Life continues to be rich and thankful here in Enoughsville. This week we're thankful for family . . .
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| Thankful for family |
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| Thankful for new girlfriends: Nelson tells me he and Ti are officially a "thing"! |
. . . and for people who give us new ways of looking at the world.
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| Thankful for friendships from around the world and for learning new things about that world. |
Earlier this month, I'd pulled out my Master Thanksgiving Recipe (the one that starts: "Tuesday: clean the gross moldy stuff out of the refrigerator; borrow instant pots", and takes me through the hour-by-hour Thanksgiving preparation, and then past the dinner into how to make shepherd's pie from the leftovers). It's been a few years since I got to use this master recipe, and so I was delighted to spend the week engaged in those old familiar smells.
We had some of our family -- Inkling, Kinderling and David and their three kiddoes, and a few students. As is part of our particular family tradition, we pulled out the globe to show where we grew up; this year we had guests from Bangladesh, Taiwan (by way of the Netherlands), and Vietnam. We got to have a cool discussion about so many aspects of modern life. Fun fact: after Pelosi's first day in Taiwan, wearing a pink pantsuit, lots of the locals dressed in pink in solidarity and emulation.
It's cool to learn new stuff. I've decided that I want to teach Prewash (the dog) how to bow. I discovered a complication at our first training session: as soon as I get the treats out, she sits. And since it's hard for a dog (or even a person, I guess) to bow from sitting, I realized that first I need to teach her to stand on command, so that's what she's learning now -- to sit and stand and sit and stand, upon command.
Last week, Inkling and I went to my college's dance concert, which was so beautiful and energetic, that I decided I need to learn a new dance myself. I've set a goal of learning "Thriller" by next Halloween. Right now, here's the part of "Thriller" I'm trying to get down. I am not sure how I like that the instructor says this first segment is "the most simple the steps are going to be, so I'm confident you're going to pick it up right away", and yet I have trouble learning it.
Nonetheless, I envision total success, and apparently my granddaughter agrees, as you can see from the lovely sketch below. Spotlights and everything!
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| Me and my Nana was on a stage and we were dancing. |
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| Me and my nana were jumping and jumping and jumping we had fun. |
Other things I learned this week had to do with the esoterica of canning. Such as: the reason that we're supposed to let pressure canners release slowly (very slowly) is that if the steam escapes from the pot too fast for the jars, then the pressure inside the jars is so much larger than the surrounding air, that their lids pop off rather dramatically, spewing hot liquid all over. This is delightful to dogs, but not particularly comfortable to the person removing exploding-lid jars from the canner.
Also learned: if a jar is covered in greasy hot oil, make sure to use the jar grippers around the neck of the jar, not the lid of the jar, because if the lid comes off, the jar falls on the floor and shatters with hot liquid and glass all over. Sigh. This was a more educational canning experience than I've had in a long time, but at least I did learn, and I have 18 (intact) jars of turkey stock to show for it. Not to mention, a few more notes for my Master Thanksgiving Recipe.
Perhaps coincidentally, I've been reading a totally lovely book called The Rise by Sarah Lewis. It's about how we learn mastery through failure (that's an oversimplification -- it's such a beautiful, captivating book); I'm not hiking to the South Pole or creating new art forms, but I do feel like it's good to remember that my crashes at canning are an important scenic overlook along the road to canning craftlyness.
I also learned how to make buttonholes with my new sewing machine, and it's so cool to watch the machine do this, that I might add buttonholes to everything. Not to canning jars, but to other things.
And with all that learning under the old belt, I guess that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures. May you and yours be similarly prosperous.
Re the "easy bit" of Thriller: It's always so interesting to see what people think is easy or best. Our dentist got quite the turn when she examined Smol Acrobat. They were scared about their first visit and she did a lovely job of putting them at ease, and they were willing to let her do the cleaning even. But just as she applied some vitamins saying, "this is the best part, it's tasty," Smol popped up shaking their head "NO!" and trying to spit it out.
ReplyDeleteSurprise! Not the best :)
Now you've got me craving shepherd's pie. I love it.