Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Ours went off very well, with good food and a couple friends joining us. I cooked a 21lb turkey, and mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, etc... and here's the big news: I made gravy. That might be a simple everyday occurrence in your world, but in mine it rarely happens. My mom can attest to how many times I've called her for "gravy coaching". For those of you that have never had my cooking, I would not be exaggerating when I tell you I'm a fairly good cook. Ranging from "Creative Bachelor Cooking" (ie. ramen noodles mixed with ... well, whatever is in the fridge) to "real meals" - like Thanksgiving dinners. For as long as I can remember the Thanksgiving meal has largely been my job to prepare. Which is fine, because I really enjoy cooking...
However, gravy has always been a problem for me. I have "cheated" on more than one occasion in the past by using powdered mixes, or bottled/canned gravies... They've never REALLY quite tasted right, but it was the best I could manage. Most previous attempts just failed miserably. I felt I had some kind of gravy curse...
But yesterday the curse was lifted. I tried everything to avoid the actual gravy-making process... I looked ALL over for my usual poor substitutions. When that didn't work, I quizzed all the expected attendees to find out if they possessed any gravy-making skills... no such luck. So I enlisted Mike as my recipe-reader, and we deciphered the instructions for gravy included with the Butterball turkey. The results were as close to perfect gravy as I have ever had. It was a little salty, but that's ok sometimes too.
Ok... enough talk about gravy.
I had to fly down to Bahrain last week for my Visa again ... they require a medical outside of the country, then you come back to Kuwait and have another one done here... I don't understand the reasoning, it all sounds like a big scam, like most all the other processes in this part of the world. I did get a few pictures this time, but nothing overly exciting. The trip was just overnight, and as I've become accustomed to, disorganized. The people that our sponsored hired to handle the arrangments for us in Bahrain dropped me off at a hotel after the medical, without any real explanation as to when they will be picking me up the following day to go to the airport. When I went to sleep that night, I put the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door... so of course at 8:30am there is a pounding on the door. When I answered the door it was one of the drivers, who says he needs my airline ticket. I asked him why, and he said they needed it for the paperwork... When I gave it to him, he literally ran away. I decided to check out early, and meet a few of the other people that were there for their Visa's at their hotel for lunch. When I went to checkout, they told me that they had given my passport to the driver, and they asked if he had called me yet. So now I was even more pissed. I hadn't been given a time, he took my airline ticket, my passport; and now I needed his permission to checkout. I called him, chewed on him a bit, and left.
Anyway, here's a couple of interesting photos:
I'm still not sure if that's a Bug Slugger or Bugs Lugger... neither of which makes any real sense...
A eye-catching mosque... usually they're a little less... umm... clean, on the outside.
Ok, I'm going to go have some leftover turkey (and gravy), and watch some more Buffy:the Vampire Slayer. I just got the last season on DVD, and I'm anxious to see how Nathan Fillion did as a bad guy. Apparently he was the "scariest bad guy ever" on Buffy, according to hard-core fans. (Fillion is Captain Malcolm Reynolds on Firefly... a show I've ranted about before)
Speaking of Firefly, the movie's release has been delayed for 5 months. Apparently Universal though the original April release date was going to be too crowded with similiar films, and that a summer marketing campaign would really bolster sales... Personally, I think the ACTUAL MOVIE being in the theatres would be the best summer marketing, but maybe I'm just naive about how that kind of stuff really works... Oh well, now it's coming out in September, and will be a nice birthday story for my 'blog.
Love to all!
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