> A grammar game! I know someone who would love this. But I shouldn't make fun, especially since I want to buy the book it's based upon. UPDATE: I bought the book. I loved it. Go get it now!
The great thing about Thanksgiving in Canada, as opposed to US Thanksgiving, is the timing of it. Thanksgiving in October just seems right to me... as opposed to in the US where this year, Thanksgiving will fall on November 25.
Here in Ottawa, the leaves are at their peak, the air is crisp, the days are shorter and the nights are cold enough that you're thinking about digging the toque out of storage... this all signals the end of our short summer. Hence, the need to celebrate by stuffing ourselves silly and reconnecting with family.
I am still full from the weekend's foodfest. Like in many families, we had *two* Thanksgiving dinners. I had to force myself to eat breakfast this morning. My pants are feeling a little snug. Menu details to come. I did find a couple of kickass recipes... but will have to tap them out later. I have about a hundred photos to post too. Bear with me. :)
Hope all of you fellow Canadians had a good one!
a
<wednesday october 6, 2004 - 3:40 p.m>
Dooce is one funny lady. Her writing has made me laugh many times, although never as much as today.
Sometimes I think I am truly losing my mind. I am not kidding. I'm not sure where my memory is heading. Ok, I do know... it's heading right for the pooper because it is certainly not improving with age. (And as you know, I am 26 and will remain so for many years.)
I have this image of my brain. The working part is a jellybean suspended in Jello. There is activity. Yes there is, but 40 per cent of the synapses are just firing in any ol' random direction. There is the sound of fizzling fireworks. There is smoke but no real flame. There is a faint scent of burning rubber. Yes folks, welcome to my brain.
I wonder if I lost some key brain cells during the birthing process. The ones that hold all the information about the location of my keys, my wallet, and whether I need to be driving East or West on the Queensway. Are placentas built out of these brain cells? This would cetainly explain why I was so tired during the first trimester. It was because most of my brain cells were gradually heading southward. Were they expelled during birth? I sure hope not. I need them back. NOW.
You're wondering what this has to do with the Sweet Potato Maple soup, aren't you? Last weekend I made this wonderful soup. I walked to the grocery store, bought the ingredients that were written on my list (INCLUDING sweet potatoes, because starchy tubers aren't things we have lying around the house, in our cellar or under our pillows you know), walked back home, peeled them, chopped them, watched them spin around in the food processor, etc etc. I am trying to illustrate that there was a process here - that there were multiple hours spent thinking/watching/tasting sweet potato. Yet somewhere along the way the word "sweet potato" was replaced in my brain by the word "squash." If you know your root vegetables at all, you would know that sweet potatoes and squash are not the same. Yes, they're orange in colour, yes, they both grow under the ground and yes, they both appear on autumn dinner menus, but that's where it ends.
When I thought about my soup I thought about squash soup: Hey, how is that squash soup coming? Mmmmm, that squash soup sure tastes good! I wonder if my squash soup will stay hot until dinner?
And then I presented my liquid creation as squash soup to all in attendance. It was only after it was consumed, after the dinner discussion and thank-you's did I hear Mark say the words Squash Soup out loud. I am fairly certain I heard a clicking sound in my brain. Or was it a sizzle?
"Did you say squash? Did I call it squash? It wasn't squash, it was sweet potato!"
This misinformation caused a non-sweet-potato-eater to eat sweet potatoes, because he thought it was squash! And he liked it. This is the only good part of this story. And in case you're wondering, neither child availed herself to what I termed "Halloween soup."
But the mental block concerns me. It isn't the first time a plain word for something has just fallen out of my head to be replaced with other one.
Someone, please let me know if I get worse. I may not notice if I start calling my children Bob and Peter and forgetting to pick them up from school.
Argh! Please tell me I am not the only one with this problem!
a
<monday october 4, 2004 - 11:07 p.m>
This is a first part of a two part story. I will begin with a recipe. I found this in a flyer for Campbell's soup. And it was actually good. I kid ye not.
Sweet Potato Soup with Maple
Take 2 cups Campbell's Ready to Use Chicken Broth (but don't be fooled, you can actually use ANY chicken broth you want!); 3 cups cubed & peeled sweet potato; 1 tbsp butter or margarine; 1 medium-size chopped onion and one stalk of celery. Bring to boil in a pot; let simmer until the veggies are tender. (Translation: you should easily be able to stick a fork in them. This will make the next step easier.)
Pour into food processor and purée until smooth. Enjoy the loud volume our your Food Processing Unit, and the fact that it drowns out the shouting and banging of anklebiters within the immediate vicinity. Take peace in the noise. And then when you think it's done. give it one last whirl. Taste. Don't burn your finger. It will still be hot.
Return mixture to pot. It should look like a sweet potato massacre. Do not be alarmed. Stir in: 1/4 cup maple syrup (DO NOT USE THE FAKE STUFF. DO NOT SKIMP. DO NOT PASS GO), 1/4 light cream (I left this out), 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg, and 1/8 tsp ground white pepper (I only had REGULAR pepper. Was fine.) Heat through. Serve with spring of greenery on top. (I used chives. They show parsley and chives in the photo but I thought the chives - used alone- would create more of a Zen-like Soup Eating Experience. I was not wrong.)
The second part of this story will be coming soon. I began with the soup recipe because it is integral to the story. In the meantime I suggest you make this soup. This is definitely a good meal for a chilly day and tasted amazing reheated the next day. Now if only my children would learn to like clam chowder...
The second part of this story will be coming soon. I began with the soup recipe because it is integral to the story. In the meantime I suggest you make this soup. This is definitely a good meal for a chilly day and tasted amazing reheated the next day. Now if only my children would learn to like clam chowder... 
