Dreaming of lime gerbils in a cheese sauce

I made it to Whole Foods around 14:30 today and picked up the turkey and a few other supplies (including 2 boxes of firewood). The roads were "clear" in that I didn't see/feel any ice but they were wet/slushy. Given that tonight's low is expected to be around 15F the ice factor will be horrible. I am glad I don't plan to leave the house tomorrow.

Seattle doesn't get a lot of really bad winter weather but it doesn't take much to shut us down. We have really nasty hills and when you combine them with snow-covered-ice things go bad extra quick. Of course, Seattlites (under the direction of the Times, which gives yellow journalism a good name) blame city hall for "not doing something before the snowfall starts" -- as in, salt the roads ... which then puts salt into the ecologically delicate Puget Sound. Brilliant, that. This is so much bullshit it makes me scream sometimes.

I am loving this snow. It is pretty.

I will be hating it tomorrow, though, if it means I can't make it to Whole Foods to pick up the 24-26lb turkey I ordered for Thanksgiving.

Just in case, I stopped off at Safeway on my walk home (the buses couldn't get through, the roads over the hills are too icy) and picked up an emergency turkey. It's only 14.8 lbs, though.

On Thanksgiving day I had 16 guests but some of the people I invited said they couldn't make it and suggested doing a leftovers dinner the next night. I thought about it and decided to do just that.

I originally expected a small gathering. I had 12. Oddly enough, none of the 3 people who'd originally suggested it made it over. However, by the time I'd counted all the people who said they would come I counted 18 heads so I got a bit nervous. I only had about 1/3rd the bird, stuffing, and mashed potatoes I'd had for the dinner with 16 people the night before. Connie nicely bought some pork and brisket and Misha & Dennis brought a huge green salad so ... you guessed it ... I have some serious leftovers.

It was a blast but I don't think I'm going to make this a tradition. Two nights of 12-16 people in the house plus the cooking day before has left me quite wiped out.

So, of course, I have all kinds of cream left over (I made two batches of cream biscuits yesterday since we'd finished off both loaves of bread on Thursday). I made a batch of cream biscuits this morning and I have enough cream to make 2 more batches. oops.

Oh ya, and since I had the oven on this morning I also made a loaf of banana bread. It just went on the cooling rack.

I'm not crazy, really I'm not.