Our new baby, Molly, came to live with us on November 3rd. Aunt Sue got a call from a friend of hers who said someone had a pug that they needed to giveaway. Aunt Sue got to the people's home and it was not a pug, but she brought her to me anyway. I took one look at her and knew she was probably our next baby here. I was planning on giving her to a pug rescue, but since she was not all pug, I was afraid it would be hard to get her placed.
The lady who gave her up had gotten her from someone else and did not know any history on her. No age, no vet records...nothing. So I took her to the vet and got her tested and vaccinated. She was in good health and the vet thinks she is about one and a half to two years old. We think she is younger than that because she has so much puppy in her. The vet could not tell if she had been fixed yet, so I'll be making an appointment to do that later.
She is so sweet. She has a big underbite and it's cute on her. Lily and Emma are learning to tolerate her. It's taking some time. Aunt Sue's dog like to growl at her. The parents' dog, Mouse, like her and would run with her. The husband does not care for that name for her. He wants to call her Hobo, but I don't care for that and she needs a "cute" name. I'd rather just keep it Molly.
They all came over for Thanksgiving dinner today. It was a really nice day. I got up at 5:00 and took the turkey out for an hour and made the stuffing. I used a big loaf of challah bread and one whole loaf of white bread, all torn into pieces the day before. I cut up one big onion and three whole celery stalks...chopped small. I cooked the celery and onion in plenty of butter until really soft but not browned. I sprinkled salt and pepper and poultry seasoning onto the bread and tossed it around. This step is something that I could not measure because it's just a taste and smell thing. I chopped three red apples and put that in the bread mixture, added the onion/celery mixture and splashed chicken stock in it and tossed it all around. It needs to be pretty moist but not wet. I washed the turkey inside and out and then stuff the mixture into it and put it on a rack and into a roasting pan. I cooked it at 325 degrees for a little over four hours. The turkey was at 170 and the stuffing was almost that degree, too, when I took it out of the oven. I had enough stuffing mixture left over that did not fit in the bird to put in a small pan and cook in the oven. That pan needs more chicken stock added to it since it will not get the drippings of a turkey while cooking.
I made cranberry sauce for the first time. It was so easy and was better than the canned kind. I'll do that again. I used one 20 oz bag of fresh cranberries and 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar and 12 oz of orange juice. Cook at medium high for 16 minutes until reduced a lot. Mine was a bit thick when I turned the heat off. I let it cool a little bit and then put into the fridge.
I made the apple cheese recipe that the husband and Aunt Sue like to fight over. I have a new favorite thing to do and that' buy St. Clair's holiday side items from QVC. This is the second year I bought them. They are really good. It has 2 pounds of corn bread stuff, 2 pounds of broccoli and cheese casserole, 2 pounds of dutch sweet potato casserole, 2 pounds of mac and cheese. That was around $50 with shipping. It saved me so much time and I think money, too, that I did not have to buy all the ingredients to make them. I recommend this if you don't care to cook all that or don't have time to do it. Aunt Sue made homemade banana pudding and it was so good. So it was a yummy day today!
Don't know if we'll go to any stores for shopping this weekend. I don't like the traffic or crowds, so might stay away from that. We might go see a movie...probably Lincoln. I don't usually go to movies...I'd rather watch them on TV. But Lincoln looks like a good one to see on the big screen.
