Couch 233: Nothing’s Ghana Stop Us Now

Yum, me too! It's pretty much the only thing that has mushrooms in it that I don't pick them out, probably because they're such tiny pieces in the cream of mushroom soup.

Our friend's son (who is about the same age as our son and they've been friends since they were little, consider themselves cousins actually) is a great cook. He's "deboning a turkey" tonight to cook for our dinner tomorrow. I didn't even know that was a thing... deboning the turkey before cooking. Should be interesting!

Hugs all around to those who want/need.

I saw somebody deboning a turkey leg and thigh and then stuffing it, this week. Looked like a lot of work!

My sister sent me a recording of my nieces when they picked them up from their paternal aunt's who is supervising visits. Just so sad. My heart breaks for them.

Honestly, the history of Thanksgiving is a little troubling to me. I'm no history expert, but the original colonists from England were ill-equipped to handle North America and a Native American tribe helped them survive their first years here. To celebrate the colonists held a feast to celebrate their survival that eventually became Thanksgiving. Of course, as time went on, we decimated the Native American population, treated them horribly, called them savages, stole the land they had been living on for many years, forced them onto reservations, etc. (For now, I'm going to ignore the French colonists that nearly trapped some species into extinction in Canada and what's now the northern US.)

On one hand, I can appreciate the opportunity to gather with family and friends for a celebration. It's something we were brought up with and didn't understand the historical implications of as children. But at the same time it kind of feels like we're celebrating a bunch of ill-prepared, super-religious English people coming to a new-to-them continent and serving as a plague upon the current residents.

That being said, my lonely-*** self is going to make some air fryer tempeh and instant mashed potatoes and try not to feel sorry for myself that I have no family or friends to get together with.

I very very occasionally eat fast food and i confused the girl at Hungry Jacks, i think its Burger King in the US by saying i wanted a medium onions rings and a small drink, i think i broke her because she just couldnt get her head around it i had to say it several times.

I cant eat anything with bones or if i do i won't pick it up with my hands and chew the meat of the bones. Its just disgusting i cant evene watch other people do it. I like the idea of deboning something. Give this boy a medal lol

Edit because I feel ashamed and embarrassed

Today i learned that my next door neighbours, who adore my dogs and feed them treats through the fence, cook a special batch of spaghetti bolognaise without onions just for the dogs, when they cook it for themselves. Thats so sweet.

That's wonderful, BCM!

Endocrinology lab results appeared. Appointment is mid December.

Everything that is borderline or too low or too high - quite a number of results? So far ALL of them have fatigue as a result.

Hugs, QM. Hopefully they're relatively easily treated. Is thyroid one, I'm guessing?

Hugs, NP. I know it's not the same, but you an hang out here with us.


I've never really gotten into tempeh--is it good fried like that?

NP, your post made me think of elementary school--maybe kindergarten? When for Thanksgiving, some of us would dress up as Pilgrims and some as, well "Indians," but Native Americans (I believe American Indians or Indigenous Americans is preferred now?) I'm cringing in particular thinking of the sort of paper headbands with feathers the kids playing the latter would wear. And of course we were taught that they all came together as friends and enjoyed dinner together. This was in the 1980s.

Yup, thyroid issue - probably hyperthyroidism. As well as possible anemia - several markers.

The specific tribe name is preferred over any group name—and then as you say Indigenous Americans or Amerixan Indians; Native American is a white term is my understanding. (My university sits partially on land previously held by several Indigenous tribes, and there’s a statement on every university website acknowledging this—the tribes are identified each by name.)

In the case of the original Thanksgiving, the tribe is the Wampanoag tribe. And, actually, the story of the first Thanksgiving goes even deeper (I teach it in a survey class of world folklore I sometimes do). “Thanksgiving” actually refers not to a harvest festival, but a war victory, and the name comes from an 1863 proclamation celebrating Civil War Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

It wasn’t the first harvest festival celebrated in the New World, and the Wampanoag were actually trying to make an alliance with Plymouth (some sources suggest they actually gate-crashed the Plymouth harvest festival, they weren’t invited).

And there was no turkey, no pie, and no potatoes. Most of what we celebrate as Thanksgiving is late-19th century tradition.

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I'm curious as to what they're teaching in public elementary schools about it now (I don't trust my D to really be able to tell us, though I suppose I could ask a few teacher friends).


And I kind of assumed they weren't eating pumpkin pie or potatoes--figured wild turkeys might have been a possibility.

Thanksgiving has always been a weird one coming from Switzerland... we do not have a single holiday that's celebrated that intensely, centered about being together, eating together, and so on and it not being a religious holiday (with the religion often being a very minor part in the actual celebration, if it's mentioned at all).

I'll say that as far as I know, the people originally coming to the US were not just choosing to go on vacation or spread their religion, most of them were kicked out by their own country for having a belief not aligned with their country. I can't blame them for being ill-prepared and probably not the best group for leading the initial efforts. That combined with a general unawareness of medicine will quickly go down a bad path...

Also, regarding the debate of dressing up as a certain group/race you're not part of: as a child, I don't think this is actually a bad thing, but maybe that's an uncommon opinion. It's a fantasy world where you get to role play something, most times something that you could never experience, children are not aware of all the implications and that's fine. You're a person living in the per-colonized North America, got a bow and arrow and run around in your garden searching for plants to make into some kind of food. Of course this isn't fully accurate but as a kid that lets you experience sides of life that you'll never see again and lets you empathize with that kind of lifestyle idea. I see it similarly to playing theater, you're trying to empathize with the character. If paired properly with education about the bad parts of society, whether it'd be something like slaves or genocide, illnesses, corruption, will help the kid more than restricting their fantasy world. You have to live with out the fantasy for long enough...

It's weird to do for older people though just to dress up, that doesn't make sense to me.

I'm toying with the idea of opening my Etsy store again. I did sell like 7 pieces when I had it open before, but they were small things, and now I want to do afghans. I already have a couple baby afghans that have been in a closet waiting for when I open it again or for a friend or family to have a baby. I'm just not quite yet convinced that my afghans won't fall apart when washed. I really should know better because the ones I've made for myself and for family members like 30 years ago are still in one piece, but my mind doesn't work like that - it tells me that because those were for me or were gifts, they are safe. But if someone pays me for it, that will somehow make it fall apart. Silly brain. Here's one I recently finished for my sister for christmas. eta i don't know why it's sideways

Hugs/headnods all around as wanted/needed/appropriate.

Artie thanks for the hugs! Your Afghan is beautiful and I think you should definitely open your store again.

Happy Thanksgiving couch! Even if you don't celebrate, I have some extra banana pudding.

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The only way I've ever eaten it is either sautéed in some olive oil or tossed in some olive oil and baked in the oven. Then add some salt. Either way it turns out crispy and lovely. I have a new air fryer so I'm going to try cooking it like that instead.

Gorgeous afghan!

Beautiful afghan Artie!

I survived another awkward family gathering. Now watching movies to recover.