Forget-Me-Nots Along The Way

Talking Turkey

Okay, call me crazy, but last week we had a craving for turkey.  We don't do processed meats at home because in addition to them being unhealthy, I am allergic to sulfa/sulfites and other preservative agents in them.  No, we got a full turkey.  Medium sized, about 16#.  It was 98* that day, so I got up at 5AM and put the turkey in.  I have been experimenting with the flavoring in/on the turkey.  I buy fresh rosemary and sage and was blending them with my stick blender along with a cube of melted butter.  Hmmm...the taste is nummy and definitely the fresh herbs have much better flavor than dried ones.  Well, as you know butter is a solid fat and we noticed that there was so much grease, not turkey drippings but grease.  So this time I tried it with olive oil.  It worked fine.  Turkey tasted good but not quite as good and so we are wondering if that is because there is no butter or is that because the turkey is lesser quality?  I would love to know how you prepare your turkey.  I put mine in a roasting bag in the oven at 325* for about 4.5-5 hours.  I cook my turkey much longer than recommended.  Having worked in pediatrics and seen the side effects of undercooked meats...well, let's just say I am a bit obsessive about meat temps and kitchen cleanliness.  I love that new show on HGTV called Kitchen Crimes because it supports my point and hubby realizes now that it is a real concern and not just his wife being weird! :o)

Anyway, I cut up the turkey and there was not nearly as much meat this time.  Maybe last time it was bigger, or perhaps I had gotten one of those broad breasted turkeys, I'm not sure.  At any rate there was less meat.  We had mashed potatoes and gravy and dressing too...I know, not the healthiest, but you know sometimes you just get a craving.  Especially after you have been gone from home a month and eating restaurant and fast food!  UGH!  My kids will not eat turkey dinner.  What is up with that?  One of my daughters ate a little.  My son ate the mashed potatoes, the other daughter just dabbled.  They went hungry.  More turkey for us!  My husband and I ate turkey for five days and still have leftovers.

In addition I made soup.  That made 4 family size containers of soup and 4 lunch size for hubby.  I froze some sliced breast enough for about 4 sandwhiches and I froze some smaller pieces of breast meat enough for turkey stir fry.  I know that sounds strange but it is actually quite yummy!  The last of the turkey bits and the stuffing went into the gravy thinned down and we ate it over noodles for dinner Saturday.  Didn't like the noodles, but we saved the leftovers and froze them to try over rice another time.

Now wouldn't you say that was $15 well spent?

With turkey leftovers, my favorite thing to do is "french toasted turkey sandwich"...I know this sounds very weird but it is something my dear Grandma Hopkins got me hooked on.  You make a turkey sandwich and since I am so boring I only use just meat, nothing else and then you beat an egg with a little milk (omit the vanilla and cinnamon! LOL), dip the sandwich and fry it.  Hmmm...my mouth is watering thinking about it!

I would love to hear what other people do with their turkey leftovers!

As the severity of my migraine cycle decreases my depression is lifting.  It tends to be worse at the end of the day when naturally my depression is as well. I have peace about it though.

The last couple days I feel like I have so much joy inside of me.  Saturday night hubby and I spent some time praying together.  First we talked about our future, what we are thinking about goals and working towards moving to Spokane, how we feel about raising our children and I was able to share with him some of my struggles in learning how to submit to him and knowing what being a Godly wife means applied in my life.  The prayer time was so sweet, one of those times when you definitely feel the Holy Spirit present right there with you. Church was special yesterday too.  Our Sunday School teachers had their baby boy dedicated to the Lord and her parents were there, they are pastors at another local church.  Yes, there were and are still struggles and actually some very difficult things happened this weekend, but God's presence has just permeated my days and comforted me.  Thank you Jesus!

Grandma's Recipes and Home Dreams

As I mentioned in a previous post, my Grandma Hopkins was a great influence on me.  My friend Melissa on the Christian Artisans list posted her bread recipes and some photos that got me thinking of my Grandma. My Aunt Marilyn has her handwritten cookbook.  It is a treasure, which I have scanned to share with other family members.  My Grandma was a life long teacher...by profession and by giftedness.  She often made bulleted lists of ideas, like on this page.  I can just glance at this writing and an overwhelming sense of her presence and personality sweep over me. At times we thought her a little quirky! :o)  But she had so many good ideas to pass on.  She underlined in all her books, wrote comments in the margins, crossed out things she did not agree with or believe in and gave suggestions for how to do things better.  She always said, "I am not a perfectionist, I am an 'efficiency expert'." Um, dare I say, perhaps I have inherited some of her quirkiness?  It may be splitting hairs, but it does scare me that now as an adult I can understand the difference between a perfectionist and an "efficiency expert!" LOL

As I explore a new way of living and learn how to keep a home (at  40 I'm a late bloomer!) and seek God's path for my life, I sure miss her!  She died in 2002 and would have been 100 years old June 10th this year.  So, obviously she couldn't live forever on this earth.  It's just that there are so many things that I want to share with someone that I believe she would have understood.

Some day I will have to post pictures of her quaint home, our homestead, in Lake Stevens, Washington. Unfortunately it was sold outside of the family to take care of my Grandmother.  It was designed and built by my Grandfather in 1929 (and was never totally finished, you know the carpenter's house is never done!) in an English cottage style, prevalent at the time.  It had many lovely built in features borrowed from the Craftsman style, which I admire. Grandma struggled with clutter, as I do, a not uncommon side effect of being interested in so many different things!  But she ran it efficiently and lived there from 1930 when she married Grandpa to 1999 when she went into assisted living care.

I have never tried this bread recipe.  My Aunt Marilyn makes bread all the time and I need to ask her if this was the recipe she used.  When I was growing up, my Grandma always made a beet bread.  Sounds weird but it was very good.  It was wheat and had a pinkish-raspberry colored dough.  I searched in her recipe book in vain!  I have found one recipe online that I want to try and see if it is the same.  Most beat bread recipes contain chocolate and are more of a quick bread.  This was actual wheat bread and didn't taste anything like beets! :o)  She always made it and gave it away and I know a lot of people cringed when they saw that beet bread coming...I think people couldn't get over the idea of the beets! LOL

My Grandma was very health conscious and did many things that I thought were crazy while I was growing up. (Don't most children have this "malady"...and then you grow up, become adults and find yourself doing and saying the same things!?!) Now I am glad that I had so much influence from her as a child because many of those ideas I want to incorporate into my own life.

Some of them are hard to incorporate living here in a 30+ year old tinbox, surrounded by asphalt and smog!  But we are praying for God's leading.  Hopefully within the next two years He will be leading us to a new home.  I shared some of my ideas with my husband last night, some of the things that have been on my heart, things I have been learning by reading on the Internet and in my Bible and he asked to pray about it! What joy! :o) He again put our lives as a family in submission of the Master Planner as we seek answers.  Since my husband is a special education teacher in the public school system, we have been looking for locations that had a combination of high teacher salary and low cost of living.  We have looked at Michigan and New York because they pay well and one can live in the country easily.  However, they are far away from my family.  My husband has only 2 half-sibilings so that is easier to plan around.  Lately the Lord has put it on our hearts to look at the area of Spokane, Washington.  That would be a paycut and would put us back in the heat, but the cost of living is lower, it's close to many beautiful outdoor areas and I do have some cousins that live in and near Spokane and in northern Idaho. 

Someone has made it financially possible for us to visit for a family reunion and travel for a couple days to Spokane to see what we think of the area next month.  I'm very excited and a little nervous.  I want to be cautious that I don't allow my dreams to become materialistically (is that a word?!) focused because the reason we want to move is not just about having a house.  It's about having a home, more freedom to be the kind of family and live the kind of life we feel God is calling us to and a better environment for raising our growing children! 

All these things are on the heart and never far out of the thoughts.  So much to pray about. When these thoughts go zooming around in my head, my fingers (typing) are the outlet! :o)