Thanksgiving Recipes and The Norovirus

My bubbies Thanksgiving Turkey from two years ago

I'm not going home to Seattle for Thanksgiving this year (sorry family, I will see you soon, less then a month :) So Mark and I decided that we would have people over to our house for Thanksgiving. I've never hosted a Thanksgiving on my own before, or cooked a turkey myself, so this is all new to me. But, I love the holiday and have many great memories of sharing it with my family back home and especially all the GREAT cooking the comes of it. So this year I am attempting to make stuffing, green bean casserole (which I have never had) and my good friend Kathryn is coming over to cook our 15 pound turkey! mmmmm! We are going to inject it with butter! I'm so excited.

Now all I have to do it not get the terrible stomach flu that Mark has been battling for the past 24 hours. Poor guy, I have been taking care of him all last night and all day, we didn't sleep last night at all. He was so sick we had to go to urgent care this morning at about 8:00. But now after 3 bags of IV fluids, blood tests, medication, fever reducers, soup and Gatorade he is fast asleep and feeling a lot better. After he fell asleep I went on a disinfecting rampage though out the house, sanitizing door knobs, cleaning the entire bathroom, taking out the garbage, and I have been sure to wash my hands a whole bunch. MAN! You do NOT what this thing, it totally made him feel like death. His lips were purple people man, purple! and he had a bad fever too. Anyway, it's called the Norovirus and it's been going around Madison. Let's hope I don't get it in time for Thanksgiving, otherwise all bets are off and my guests will have to go elsewhere.

Sooooooo, I am in charge of the stuffing and the green bean casserole.

I'm making this Green Bean Casserole (courtesy of Paula Dean and the Food Network) Here is the recipe if you want to try it yourself

Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:
1/3 stick butter
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 cups sliced green beans
3 cups chicken broth
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 (2.8-ounce) can French-fried onion rings
Pinch House Seasoning, recipe follows
1 cup grated Cheddar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a large skillet. Saute the onions and mushrooms in the butter. Boil green beans in chicken broth for 10 minutes and drain. Add the green beans, mushroom soup, onion rings, and House Seasoning, to taste, to the onion mixture. Stir well. Pour into a greased 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, then top the casserole with the Cheddar and bake for 10 minutes longer, or until the casserole is hot and cheese is melted.
House Seasoning:
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder
Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.


Here is the Sausage, Dried Cranberry, Apple and Stuffing recipe:

Ingredients:
1 pound mild bulk breakfast sausage
4 tablespoons butter
3 cups sliced leeks, white and pale green parts only, cleaned well (about 2 large leeks)
2 Granny Smith apples, cored and chopped
1 cup chopped celery with leaves
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 cup dried cranberries, re hydrated in boiling water for 15 minutes and drained
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
6 cups boxed bread cubes (croutons)
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 to 3 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Saute the sausage in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through, crumbling coarsely with the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage and drippings to a large bowl. Melt the butter in the same skillet over medium-high heat. Add the leeks, apples, celery and poultry seasoning to the skillet and saute until the leeks are soft, about 8 minutes. Mix in the drained cranberries, sage and rosemary. Add the mixture to the sausage, then mix in the croutons and parsley. Next add the chicken stock a little at a time until the stuffing is very moist. Be sure not to overdo it; it shouldn't be mushy. Season with salt and pepper. Place in a casserole dish. (The stuffing can be made to this point 2 days before Thanksgiving, refrigerated.)
Bake in a 14-inch oval or 9 by 13-inch rectangular casserole dish and place, uncovered, in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until the top is crispy and the center piping hot. Remove and serve immediately.
*Cook's Note: If stuffing a turkey, the stuffing must be cold before being placed in the bird.

Choral Union Performs Tonight :)

It's been far too long since I've blogged, so to my regular readers, I apologize. I guess I've been busy with work and choir rehearsals in the evenings. Which leads me to the topic of this blog, tonight is the Choral Unions first concert. I have to leave home in about an hour and go warm up for the performance and look over my music, so I don't have too much time to blog. But I just wanted to say that I'm excited and nervous because our pieces aren't really ready, they are very tough and we didn't have enough time to practice them, still I hope they will be great. Also, Mark and a bunch of people from the department are coming to the performance. I hope they like it! Wish me luck!

Here is a copy of the press release, just to tell you a little about our music and the choir:

"The UW Choral Union and Chamber Orchestra join forces under the direction of Beverly Taylor on Saturday, November 22, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. The program presents three works: Nänie by Johannes Brahms, Flos campi by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Mass in C major by Ludwig van Beethoven. The soloist for Flos Campi is violist Sally Chisholm. The soloists for Mass in C major are sopranos Saira Frank, Merrin Guice and Kristin Schwecke; mezzo-sopranos Bridget Duffy and Jennifer Sams; tenor Ryan Veillet; and basses William Bremmer, Simon Lank and Gregory Schmidt.

Brahms composed the music for Nänie in 1881 as a tribute honoring his German artist friend Anselm Feuerbach, who had recently died. Nänie means -song of mourning- and laments the death of all things beautiful or perfect.

Flos Campi is a suite for solo viola, wordless chorus and chamber orchestra. The piece is divided into six movements, played without pause, each of which is headed by a verse from the Song of Solomon intended to be read by the listener but not actually sung by the choir.

Beethoven composed the Mass in C major on a commission from Prince Nicholas Esterházy II for his wife's name day in 1807. The first performance took place the same year but the mass was not published until 1812.

Chisholm is the violist for the Pro Arte Quartet and professor of viola at UW-Madison. She has been featured on more than 20 CDs in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré, Schumann, Strauss, Mahler and Hindemith. She is a founding member of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota and performs annually in the Festival der Zukunft in Ernen, Switzerland. Next summer, she will perform as senior faculty at Marlboro Music in Vermont.

Choral Union is a 150-voice auditioned ensemble with membership from both university and community. The highly selective Chamber Orchestra consists of 43 undergraduate and graduate students led by music director James Smith."

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! Yeah! Happy Birthday Mom! I wish I was in Seattle to be there with you on this special day. We could do more of this...

You are very much loved and appreciated :)

Heidi's Family Apple Sauce and My Weekend

I've had a great weekend. I think it's partly due to the fact that I'm feeling happier and more at ease here in Madison, and well, it's the weekend and I always feel better on the weekend. Plus, I did some fun stuff which always cheers me up.

Yesterday I went shopping with friends Kathryn and Courtney from Mark's department. They picked me up at 10 in the morning and we drove out to EastTowne Mall which is only 3 miles from my place. It felt really good to pall around with the girls and shop. We first went to The Boston Store, new to me since we don't have 'em in Seattle, and bought some Cuddle Duds, which Kathryn raves about. Basically, they're nice long underwear and keep you very warm. I got about three pairs and have been wearing them all day today, it was very good timing because it's been snowy and 30 deg.

Then we had lunch and walked around the mall. We tried on clothes, mostly sweaters because anything else doesn't really make sense right now, and went into Victoria's Secret and talked about how we shouldn't buy any more shoes. Then after being burned out on the mall, which happens very easily for me, we went to the surrounding strip mall to an Old Navy. I didn't get anything for myself, but got Mark a sweater. All in all, I was really happy to hang out with the girls and be social. I'm also glad we weren't at a bar for once and could hang out during the day, I feel like you can really see someones personality better when your not partying or in a big group. Also, it was nice to have girl time, something which I haven't had much of since moving here, being far away from all my good girlfriends has been challenging in this way.

Later that night Mark and I made dinner, an amazing pizza we did ourselves, and we watched a movie on the FIXED TV! Yeah!! All Mark had to do was open up the TV and jot down the dimensions of the broken glass, then the glass shop down the street cut a new mirror the proper size. Then Mark picked it up and installed it into the TV, where the broken one had been, and it's as good as new. The nice thing is we didn't have to pay the 250.00 to the TV repair place for labor. Mark just did it himself and it was easy. Now that the TV was fixed we decided to celebrate by watching a movie I have been wanting to see for a few months now, Serenity. It's a movie made by Joss Whedon, its an extension of his infamous television show Firefly, which I watched this summer with Mark and really enjoyed. Great movie, but if you are gonna see it, I suggest seeing the TV series first.

Then, today I made applesauce from Heidi's family recipe and it turned out great. I was really surprised how easy it was to make, I just used my apple peeler which actually cut and cored the apples too and then threw them into a pot with a cup of water and let them simmer down until the they became saucy. I added lots of cinnamon, brown sugar, and apple pie spice at the end and now it's cooling in the fridge. I took some pictures of my process.

These last two are a reflection of myself in the cooking pot. I like the way they tuned out :)

Gotta run! I have a ton of dishes to do and laundry to fold :)

Snow

It's been snowing all day here. It's not sticking, but maybe it will tomorrow. I do like the snow though and I am happy for the cooler weather :) Snowmen maybe closer then I think. This just reminds me that I really need to get some new tires on my car this weekend.

I will be blogging more this weekend. Tune in :)

A Big Change

I'm still in a daze from what just happened in our nation. This is huge! Not just for us but for the world. Obama is our president elect. It's amazing! I guess I became so disheartened over the past eight years. I never felt proud of my government or like my vote counted in the past (yes, I voted for Nader in college), but today is completely different. I am happy that change is coming to our nation. I am proud of our new president and I have hope for our nation and it's leaders once again. I never thought it could turn around like this,it felt as if we were going to be under Bushes thumb forever. I was ready for more of the same, I came to expect it, to expect disappointment from our government. Now the day has finally come, the day so many of us have been waiting for. The Bush years are over! We fought, waited, cried, and laughed at his stupidity and now it's all over.

I know Obama is up for the task, and it's no small one. He has a big mess to clean up, but he and his staff can do it. I just cant believe it's all happening. It's all happening :)