Sun Moon Stars Girl )-(

Welcome to my little place to vent…

Well, it doesn’t really get cold and snowy here in Southern California, but that doesn’t mean we’re not getting into the holiday spirit out here…and lots of my happy memories are smell-based - apple pie with the lovely cinnamon scent, cookies with the sugar, melted butter, and nut scents, the lovely pine smell from wreaths and trees, the pasta fagioli and myrrh on Christmas eve, and the turkey baking in the oven…

So I thought I’d start this post off with a description of our lovely Thanksgiving, because that is where the “smells of Christmas” start. This year, Kris and I decided to make Thanksgiving for ourselves. We got ourselves a 13 lb. turkey - because we wanted lots of leftovers for both sandwiches and dinners. And we decided on side dishes - mainly things I felt I couldn’t live without - stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes. We also decided to make apple pie, as it is one dish we enjoy preparing together and is so traditionally Thanksgiving. The pie actually came together before Thanksgiving, as we were expecting company that had to reschedule. The whole day that day the house smelled fantastic. Yum….apple pie….

On Thanksgiving we got up and started preparing our feast for two. Kris cut the onions and then washed off the turkey while I melted the butter and sauted the onions to prepare the stuffing. The stuffing mix called for adding “liquid” and one of their suggestions was wine. We both thought this was a great idea to try and luckily we had a small bottle of white wine in our liquor cabinet. Once the turkey and stuffing was cooked the extra flavor of the wine made it SO tasty! Back to the prep - Kris stuffed the turkey while I cut the green beans and cut and peeled the white potatoes. I have this big pasta pot with a built-in strainer and steamer basket, so I boiled the potatoes (both kinds) and steamed the green beans all at the same time! This made the cooking and clean-up a lot easier. Kris and I were then able to enjoy the Thanksgiving Day Parade on tv (they time-delay the Macy’s Day Parade for us on the west coast…which is a little weird, but kind of makes sense otherwise it would be on way too early in the morning) while everything was cooking. Later on I cooled the sweet potatoes to peel and cut them, and then set them up in the casserole dish with butter, maple syrup, and brown sugar - yum! Then I worked on mashing the white potatoes - using some of the water from the boiling/steaming pot to add back some vitamins and cut back on the milk content (see my post about lactose-intolerance!). At this point the turkey was done, and I worked on making gravy from the pan while Kris started carving the turkey. Everything tasted so great that we had seconds, and then much later on we enjoyed another round instead of making the traditional Thanksgiving evening turkey sandwiches. After that we enjoyed some warmed apple pie with whipped cream. I love having homemade food - I think that’s what really made our Thanksgiving so special.

A week later I made turkey soup in our crock pot with all the boned meat from the turkey. What a great smell that made throughout the entire house! So yummy!

Another week after that, we had some vegetarian friends over for dinner, so we made another apple pie. I love baking.

This past weekend we enjoyed making some cookies at our place on Saturday, while on Sunday we went to a cookie-making party for sugar and gingerbread cookie cutting and decorating.

It’s almost time to make yet another apple pie, for our first Christmas together as a married couple. We’re not going back east this year, which I’m pretty sad about because it is the VERY first Christmas I won’t be spending with my family. We’re saving the money to instead attend three weddings next year on the east coast, and enjoying the holidays the same way we enjoyed Thanksgiving - with the smells of home and new traditions.

About three years ago, I started to suspect I was lactose-intolerant. I’m not going to get into all the gorey details - as most people know the results of this condition where basically you drink normal milk and it goes “right through you.” I finally begrudgingly admitted I had a problem when I suffered severe cramps after drinking a Starbucks Frappucino at two rallies (thankfully I was working at them and not competing!) in 2006. A bit later that year I gathered info about soy milk (the other white drink…) and other milk-alternatives (rice milk, almond milk) from talking to some vegetarian and vegan friends, and started to try them out for myself. I’ve found I love the taste of rice milk - but that’s because it’s mostly sugar and has no basic “added benefits.” I also really like almond milk, and it has a little more added benefit with the protein content - but it’s not as readily available, it’s a little more pricey, and it’s still full of sugar. I really wanted the extra protein boost from soy milk, with much less sugar content, though it does not taste as good. My favorite is Trader Joe’s Vanilla Soy Milk Extra - because it has even more added vitamins and minerals. This leads to one final tangent before getting to my real story - Kris and my name for soy milk. Kris wanted to try it one day just to taste the flavor. I warned him - as I warn most people when trying it - not to expect it to taste anything like real milk, with a hint of oatmeal aftertaste. He completely agreed with me, and in an effort to shorten the name, called it “silk.” Well, Silk is a brand-name for one company and their soy milk products, and that doesn’t really describe it best. So in our next best “soy milk” name shortening combination, we came up with “moy.” Believe me, somehow “moy” is a MUCH better description for the taste (it seems “oatmeal-like” to me), and it’s a laughably short & cute name for soy milk.

Back to the real story…. Needless to say, for the past year and a half or so, I’d been avoiding those Starbucks Frappuccinos and other similar milk-made products unless I happened to have a lactase pill on me to take with said beverage. One day about two months ago, I met a friend for lunch at one of our favorite places and saw on a sign “We can substitute soy milk in any of our drinks.” Yay! I could finally order some of my previously favorite tasty drinks! And I thought, well, why can’t OTHER places substitute soy milk in their drinks? Especially in California, where there’s so much focus on health? So I’ve started asking if Starbucks and the like can use soy milk instead. The answer is yes, but unfortunately most places will charge you like 60 cents extra. Earlier this week, I was at Panera Bread and ordered a Chai Tea Latte` after asking the requisite “can you make this with soy milk” question. Since it was slow, and I was annoyed when the clerk took my order and told me about the extra charge, I said, “So you’re going to punish me for being lactose-intolerant?” Surprisingly, the guy was really nice and said he’d make it with soy milk and not charge me extra for it. Wow! I think more places need to get on the bandwagon of the first place I’d gone that was super accommodating and not charge extra (Cha for Tea in Irvine) for people with different needs. Being lactose-intolerant is on the same scale as being allergic to something (it almost is an allergy in itself), and you wouldn’t purposely serve something with peanuts to someone who just told you they have a nut allergy - without thinking you might be sued. You don’t usually charge extra for that - you just leave the nuts off the salad! So instead of just assuming I’m vegan and you’re “doing me a favor” by having soy milk on hand - stop punishing me for a condition my body has imposed upon me. There shouldn’t be a difference anyway!