Day 910 and a half

Went to bed at 9pm last night and never blogged about my wonderful non-Thanksgiving!

I gotta tell y'all...it was pretty fantastic. This not-drinking thing rules all the time but given my history of horrible Thanksgivings from childhood where other people drank and my history of horrible Thanksgivings in teen and adult years where I was one of the drinking people the new history of being a Totally! Alcohol! Free! Person! is extra-satisfying on Turkey Day.

Hubby woke me up at 7:20 which meant I slept in a good hour and it was Just Lovely. When I got downstairs I had that yummy cornbread I made Wednesday night waiting for me along with butter I had remembered to put out so that it was spreadable. Since there was a wind-chill warning I decided I wasn't leaving the house and didn't -- went as far as the driveway walking the dog but that was it.

My roasted butternut squash and onions turned out far better than I expected -- again, because I wasn't going to bed blotto I remembered to set them out the night before so they were room temperature and first thing in the morning I put the pre-cubed frozen-but-thawed veggies on good-quality paper towels (yes, if I had feed-bag dishcloths they would have been better but I have -one- and I keep it for covering hot things out of the oven) to drain. Those two steps are what allowed the veggies to be GOOD and those are the two steps which required the cook not to be sloppy drunk the night before or hung over the morning of.  Score two points for me.

Anyhow I put the veggies in a 400 F oven on covection bake till they were just barely roasted enough for me to consider edible then turned the oven off but left the veggies in while I went to the basement to play with polymer clay and what happened was just magical: the veggies got all caramelized and the onions (pre-chopped little cubes frozen in a bag - nothing fancy) turned downright crispy and it was so wonderful I ate 2/3 right then and there for lunch and the rest for dinner later.

Good thing too since my other cooking - a new brand of Tex-Mex rice which one microwaves in the container - turned out to be inedible dreck.  Fortunately I had other things to eat. I also made up my muesli for next week because I had time and a free kitchen and the longer it sits the better it gets.

Other than that I did the same things one does on any Thanksgiving - wandered around the house, watched stupid stuff on screens, some laundry - but without the relatives or the booze or all the various food I don't like. Didn't get obnoxiously ohmahGHAWD too full either, that was a bonus.Then, as mentioned previously, when I got sleepy at 9pm I just - fancy this - Went. To. Sleep. For the night, with no fuss at all and no saying goodnight -- there's something to this alone-time thing, y'know?

On the other hand I'm glad the family is coming back later today. Last night I started getting a little lonely and it was downright weird to have been in the house this long without anyone else in it - kept hearing the dog and thinking he was one of my family and kept trying to turn every other little noise into someone else in the house - not A Stranger or A Bad Guy but again, one of the family...which was weird because I grew up a latchkey only child and thus thought I'd totally slide right back into the alone thing.

In any case I also used that not-blotto-at-night thing to plan ahead for this morning's frittata: chopped half an onion and drained a jar of pimientos last night in addition to setting out the eggs and Parmesan cheese so everything was room temperature when I wanted to cook this morning at 6:45 because I got up at the same time I always do. It goes a lot better when the cook isn't a drunk, y'know?

Today I need to go to the grocery but not till after it warms up a bit -- MINUS eight is not nearly enough degrees!  The family isn't due back till late afternoon though so I still have plenty of time. I hope I remember to write a proper post tonight.

I also hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday whether it was a holiday for you or not. And if you aren't yet on the sober side of the street I welcome you to cross over any time you like -- we have cookies, fewer headaches and _so_ much less shame.