T-Day Minus Zero
So I was up early this morning doing dishes (the decks must be cleared before I can engage in another bout of kitchen madness, since we have limited space–the breadboard would pick yesterday to go kaput) and letting the caramel sticky buns rise. Two whole pans of brioche caramel sticky cinnamon buns, put together last night and baked this morning.
They are deadly.
The mixed-starter bread is bubbling along. I needed something a little bit warmer than the fridge but not as warm as inside for it last night, so I put it out in the garage. I will check the odometer of the car to see if the starter went a-traveling later.
In about an hour and a half the potatoes will go in, then the ham. We’re going to eat early so I’m not doing dishes all night. Although I should probably make someone else around here clean up. The problem is, I tend to clean while cooking, so there’s not much left over, and nobody else seems to get the hang of properly loading the dishwasher in order to get maximum use out of it OR wiping down the bloody counters.
Or perhaps they just act like they don’t so I’ll get irritated and do it.
I am reminded this Thanksgiving of just how stressful family get-togethers are for me. My mum gets all worked up, works herself to the bone in the days preceding, and then when something goes wrong (which it inevitably does, as we live in an imperfect world) she blames us and the whole thing is Ruined. Cue drama. And of course my stepdad uses each family get-together as a means of delivering maximum emotional abuse under the cover of party noise. So between them, it’s a fun time.
I just keep breathing and reminding myself that I’m not in that situation this year. I have control of where I go and what I do, even during the holiday season. I don’t have to be stressed. I can be focused on cooking, but I don’t have to be stressed.
Which is awesome, and I’m grateful for it.
The Princess has a cold, and the Little Prince could care less about Thanksgiving as long as he gets to make his paper airplanes. The UnSullen One is waiting for his friends to come over once they finish other dinners, and the Muffin is reading about zero-point energy while he doses himself with sticky buns. Such is the state of our household.
Happy turkey day, everyone. May you have a minimum of family drama and a maximum of good eatin’.
That is all.
