Thread Drift

[snapdragen]

My Christmas Eve Dinner Adventure

aka: Top Chef Ain't Got Nuthin' on Me!

We have our big family celebration on Christmas Eve, I cook a huge dinner. This year it was a turkey breast, prime rib, roasted sweet potatoes, smashed Yukon gold potatoes, sautéed summer squash with cherry tomatoes, and dinner rolls. Not to mention the pecan pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate spice yule log, magic bars and fudge.

So, I start cooking about 11:00 - all is going smoothly. I purposely do not put the sweet potato peelings down the garbage disposer. Potato peels seem to block up the sink. After prepping the squash to cook later, I run the disposal - for the third time. Just as my mother comes in to say "run the water for a long time, that will help clear everything" stuff starts bubbling up in the second sink (we have a double sink). The sink is backed up.

I crawl underneath to undo the elbow pipe, hoping that's all I need to clean out. I can't get one of the pipe ring thingys loose, and end up tightening it. Enter superman - aka Dad. He can't get it loose either. After about an hour and a half of him trying everything known to man, he cuts the pipe, then heads to Orchard Supply for new one. During all this I'm still cooking and prepping. My niece is scrubbing potatoes in the bathroom sink, dirty pots and pans are put in the laundry tub. Dad is gone for a good 2 hours. He gets back, and discovers he has the wrong pipe. Off he goes, back to OSH....I start getting everything ready to serve.

I might add, while we are cooking, we are also drinking Champagne.

Poor dad gets back, and looks whipped. I tell him to forget it for now; my brother has emptied the water in the sink using a large bucket. Tell dad to relax, have some champagne. Carve the turkey, carve the prime rib, get everything in serving bowls, pour the wine. Dinner is served!

All without benefit of a kitchen sink. I shall now refer to this night as my Holiday Top Chef Challenge.

Next year I cook dinner without benefit of a stove!


Nah, maybe not....

Oh - this morning the pipes are back on, we've snaked them a couple of times (eww, gross) Now to do all the dishes from last night.

[Nanci]

I was walking down the hall this morning. In one place the carpet felt wet. I thought it was from BF taking a shower. Although I didn't know why the hall at the opposite end of the house would have a wet footprint. This afternoon, it's still wet. I investigate. The whole carpet is wet and the wall is soft. Great. Rain is leaking in around both my front windows, now.

Nanci

[Duck on Wheels]

Ohmygosh! Murphy's Law strikes again, and again, and again! You poor ladies! Hopefully, you'll get things fixed up and these will become adventure stories for generations to come. Ours this year was during clean-up from our weekend-before-Thanksgiving dinner. I was just putting the last dish of leftovers into the fridge when an alarm goes off behind me. It's the electrical short alarm. But everything seems to be working fine. Fridge is cold, compressor not running hard. Oven is off. Coffeemaker off. Nothing running but the ... dishwasher! And it's leaking all over the floor! We spent half an hour mopping it up, and then a week shopping for a replacement. My Mom's big holiday dinner adventures were (1) the first Thanksgiving in the new house when we didn't have an oven yet because of a steel strike. The turkey and pies had to be driven down one driveway and up the next to the old house, but when Dad drove the turkey over there Mom forgot to send the pumpkin pies. In fact, she filled them before she remembered, then had to walk them across the field and jump the creek with them, one on each hand. (2) The time we were expecting guests who would only eat their roast beef well done, whereas we all liked it medium rare. To get it just right she was using a thermometer, so the ends would be well done and the center medium rare. But as the tied-up rottisery beef cooked, it loosened a bit and the mercury thermometer started hitting against the top of the oven as the rotissery turned ... until it broke! Well, can't eat mercury-poisoned beef! Meanwhile, Mom was out shopping for last-minute ingredients. We kids called all over til we found a shop she was going to where she hadn't been yet. They gave her the message and she called back with instructions to throw out the beef and defrost a packet of steaks. She gets home, puts the steaks on the grill. They're done and the guests are ... late? But they weren't usually late. Mom checks the calendar. The guests were coming the next day.

p.s. X-rayted: Love the rewrite! Ok if I take a print-out to the New Year's party at the neighbors'? One of the usual guests is a radiologist.

[maillotpois]

Great story, Snap! I am impressed that you got through without a sink!!

Sorry about the windows, Nanci. That blows.

Happy Christmas, TD!!

(Oh - and I rode yesterday. And again today. I am TERRIBLE! I did 3 double centuries and a 600k brevet this year and this week 20 miles does me in. But I am on my bike and not coughing up blood, so I got that going for me!!)

[Fredwina]

(Oh - and I rode yesterday. And again today. I am TERRIBLE! I did 3 double centuries and a 600k brevet this year and this week 20 miles does me in. But I am on my bike and not coughing up blood, so I got that going for me!!)[/QUOTE]
Just don't over do like me. My first ride back from my fracture , I did Glendora Mountain Road (40 miles 4,500+ feet of climbing) , and I pretty much sucked.

[Nanci]

Can I just WHINE???

I am so hungry- waiting for BF to get home so we can go to friends for dinner. I'm at that stage where I am starting to shake and sweat.

My second favorite snake has started biting. Zee. Mr. Perfect Birthday Snake. Not like he's afraid- like he's going to eat me? Why? I am afraid of him, because he is venomous. Nice. Is he smelling soap and thinking I am oging to feed him???

BF gave me Christmas Snake money, and likely friend who gave me Birthday Snake habitat money is giving me the same for Christmas, but I can't even get excited because I am so depressed about Zee.

My house is going to melt away.

That's all.

MP- it'll come back.

Nanci

[Xrayted]

Snap - so glad the dinner went off without a hitch. Here's a thought for the future, just in case... I have an S.O who insists on putting things down the disposal that don't belong there. Constantly backing up the pipes. So, I went to Home Depot and bought a replacement piece that is rubber and is held at each end by a hose clamp. Now I can remove the piece very easily with a screwdriver and snake away without having to cut or de-solder anything. Because of where I placed it, I can go back towards the sink or forward towards the main without a hassle. No leaks after 7 years in there. Plenty of snaking though.

Duck - sure, print it out and take it along. I happened across that rendition last year while I was a student. Hope he likes it.

Nanci - sorry to hear about the leak. Don't be too hard on Zee, he's just acting like the snake he was born to be. Don't go around cramping his style now. Just keep the local poison control number handy.

Kit - now you know you need a keeper sometimes woman, admit it. And who better than your sisters to watch over you? I think I've left you in the best hands possible, besides my own. (hmmm, that didn't come out right... ) Uh, anyway, just chill sis and let the good times roll.... Happy to hear you had a good xmas this year. Ya know, I have a feeling that it still has room to get even better. Tonight's fortune cookie says: "Be nice to the postie and he'll be nice to you." Hmmm, wonder what that means?

Well, gotta go up to the NICU and do my thang. Be well all.

~X.

[Kitsune06]

Kit - now you know you need a keeper sometimes woman, admit it. And who better than your sisters to watch over you? I think I've left you in the best hands possible, besides my own. (hmmm, that didn't come out right... ) Uh, anyway, just chill sis and let the good times roll.... Happy to hear you had a good xmas this year. Ya know, I have a feeling that it still has room to get even better. Tonight's fortune cookie says: "Be nice to the postie and he'll be nice to you." Hmmm, wonder what that means?

Well, gotta go up to the NICU and do my thang. Be well all.

~X.

I need a keeper? Really? And all this time, I thought I could go with just anyone! yes, yes, har har.

Yes, my sisters take good care of me, but ...uh... I don't need to be in anyone's hands right now...

I like that fortune cookie. How nice do I have to be to the postie?