. : )  

To be fair, my daughter did ask me about it beforehand, but it was when I was doing something else and I didn’t really pay attention to the day she was talking about. I thought she meant a day AFTER Thanksgiving during the long weekend. She didn’t. My ‘freakage’ really wasn’t fair to her and I did apologize for my reaction (over) and obviously agreed to let her plans continue.  I just don’t do well with last minute stuff; I’m a planner, big time. I always get things done; I just get them done more effectively if I can plan for it first. It’s probably good for me to have to adapt on occasion because I can easily get obsessive.

I have some theories on why I am so distressed by abrupt schedule changes (amateur psychological analysis is one of my obsessions and I read a lot, which is why I know it’s pretty a pretty common characteristic for children who grow up with a parent with mental illness). My dad definitely has tendencies in the direction of rigid scheduling, which probably contributes as well. I think I’ve taken it much further and so have some of my siblings, but not all which contributes to my firm belief in both nurture AND nature.

I think a large part of it (my problem with spontaneity) is probably because of a deep desire to have stability in my life as a child. Growing up with a mother who often didn’t deal with reality (rarely, actually, unless reality was happy and positive and kind of like a Disney movie – something I never believed - otherwise, she came up with her own version and woe betide anyone who threatened that) had a huge effect on me and my siblings, as did her tendency to forget about us and leave us places waiting to be picked up, for hours and hours sometimes and occasionally not at all. We walked and cadged rides a lot.

I have tried, very hard, not to pass along my weird issues to my children, I really have. I think for the most part I’ve been successful, but have no doubt they will have their own issues that come up later stemming from their parents, i.e., me probably, I just hope it’s nothing major.  If that sounds like a weird thing to hope for, well, you probably grew up “normal.” Welcome to world many of us deal with, the world where you grow up with parents with issues. That’s kind of just the way it is for many people although I do think the more widespread knowledge and understanding of what mental illness is and availability of parenting books has helped.

There aren’t a lot of people who are so well-adjusted they just move forward without having to get over destructive learned behaviors. I didn’t used to believe there were any, but I’ve since come across that very real minority. Personally, I can’t imagine it but I envy it at the same time and I hope my children fit into that group, I want that for them. An acquaintance who is a well known and much awarded professional theatre director told me some time ago it made me a more interesting person and a better actor. It’s definitely made me a more empathetic person. I’m not at all sure that mental instability is a good characteristic for a field where substance abuse and fawning, insincere followers and sharks abound, but hey, it’s good to be interesting, right? Just as long as you don’t cross the line from interesting to “psycho pain in the ass!” 

At any rate, the kids have all gone home now and I think my brine is cool enough, time to get my turkey in there and get to bed. Sleep, well, hopefully for at least a few hours. Tomorrow is pie, stuffing, cranberry relish and sweet potato day! I love Thanksgiving and I really do have a lot to be thankful for. Mashed potatoes and gravy rock. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Yeesh, or Holy Smoking Tomatoes, Batman!

Honestly. I don’t know what else to say about the past week. My kids high school, Brighton High School, is putting on Legally Blonde, The Musical in January. The first high school in the country to do it, which is pretty darn cool! It’s going to be an awesome show. So how does this affect me, you might ask?  Oh, let me tell you.

They couldn’t find anyone to head up costumes. I was feeling a little guilty about not volunteering, after all, I do have some experience in this area, but I was dealing with my guilt. Really, I was fine.  After all, I’m trying to start a new business (which came to a temporary screeching halt just over a week ago) and have about a billion projects going on, plus a family to take care of.

Then, my friend Lisa, whom I have mentioned before, told the directors that I was really the person they needed. I was still living in blissful ignorance when she called one morning and right after my hello said, “don’t kill me, just listen, don’t kill me!” That is never a good start to a phone call. For the record, I didn’t kill her, although the thought did cross my mind a time or two. : )

The long and the short of it, they were desperate, I caved. So I am now the costume crew head for the BHS production of Legally Blonde. Nothing like coming on board as staff for a show after it’s already been in production for over a month. Yes, there was – and is -  a lot of work to do. Fortunately, Lisa is helping a lot, thank goodness. I couldn’t do it without her.

Anyone who has ever costumed a full length musical production with a large cast (70 this time) and multiple costume changes for almost every character (except one!), will understand what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, there’s really no way to explain it, except to say that normally when costuming a show you start months before auditions. Imagine an enormous presentation/project at work in six months that could result in a million dollar deal, or writing a thesis and you’re starting to get there. There is a ton of scene/character breakdowns and organizing that has to be done before you can even give anyone else stuff to do or actually start on the costumes themselves, so yeah, there was and is a lot to do. I now have yet another reason to wake up at 3:30 or 4:00 AM with lists of various things running through my mind.

When I say I have done nothing but costumes for the past week, I am not kidding. I slept a little, ate occasionally, but mostly, just sat here working, for about ten hours a day. My behind is permanently numb and my legs work only slightly now. My family (who look vaguely familiar at this point) can attest to that.

Thank goodness, the breaking down and organizing part is done enough so now I can hand out stuff to other parents who volunteered to help (although that is a shockingly small number – have you ever noticed that it’s always the same people who end up doing everything?) and start on actual costumes. This is a good thing, because I have to give some time to the rest of my life AND getting my website up! Oh, yeah, the work and make money stuff. Kind of need to do that.

I am not going to make getting it up by Thanksgiving, which was my goal and really sucks. However, it was my choice to take on the costumes, inconvenient though it is. Due to time constraints it’s been a while since I’ve been involved in theatre at all and even longer since I’ve costumed a show. This has made me remember how much I enjoy it. I love working with teens, I really do. The production team is a great, dedicated group who are fun to work with and I’m meeting some other parents whom I enjoy as well, so, it’s a good thing, even if it is incredibly time consuming.

My friend Richard (Richard Lim, of Richard Lim Photography, Howell, MI) has offered to do my first round of photos for me, which is REALLY exciting and super generous of him! Obviously, the photos will probably turn out just a little better (ha – just a hint of sarcasm) than those taken in my TV room with my cheapish camera! This is good in that it also is forcing me to turn attention back to the other things in my life that need to be done (Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK for goodness sake – how did that happen?!). I can no longer push the rest of my life aside for the costumes.

I do tend to get a little obsessive about things sometimes, I’ll admit. When I start a project, I don’t want anything else to intrude until it’s done and done the way I want it done. Which means, having someone else whose schedule I’m working with is forcing me to step back from the costumes and work on my business; I needed the push.

Of course, little things like feeding my family, paying bills and all the other bazillion details that go into running a home need some attention as well. Plus – Thanksgiving! Holy crap! I have to go grocery shopping!

All right, gotta go, got stuff to do!

Hardly Martha Stewart - but I'm good with that.

Ok, let’s get this out of the way right now; I am far, far from a domestic goddess. Yes, I love to cook and I’m pretty damn good at it but I am far from perfect in the home department. I pretty much detest housework and procrastinate it often and well.  It’s a good thing no one can see my basement right now, although the guy who always does our furnace and air tune ups assures me it’s far from the worst he’s seen. Although I’m not sure if he’s just trying to make me feel better – he’s a really nice guy. At any rate, I will not be winning any Martha Stewart clone contests.

That being said, now that I’m focusing on being happy and what I want and need to do not what I think I should do, starting my own business (honestly, my main financial goal is to pay someone else to do my housework! The rest of it is just fun!) and enjoying the mental freedom of deciding to do my own thing, I am spending a lot more time working on creative home endeavors (why it took me living here for fifteen years before I realized I can change things in MY house? That’s a topic for another post!). Right now I’m in the process of re-doing Krystins’ bedroom (along with the 500 other projects I have going - you think I'm exaggerating? You should see my list!). 

The last time we did it she was eleven, so her tastes have changed a bit and she’s been through a really rough year. So I caved. The deal was she was supposed to help, that hasn’t worked out so well – mostly because now that she’s in school she has very little free time and in August when I started, she had a kind of relapse health-wise and was pretty out of it.  My initial plan was to have it done before the end of the summer, but other stuff and, again, the darn pneumonia got in the way. So now I’m back on track, sort of, while trying to get my vintage business online before the holiday shopping season gets going.

I painted her walls (she picked the colors, one Fuchsia wall, two aqua walls and one sort of white one. Painting is great, it’s sort of a Zen like activity, it’s the taping I hate. So boring. I also pulled out her carpet last August (before pneumonia!) and put down a new floor. It’s the same sort of white as the walls. Basically I glued down brown contractor paper in uneven tears, went over it with an off white glaze (the same color as her big wall) and then covered the whole thing with several layers of polyurethane. It looks pretty good, which reminds me, I need to start taking before and after pictures! I'd take a picture of her floor but I can no longer see it under the layers of clothing.

She wants a vintage type of feel so we’re incorporating that. I’m currently working on a nightstand using a cool wooden tray I found, which I am lacquering black (her accent color). The original plan was to use a couple of really interesting huge iron candlesticks I found for the base, but it just didn’t work balance-wise, the tray is too big, so they'll wait for another project!

Fortunately, on my antique auction trip (first one as a dealer – woo-hoo! Check out my other blog - Vintage Life & Design) I nabbed a couple of wrought iron table bases for $2.50 each (yes, that's two dollars and fifty cents) and one of them is perfect. The other one will someday be a mosaic patio table base. Only problem, it- the one that's the right size - was covered in rust and really wobbly. Yes, another project before I can finish the current project. Yep, that’s just how I roll. I actually did take some pics, although I didn’t remember until half-way through the project, but, it is progress!

Here’s the table base (cleaned up –really should have taken a before!):

It was completely caked with rust. So I soaked it in apple cider vinegar for 48 hours and went at it with a wire brush (my trusty wire brush is featured in the photo). It cleaned up pretty well, but the bolts and nuts were still so tightly rusted they wouldn’t budge. Bummer, because I was really hoping the vinegar would do the trick. It’s been sitting for a couple of days waiting for me to get around to it again and today was the day since I was stuck waiting around until the oven repair person decided to show.

Here’s what the bolts & nuts looked like AFTER the vinegar soak and lots of elbow grease with a stiff wire brush:

 

  So this afternoon I soaked the rusted bolts with penetrating oil a few times, wacked ‘em with a hammer a few times and they finally loosened up enough that I could tighten them. It was harder than it sounds because I had to hold the bolt tightly enough to keep it still with the giant pliers while using the wrench to tighten the nut, which really wanted to stick with the bolt.  My hands hurt for about half an hour afterwards and I was covered with oily, rusty residue, but it worked, yeah!

Next step, obviously, clean the rust off the tools – kind of like cleaning up as you cook – makes everything better and you don't have a huge mess to clean up at the end.

I couldn’t find the WD-40 in Jeff’s workshop – even though I swear I saw it the other day - so used the 3 in 1 oil.  Over a bunch of newspaper I drenched the working ends and used an old toothbrush to get it all off, then wiped them down with a rag. 

Next, get the penetrating oil off the table base so it will hold paint.

Soaked it in water with Dawn dish washing detergent for about ten minutes (it doesn’t leave a residue – hey, if it’s good enough for tractor enthusiasts who want to take apart old rusty tractors and repaint them, it’s good enough for me!) and again used the old toothbrush. Rinsed it thoroughly in water and then again in water with a little bit of vinegar just to make sure there wasn’t any oil left. Vinegar, in case you didn't know, is the miracle liquid. It can leap tall buildings in a single bound, oh wait, that's Superman; but you get the idea.

After it was completely rinsed and blotted dry I used a hair dryer on it (because I am in Michigan and I don’t want any more rust to form! I just spent three days trying to get rid of enough rust I could work with the base!). Now it sits patiently waiting until tomorrow when I will spray paint it black (if it’s not raining again).

So the saga of the nightstand will wait another day. I still need to attach the tray, fill in the screw holes, sand them down and repaint it. It will be sweet.

I am also refinishing a desk that I’ve had sitting in the garage for fifteen years (because I loved it but didn’t have anywhere to put it - plus we were in England for three years, so it's really only twelve).  Krystin needs a desk and it’s the right style (Queen Anne) for her room. Imagine my excitement (if you’re not an antique nut you probably can’t, but try) when after several days of stripping (seriously, there were six coats of paint, on top of various layers of varnish on this thing!), I found that my $10 garage sale desk is a Cavalier desk made by the Tennessee Furniture Co., sometime between 1905 and 1938 and conservatively worth  probably around $400 - $500! 

I LOVE it when that happens! Not that I’ll sell it, but it’s just awesome. I have to do some veneer and carving repairs and will probably have to paint it rather than lacquer, which was my original plan. Unfortunately. Someone painted it a long time ago, it looks like before it was stained, and the paint has actually soaked into the wood in many places. I can’t get it off without damaging the wood and it will show through the lacquer I was going to use. Bummer, but oh well, it’s still a beautiful piece of furniture and will look great in her room (if she will just keep it – her room - picked up!).  

So, if I were even partly as together as Martha Stewart (apart from the whole insider trading thing, not real keen on a prison stay, actually) or my friend Lisa, who Martha Stewart has nothing on and has never been to prison, plus she’s way cooler, prettier and one of my best friends; my house would be perfectly put together, clean AND I would have done everything else I did today. Needless to say, it’s not. Although I did put corned beef & cabbage in the crock pot this morning so we do have dinner tonight. Three days of spaghetti was pushing it (although it is really great spaghetti sauce! I'll post the recipe when I have time to think about recreating.).

I also learned how to change the element in the oven, so if my element ever goes out again, I can fix it myself. Pretty cool, huh? My Dad told me it wasn’t hard to do and that I should watch the repair guy when he did it. So I did, even though I think it made him a little uncomfortable, but too bad, I paid for it, I can watch if I want to, buddy, deal with it! Actually he was very nice once he realized I really was watching to see how to do it. I think he thought at first I suspected him of trying to pull a fast one somehow. Like I'd know if he did until I tried to use the oven and it still didn't work.

On the downside, my oven now works so I don't have an excuse to redo my kitchen. On the upside, we really can't afford to redo the kitchen, so it's a good thing. Cody can still go to college (ok if you really think I would use my son's college money to redo my kitchen, well, I wouldn't. I might be tempted, but I wouldn't.).

And there you have it, a day in my life. This is why I go too long between blog updates - I do too many things at once and only sometimes manage to finish them within a day. Several hours working on business start up stuff, a couple more cataloging items, trying to figure out how to connect my FB business page to my Etsy account – still not quite there yet I swear FB has a vendetta against me for some reason - learning how to put in a new oven element, tightening bolts on a table base and we’re not eating leftovers tonight. I also put in a couple of hours of writing so I hit all my “must do’s!” It was a good day.

I still have three baskets of clean clothes I haven’t put away, towels & sheets to wash, a dirty bathroom (ok, two) and an entire downstairs that needs to be dusted and vacuumed, but I can live with that – not like it’s going anywhere, after all - unfortunately. How was your day?