Happy Thanksgiving!

Last Thanksgiving I wrote this:

'Apple thing' is a favorite around here. I never would have guessed when I first tried it out last year but it was well received and back by popular demand this year. As to how it got stuck with the name 'apple thing', I made the mistake of writing down 'apple thing' on my list of steps to take (so everything would finish at approximately the same time) and times to take them. I place the list on the counter. Everyone who goes in the kitchen reads the list. Now everyone calls it apple thing. I bet there's a real name for it. Don't tell me. I'm happy with it as is.

As a public service, I give you the Apple thing recipe:

Pour two cans of apple pie filling in a round pyrex lidded bowl and top with crumb cake topping and cook it with the turkey for the last half hour. (you can do it in any pyrex dish so long as there's a lid - I just happen to have a round one I like.)

Topping: pour out a mound of Bisquick into the bottom of a medium sized mixing bowl, don't ask me how many quarts or what, just medium, and the mound - well lets say a couple cups. It doesn't quite fill half the medium bowl.

Add 3/4 of a stick of butter, about a half cup of brown sugar, a generous dash of cinnamon - mush it up 'til it's all clumpy. Pour it over the apple pie filling.

Should I write a cookbook or what? I think it would go well with icecream. Serve warm or cold. We like it warm.

I was talking to my daughter about the Thanksgiving dinner shopping I did the other day. She asked me at the end of my recitation "What about applething?" Oh goodness, I'd forgotten to get the canned apple filling for applething!

This morning my daughter arrived from SoCal around 9 am. I picked her up at the airport and our first stop before home was the grocery to get the apple thing stuff and something for her to drink (our fridge has my Arizona Diet Green Tea, the hubby's apple juice, a couple bottles of Romulan Ale and a couple Bud Lights. Oh, milk. And a bottle of Mead.)

Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same for my daughter without applething.

I also wrote last year:

Things I really need to buy at Williams Sonoma:

* A ricer, I heard a chef on NPR say that was the best way to make mashed potatoes
* A good oven thermometer, I have NO IDEA when my oven has pre-heated. My old stove had a little light that went out. This one has no such indicator. I just turn on the gas and wait about 20 minutes
* A gravy boat, I'd like one in my china pattern, but Lenox has discontinued the McKinley pattern from its Dead Presidents line of china so the only way to get a gravy boat is to buy it from a discontinued patterns place which, right now, doesn't have any gravy boats. We used a large melamine bowl and a spoon for the gravy. Classy.
* A knife block

Since I wrote that I've obtained all of those items - not all at William's Sonoma,I did get the ricer and knife block there, but I found the oven thermometer at the grocery and got a plain white stoneware gravy boat at Cost Plus World Market.

The table is draped in a new cloth, the centerpieces are out (one of the grandkitties keeps gnawing at the dried stalks wheat they stuck in it. I've removed the wheat and put it away). Yankee Candle scented Housewarmer candles in Pumpkin Pie scent are burning (I don't cook pies - I buy them and we eat them cold from the fridge with way too much whipped cream). The turkey is in the oven and at about 2:30 I start whipping up the side dishes.

This year it's just the hubby the daughter and me, I'm thankful that we can be together. I'm thankful that my son hasn't been deployed yet. I wish my daughter's SailorBeau was here - he's in the Middle East. I hope the Navy puts on a wonderful feast for them.

I'm thankful for NaNoWriMo - I've proven to myself that I can face the blank page and write (nearly) every day. I did 50k in about 18 days. I'm no where near finished with the story - December and January will be my personal NoWriMos. Then I let it sit so I can come back to it with fresh eyes and start the re-write. Maybe by spring I'll have something to ask a beta reader to look at.

My best wishes to you all for a lovely day, whether you're celebrating Thanksgiving or not, I'm also thankful that you come by and read here.

Dawno,
AppleThing,
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