Portlandby Angie
22 Nov 2007
7:11 pm0
Here we are in Portland, visiting Joseph & Kelly (Jim’s brother and sister-in-law) for Thanksgiving. It’s a big Hoffman family gathering, since Jim’s parents and brother, Jon, are all here to celebrate with us. Jim and I left at about 7am, and were met at the Portland Airport by Jon and Roger, who had just flown in from Utah as well. Here at Joseph and Kelly’s house, we spent the afternoon cooking, chatting, and taking turns with the little boys (Isaac and baby Eli). As Kelly and I were making dinner, we sent the men out to gather firewood, so this evening we could enjoy a fire in their old-fashioned wood-burning stove.
Dinner was… Jambalaya! Ok, I’m teasing. Well, we did have jambalaya for dinner, but that’s because we’re going to have our traditional Thanksgiving feast (read: “turkey”) tomorrow, when we’ll have the whole day together to prepare it. Now that we’ve eaten and cleaned up dinner, Jim and Jon are working on our cozy fire.
Despite our delayed feast, I’d like to end my Thanksgiving Day post with some of my most precious blessings: I am so grateful for my wonderful husband, my amazing family (on both sides!), and for the gospel that has blessed every day of my life. We’ve been so blessed, in this new phase of our lives, to have a job and a fair amount of security, and a wonderful ward and new friends to help us along.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Babysittersby Angie
21 Nov 2007
9:11 am0
How do people go about finding a new babysitter for their kids? I have no experience whatsoever, and I rarely babysat other people’s kids when I was a teenager. The silly thing is, we don’t have kids… but we do have a cat; so instead, I’m having a hard time working out the whole cat-sitting thing! Do you ask a neighbor you barely know – and give them a key to your house and everything? Or ask a friend or member of the ward, who lives much further away and must therefore take a drive to come visit your pet?
As you can see, worrying is an exasperating hobby of mine, so I’m sure this is not as big a deal as I feel it is… but our cat is pretty special to us, and we are new here and don’t know many people, so this whole process is a little unnerving. Any advice?
Should I really guess?by Angie
20 Nov 2007
8:11 am2
Call me a linguistic nut, but I am confused by the phrase, “guess what…”. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve used it quite a bit myself; and perhaps the very fact that Americans in general understand the convention validates its use. However, it does tend to create a conundrum for the person being asked: should I really guess (and risk getting it right and stealing their thunder!), or just say, “I have no idea,”? Some people respond to this plight by jokingly guessing outrageous things, but – by personal experience – I have found this to be less effective, since it sometimes irritates the person who has wonderful news to tell.
I’d like to know what you think. Do you use the phrase? Why do we say it? What’s the craziest guess you’ve ever offered or received? Do we really intend for someone to guess at all?
Try-Me-Night Review: Crock-pot Meat Loafby Angie
19 Nov 2007
9:11 am0
This recipe was pretty good, but I had some problems with it. I didn’t follow it exactly (which was, I’m sure, the source problems): I had some zucchini and carrots that I wanted to use up, so I grated them and added them with the onion. I should have realized that additional veggies would add liquid, and adjusted the rest of the recipe accordingly, but I didn’t. So, the meat mixture didn’t stay in a “loaf” very well – it kind of just melted all over the top of the potatoes. Because it spread out so much, quite a bit of the mixture touched the sides of the crock-pot and was burned. I just scooped those bits out, though, when it was done cooking.
Actually, the flavor was still quite good, and we really liked the way the potatoes were cooked. It ended up more like a beef & potato casserole than meat loaf, but it was tasty anyway. I will definitely try it again, because it was super easy, but I’ll follow directions better next time 🙂
For the full recipe, visit the “Try-Me-Night Recipes” page.
Autumnby Angie
17 Nov 2007
6:11 pm2
When I was little, my mom wrote a song called “Days, Months, and Seasons.” I remember thinking that it was pretty silly of her to say in the lyrics that Winter starts in December, since where I lived (which, to a kid, is the whole world) we often had snow on the ground by Halloween. Well, here in California, I have discovered that November really is part of Fall! The trees are slowly changing colors, and the perfect weather makes it feel like just the first tinglings of Autumn.
We visited the Oakland Temple today, and it is a beautiful drive. For the last few miles, you drive on CA 13, which is a little 2-lane highway that diverts off I-580. Much of it is uphill as you drive north, and both sides of the freeway are covered with dense trees and thick foliage. Off to the left (to the West) there are a few breaks in the trees, and once in a while and you can catch glimpses of the Bay. Up at the temple, there is a gorgeous vista overlooking the Bay and San Francisco on the far side.
I love it here!
Congratulations to Me…and Whitney!by Angie
16 Nov 2007
9:11 pm2
Tonight we attended the Springtown Ward Thanksgiving Pie Bake-Off. There were lots of people there and about a dozen pies were submitted for thorough scrutiny. I had spent the afternoon preparing Whitney’s Famous Apple Pie. Although I think it will take me a few more tries to approach Whitney’s prowess on this recipe, my pie actually took second place!
It was a very fun evening. We also did a white elephant gift exchange: the first gift we unwrapped was an aerosol can of Pledge, and we actually had it stolen away from us; we ended up with a babysitter’s reminder white board thingy. Not very useful to us, I’m afraid; but we couldn’t convince anyone else to steal it from us.
The most surprising gift was actually the most unique white elephant gift I have ever seen in my life: A live salamander, with a cage and sand and water and everything, that had been captured/rescued from someone’s backyard pool this very morning. The poor sister who unwrapped it was obviously very uncomfortable with an amphibian and was very unwilling to take it home. Luckily it was stolen from her by a mom who knew her kids would love it.
Commentsby Angie
16 Nov 2007
9:11 am3
I’ve been exploring the features of our super-cool blog, and I think I have things set up so that anyone can add comments in response to our posts. You need to submit your name and email address with your comment, but you don’t need to register or log in or anything like that. Once you’ve submitted it, it will be placed in a queue called “Moderation” – that means that it needs to be approved by a site admin (angie or jim), but it should show up in the next 24 hours.
This is just a precaution against spam, so if I call that yummy, crumbly dish that goes along with turkey the “stuffing” and you want me to call it “dressing,” go right ahead and disagree with me, and I promise that we’ll still approve your post.
If you are having trouble commenting, or your experience doesn’t jive with my description, please send me or Jim an email so we can get it fixed (I say “we” because that would mean I did it wrong, and I need Jim to help me fix it…).