7QT: Such a long to-do list, I think I'll blog.

We are leaving for Michigan in the am.  The laundry isn't done.  There are still groceries to buy (Hello Aldi cheap beach snacks!).  The house is a mess.  But I think I'll cough up seven quick takes and tell the big kids to make brownies, because these things are important.

1.

Those people down there are my people.

Michigan.  It's just like this.  On a lake with a beer and a baby.

2.

We have a new Christian in the house!

Many, many thanks to Fr. Steve Grunow of Word on Fire for coming down to our neck of the woods to baptize Polly and to the many family members who journeyed far and cut vacations short to be with us on this great occasion!

3.  Here are some examples of how Old Scratch tried to spoil the day interspersed with photos that are not related to the text.

My dishwasher broke the night before.  Patrick duct taped it so the tape was barely noticeable and the dishwasher still functioned.

The morning of, in a group effort to get beverages in the coolers, Lucy picked up a 12 pack of beer on the back porch and the box broke!  Broken glass and beer everywhere!

Then after cleaning up that mess, Susan was stirring a glass pitcher of OJ RIGHT BEFORE WE WERE TO WALK OUT THE DOOR, AND THE PITCHER BROKE!  Glass and OJ all over my clean kitchen.

At this point, Patrick, Polly, Jill, and I took off for the church, leaving the oldest four to clean and make their own way.

Polly was a perfect baby for the entire ceremony except for some serious fussiness and squirming during the prayer of exorcism.  But then Fr. Steve called the Holy Spirit down on her, and she settled right down.

4.  The rest of the day was just lovely.  There was no Bacon Cake left.  No ham.  None of the four egg casseroles.  No Prosecco.  It was a great feast!

Then we napped.

My hair looked pretty good too.  Washed it the day before.  Curly friends, you got to get educated in Ouidad.  I read about this nursing friendly dress on this blog.  Thanks, Tess.  Sorry not sorry I got the same print as she did.  It's the prettiest one.

5.  Some of the male party guests were complaining about our gorgeous vegetable garden. I think they were afraid their wives would get ideas.

I'm linking up with Cari's Garden Post. Our harvest has been small so far.  Some lettuce, Swiss Chard, basil, and a total of 2 cucumbers and 9 green beans.  This is our first attempt at vegetable gardening.

Each of those cucumbers cost us about $175.

There are zillions of green tomatoes too.  I'm certain everything will ripen while we are away.  If you live locally, swing by my back yard and help yourselves.  I have a good gazpacho recipe here.

The pepper plants look good, but no peppers.  The watermelon was about the size of a golf ball, but squirrels got it somehow.  It looks like we will do well with pumpkins.  That will save me about $8 this fall.

Next year, I'm growing zucchini and arugula.

Mixing the compost.

BTW, the vegetable garden is all the work of Patrick, Edmund, and Peter.  Any and all flowers are my domain, and they are all dead or mostly dead, which is why they are not pictured.

6.

On Monday, we took our Houston family members to the zoo.  They left from the zoo for the airport, but we stayed and went to the Butterfly House.

Patrick is SKEERED of butterflies, so we have never been there before.

It was gorgeous and magical and I want to live there.  Or at least spend a couple of hours in there with a large iced tea.

7.

Jill is talking about this moment when she says she touched a pig at the zoo.

I suppose that's enough procrastinating.

I will try to keep up with the WWRW posts, but there is a serious lack of internet and even cell coverage where we're going.  Don't you ever think that I'd skip a What We're Reading Wednesday post because I haven't read any books.  Jill would never let that happen.

Linking up with Jennifer @ Conversion Diary and Cari @ Clan Donaldson.

WWRW: Something Other Than God

Tess had her baby!  And Kathryn had her baby!  And Jennifer had her book baby!

My hands are not that red and wrinkly in real life.  Wait.  Okay.  Maybe they are.

Yes, I pre-ordered Something Other Than God.  No, thankfully I did not suffer any shipping delays.  Yes, I did read the whole thing in 24 hours, give or take, but the dryer was broken so what else was I going to do?

I'm going to have to read it again, much more slowly, and take the time to underline things.  So glad I ordered a print copy because A:  How's Jennifer going to autograph my Kindle? and B: I can loan out my print copy as many times as I want, but Kindle copies can only be loaned once.

A few quick takes about my take on Jennifer Fulwiler's book:

I don't know if she goes by Jen or Jennifer.  I used to call her Jen (in my head) but after reading her book, I get the sense that she goes by Jennifer.  I go by Jessica, unless you are one of my parents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles, then I will respond to Jessie, but only because I don't have a say in the matter.  #Missourigirlproblems

I have met Jennifer IRL, but I didn't ask her about the Jen/Jennifer thing then.  

I did not realize at that time that Jennifer and I are total opposites.  

The way she thinks about things, the way she comes to conclusions, she is pure logic, like a Vulcan or an engineer or something totally rational.  I thought I was logical and rational until I read Jennifer's book.  She takes logic to a whole new level, and I realize that I am just a hot mess of emotion.

She likes rap.  Is Salt 'n Pepa's Push It rap?  Because that would be the only rap I'm familiar with.  My playlists have everything but rap.  I like Caribbean music, ska, reggae, Shaggy, Rayvon, etc.  That doesn't count though, does it?  

Jennifer and I share an intense affinity for Mexican food and margaritas, so I think we could still be friends.

The chapter where she compares C.S. Lewis and Tupac Shakur is just brilliant.  Her brilliant mind creating connections between those two minds and their approaches to human suffering is just mind-blowing.  

GIFs.  Do we love them or hate them?  Let me know if you're a hater and I'll stop using them.

Throughout the book, you can just see God's fingerprints (Cari Donaldson's phrase) all over Jennifer's life, in little ways and in really big ways.

After I read this book, I must confess I felt a huge wave of jealousy.  First of all, I'm jealous of converts and their amazing conversion stories.  There.  I said it.  #cradlecatholicproblems

Also, I took a look at my life, and lately I'm not seeing God's fingerprints all over it.  I mean, I know I'm not alone, but the biggest sign I have of His involvement in the mundane day-to-day here in the Thornton house is that the ice maker started working again.  

I know that not every.single.prayer. Jennifer utters gets answered with the efficacy and immediacy of the prayers she mentions in her book.  But sometimes (lately) it seems that NONE of my prayers get answered. Or at least none of them get answered the way I want.  

Not even the tiny hopeful prayer that Edmund would have One decent inning on the pitching mound.  No. He gave up a billion runs and walks before the coach took him out, and after the game he got in the car and said, "I suck."  That was definitely NOT the answer I was hoping for, God, and You know it.

I am pretty sure that Mary at Better than Eden wrote this piece just for me.

So Jen's Jennifer's book.  It's good.  It's very good.  It's a very different kind of conversion story than Cari's.  Cari's book made me laugh and cry, Jennifer's book made me think hard and it made me a wee bit (whole lotta) crazy. 

But I'm pregnant and moody, so I'll take the blame for the crazy jealousy stuff.  

Then Mama Bear said, "Someone's been sleeping in my bed..."  Gratuitous picture of God's fingerprints in my life.  [Thanks for putting a picture of me looking like the white whale. At least you cropped out Ishmael who is off to the right and about to jab a harpoon into my white belly. --Your Loving Husband, Shamu.] - Aaaand that's the last time I let Patrick proof-read my posts.  

An InLinkz Link-up

Theme Thursday: Ridiculous

This is Patrick after spending 90 minutes of snowblowing this:

It's like snow-blowing a driveway that is 10 feet wide and 350 feet long.  Then he did our sidewalks and our driveway which is 80 feet long.  He 'da man.  I hope all of those rascally teens coming over to skate tonight appreciate his hard work.

Thanks, Cari, for hosting this, for explaining "tilt-shift" to me so I can have the miniature train land effect like the cool peeps, and for introducing me to web.stagram.com so I can more easily harvest my Instagram photos for the blog.

I see a lot more Theme Thursday participation in my 2014, 'specially if the themes are super easy like "ridiculous" or "nonsense" because I have those in abundance.

7 Thanksgiving Takes: From New England to New Orleans

1.  Thanksgiving is a labor of love.

Let's streamline the process by checking a main player off on the to-do list.  Cranberries.

Do this one week ahead.  That's next Thursday, folks.

Wonderful Fact Number One: You don't have to cook anything.

Wonderful Fact Number Two: This recipe can be made up to 3 weeks ahead! If you can keep from eating it for 3 weeks. Ideally, it's supposed to be made at least 4 days in advance. We've had it on Thanksgiving and don't tell anyone, but I made it only 3 days in advance. Actually, I didn't make it, my 12 year old did. Even better.

Wonderful Fact Number Three: My dear friend, Rose makes this every year and calls me on that day.

This here is the only recipe in this post.  The rest are all just links.  So as Jill would say, "Chillax."

New England Cranberry Relish
Prep time: 15 minutesYield: 20-24 servings, 4 cups

Serve the relish with poultry, game, pork, ham and lamb. Mix with mayonnaise for a flavorful sandwich spread.

1 bag (12oz) cranberries
1 red apple, cored, cut into 1-inch wedges (We used a granny smith. Shh.)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup NOT PANCAKE SYRUP.
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup pecans

Put cranberries, apple, sugar, syrup, cinnamon, and cloves in food processor fitted with metal blade. Pulse processor on/off to chop ingredients, stopping every few pulses to avoid over-chopping. The texture should not be too fine. Scatter pecans over mixture; pulse until coarsely chopped. Make at least 4 days ahead. Can be kept up to 2-3 weeks, refrigerated.

2.  Another make ahead piece to the puzzle.  

Cornbread. 

Yes, you heard me.  Cornbread.  

You're going to need a lot of it for the World's Greatest Stuffing which is Cornbread Stuffing.  

***The link takes you to a recipe that says not to use breakfast sausage.  Ignore that statement.  I ONLY use breakfast sausage.***

I know there are lots of good traditional stuffing recipes out there.  In 2005, I went "off book" and made Cook's Illustrated's Cornbread Stuffing.  It was a life changing experience, and my father-in-law has been lobbying for my canonization ever since.

But first you need cornbread.  And eventually you will need a 10x15 pyrex dish.  Or two 9x9 baking dishes, or two 7x11 baking dishes.  Or a 9x13 and an 8x8 might work too.

Make this cornbread recipe on Tuesday.  The rest you can do Wednesday eve and bake on Thursday, or wait until the last minute and do it all on D Day, I mean T Day.  Here is that link again, so you can refer to the stuffing portion.

3.  Let's re-think dessert.

There's the traditional pumpkin and pecan pies.
Chances are you know someone who can make these better than I.
Chances are not everyone at your table is a fan of these pies.

You can pretend the blonde chick on the end is me, because that's how I see this picture.

Chances are everyone at your table will be a fan of this Pumpkin Bread Pudding that Bobby Flay made at Ree Drummond's house on an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

Plus, you can make the pumpkin bread ahead of time too!

4.  You can make your regular go-to pumpkin bread for this recipe, or you can make Bobby Flay's Pumpkin Bread of ridiculous work intensity, masochist that you are.  OR you can take a tip from a brilliant commenter on one of the posts of this recipe (I'm not sure where I saw it) and use Trader Joe's pumpkin bread box mix.

GO TO YOUR NEAREST TRADER JOE'S RIGHT NOW AND STOCK UP BECAUSE THEY SELL OUT IN A FLASH!

While you're there, grab some peppermint Joe Joe's because those things are like crack.  You can only get peppermint Joe Joe's once a year, in November, before they sell out.  You're welcome.

Make your pumpkin bread on Monday or Tuesday.

Then make the pumpkin bread pudding on Wednesday or Thursday.

5.  But that part about Vanilla Creme Anglaise and Spicy Caramel Apple Sauce?  Those are real nice, but loads of time and money.  Vanilla beans are like $12!  You can use homemade caramel sauce (or Smuckers), and reglee-R old whipped cream and it is still a prize-winning dessert.

You can also do what I did.  Make the Vanilla Creme Anglaise, ruin it and the only vanilla bean, then try again without the bean.  Still works!  Also, I don't like anise, so I omitted that from the Spicy Caramel Apple Sauce, having blown my budget on a bean from Madagascar.

*Patrick insists that I add yet ANOTHER way to top this amazing bread pudding.

Everyone knows Southern food is the best food.  But did you know that NOLA food is the best Southern food?  Yes, New Orleans knows how to cook.  I think it has to do with the blend of French, Spanish, Creole, African, and Southern cultures.  New Orleans is like it's own planet when it comes to many things, music, partying, and food just top the list.

Back to the bread pudding, one year we made the Pumpkin Bread Pudding  for Christmas but we topped it with this New Orleans Bourbon Sauce.

"I felt the earth move under my feet."

That year was Patrick's grandma's last Christmas.  She had dropped a lot of weight and wasn't eating much. She cleaned her plate of bread pudding though.  AND she had a second helping!  I hope they are serving plenty of that at the heavenly banquet.

6.  Let's talk about veggies.

Does anyone even like that gloppy green bean casserole made with canned cream of trans fats mushroom soup and canned fried onions?

I didn't think so.

Besides, Thanksgiving is a rich bountiful meal that needs balance...or a salad.

Yes.  Fresh crisp green beans and a sprinkling of crispy shallots on a bed of lettuce drizzled with a dijon vinaigrette would do just fine.

I tried to find a rights free image of this salad and this came up.  

My sister-in-law provided this on Thanksgiving some years ago, and now NO major holiday or feast is complete with Martha Stewart's Green Bean, Watercress, and Crispy Shallot Salad.

And the best part is....we don't even use watercress.  We use chopped romaine.  Hiyah!  Ninja roundhouse kick to the watercress!

So here is an image I ripped off Martha's site.

I've had this salad with watercress and it's lovely, but watercress is hard to find and even harder to clean.

Romaine or butter lettuce or arugula, whatever floats your boat will work just fine.

And like all of my other recipes, you can crispy fry those shallots in advance.

7.  Oh.  Were you looking for turkey and gravy tips?

Ummyeah.  Patrick does that part.  Or his mom.  Or my mom.  I'm not old enough for that big girl stuff.

But if I had to do it, I'd use America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook or Cook's Country or Cook's Illustrated, because Christopher Kimball knows his stuff.

I'm going to provide this goat video again because it is gloriously awesome and to let you have a glimpse at what a Thornton Family Meal is like.

Cheers!

Linking up with Jen for 7(Never)QuickTakes and Cari for the Thanksgiving Day Link-up Party.

WWRW: 300th Post and Pope Awesome

Welcome to What We're Reading Wednesday!

Today we are going to talk about my CPF (close personal friend)'s new book, Pope Awesome.  Then we'll return to our regularly scheduled kiddie lit with Kathryn Erskine's Mockingbird and Jennifer Holm's historical fiction romance, Boston Jane.

I was hesitant to read Pope Awesome by Cari Donaldson.  I've met her and hugged her husband and witnessed how gosh darn polite her children are, but would I like her book?  What if I didn't?  What if it stunk?

To be completely honest, I did not like Pope Awesome.

I LOVED it!

I first fell in love with the writing of Cari Donaldson when I read her conversion story on Catholic Exchange.  Pope Awesome is a better fleshed out re-telling of that journey interspersed with kid comedy and birth stories.

When she talks about "God's fingerprints" on her life, I both marvel at the turn of phrase and start to recognize His fingerprints in my own life, and occasionally the muddy bootprint to the backside.

When Cari talks about "unclenching her fists" and letting God take control, I know exactly what she means.  Frightening and thrilling at the same time.

I have to say my favorite chapter is "Conversion Means to Turn."  Even the chapter title gives me chills.

As I said the other day, I cried, I laughed, I cried some more with a smile on my face.  See, Cari essentially wrote her own birth story, and like all birth stories, it's a comedic drama with raw pain, raw love, and bodily fluids splashed all over the place.

I was telling a friend all about the book the other night and I was brought to tears just trying to explain the beauty of Cari's story.  I promised I'd loan you my copy, Kris, but I must let you know that it didn't come with the food stains.  I added those bits myself.

I'm not kidding when I said I'm going to be handing out copies of Pope Awesome on Christmas Day.  There's a lot to be learned from Cari's story, even if she didn't include her famous pizza recipe.

You're in good company this week, Cari.

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine is the enigmatic story of a young girl (maybe 10?) with Asperger's, but that's the least of her problems.  Her mother died of cancer when she was young, and her older brother, Devon has been the mainstay of her life, teaching her behaviors and interpersonal skills and loving her unconditionally.

Devon is not in the book however, as Mockingbird is set six months after the deadly school shooting that took Devon's life.  It's just Caitlin and her dad, an unfinished Mission-style chest that Devon was working on for his Eagle Scout project, and mountains of grief.

Using Caitlin as the unlikely guide to closure, Erskine introduces other victims of the tragedy as well, Michael the son of a teacher who was gunned down, and Josh, whose cousin was the shooter.

Erskine uses the Gregory Peck film To Kill a Mockingbird to weave her story together.  Devon's pet name for Caitlin was Scout, Caitlin sees her father as Atticus, and Devon (obviously) is both Jem and the mockingbird.

The subject matter is heavy in Mockingbird, which makes it difficult to suggest an age-group for this book.  I suppose 10 year olds could read it, but unless they are somewhat familiar with the book or movie To Kill a Mockingbird and are quite ready to a fictional account of the effects of a school shooting on a family and a community, this book would be better suited towards junior high students and up.

Charlotte at Waltzing Matilda suggested Boston Jane by Jennifer L. Holm to me when I requested her girls' favorite romantical books.  Like the cover says, Boston Jane is An Adventure, not a romance strictly speaking.

Jane Peck is the only child of her widowed father, a surgeon in Philadelphia.  Yes, you read that right.  Boston Jane is from Philly.  After being ridiculed by the local girls for being wild and uncouth, Jane takes it upon herself to enroll at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy at the tender age of eleven.  Over the next several years, she becomes adept at embroidery, etiquette, and tea-pouring.

When her father's former student writes to her asking for her hand in marriage, she sets out for the wild Pacific Northwest and spends the next five months in the belly of a ship.

Miss Hepplewhite left her woefully unprepared for the wild frontier, as Jane finds herself letting each dictum of courtesy and class slip away.

Though her fiance is months away, (she arrived two months late) Jane waits for him, befriending the Chinook natives, working as a seamstress, learning to cook, and going into an oyster business.  Will she be the demure girl he wrote to when he arrives, or has Boston Jane become someone else entirely?  You'll have to read it to find out.

Boston Jane is appropriate for any advanced reader.  I'm putting the trilogy on a wishlist for Christmas for my own daughters.

An InLinkz Link-up

7QT: NYC and Poop, the verbal and non-verbal kinds

1.  Remember how I was going to go to NYC and see Cari, and Cardinal Timmy D., and Jimmy G.?  Well, it did occur.

I am descended from vampire folk.

2.  But first, we were literally kissing our children good-bye when I noticed the upstairs hall was smoky.  Yes, feathery plumes of smoke gently were cascading down the stairwell accompanied by an odor of fire.

***Insert imaginary GIF of "Charlie, LIGHT A MATCH!" from So I Married an Axe Murderer***

In our house, you drop a deuce, you light a match.

Someone, who shall remain nameless, got carried away with that procedure and was burning wads of toilet paper.

Crisis averted, matches confiscated, on to the airport for a 30 hour door-to-door whirlwind trip.

3.  New York City kind of smells like urine.  And elephant poop.  Especially near the Central Park Zoo, and when it rains.

4.  I recognized a ridiculous amount of stuff (shapes, numbers, architecture) from 70s Sesame Street episodes, which I am convinced were all filmed in Central Park.

Central Park looks exactly the same, but with less parachute pants and more leggings.

I think some of the signage is from when New York was New Amsterdam.

4.  Cari and Ken sat next to us at Mass.  Nothing like having a heavenly banquet with good friends.

5.  I made an ass of myself to Jeannie Gaffigan. Sometimes, I get diarrhea of the mouth.

Here she recoils from my verbal mishaps.

Jeannie is killing me with her mind as inner-Jessica dies a tormented death.

6.  Other than that, nothing else bad happened.

This is a larger-than-life photo of Cardinal Dolan's bathroom.  I didn't know why I took this photo at the time, but it all makes sense now.

Patrick, Promotheus, and Me.  We got this.

7.  When we got home, my friend told me about Poo-Pourri.

It's a real thing.  I bought a bottle for each bathroom.  No more pyros on the potty!

Linking up with Jen because it's Friday!  Friday!  Gotta link up on Friday!