Just In Case You Were Wondering

If you see a snail on the other side of a puddle, do not jump into the puddle. I know you're dying to, but you really shouldn't.

"Why?" you ask.

Benjamin will tell you that the snail has worms in it that come out as it moves through a puddle, and if you subsequently jump into said puddle, the worms may work their way through your shoe sole and bore into your foot. They will then crawl all the way up to you heart or brain. AND...if the worms stay there for long enough, you might die!

His source for this was National Geographic.

I'm thinking he may have missed a few things, but why take chances. Starting right now, I will never again jump into a puddle following a snail!

Still not sure about puddles that appear snail-free.

*****

In other news, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner last night.

Improvisation was the name of the game, since, this being Norway, there's no pre-cooked turkey, fresh turkey or even frozen turkey to be found. Anywhere! There is also no Stove-Top anything, cranberry sauce or Reynold's plastic oven bags.

So here's what we ended up with:

Three chickens
Saucisses (mini sausages - huge hit with the boys)
Bacon
Roasted potato wedges (would have loved mash, but was voted down)
Homemade celery, onion and sage stuffing (which I have to admit was fantabulous)
Cranberry jelly
Brussels sprouts, carrots and green beans
Gravy

...not your traditional Thanksgiving dinner - but everyone loved it! Or if they didn't, they pretended really hard, because most of the food was gone.

And to finish it off - pumpkin pie being unavailable - we opted for crepes with chocolate mousse. Mmmm...delicious!

Thanks for all your well wishes. They were greatly appreciated.

Can I Thank You?

Why do the two countries celebrating Thanksgiving do so on completely different dates? Are they not celebrating the same thing? To an outsider, this is very confusing. Kinda like the summer/winter time situation. Can't we all just change at the same time?

Monday was Thanksgiving in Canada.

I haven't actually been in Canada to celebrate Turkey Day for the past several years, as I usually take the boys to Norway for a week's visit with their cousins at this time of year. Because of the University schedule, Mike has to stay behind and thus often spends Thanksgiving with his mother, who cooks up a feast for him. His life is rough, as we already know.

This year, of course, Mike is with us here in Norway, and Monday's dinner was spaghetti and meat sauce. Benjamin's request. He thought it was good, and Mike seemed to like it.

Good thing, too, because that is pretty much the extent of my cooking abilities.

Anyway, as I was enjoying my list of blogs yesterday, I couldn't help but get inspired by all the Canadians blogging about their Thanksgiving weekend. They described their meals and family get togethers in glorious detail. Which made me hungry and lonely.

Enraptured, I seized the opportunity and have now invited my family to join us for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

I am really looking forward to it. It's going to be great! We are going to have turkey, and stuffing, and...eh... veggies...potatoes (?)...sauce (or should that be gravy?), and all that.


[....swallow...gulp...swallow...]

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I have no idea how to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. I have never cooked a turkey in my life, barely even a whole chicken. And although I love stuffing, I have absolutely no understanding of what it is or how it's made. As far as I know, it's just "stuff" that you STUFF into the turkey. Somewhere. In either end.

Hmmm...maybe we won't be needing stuffing after all.

But what about the other integral parts of a Thanksgiving dinner. Exactly what are they? Should that be potato wedges or mash? Bacon or sausages? Veggies? Cranberry sauce?

How do I turn this:





Into that:



Anyone? I'm desperate!