Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Before There Is Thanksgiving There is the Great Cranberry Hunt of 2019

MONDAY - I PLANNED to  do our Thanksgiving shopping, and then make truffles, snack mix, cookies and cheese cake.

In reality, I spent considerable getting Dad set up for Medicare. We still have to find a licensed insurance agent to buy a supplement, but his meds will be covered under D and that's the cheapest option for him. Unfortunately, we discovered there is NOTHING like medicare advantage in Alaska. NONE of the options cover dental and vision and we'll have to pay that out of pocket. OUCH.... We were both a bit bummed and sober when we left the office. Dad suggested a sandwich and soup at Sophia's.  PERFECT.

We came home, I got dinner, Michael and I went to the church to meet with a darling couple about to become Mr. & Mrs.

TUESDAY. I woke determined to get the shopping done. I was there bright and early...and stayed for 3 hours.  I was not able to pick up Dad's meds or cranberries.
Ready to get home and begin baking - Note the absence of snow!
 Stacia, Dad, Arielle and Benny were on hand to unload the van.
"Heavy, Baachan, heavy!"

We checked back at Freddies for meds and cranberries at 2 p.m. The truck with the cranberries was predicted to be in. It wasn't. We did get one med. Evidently, they called Dad about the other med. I need to hunt down the message.

Stacia and I got busy and made brownie bites and the inside of truffles.  That's all we got done  before I needed to get working on dinner and out the door for Gather Bible Study.

I checked Freddies after Bible study. 9:49 p.m. and I scored cranberries. I bought 5 lbs. I will NOT be caught without cranberries again. I may even sell baggies of cranberries to those who didn't have the foresight to buy extra for Christmas dinner. ::snort::

WEDNESDAY. Stacia and I managed to work in time for our Brave study.  We like going to Sophia's....Michael had an appointment in Anchorage. We decided I would stay home so Stacia and I could focus on getting as much of the cooking as possible done before Thursday.

We covered truffles in chocolate....these were not sugar free. We made 4 kinds before deciding we did not have time to make the other 2 kinds.

crunchy peanut butter toffee truffles
Krista got home from work and made a cheese ball. She asked what else she could help with - I promptly set her to making two mini-cheese cake recipes I adapted from WW. I made them SF so Dad and I can eat them. The jury is still out on the WW version of  chocolate cheesecake,  but I LOVE the vanilla cheesecake. I chopped up some sugar free chocolate and added it.  I plan to use this recipe in the future and add cocoa to make sugar free mini chocolate mint cheesecakes.

Arielle and Benny came up to keep us company....and to help. Here, Benny and I whip cream - which we mixed with sugar free Lily's chocolate to make a reduced calorie mousse. We used this for Michael's pie....and as a side dish. We've since discovered how to turn it into a truffle....watch out world.

Arielle prepped sugar free apple pie filling while I made pie crusts and cut out shapes for the top of one.  I made the Chocolate Pecan pie filling and we assembled pies. I want to figure out how to make a sugar free pecan pie....suggestions? Dad loves pecan pie.
Chocolate pecan and Apple pies

Dad called Mikhail and Elizabeth (our nephew and niece).....Benny was happy to take a break with GG....for just a minute.

Michael got home from Anchorage and was FULL of surprises.....a new computer and printer. He had agreed to take care of the brine for the turkey as my shoulder protests at 24lbs....getting better all the time...but I was told to try to rest it and proceed to light duty....I'm trying to listen. I do NOT want to end up going up the pain scale again. I don't pick up Benny or Gideon.....I don't pick up roasters with 24 lb turkeys in them.

Benny was QUITE interested in this process. He and Dad came over to observe/help. 


Such a persistent helper.

 "Ewww....papa."

And there the turkey goes for 12 hours.