Thursday 11-22-12 (Frankenturkey)

On Wednesday evening we cleaned house, set up the dining table and all that good stuff.

Jim and I readied the turkey on Wednesday evening.  We cleaned out the innards.  We patted it dry.  We lubed it up with olive oil and then sprinkled a mixture of poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper inside and out.  We inserted a remote read thermometer.  When Jim placed the roaster lid on to the pan, it didn’t quite fit.  Jim tried pushing down on the lid, smooshing the turkey which only slightly helped.  Crap!  We were off by so little.  If he applied pressure it would close.  We placed the whole pan with the turkey into the refrigerator and topped it with a sledge hammer.  We knew we couldn’t keep the rubber handled hammer on top of the hot roaster during cooking tomorrow so we found a nice rock we planned to use.  We calculated the cooking time range based on its weight and handy dandy instruction manual that came with our roaster oven.  We calculated 4:15 – 5 hours at 375°.  Somewhere in there.  We figured we’d start with the 4 hours, put it in at 9:30, out at 1:30, eat at 2.  Perfect.

Above: Jim in “don’t photograph me mode”.

The next morning (Thanksgiving) we removed the roaster pan from the fridge, lifted the sledge hammer and the lid stayed down on its own.  Awesome.  We won’t need the rock after all.  We started up the turkey at 9.  At 11 the thermometer was reading 140° and climbing.  Shit!  It’s cooking too fast.  At 150° I lower the temp to about 250°.  The plan was for guests to arrive at 1 and eat at 2.  At 12:30 the damn thing was at 175°.  We dropped the temp to 200° or something.  We confirmed the temperatures in multiple spots with a different thermometer.  We put more holes in that turkey than a peg board.

When it was ready to carve, it was moist and delicious!  Phew.  Disaster averted.

Jim made my late Uncle Mike’s Sausage Stuffing.  Jim has always loved it.  With recipe in hand, Jim set out to craft it as perfectly as possible.  I think he did it.  Everyone raved about it.

I didn’t get many photos at all.  I was so busy cooking, and doing dishes and maybe a little wine too.  I should have handed the camera to someone and asked them to snap photos.

Above: The completed product.

If by chance you noticed the turkey lacer pin at the top of the breast it’s because the skin had a hole in it so Jim grafted a piece of skin/fat from elsewhere onto that section.  I present to you, Frankenturkey.

Above: Beth’s brother, David, was put onto carving duty.

Above: The food line.

Above: Josh and Erin

Josh and Erin, Ruby and Jamie left shortly after lunch.  They had other places to go for dinner.  With Beth’s family remaining, we played a couple of rounds of Buzz Trivia on the Playstation3. 

It was a great time but definitely tiring.  When everyone left, we had so much to clean up.  We had to work the next day and then right after work, we’re going to Augusta for the weekend.

Oh and I snapped this photo 11-17-12, the Saturday BEFORE Black Friday:

This guy was camped out in Walmart electronics.  There was a sign on the floor in front of him.  It was a starting line with writing on it.  Was this for some before Black Friday door buster or something?  Crazy!

12-13-10 Monday (Tactical Applications)

I’m taking a different tactic with my resume.  I’ve scaled it back quite a bit with a whole lot less emphasis on management.  I’m not necessarily looking for a management position, nor am I looking to be in the same automotive business I was (I’m not opposed).   I think prospective employers were looking at my application and then my employment history and feeling I was just settling.  Fact is, so many positions I apply for I’m excited about.  Let’s say I apply for a warranty administrator at a major appliance company here in Charlotte.  What are they thinking when they see the last my history being a manager for the past 15 years?   I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the changes I made will bring me to a fantastic job!

During yesterday’s blog entry, I mentioned Souper Salad.  As typical, I find the company’s website and link it to the blog.  While on their website, I decided to leave a comment/survey.  Later in the day, Enis, a manager from the location I visited called to discuss my comments.  While I was on the phone with her, call waiting chimed.  I asked her to hold and switched over.  The district manager was on the line.  I told him I was talking to Enis.  He called me later again after I finished up with Enis.  2 phone calls?  Sometimes I get nothing from companies.  No responses.  Nada.  I’m impressed with Souper Salad’s management. 

I’ve probably mentioned it in the past – some dollar stores are not as cheap as you think.  While at Dollar Tree the other day I saw Betty Crocker 10.25 oz Brownie Mix for $1.00.  I thought it was a good deal so I bought it.  Today while at Walmart I priced it at 92 cents!  Ugh.  Later, I stopped into a Harris Teeter grocery store and they had the same thing for 4/$5.00 ($1.25) and I think that was “on sale”.  Walmart wins again.

As a matter of fact, several times I’ve compared prices at dollar stores and was disappointed.  Family Dollar and Dollar General seem to have products that are specially packaged for them.  They often carry sizes slightly smaller.  So, for example, when a product comes in 2 sizes, you price out the small size.  While at a grocery store you check the price of small item A and see that it’s more money.  Oh, so it was a deal at the dollar store after all?  Nope, the sizes are different.  This has happened to me several times so I always check/compare by the exact size.  

Lastly – I made a pork loin in the Showtime.  It was delicious.  Tender.  Very juicy.  I don’t think I’d make it any other way in the future.  It was a little salty though but still flavorful.  I seasoned it with Adobo (I love on pork), sea salt, fresh ground pepper and some garlic powder which was possibly garlic salt. 

I forgot to take an “after” photo of it.  I cooked it at 20 minutes a pound.  The roast was 2.89 lbs or something like that.

2008: It was a 9 comment entry.  We didn’t really do anything but I did complain a lot.  Imagine that. 2009: Subs for lunch.  Looked at more possible rentals.  Met up with fellow RVers Mark and Tom.  Zio’s for dinner.  Sightseeing around the area.  An 11 comment entry.

7-19-10 Thru 7-21-10

I’m still alive, just not much to tell. 

Monday 7-19-10: 

I can’t even remember back to Monday.  I think I went grocery shopping.  I ironed tons of shirts.  OK, just 12 but still.  I applied for various jobs.  We went to the gym.  Uneventful.

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Tuesday 7-20-10: 

Uhhhhhhh, I cleaned 2.5 bathrooms and went to the tag/license office to get our cars registered for North Carolina.  Naturally, Jim and I forgot to sign a form so no signature, no registration.  I applied for various jobs.

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Wednesday 7-21-10:

Today I retried the tag/license plate thingy.  With paperwork in order this time, I march in, well maybe strolled in, and got it handled.  We have real North Carolina tags now, not even temporary.  The personalized ones will be mailed (once the prisoners make them?) and then I need to drop off my loaner plates at some sort of drop box they have set up.  Interesting.

On the way home I stopped off at Big Lots.  I had 5 things on my list I thought I’d be able to get there.  As I finished shopping the store I found 1 item in my cart which wasn’t even on the list.  I didn’t bother buying it and left defeated.  Oh well.

Tonight being a gym night, I made a crock pot meal.  I got the recipe off the Weight Watchers site and let me tell you, it’s delish.  Both Jim and I think so.

I think there was too much liquid left over.  I guess it’s needed for the cooking process.  I scooped out all the stuff with a slotted spoon and put it into a bowl.  I think next time I’ll throw it all into a colander.

6-12-10 Saturday (Thriftiness)

While visiting Linville Falls at the beginning of the week, we stopped at a little country shop and purchased some sweet potato pancake mix.  This morning I made those pancakes in hopes they’d be as good as those found on Tupelo Honey Cafe’s menu.  Jim and I rated them “OK” but not delicious.  At $8 a bag (which Grandma paid for) – ouch.  With sugar-free syrup and all, it cost me 7 points.  We have enough mix for another round or two.  I’m not convinced that’s a good thing.

 

For today’s entertainment, we went to two different Habitat for Humanity thrift stores in search of a new kitchen faucet for the RV.  If you’ve never been to one, they seem to carry home improvement things rather than clothing.  In a place like these, it’s about light fixtures, cabinets, furniture, toilets, tile, etc.  We did see a few faucets but nothing that would suit our needs. 

Above: Jim getting gas at BJs.

Sorry Jim but I must confess on your behalf.  Ya see, Jim stopped to have Baskin-Robbins.  I went in with him.  I inquired about low cal.  In the end, I got nothing.  Jim got a Praline ‘n Cream Scoop.  When I got home I had a vanilla yogurt with cocoa powder mixed in.

 

Dinner was delicious.  I grilled some chicken with Montreal Chicken Seasoning.  The flavor was great.  I grilled a couple of extra breasts to make a chicken stir-fry with in a couple of days.  For veggies I sliced yellow squash, zucchini, and red onion.  Working like lasagna, I made a layer of squash, sprayed olive oil (I have it in a pump spray), added the next veggies and sprayed again.  Occasionally I sprinkled some parmesan cheese and some Mrs. Dash.  I also spooned a lot of diced garlic.

  Above: Dasher soaks up some sun.

I covered it with foil and baked for about 30 minutes or until tender.  I then uncovered it and stuck it under the broiler.

  Above: My 10.5 point meal.  I had seconds on the “squash lasagna”.

  Above: I wasn’t expecting us to eat the entire dish of it (11 X 7 pan).

I’m sorry today was mostly a food journal.  It wasn’t a very interesting day.

Above: I dipped into my weekly points by a 1/2.

 

We firmed up plans to meet up with John & Derek.  We ate lunch at a restaurant in which many locations have closed.  Later in the evening we had a Texas style dinner while seeing an outdoor production.  Here I give a tour of the current RV park and of a previous RV park.  Yeard Sale?  Check it all out here.

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4-1-10 Thursday (Wino)

Jodi will arrive later today.  In the meantime, I’ve went to the RV and installed the remainder of the handles.  I disassembled one bed room valance/frame/blinds assembly to assess what we can do to update the look.  I’m thinking a good quality mini blind that will achieve the same light filtering and total light blocking effect I get with day/night RV shades.  We can further dress up the window with a cafe rod and valance. Maybe next week I’ll stop into Home Depot and Lowe’s and see what I can find.  All in all, we have 8 windows I’d like to update.

Through the wonder of Facebook and cell phones, I was able to get updates on Jodi’s progress.  She hit some traffic here and there but will arrive at dinner time.  I ran to the store and bought some NY strip steaks which were on sale for $5.49 a pound.  I’m also trying out my baked Gruyère onion thingy as well as doing up some baked squash concoction with garlic, and red onion.  

Jodi arrived!  I must say I created a yummy dinner.  Jodi, who said she didn’t like onions, loved the Gruyère Onion recipe.  The squash came out yummy too.  Since it was fairly late already, we lounged and drank red wine.  I must say, I’m liking the red wine. 

Screaming children.  Noisy highways.  Castles.  Aliens.  Monsters.  Played out story lines.  Drive-in movie theaters.  Want more?  Click here to see last years entry.

3-15-10 Monday (Admissions And Inductions)

I already got a call from Cameron at Camping World this morning.  He reports that the leak detector is bad and propane won’t go anywhere.  I explained we lived in it for over a year.  While the fridge did not work on propane mode, everything else did.  I told him to leave it alone and I’d be there to get the propane working.  I was so mad.

A few minutes later I called him back.  I re-explained it all in a calm tone.  I asked him to check himself or have a service manager get involved.  I told him I’m a half hour away and would prefer not to drive there.  I suggested air in the lines perhaps.  What’s the chances that the valve on the leak detector failed within the time we had it winterized (1-3-10) and put in storage (approx 2 months)?  Possible yes.  Likely no.  I only suggested air in the lines in hopes that they made an incorrect diagnosis and can use that as a scapegoat.  Sometimes techs/shops won’t want to admit an error was made and instead will hold strong to their diagnosis.  I don’t want to be on the receiving end of that crap.

I reread the paragraph above and it goes like this: I re-explained, I asked, I told, I suggested.  I was amused.  Naturally, I felt the need to reword it but decided to leave as is.

A year ago we were flying high in a 4 person airplane with Glenne.  The sights!  The coast line!  After the flight – The guacamole!  The sunset!  The seals!  An awesome day!

I read the first few chapters of the Atkins book.  I’m impressed with the theories.  There’s plenty of greens included in this diet.  So to the naysayers, I say nay to you.  Huh?  Anyway, even during the first phase of Induction, which is to virtually eliminate carbs, my intake limit is 20g.  Of the 20g, they want 15g of it to come from veggies.  By the way, even though I bought the book, the entire diet is online for free at atkins.com.  I’m starting the diet Monday.  Wish me luck!

Cameron of Camping World called hours later and said that they got the propane system working.  It was at 1/4 and they topped it off to 1/2.  Yeah, whatever.  He says they can’t duplicate the problem even after 20 minutes but they will leave it in propane mode over night and check tomorrow morning.  Now we’re getting somewhere.

Tonight’s dinner was very tasty.  Here it is:

 

I used more like 2.5 pounds of pork.  I also quartered the potatoes even though there was no mention.  I also didn’t cut the carrots – what’s the point?  This was high in flavor.

Soon potatoes will just be a memory…

3-12-10 Friday (Zarbucks and Starbucks)

The rental maintenance guy came out for a few repairs today.  During Jodi’s stay, we found out that a few (3) of the doors (a bedroom, a closet and a bathroom) don’t latch closed.  By just pushing on them, they’d open.  I think Jodi may have been interrupted by Dasher in such a fashion.  The vent in the guest/storage room won’t close off either.  The guy fixed these items today.  The masterbath vent doesn’t blow any air.  Before even checking it he was quick to give me excuses of why there would be nothing he could do.  Baffle this, the way it was designed that.  I, of course, gave him the “I really don’t care what you say look”, not to be confused with the “I have gas look”.  Mr. Excuse went up into the attic, and eventually came down full of excuses.  We’ll see.

Currently I’m at the BMW dealer having Jim’s car serviced.  I had a 1:30 appointment.  I brought my laptop along to keep me occupied since they offer Wi-Fi and work stations.  They say it will take an hour and a half for the oil service and car wash.  $100.  Yak now what though, the oil changes are once every 20,000 miles or something.  I can’t remember what it worked out to.  I’m sure Jim will clarify in the comments section.

Unfortunately all 4 work stations were taken up.  Annoyingly, some guy and his son seemed to be taking up 2-3 of the areas.  The father goes in and out of the waiting room to talk on his phone.  His what appears to be mentally slow teenage son follows him.  Mentally slow or not, make room for others to use the desks.  I guess it’s not a big deal since the desks are all on top of each other.  I found an outlet to plug into at the general waiting room.

Another strange bird at the desks is a lady with hooker heels who carries a small Chihuahua in her arms.  She’s not attractive enough to A- wear hooker heals or B- carry a cute dog in her arms. 

The waiting room is nice.  The dealer offers a fresh by the cup Starbuck’s coffee and hot cocoa brew station.  There’s a glass fronted fridge with free water and soda as well.  A basket with muffins sit on the counter calling my name.  Well, eventually screaming as I bit into them.  Picture it, go ahead.  I’ll wait. 

Here’s what the machine looks like.  I found a photo online.  It’s called the Starbuck’s Interactive Cup.

Oooo, the father and son team left.  I just talked to the woman with the long haired 5 month old Chihuahua.  She just left too.  The desk area is open but I think I’m liking this except for the hot laptop on my lap.

A year ago, we planned out the next leg of our trip.  Part of it will include the Zarbucks!  I spoke about my Uncle’s funeral service and how we included his love of Barbra, cleaning and rabbits into a display.  My cousin fattened me up with home made chocolates.  I spoke about having foods I had missed while away from Fort Myers.

I’ve been here for 1.5 hours and hope to be called any minute.  I still have grocery shopping to do.  Later – it’s off to the gym and then home for chili that’s cooking in the crockpot.  Mmmmm.  Here’s my ingredients:

 

After the dealer I went directly to Walmart for my weekly grocery shopping.  I shopped as quickly as I could to allow enough time to get home, unload the groceries, change and then get to the gym.  Success!

3-7-10 Sunday (Quick Ass Checks)

Clea’s newest thing – while we shower, she likes to hang out on the edge of the tub between the curtain and the liner.  It’s funny because the liner is clear so we can see her and she can see us and the water.  I compared notes with Jim and he and I do the same thing to her.  We take the handheld shower part and spray at her.  She bites at liner at the water impact spot.  She can’t actually get a bite of the liner because it moves outward when she sticks her face to it.  It’s funny.  After the shower, her newest thing is to get into the tub while we’re drying off and then roll around in the water.  Jim says he’s turned the water on again and she gets a little wet and doesn’t care. 

  Meow!

We had to return the rental snow pants.  This time since we had more time, we explored the surrounding areas of Dilworth and South End.  We liked the areas.  Some of it was newer, revitalized buildings and lofts.  It seemed as though street side cafes, and coffee houses were common.  All of this was on the other end of Uptown.  I love Uptown. 

Above: I’ve photographed some Atherton (my last name) shopping plazas on a prior post.  Up a little further from that were these business lofts.

Jim had printed out a BOGO coupon for a restaurant.  It turned out they weren’t open for lunch so we went to a local chain called Showmar’s.  Jim had a Gyro.  It was “OK”.  I had some burger thingy on a pita.  It was “OK”.  Jim’s onion rings were lame – per his report.  Not real healthy food anyway.  OK, none of it was healthy.

 Above: Many locations in North Carolina.  The food wasn’t very impressive so now we know where to avoid. 

Here’s a fun photo:

Above: Ahhhh, so sophomoric.  We passed this, we both spotted it and without hesitation, Jim made a u-turn for some photos.  We laughed… a lot.  There’s so many captions that came to mind.  Go ahead, leave one in the comments.

We grocery shopped at Costco and then Walmart.

Dinner time crept up on us quickly.  Jim has been itching for me to make “Baked Onions with Gruyère”.  I must confess that we never heard of Gruyère.  After reading the recipe, of course we found out it is cheese.  This recipe came out of Reader’s Digest and you can view it here.  It’s on other recipe sites like here.  By the way, can anyone recommend a similar cheaper cheese?

I scanned it so we can talk about it.  I’ll do the talking though.  Shhhhhh.

5 onions is overkill for just Jim and I.  We bought 3 onions, I used 2.  We spotted a big ole brick of Gruyère cheese for $10.  Being we only needed a little amount, Jim cheaped out and wanted to use grated cheese like parmesan.  I misunderstood and used shredded sharp cheddar.  Oh well.  We didn’t use fresh sage either.  I know, you chefs are stunned, right?  Get over it.  I think if I can find a smaller amount of the cheese, we’ll try it again.  We also think it could have used a little more bake time since the onions were quite large.  We couldn’t though because the other stuff was ready.

While I was preparing our salads for the upcoming week, Jim worked on getting the hot tub running.  With not much time, he found the problem to be cross wiring.  He corrected his error and got the hot tub working.  With the limited time of sunlight, he and I worked fast at scrubbing the hot tub down, rinsing and eventually filling in hopes of having it hot by late evening.  Well, the water needs to get over 100°.  With water from the hose at 50-something degrees, it never happened.  By 10:00pm it was at 70-something.  Oh well.

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An insurance update: We got the Victoria policy in the mail.  This is the one that agent couldn’t tell us what the extra would be for having damage to the RV.  We didn’t go with them (stayed with Progressive) but it was interesting to find out it would have been $400 more a year for the damage!  Really.

3-2-10 Tuesday (Incompletes)

I’m having issues completing tasks.  I set up the dishwasher last night but forgot to turn it on.  I put wet clothes in the dryer, checked it a half hour later and discovered I should have pushed a button to start the damn thing!  I put the dryer on.  I thought I should start another load of wash.  20 minutes later I realized I never started the laundry.

I was surprised by snow as I exited a Walmart today.  Yep, kinda stunned.  Last I knew we were expecting a “wintery mix”.  I think I forgot.  See paragraph above.  Forgetting is kinda the same, right? 

Above: The backyard.

I spoke to Jodi earlier.  She was making good time.  She thanked me for a shitty lunch at Hooters (she picked it but I paid – apparently that makes it my bad?) and I thanked her for all the frickin’ long hairs all over the bathroom.  I miss her already. 

Jodi recently retired from being a pig cop.  As long as I’ve known her to be a cop, I’ve never cracked the usual donut jokes until this weekend.  Of course she was a little defensive.  I thought I heard a squeal noise.

Here’s Jodi’s entry into our guest book (click to enlarge).  I can’t thank Carl & Tim enough for this treasure. 

With Jodi gone, time to wash the guest room sheets.

  Above: Next guest please?

Oh and that hair on the bathroom floor. 

See, if Alix came to visit this wouldn’t have been a problem.

After I dehaired the place, I premade tonight’s dinner – being careful not to get any hair in the food.  Tonight is a chicken cordon bleu of sorts.  Breaded chicken topped with low fat cheese and ham.  I’ve made it a few weeks ago and it came out pretty tasty.  For our side dish, stuffed portabella mushrooms.  It’s hit or miss with these mushrooms.  I just toss stuff in. 

 Above: Garlic, stuffing mix, imitation crab meat,  sharp cheaddar, parsley, onion powder, celery salt, wine.  Missing from this batch is lemon juice, Kasari and Gouda cheese.

I’ll let ya know how they turn out.  I plan to bake them at 350° for about 30 minutes.  That’s one hell of a recipe, huh?

I did the typical online job hunting.  My employment bookmarks are growing.  Nothing though.  I got some Dear John letters from Wells Fargo for a couple of positions I applied for the other day. 

Oh wait no longer on the outcome of the stuffed mushrooms.  They came out OK.  Not thrilling, not bad.  Just OK.  The chicken