Well, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and you aren't too sick of turkey salad yet! The smallest turkey I could find was 18 pounds -- and that was for 4 people! We made turkey stock from the carcass and have been eating turkey salad on rolls, bread and wraps for the past 4 days now. We also made some delicious applesauce and froze some apple pie filling from the remaining apples on our tree.
The applesauce recipe is easy: just cut 2 quarts of apples, add 1 to 2 cups of water, 3/4 cup of sugar (1 cup if you like it very sweet) and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and cook until soft. Feel free to add some pears for extra potassium or rosehips for even more vitamin C.
The apple pie filling recipe is a great way to use up your leftover apples and prepare for an easy dessert for the winter doldrums in the process:
cut 18 cups of apples
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Mix together and let set for 1/2 hour. Stir in 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Simmer a few minutes, until it thickens. Cool and freeze in 4 cup freezer bags. Use as filling for apple crisp or apple pies. 4 cups = 1 small pie
Andrew's mom came up to visit and we had lots of fun playing the CashFlow game (on the board and in real life). Now I know where Andrew gets his fondness for real estate from. I didn't stand a chance at winning the game!
We went house shopping on Saturday and put in lots of low offers. I was pleased that some of our lowball offers weren't completely scorned -- I love a good bargain!
I found a short and sweet article, see link above, on the correlation between watching television and lower reading comprehension and memory skills. I was astounded that the AVERAGE three year old watches over three hours a day!
Now, I don't believe in being totally black and white about anything (well, anything LEGAL, that is), because I think that a rigid attitude isn't healthy and can actually do more harm than good. Arianna can watch one 1/2 hour t.v. show (Caillou) 2 or 3 times a week, if she wants, while I take a shower. The interesting thing is, she doesn't like to watch TV alone. She likes it when I sit with her and talk about what's going on. I am glad she doesn't consider it a spectator sport and that she doesn't spend hours in front of the TV each day. I love to watch her pretend play become more sophisticated and watch those creative juices flow.
When we got our pictures taken, the photographer said she didn't know what she would do without TV to entertain her two year old. I was thinking, "Have you ever TRIED anything else?"
TV is such an easy out and many of the programs aimed at toddlers and preschoolers claim to be educational, so we can relieve some of our guilt about abandoning our children to the clutches of mass marketing and media. Okay, enough ranting for now -- go play with your kids, instead!
Rebecca Wolf
http://www.ThrivingBabies.com