Turkey Week

We have a tradition in our family: Turkey Week and Ham Week. It is not a terribly original idea, taking the left-overs of Thanksgiving Turkey and Christmas Ham and trying to come up with different recipes while eating it for about a week. But we do like to change it up a bit. One year we celebrated Turkey Week in February. This year Turkey Week started on Sunday December 11th by cooking a 17 pound bird with mashed potatoes and creamed corn.

We were off to a great start.

Turkey Rice-a-Roni and Peas Monday.

Turkey Pasta Tuesday.

I even had time to take a Christmas Cookie Decorating class on Tuesday. J's only request was that I do a Christmas Zombie cookie for him.

Turkey Salad Wednesday.

Along with chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting for a neighbor who just had a baby. Those pink things are supposed to be poinsettia flowers.

That's when Turkey week sort of fell apart and morphed into baking week. I did 137 Cake Pops with my Mom and sister.

And some 200 sugar cookies. Dad had the prestigious job of adding red hot candies to the cookies.

I think we ended up with 35 plates of goodies to give out to our friends and family.

Red Velvet and Cream Cheese Brownies for our Fort Douglas Re-enacting Christmas dinner.

I do Civil War re-enacting with my husband.

It was a "Choose your own costume" dinner involving several re-enacting groups.

Our Civil War Union beardies got to stick together.

Fall Cake

I had extra Turkey Cake frosting so I made a small Fall Tree cake Sunday night using my favorite chocolate buttermilk cake recipe:

1 and 2/3 cup flour
1 and 1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla


Stir together dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients all at once and mix. Bake 350 degrees for 30+ min until done. Makes two 8" - 9" round layer pans.

Mutant Powers

I love the X-Men. As a child I couldn’t wait until I was a teenager to discover my own mutant powers and join Professor Xavier’s School for the Gifted. I was hoping for pyrokinesis. Unfortunately as I got older I realized that humans don’t get cool mutant super powers, thank goodness, but still disappointing. I was your typical moody, angst-ridden, gothic, wannabe punk teen that hated everything. It wasn’t until I got married that I realize I did have mutant powers, they were just lame. I also came to realize that my husband also had his own set of unique mutant powers that weren’t as lame, but still not as cool as Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, Spider-Man, or the Incredible Hulk.

K: I blow out light bulbs. I know this is my own unique ability because it has never happened to J. He had to change a record one light bulb in the 5 years while we were dating before we got married. As soon as I moved in, we change a light bulb about every 2 months. They pop. When I turn on a light switch I hear the filament inside the bulb pop and see the death flash in a “not that really dramatic” spark of light bulb life being snuffed out. J has never had a light bulb “pop” on him before. He just flips the switch and it stays dark.

J: Super mutant healing ability. J, like Wolverine, heals really fast from cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Me, not so much. Example: Two weeks ago J was on a ladder at work when the bottom slipped out from under him and he came crashing down. Scratched up his forearm till nearly bleeding, bruised both his arms, back, one leg, broke nails trying to catch himself falling down, and most notably got a bleeding cut on his forehead right between his eyes. In four days the cut on his head was gone. I was watching it get better and better every single day. I cut my thumb with a knife while cooking a few months ago. It took two and half weeks to heal.

K: I absorb dye. This must be one of the lamest mutant powers ever. Two sips from a slushy and my tongue is blue for the rest of the day. J finishes said slushy with minimal blue coloring if you look close and it doesn’t last long. All colored soda pops affect me and my super dye absorbent tongue. J – Soda pop coloring doesn’t change him one bit.

J: Dimes. J finds dimes everywhere he goes. Not a dollar, quarter, nickel, or penny among them, only dimes. Why just the other day he found one in a book store by the new release section. The day before that he found two: one on the sidewalk outside his work and one inside on the floor at work. I keep telling him to step it up and find gold pieces (Elder Scrolls: Skyrim) or at least bottlecaps (Fallout 3). J and his dimes.

Turkey Cake

Our neighbor, Cole, turned 2 years old on Thanksgiving Day. His Mommy asked me to make him a Turkey Cake for Thanksgiving/his Birthday.

Takashi

This is our fat cat Maine Coon Tabby, Takashi. We adopted him from the Salt Lake City, Utah Humane Society on 6.6.07. He was a one year old adult cat that had been there for 5 months. I support adopting animals, especially adult cats and dogs that need homes. We picked him because he had such a mild easy going personality and was a very quiet cat (that has since changed) and perfectly content to be picked up, petted, and snuggled. He is still a lap kitty and loves being brushed and held.

Ehrmantrout

We are J (Jody) and K (Kimberly Kay) Ehrmantrout. An Ermine, (Mustela erminea) is a stoat or short-tailed weasel found throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. In the winter this nobel animal's fur turns white, which is also known as Ermine, and was used extensively by royalty for trimming. Wearing Ermine became a symbol for nobility, and nearly caused the extinction of Ermine. A Trout is a fresh water and salt water fish also found throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. The two most common species are Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout. Trout taste excellent when fried in butter with a bit of salt and pepper.

Growing up J was nicknamed Fur Fish. Ermine (Fur) + Trout (Fish) = Ehrmantrout.

If we were a corporation we would have the following:
Corporate Colors: Green (J) and Blue (K)
Corporate Dinosaur: Allosaurus, because they are just like a T-Rex only different.
Corporate Butterfly: Tiger Swallow Tail
Corporate Mascot: The Panthugar, a cross between a panther and a cougar, the most deadly of all the big cats.
Corporate Video Game: Fallout 3

We have been together for 10 years, married for 5. We like Civil War re-enacting, video games, comic books, movies, manga, anime, history, martial arts, weapons, and costumes. I am learning cooking, baking, and cake decorating. We adopted a Main Coon tabby cat named Takashi who is our only child, so he's spoiled rotten. He did not come from the humane society fat, I made him that way. Like my Momma always says, "A fat kitty is a happy kitty."