I am never making a turkey again

11/28/12

Making a turkey is hard work, especially when the turkey in question is 20 pounds. On Thanksgiving I, Madelyn Rose Padalino, did a very adult thing and hosted Thanksgiving, complete with turkey making. The party started off being a small amount of people, then somehow grew until 20 people were coming for dinner. On Wednesday before Thanksgiving I made my Aunt Lynda’s brussel sprout casserole. It’s one of my favorite dishes and I had to have it for the holiday. Now I want to preface this with telling you all that I don’t cook. Unless there are directions on the box (yes it has to come in a box) I can’t make it. And sometimes when the directions are on the box I can’t make it, exhibit A: the Rice a Roni incident with Becky when we were like 15. The Brussels sprout recipe isn’t that hard but it’s involved. The first step is to make bacon.  Bacon in the UK and Bacon in the US is a little different, bacon here is thicker and has more fat on it so it cooks differently. I, of course, didn’t know this and promptly burned the crap out of the bacon and smoked my whole kitchen. Next it took me 10 minutes to chop an onion which I had never done in my life. The rest of the recipe went smoother but it still took me 2 hours to make the damn thing, not to mention clean up because for some reason my counters looked like a disaster zone.

The day of Thanksgivng a rose early to get my turkey out of the freezer. Some of you are thinking “Oh crap Matti put the turkey in the freezer and never defrosted it”. But AHA! The exact opposite! I bought the 20 pound behemoth of a turkey on Monday and left it out to defrost like my darling mother told me to. Too bad on Wednesday evening it was entirely defrosted and edging precariously toward room temperature.  I put it in the freezer Wednesday night so that it would cool down and got up at 8am to take it out and start getting everything ready. I wish you could have all seen the hilarity that was me preparing the turkey for the oven. I had to enlist the help of my roommate Cindy in washing the bird because washing a twenty pound slimy turkey is about as easy as, well, washing a twenty pound slimy turkey. After haphazardly washing the bird I left it to dry as I took my shower. After heating the oven I moved the turkey to the pan I bought. Turkeys in England are generally not as big as the ones back home, so the largest tin pan I could find barely and I do mean barely, fit my turkey. I threw it in the oven at set my timer.

After that I set about making the mashed potatoes. I was trying to be all fancy and made mine homemade with real potatoes. As opposed to how I usually make them which is out of a box. I had to peel, cut and boil four pounds of potatoes which took me about 2 hours.  During this time I was cleaning the kitchen, my bedroom and the bathroom. I know understand my parent’s frustration on Christmas when they are trying to get the house together while making dinner.

People started arriving and while I was still making the mashed potatoes, so I enlisted there help and gave them the rest of the potatoes to mash as I finished cleaning.

After everyone arrived Cheyenne helped me take the turkey out of the oven and carve it. Much to our surprise the top half of the turkey was done and ready while the wings and legs were still bloody. Not to mention that while I managed to get one of the giblets out I didn’t see the one in the neck and cooked it with them in. Cheyenne and Louisa cut up the part of the turkey that was done and then put the rest back in the oven.  Meanwhile we all grabbed plates and dug in. Everyone brought food and wine for the party. Caroline managed to make 3 kilograms (almost 6 pounds) of amazing macaroni and cheese. We’re all pretty impressed with her because her idea of dinner is a bag of microwave popcorn. For dessert Mairi made this kind of whiskey cream with berries that was delicious. I have no idea how to spell the name but I’ve been referring to it as Kraken.

I’m really glad everyone could come over, I would have been miserable all alone for thanksgiving. We had a great time and ate way to much. After everyone went home I skyped my parents at my grandpa’s house where they were partaking in the holiday festivities. It was so awesome to see everyone, and get to say hi.

The semester is almost over, I can’t believe it. I only have two more weeks until I’m flying home! 

Grad school is hard, like really really hard

11/13/12

So I haven’t updated in a while, but I have a perfectly good explanation for that. I have done nothing, nada, squat, zero, other than sleep eat and study for the past 2 weeks. You think I’m lying or exaggerating but I’m dead serious.

Last Thursday, the 7^th, I had my first anatomy exam. The exam was worth 50% of my final grade so I was stressing out about it. On the exam was all of the muscles of the upper body. For every muscle we had to know it’s origin, insertion point, what action it does, what nerve innervates it, and be able to locate it on a picture. I have spent hours upon hours with my flash cards, my book and the biodigital human program on my computer. I don’t study at my desk because the chair is rather uncomfortable so I had all of my notes spread over my bed in little piles. Then to help me study I drew really awful pictures of the muscles which I will not include on this blog.

I had the test last Thursday and it went (knock on wood) well. I felt pretty good about it when I left the room. Of course this probably means I failed epically, but until I get my score I’m going to live in my fantasy. After the test a bunch of us promptly headed to the pub to get drunk. My brain was so fried that when we went to split the check I had like a brain fart and couldn't remember how to do math. That night I took my first real night off in weeks. I went home after the pub, ate half a pint of chocolate ice cream and watched the lion king.

I couldn't have too much down time because this is grad school and that just doesn't happen. On Monday I had a bone quiz on the teeth. Now teeth are really hard because A) there not easy to side, and B) all of the incisors and molars look the same. The difference between mandibular incisor 2 and Maxillary incisor 2 is so minute that it’s ridiculous. The actual quiz went alright, it was half on the actual teeth and half on everything else we have covered so far. There was one fragment that I stared at for a good 5 minutes without knowing what it was (turns out it was the foramen rotunda of the left sphenoid, I of course did not write this).

On happy news I am hosting thanksgiving with all my friends! I am going to attempt to make a turkey; mashed potatoes and my favorite Brussels sprout casserole that my Aunt Lynda makes. I called her for the recipe and it was so nice to talk to her. It makes me really miss all my family back home.  But I’ll be home soon for Christmas! Yay!