Basic Food Prep Skills

Yesterday we had to have a fire during our history lesson because the weather dropped down into the 60s!!!

Lately I've been trying to make more of an effort of teaching my children basic food preparation skills.  The girls are very motivated and excited to learn, Luke not so much.  I need to get that boy a little bit independent so that we can kick him out of the house when he turns eighteen.  (When I told Luke to curl his fingers of the hand holding the lemon he said, "Don't worry, I play the piano."  I guess meaning, Don't worry I know the drill of having to curl my fingers.)

Here is Sylvia squeezing some lemons on the turkey.

Quite a few years ago a friend gave me this turkey brine recipe and I've used it ever since.

1 cup kosher salt 1 cup brown sugar 2 oranges, quartered 2 lemons, quartered 6 sprigs of thyme 4 sprigs of rosemary

Put turkey in 2 kitchen garbage bags in 5 gallon bucket.  Add ingredients and enough water to cover the turkey.  Let soak for 4 to 24 hours in refrigerator.  Rinse well after taking out.

Alexander the Great and Cross Dressing

This morning we watched a History Channel special that we got from Netflix: The True Story of Alexander the Great.  It was very long and definitely made for adults but it was still a very good visual and review.  Near the end of the show Luke, Isabel and Sylvia ran off and did some cross dressing...naturally.

We then went to the park.  The park was deserted and while I was reading my book on a blanket a couple of cops started walking across the field towards me.  My kids gathered around.  The cops said that they were concerned about my safety since they saw someone (me) over here on a blanket.  They left...weird.  A few hours later I found out from Sylvia that she had been over near the parking lot hiding in the trees when the cops pulled up.  They asked her something but she ignored them.  In her words, "I think they said some Spanish to me."  No wonder they came over to see if everything was alright, there was a crazy wild mute kid hiding in the trees.  Thanks Sylvia, I thought CPS had finally found me.

TMI

Because of Sylvia we've had to say, "TMI!!!" (Too Much Information) many times.  Our hope was that she would learn that, for example, describing your "poo family" in detail is TMI or that letting people know what kind of private parts they have is TMI. It was a good idea in theory, but of course has backfired.  Now whenever we say anything, "I'm going to the store."  She quickly retorts, "TMI!!"  We've created a monster.  Speaking of monsters, here are some fun Halloween jokes!