Hosting our First Thanksgiving

There were no Pilgrims, and not really any Indians.  We did however have a collective 37.5% Native American representation and a couple Canadians.  Aimee’s parents made the drive from Munster, Indiana on Tuesday to be with us for Thanksgiving and visit our home in Atlanta.  Aimee’s co-fellow Daniela and Matt (and their little boy Noah) accepted our invitation to join us for an “American Thanksgiving” so we ended up with 7 for dinner. There are a few pictures inline below; the Picasa album pictures start here.

Aimee and I are thankful for many, many things.
I think a blog post is great place to mention a few of those…..

We both got to have at least 4 days off from work.  We are thankful for that time away, but even more thankful for meaningful employment that we both often take for granted.  On a specific note, Aimee officially passed her Neurology board exam.  Everyone is so proud of her!  She is officially a board-certified Neurologist. 

We are thankful for our parish here, Immaculate Heart of Mary. Through their welcoming arm and open-minded music ministry, we have a place to not only be better musicians, but also “give to God” what is truly God’s. We got to be part of the Thanksgiving Day liturgy where we celebrated not only Thanksgiving but El Dia de Acción de Gracias.  Through a beautifully celebrated bilingual mass, we realized how thankful we are for a faith that is universal in language and creed and culture.  (We are also thankful for Michael and Jeff’s willingness to participate in our test turkey dinner and to not scoff at our tater tots).

We are thankful for parents who make sacrifices of time to be with us and who care enough to be part of our traditions and lives and impart their own nuggets of wisdom.  It was such a blessing to have Aimee’s parents with us for several relaxing days in Atlanta.  We are thankful for co-workers who make day-to-day life tolerable, edifying, and supportive. Sharing this US holiday with Matt, Daniela, and Noah was especially gratifying.  Crowley may or may not agree on that last point.

We are thankful for Notre Dame, for once on an even playing field, putting together an offense and defense to beat USC!  A consequential object of gratitude is for warranties.  Evidently the ND-USC showdown was not of sufficient gravity so as to warrant its broadcast in the Atlanta market. (I’m shocked).  I sprang into action, connecting Aimee’s laptop to the TV and pulling up the ESPN3 live broadcast of the game over the internet.  After three hours of overheating, the laptop simply breathed its last.  I may know my way around a computer but fried circuitry is not my bag.  So while sad that she’s without her laptop, I’m immensely grateful for the Product Protection Plan we purchased 2 years ago.  I don’t have extremely high expectations for the Nerd Herd boys but I expect we’ll be getting our money’s worth. 

On Sunday we purchased our first “real” Christmas Tree.  Coming in at a towering 5’ 6”, it is decorated and filling our home with the smell of Christmas.

Lastly, we are thankful in advance for our upcoming weekend in Chicago!!!  Deck the Hall, hanging out with friends, massages, dinners, wine, music, brunch….all good stuff!

* For those of you still hung up on the first comment, Aimee’s maternal side has a somewhat sizeable amount of Cherokee Native American in the lineage.  I did some estimating, and that’s where the 37.5% comes from.

A guide to driving in Atlanta

Thought I’d put down a few guidelines for driving in Atlanta. Let’s say you’re new to the area and looking to drive in a manner that best allows you to fit in with other motorists…

1. Blinkers – blinkers, turn signals, indicators, it doesn’t really matter what you call them because they are really not to be used. When approaching pedestrian-dense intersections in downtown and Midtown or navigating the winding streets with hidden turns and drives in the Highlands or Druid Hills, it’s important to keep those around you guessing. The bottom line is that random changes in speed, erratic changes in direction, and abrupt turns are all positive elements to driving and walking in a car-obsessed city.
   
2. Highway Interchanges – be advised that the giant 3-4 "exit only" lanes for I-75 and I-85 are changed on a daily basis. This applies to the exits for I-20 downtown as well. You never know where they will be, so never commit too early to a lane. I always wondered why people acted surprised that they were on the wrong side of an 8 lane highway (despite the advisory signs overhead and lettering on the pavement for miles preceding). Now I know, and you do too.
   
3. Keep passive – when driving in Atlanta, passive is key. Till now, my guiding principles were to be assertive, predictable, and get where you need to go, without being impetuous and angsty. Here it’s the opposite: maintain a proper degree of oblivion to your surroundings and when in doubt, open up a can of road rage. A few specifics? When a light turns green, wait until the car in front of you has advanced while pretending not to notice. When first at an intersection turning left (yielding to oncoming traffic), it’s equally acceptable to complete the turn on yellow/red as it is to simply revert back and wait for the next time. When merging, be sure to use up all of the merge lane (after all, you pay taxes on that part of the road too). Lastly, when driving your SUV 94 mph on I-85, it’s important to note that you can still be passive and not pay attention, just don’t slow down.
   
4. Multitasking – if you’re not multitasking while driving, you’re wasting time. Traffic being what it is (you know, due to inoperative blinkers and dynamic road infrastructure), you simply need to be getting more done while driving. Top choice around here: talking on the cell phone. The preferred manner is to put the phone in “hands free mode”, and hold it about six inches from your head so that you are more efficient by only using one hand to drive and you can still monitor your device for incoming text messages. Bonus: it’s perfectly legal! Bottom line here is that you don’t want driving alone to be too much of an active experience.

Turkey Test Dinner

This weekend we cooked a Test Turkey for Thanksgiving.  A choice, 9.16 pound premium young turkey came home from Kroger with us and I think we did well with him.

The foil tenting went in place at the right time to ensure proper (but not excessive) browning.

In our rush to get the turkey carved up, after allowing proper time to sit, we decided to invite Michael and Jeff over to sample the dinner.  With little to no planning, we pulled off a nice evening!  And enjoyed two bottles of the Frontera Malbec which, at $7 a bottle from Trader Joe’s, was delicious!

Pictured above along with Michael and Jeff is the decanted Malbec and, yes that’s right, tots.  We weren’t sure how many scalloped potatoes I had leftover so we supplemented with another form of potato.  What?

Lessons Learned:

1. Turkey always takes longer to prepare than you think.
2. You can never stuff enough butter under the skin.
3. You should not “warm up” turkey in the oven at 400 degrees.
4. More, I just can’t think of them right now.

Lastly, a video of me foolishly chasing after Crowley (like a head-less turkey?).  Aimee and I like to throw the frisbee when we go to the park and Crowley has interpreted this as a classic game of keep-away.  She runs back and forth with each successive throw, closing in as a potential catch is errored or an errant throw is made.  Below is some footage of her preying on my poor catch and running off with the prize:

Thankful for the weekend

One of the consequences of living outside a walking distance from a host of delicious restaurants (Moe's doesn't count), is that we cook a lot more. Thought I'd share a few examples. First is Chicken Fricassee. I even made a great gravy to go along with it. This comment may only connect with a few of you, but I thought Bill Knapp's actually invented Chicken Fricassee. Man, theirs was good though...

Next I used a family recipe to make a batch of scalloped potatoes. It's amazing how good potatoes can taste with just some milk, flour, onion, and salt and pepper.

Not pictured is Panko encrusted shrimp with edamame and vegetables. Also not pictured is the Test Turkey that we are preparing this afternoon. We are hosting Aimee's parents for Thanksgiving and are new to the realm of "large bird roasting". For the rest of today we have some errands to run and likely some traffic to sit in. Hopefully sporcle.com only takes up small percentage of our day. My favorite quiz? I encourage you all to take it and refresh your memory of our U.S. presidents. Also happy birthday to my nephew Ryan -- he's 11!

For the dog picture-of-the-post, I present Crowley with Duchess, a Harlequin Great Dane who we met at Gotham Park.

The weekend in reverse

It's the way my brain works, it's a recency thing, so we'll start this today and work backwards. Our friend Tommy had a group over for a chili pot-luck tonight so we spent most of the first part of the day cooking chili. Ours was a veggie-heavy, medium spiced version with flavors of cumin and white pepper featured. We also loved the sweet chili and the beer chili. Very unique!

Mass tonight was great! In honor of All Souls Day last week, we did Pie Jesu as set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Aimee sang the soprano line beautifully while blending well with fellow soprano for the other part.

Saturday brought us back to Iberian Pig for a visit with Aimee's colleague from Rush, Jennifer N. We had a great time catching up while reprising the pork cheek tacos, along with a butter lettuce salad and tempura-style crab cakes.

Now that we're both done reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we decided to watch the Swedish version on Netflix. It was good to watch/read (it was subtitled). I'm not one of those people who, nose in the air, is surprised yet disgusted that "the movie wasn't as good as the book". They are different forms of media, different arts, with different strengths. Was it as detailed or full of the same plot rabbit holes? No, but it was entertaining to watch and that's what counts in my book. Oh yeah, that was Friday night.

Not long before, we booked another trip to Chicago! December 3rd through 5th we will be in town for Deck the Hall Friday night, a handful of visits and holiday gatherings on Saturday and of course, mass on Sunday. We're looking forward to it!

Lastly, today is Aimee's mom's birthday so Happy birthday up there in Indiana! We'll be having a belated celebration when they come down here Thanksgiving!

Lastly (take 2), I couldn't leave a blog post without a picture so here, on behalf of Southern class everywhere, is a picture we snapped from the car this morning:

Couple Random Updates

Not a whole lot here but thought I'd jot a few notes...

Today it sleeted in Atlanta. Briefly, then it turned to rain, but regardless Crowley and I got caught in it while at the park, and it was cold. Anyway, it's really about the same temperature as Chicago lately. This is here:

Last weekend Aimee's friend Daniella and Matt hosted us at their home for dinner. It was the first time I can remember having lamb chops cooked at home. Combined with some very fine, complementary wine, the dinner was great. Daniella made two desserts because one serving of delicious decadence wasn't enough. Their 2 year old son Noah also hosted Crowley for the evening. She stopped running away just long enough to snap a picture:

Sunday brunch was done in high style. Aimee and I hit our first Waffle House (ever I think).

Mass at IHM was prayerful and rewarding as always. We really love the opportunities to be part of their music program. Had a nice dinner with Michael and Jeff afterwards at Community BBQ to thank them for watching Crowley during our last trip to Chicago. Gotta say, I think it's the best I've had in Atlanta.