Thanks to Og sending me Alton Brown's brining info, the turkey was amazing. It was tender and juicy and flavorful and done to perfection, with crispy brown skin and everything. I am now a brining convert.
I used Mom's methods to make the mashed potatoes, and they too came out exactly to specification. I don't know how long it's been since I made mashed potatoes from scratch (or if I ever did, come to think of it!) but it's one of those cases where knowing a little about cooking vegetables goes a long way.
Ditto for carrots and green beans--Mom always wanted me to cook the vegetables (especially green ones like broccoli and asparagus) because I'm better at it than she ever was. She said she could never keep from overcooking them--well, I taught her how to do it, so in her last few years she could make perfect broccoli and asparagus, but she still preferred to let me.
The gravy was heavenly.
The only prepackaged foods in that meal were the stuffing and crescent rolls. Everything else, I made from scratch. And by the grace of God, it was all good.
More, I cannot ask.
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The snow they had predicted for today or tomorrow has now been un-predicted. I don't know whether to be happy or sad.
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The federal government will take control of your retirement accounts by 2016. Just gonna get that prediction out there now.
See, all those IRAs and 401ks out there represents a huge pool of money. There's a lot of it, and the government covets that money. It knows it's there and it wants it.
So what will happen? It'll become law that such instruments must be invested in US federal debt instruments (t-bills etc) and that'll be the end of the "privately-held retirement account" concept.
The Democrats will laud this idea as safer for everyone: "Right now your 401k is invested in the stock market. If the stock market crashes, your 401k will go away. This way, it's invested in something safe."
...except that t-bills aren't safe when government is spending 150% of tax revenue and refusing to cut expenditures, thus inflating the currency into toilet paper.
The purpose behind this is to "extend and pretend" for a few more years--keep playing the "tax and borrow and SPEND SPEND SPEND! like there's no tomorrow!" game, because any other course of action means an end to the big party in D.C. for the statists.
(The GOP? The GOP will cave, as always: "Gee, we were all set to oppose this, but then the Democrats and the mainstream media started saying we were meany mean-heads, so we're going to have to compromise....")
Meaning that whatever money you have saved is going to be taken away from you and your direct control. Where you might have been able to see the shit coming, jump out, and buy gold, now you won't be able to--and when the collapse comes, you'll discover that in fact the government took your money and left in its place an IOU scrawled on a cocktail napkin.
* * *
So were the holiday sales up from last year? Karl Denninger says no, that increased traffic didn't lead to increased sales. He concludes, "I think we're in for a muddling if not bad holiday sales season, but we shall see when the actual results show up in January in the form of quarterly earnings reports."
How can this year's sales be better than last year when goddamned everyone is out of fucking work?
Also, he says more evidence of recession, as if we needed it. *sigh*
* * *
Doctor explains patiently why he cannot examine your new ailment during a "free" annual exam. Get used to this kind of thing, folks. It's the law of the land.
On top of all of that, doctors will be obligated — that’s right, obligated — to talk to you about things you may have no interest or need to talk about.Emphasis in original.
You may just want to have a pap smear or check your cholesterol. However, I am now mandated by the government to talk to you about your weight, exercise, family life, smoking, sexual abuse(!), and even to ask if you wear seat belts. And I am mandated to record your answers.
I am a physician. But I need to tell you to wear a seat belt and then record your answer.
As you can see, Obamacare is all about shoving the tentacles of government as far up your rectum as possible.
Well, we warned you.
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...I don't know anybody who makes crescent rolls from scratch. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen. (I suppose the super-rich Democrats in D.C. have their chefs make dinner rolls from scratch.)