Finding Radiance » thanksgiving

Turkey-zilla!

Lori — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:36:23 +0000

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Or Thursday for my non US friends

We had a great day and it went by so fast! First off, John and I had a nice quite breakfast and then headed out for our 5k for Alissa’s Thanksgiving 5K. We both walked it since I am not running anymore. It was a little chilly, mid to upper 30s, so I bundled up.

After we got back, it was time to prepare a few other things to bring with us for dinner. Alton Brown’s Corn Bread Pudding.

This stuff is so good – I love it! John made up a dutch apple/cranberry pie to bring.

Our first order of business on the way to my sister’s house was the eggnog latte though. I would not let myself have one until today and I was ready!

Yum. We tried another local coffee shop, but they didn’t have egg nog lattes this year. What is up with that??

So, we had to head to Starbucks. $4 for a tall eggnog latte, and John’s was even more as a grande. It is getting too expensive to go to Starbucks, especially for the quality of the espresso. Booo…

We arrived at my sister’s to meet Turkey-zilla! My BIL raised turkeys this year and they all grew huge! This bird is 36.5 pounds. Yes – 36.5 pounds. It was too big for the roaster:

We just could not get over how big this bird was! I think it will still be being eaten come Christmas. This is the difference between a feed lot bird and a hand raised bird.

The table was set for 10:

My niece made the ‘place cards’ for everyone:

Each of the nieces also made the centerpiece decorations. Potato turkeys!

The turkey came out of the oven (5.5 hours of cooking time) and we all laughed again at how big it was. Next to a quarter for comparison

We couldn’t even get it out of the pan to get the juice for making gravy. We had to carve in the pan and ladle out the drippings.

John’s carving skills were tested with this bird.

That is one giant leg!

Everyone ready to eat!

This was one breast of the turkey and the legs:

We had the usual suspects of green beans, mashed taters, gravy (which I made), cranberry bread (my mom’s). Plus some sweet potatoes and crescent rolls.

My beverage today:

Love this stuff and I have it once or twice a year.

After dinner, it was hunting time for some, football time for some (me and John) and naps for others:

Then came dessert time! We had several pies, including pumpkin ones made by my dad and John’s apple/cranberry pie:

And game time! This was Imaginiff

Then we played some Star Wars Trivial Pursuit.

The questions were really too hard, though, and John was the only one getting any right LOL!

A good night was had and I didn’t get stuffed, although I did eat too many mini Reeses peanut butter bells. I never eat these or the mini cups unless I am at Colleen’s house and I am powerless against them

The day ended up even better because I am one game up on the football picks for the week already!

Question: What was the biggest turkey you have ever had?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lori — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:22:45 +0000

Thank you all so much for you kind words on my article blurb! It was fun. I actually liked that much better than the Shape Magazine article.

Anyhoo, we had some nice snow last night….not….

Heavy, heavy wet stuff, too. At least the roads weren’t bad, but it kept us from Bagel Wednesday for breakfast at any rate. So, I had some ricotta puffs.

Had the first meeting with my learner today. John and I actually both went. We are going to tag team with this learner a bit because he needs both math and literacy work. I can do both, but it would be easier for me to not do both. This will likely be a looooong partnership.

That meant we were out at lunchtime, so we stopped in to North Country Cafe and I had my missing bagel!

Egg bagel sammie for lunch.

It was a late lunch, so I didn’t miss latte time too much. Espresso machine is on the way, but it won’t be here until next week. Eeek!

It’s busy time now. Finishing up work for the week, plus getting our items ready for the Thanksgiving feast.

I shall file dinner under the category of ”What was I thinking?”

Turkey burger. Why eat a turkey burger the day before Thanksgiving? I really don’t know.

I am going to share with you the recipe for the best cranberry sauce ever! Also known as Lori’s Cranberry Sauce. It is so, so easy. This is one of the things we are bringing to dinner tomorrow.

In a medium sauce pan, add 1 bag of cranberries. Add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of orange juice, 1/2 cup of water, 1 cinnamon stick and half of a vanilla bean.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes until all the berries pop. Mash with a potato masher to break up the berries some more. Cool completely, then remove cinnamon stick and vanilla bean.

Eat.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving full of sharing, eating, family, fun and a little exercise in there!

Enjoy all you eat, but don’t eat so much you are stuffed. Get out and walk and then catch some football!

I will see you all on the flip side of Thanksgiving with a meal recap! Enjoy Black Friday and do the Shop Local!

Giving Thanks and Giveaway Winners!

Lori — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 23:41:19 +0000

Happy Turkey Eve! It was cold and windy this morning. Brrr…. The gym was surprisingly busy today. Think people are getting in that last workout. Here was mine.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Stiff-leg deadlift	3 set of 10 at 75#	Lower body
Wide Grip Lat Pulldown	1 set of 12 at 4o# 1 set of 10 at 50# 1 set of 8 at 60# 1 set of 6 at 70#	Back
Cable Squat-to-Row	3 sets of 10 at #60	Full body
Captain Chair	3 sets of 10	Core
Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 140#	Calves
Barbell Bench Press	3 sets of 10 at 55#	Chest
Face Pull	3 sets of 12 at 30#	Shoulders
Nosebreaker	3 sets of 12 at 25#	Triceps
Good Morning	3 sets of 10 at 50#	Low back and hammies

I got on the treadmill afterward and started yakking with the woman next to me. We talked for 30 minutes before I knew it! Then it was time for the Wednesday edition of Bagel Day! Back to the Adirondack Coffee Cafe:

They were out of wheat bagels, so I had a sesame with some snickerdoodle coffee. Yay!

Since it is holiday eve, I won’t do a lifting move of the week, but will answer a couple questions:

Shelley asked

Just curious, do you write down your workout routine and bring it with you to the gym?

and Jan asked:

How do you decide what your workout will consist of?

After I finished New Rules last year, I spent some time thinking about what kind of strength workouts I wanted to do and settled on full body 3 days a week. When I first did this, I wrote out my workout the night before. Then I just got lazy and stopped doing that as it became routine. I now write it down as I go so I remember what I did. I try to hit each muscle group at least once (no biceps, though), which equates to 8 to 10 moves per workout. I have a staple of exercises I like to do for each muscle group. What I do is go in with my sheet of paper to see what I did before and do something different.

Pretty official, eh? There are some days where I am fuzzy and just kind of stand there trying to think of what move to do next and wished I had written it out ahead of time LOL! That is just the routine I kind of fell in and I am not really trying to develop any specific part of my body, so I work the whole thing.

So why do I not work my biceps? Well – everybody has a body part that responds better than others to training. Mine happen to be my biceps. When you do good lifting and do multiple muscle exercises, you may not need to isolate certain areas. I think this picture I took the other day shows why I don’t work my biceps:

They are pumped a little bit because I am pressing down on the handlebars, but I don’t want to build them up any more. I could also be leaner

Anyhoo, that’s just a little more on the lifting!

Now on for the news you all want to hear – the winners of the Febreeze Laundry Odor Eliminator Coupons! Chosen by random.org

Jan:

“I am not a big sweater but right now I am having problems getting the smell of baby puke out of my clothes. I babysit my granddaughter once a week and she nails me every time. LOL”

and

Kim!

My stinky clothes could REALLY use some help! It’s my shorts or pants that are the worst after running! (I know – yuck!)

Congrats and please send me an email at javaqueen(at)yahoo.com with your snail mail address so Febreeze can send your coupons!

Look at what I got into today:

Mint and dark chips! Eeeek! They are quite good, but I do much better with the cups than the chips. For whatever reason, my mind just works that way. These are kept up high.

Now in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I wanted to share some of the things I am thankful for!

My family. I love that we all live near each other now after years of living in different states. It’s so nice to be able to spend holidays together or just get together for a cup of coffee without a big rigamarole.

Blog Land. I am so thankful to all of my readers. I cherish all the comments with advice, and cheers, and some tough love talk. It’s all good, and I have been able to “meet” people that I never would have without the internet. I hope to match blogs to real people as well (Fitbloggin??). And reading all of your blogs as well has given me much food for thought (harhar) over the past year.

Selling my rental house. I am so thankful I do not have this property anymore! It really has brought a noticeable relief to me and my bank account.

John. Yeah, he’s family, but every day I think about how lucky I am to have John around. Even after 14 years of marriage, he is the person I want to talk to first thing in the morning and the last one to talk to at night.

I have some baking and cooking to do for tomorrow. We are heading down to my sister’s house. John and I are bringing cornbread stuffing, my famous cranberry sauce, and gingerbread cupcakes. Gotta do it tonight because I have to work tomorrow and run the virtual run! Even though I have to work some tomorrow, it is only half a day, and only if there is work.

Don’t worry, Pixie is getting her Thanksgiving meal tomorrow – with giblets!

She can’t wait for this. Barf…

Now I need to go charge the camera battery and start cooking! Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!

The feast!

Lori — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:35:59 +0000

Happy, happy Thanksgiving everyone! What a wonderful day! Got an early start on work before going to my gym, where I did 5 miles on the treadmill. It was actually very crowded today! I was surprised at how many people were there. None of them I recognized, though, which was interesting. I set the treadmill at 5.5 mph and went at it. For the last 1/2 mile, I did 6 mph. It felt great! I came home and had brekkie. I won’t bother showing you Cream of Wheat, since there are too many other good food photos today! We left a little early so I could kickstart the day with a small eggnog latte! I made myself wait until Thanksgiving to have one. It was sooo good. I ask them to make it with half skim and half eggnog.

The sun came out and made for a beautiful afternoon! Someone was ready to eat – cheers!:

My other niece made us all little place cards. Mine:

My nemesis was here:

Cashews *and* mini PB cups! I had some, but not a horrible amount.

The gathering! Pretend that seltzer bottle is me (that’s my seat).

The giant 23-pound local turkey:

Brined a la Alton Brown (so delicous!!).

My mom’s cranberry bread (the best):

Alaskan moose from one of Colleen’s coworkers:

Pom seeds!!

My plate with some turkey, potatoes, stuffing, moose, green beans:

With my side plate of breads and POM seeds and cranberry sauce:

I had a little more stuffing and one more small piece of cranberry bread. Love that stuff. I was pleased at not gorging at dinner!

The dogs really wanted to come in for some turkey:

I worked for a little while while others went hunting or football watching. Then it was dessert time! My dad made a pumpkin pie, and John made a sweet potato cheesecake with a gingersnap crust.

My sister made a point that everyone drink their coffee out of the special china cups, so I told her that I would put a picture of it here:

A little elf might have slipped some eggnog into my coffee here…..

I decided to forego the pumpkin pie and just have a tiny slice of cheesecake. I drizzled on a little bit of cranberry sauce.

Plus some praline pecan sauce John made. It was so decadent and delicious. I could have eaten 3 pieces!

Overall, I am pleased at how I ate today. I really, really enjoyed all the food I ate and did not over eat. Plus I got to spend time with family, and now my work week is done!

Thanksgiving Eve

Lori — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:05:31 +0000

Well, tomorrow is the big day! It seems as though people are either excited about Thanksgiving or panicked about it. Too many people letting the thought of too much food get in the way of the real spirit of sharing with friends and family. My personal philosophy is to have a plan, but if I don’t stick to it entirely, it’s not a big deal. One day of eating too much won’t put on 100 pounds. If you do eat – please enjoy it and don’t feel guilty about it! Be kind to yourself. It’s just food.

More thanks to be had:

I love the US. Yes, there are problems here, but freedom is something to be very, very thankful for.
I am thankful that my body has forgiven me for the way I treated it all those years!
I am thankful for nature and all of its beauty that I take in through my bike rides and my garden.
I am thankful for all of the friendships that I have made through the internet that wouldn’t have been possible before!

No workout today, just a 2 mile walk. We were going to run the Turkey Trot 5K tomorrow, but they aren’t taking race day registration! Plus I was thinking about how it would be $50 for us to do the run (for both of us). So, instead I am going to hit the gym and treadmill it for 5 miles.

Now on to the eats! It’s Wednesday, so you know what that means:

The cafe was in the holiday spirit. Not sure what this is, but it’s kind of cute.

Work is soooo busy now. I definitely will have work to do tomorrow. I took a break for a quick lunch:

Egg sammie. It was supposed to be turkey, but the lunch meat smelled bad so I had to quick substitute since I had already toasted the waffles! (Some pretty lame carrot sticks, there, too).

Last night, John went out to play poker and stopped at a mom and pop grocery store and look what he scored for me!!!

I loves my hubby.

Snack attack:

Nestle has made a mint and dark chocolate mix You know these are up high out of reach….. With Wheat Thins for that salty/sweet crunch!

Just to show I do eat them, I had a salad for dinner! Cooked chicken breast with barbeque sauce, slivered almonds, and a sprinkle of feta cheese. It was really good!

BTW – the granola bar recipe from yesterday is here: I added chocolate baking cocoa and instant coffee to it.

Going to hit Starbucks tonight for a little R&R after John bakes his sweet potato cheesecake. I am really looking forward to tomorrow, even though I will be working at my sister’s house. I can flex my hours, so I will spend a good deal with family. My Broncos also play as well. Hope they don’t lay a turkey

Raise your hand if you think there will be food photos galore tomorrow!

Have a spectacular Thanksgiving (or regular Thursday LOL)!

More thanks and my camera is back!

Lori — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:58:47 +0000

Hope you are all having a great holiday week so far! I woke up and noticed the temp was around 40, so I went out for a quick 3.2 mile jog. I normally do not jog 2 days in a row, but tomorrow will be a rest day in case I run the Turkey Trot on Thursday. It might rain Thursday, and if so, I will run at my gym. Odd that my gym was closed on Columbus Day, but will be open for Thursday morning. Try to figure that one out….

Had a beautiful crepe this morning, only used Aunt Jemimah wheat pancake mix instead of Bisquick.

Topped (and filled) with blueberry sauce with a tablespoon of ricotta cheese on top. Yum!

My camera arrived right before lunch. Olympus is fast! The camera left my hands last Wednesday, and it is back in my hands today. Now that is customer service! (All under warranty, too )

You know you want to see the macro:

More things I am thankful for:

John (did I already say that?? I will again!)
That I live in an area with 4 seasons
I am so thankful for all of you blog readers, both lurkers and non!
That I have the ability to move around every day
That I have been able to maintain a 100 pound weight loss for almost a year and a half.

Snack of homemade granola bar:

Delicious! Pixie could not care less about the excitement of having my camera back:

She was sleeping next to me while I was working. Our nickname (one of many) for her is Pixie Peanut Butter because it looks like someone wiped peanut butter on her nose.

We were having trouble with the router for our internet connection today. I work via the internet, so that was really frustrating – but I am so thankful (another thankful!) that it was just the router and not the laptop, which is what I thought it was. Funny how I realized while I couldn’t get on the internet that you can actually use the computer for other things….

For dinner, I had some brussel sprouts with scrambled eggs and feta cheese. Simple stuff, but delicious! Plus a little Forelle pear. Isn’t it the cutest thing?

For those that don’t know – I work as a medical transcriptionist from home. That’s why I am working on Thanksgiving. Even though I don’t work actually in the hospitals, they are open 24/7 – and the medical files for every visit need to be done within 24 hours. I work Sun – Thurs, so Thanksgiving falls on one of my regular work days (although we get paid extra). Lucky for me, Christmas and New Years fall on my days off this year!

Agenda for tonight: I will be making my special cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving to bring to dinner.

Question: Do you have a dish that only you can make for special occasions?

Being thankful week.

Lori — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:30:54 +0000

Thank you for all of your input on canning/storing pumpkin! I can’t believe that some of you have lots of pumpkin in your stores! I think part of it is how much pumpkin gets sent to small towns in upstate NY versus other parts of the country. My sister is on the lookout in Saratoga tonight, hope she finds some. I appreciate the offer that some of you made for yours LOL! Makes me sound like an addict or something.

No lifting this week since I finished NROLW on Friday. Decided on a run, but I wanted to get it done with this morning and below freezing was just too much for me, so I popped on down to the gym to dreadmill it. I knocked out 5 miles and it felt great! I think I am going to incorporate speedwork this winter.

Came home to a hot and warm bowl of pumpkin cream of wheat (this is our home cooked pumpkin):

Topped with apple butter and toasted almonds. Yum!

It seems as work will be busy for most of the week after all. That’s a good thing, as when it is slow, I don’t get paid! That means that I likely will have enough work on Thanksgiving itself, too. I will have to take the laptop to my sister’s to work while there. At least I get paid extra

I have decided that over the next few days I am going to list some of the things I am thankful for this year, as it is the season! I am thankful for:

My health
John
My family
My job, and the fact that I can work at home.
Where I live.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

Lunch was using up some fridge stuff. I did an open face tuna sandwich on a waffle.

That is chocolate PB2 on the side there for that apple.

In one of my quests for being organized and productive, I have an epic fail at my desk. Normally I don’t work at my desk (ironic, I know), but I had to plug directly into the internet instead of working wireless because my port is being funny. Here is a picture of my desk (with latte and granola bar).

Kind of embarrassing! And that is just one side LOL

Wrap for dinner. It was too full and I couldn’t even wrap it fully! Stuffed with broccoli, chicken and laughing cow cheese. So good.

I even color coordinate dessert! This piece of Bliss matches my shirt!

I just got an email from Olympus tonight and my camera is on its way back to me! Yay! I should have it by Thanksgiving and then I can get back to those in-your-face macro shots

Question: Do you have much time off this week?

Giving Thanks

Lori — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:20:00 +0000

What a wonderful day!

I want to thank all of you readers who have read this blog and supported me, or pepped me up when I needed it. Blogs are very personal, and sharing this journey has been fun and interesting to do on the ‘net.
I also want you to know that reading all your blogs also helps keep me motivated!

Today’s race was the biggest one I have attended yet. I was think a few hundred people at 8:30 am on Thanksgiving, but no – it was 2000, yes, two thousand people! And it also was a casual race, so no time starts – we all just went as one clog, not to mention the walkers that started at the head of the pack slowing us down, so I threw timing out the window right away. It was around 30 minutes or thereabouts.
Anyway, it turned out to be pretty awesome weather, even though it was a bit cold. It was sunny and gorgeous, and above freezing (but not by much LOL!).
Here is me ducking into a building just prior to the race.

I finished the race and just felt so good, and so thankful that I can be fit and able to take part in activities like this. John said something to me after the race that he had been looking at some pictures of me from a few years ago 100 pounds heavier, and how back then a day like today wouldn’t even have been possible (let alone even crossed my mind). And how fit I have become since then. Heck, even a year ago I wasn’t thinking about running.

So, I was able to pass off some food today with the phrase “Well, I ran 3 miles today”, however, that probably lasted as long as the cheese and crackers
I’m all right with that. These days are few and far between for me. I didn’t really have any second helping of things, but a bit too much grazing. One thing I am thankful about now is not having guilt when I eat.