The moon is reflecting off the new-fallen snow. We may get two feet of the white stuff before Thanksgiving, glad I put on the snow tires last week! Only one car has driven down the street and otherwise every driveway is pristine with 3-4″ of snow and I’m wondering why I didn’t spray my new suede hiking boots (bought for Yellowstone and never worn). But I have winter boots and wellies, depending upon the weather.
We fully expect the heavy equipment to roll out early morning. They’re really efficient here at moving snow. Yesterday while my husband and dog slept in, I listened to the mortars going off for avalanche control at nearby ski venues. That’s a sound I haven’t heard in a few months!
Jim’s mother loves fruitcake so I wanted to introduce her to my favorite, panforte from Italy. Started in Siena, but this is a version I made for holiday gifts many years ago with hazelnuts and chocolate, dusted with cocoa. I don’t know when we’re going to make it, probably not in time for Thanksgiving dinner, but I have to go out and look for some of the ingredients because we have a Whole Foods here and I can buy dried fruits et al from the bulk bins so my suitcase isn’t stuffed with pounds of dried dates and apricots. I already have to bring a couple pounds of spiced almonds and cashews that have been in the freezer for a month!
Now is the time to make lists and keep up on the drycleaning (cleaners ate one of Jim’s shirts yesterday, and with the amount of plaid he has in his wardrobe I can’t for the life of me figure out which one!) and laundry, wash the dog and get her nails trimmed. Clean the fish bowl. Figure out what to wear. Sort 500 balloons from Sweden to entertain thirty kids on Thanksgiving day. Oh, we did that yesterday. Yes, hubby is getting in some practice this weekend. A bee, an apple, and the piece de resistance, a neon tree frog hat with 5′ pink tongue. Oh, and a princess wand with a “string of pearls” and heart top, that was a first. If he works on a princess crown, and does a couple of dogs, space guns and pirate swords he’s good to go. If TSA lets him on the plane with his “busker bag” with several hundred balloons. He does have to carry a 2″ pair of child safety scissors ($1 value in case he has to dump them).
I’m hearing varied reports on the TSA, like Michael Chertoff recommended the Rapiscan “naked scanner” while his consulting company is invested in that company. That TSA is purposely “groping” passengers in order to scare them into using the “naked scanners.” That faces are not blanked out and TSA and other agencies keep these naked scans for whatever use they want. And my father just sent an email about the 4th Amendment (remember that one, that the Patriot Act threw out the baby with the bathwater days after 9/11, it’s about illegal search and seizure) that states unequivocally that a few suicidal lunatics set about to destroy the USA and from Bush to Obama, we’ve helped them out every step of the way by making a free nation one that our founding fathers never wanted it to become. Every legal resident of the USA is subject to having no constitutional rights inside our land and 100 miles from the border, and in any airport. We are forced to take off belts, shoes, jewelry, have a naked body scan or be groped in public before going to grandma’s house for an annual holiday gathering.
This is all wrong. Homeland Security only looks backwards, not forwards. Cargo is the problem, not innocent American citizens. There’s a shoe bomber, so we have to take off our shoes. Liquid, so no shampoo or lotion. Terrorists by definition have to find new ways to strike. Do you really think they’re going to send another shoe bomber, now that every American who flies within our country has to walk around barefoot or in socks or hose on a filthy airport floor?
I’ll get us ready to go over the river and through the woods, and make sure our home, dog and fish are taken care of as well. It’s always good to see family, even for a brief time. Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving! Dee
Cooking with Dee 