Hijinks

     The post Thanksgiving food coma can be a bit of a let down, right?  If you're in need of some serious entertainment that just happens to benefit a WHOLE LOT of children then look no further than the live stream by g33kwatch-- Mass Effect Marathon 2.   The folks there are great and are raising money for Child's Play.  You can participate in auctions with some seriously great items like one of a kind necklaces or getting Brandon Keener, voice actor for Mass Effect's Garrus, to be the voice of your voicemail.  You can even challenge them in game play, etc.  $30,000 is their goal y'all and you can help!  If you "Like" g33kwatch on Facebook and/or donate $5 or more, you will be entered into a raffle for the duration of the marathon ending this Sunday-- so get your donations in there!  They're pretty close to shaving a comrad's head as of an hour ago; help them make it happen.   I myself have donated $35 dollar so far toward two challenges.  One challenge was their Party Rock Anthem group dance and the other was 4 minutes of everything (including game play) in Slow Motion-- HI-larious!  I also bought two Child's Play t-shirts here.


     Now then, I would like to say how much I love my new oven.  Words cannot express how much I love it.  It has a lock that locks the display and turns off the gas to the burners.  If the children somehow manage to figure out how to push and turn at the same time while the lock is on, they won't blow up the house.  It also makes the display less likely to burn out and die because the twins love mashing the display buttons.  The range has a special 3 ring burner for boiling that is also a super simmer burner.   They both work exactly like they should.  I have never boiled anything so fast.  Also, it has a "pie" drawer.  I baked pies in it.  Oh yes, I did.  This evening, I made a turkey thigh cassoulet.  As soon as the pies are eaten up I will be baking muffins, cookies and for dinner a pizza.  I made a real dinner for the entire family from scratch all at one time in one location.
     "One location Leah?  What does that mean," you ask?  Well, let me elaborate.  I have been cooking meals for a family of five with a micro-convection oven, a tiny toaster oven, a 20 year old crockpot, and the grill.   Occasionally, I have enlisted the use of my rice cooker for double duty with rice and steaming stuff.  But, honestly my family has gotten too big for those items to suffice and I was getting tired of running all over, especially when having to use the grill as an oven.  It's not like those things maintain a steady temperature very easily.  Do you have any idea how long it takes to make pizza for a family of five with appliances that won't fit anything larger than a personal or medium size pizza in them?  Let me tell you, it takes too long.
     The range is so great.  I was able to use my dutch oven over the oblong center burner and everything cooked evenly and was stable.  My old cooktop couldn't handle it.  It was always a balancing act, a practice in perpetual motion not easily achieved with a heavy cast iron dutch oven.  One of the unexpected perks turned out to be more time to spend with the kids because I'm not running all over the kitchen and outside spending twice the time trying to make dinner.   The kids also love to help me cook and now it's a little easier.  The oven is scary to have the twins around, but not nearly as scary as the grill.  From now on, anytime I post here I'll just conclude with a postscript of what I'm making or already made for dinner that day.  Right now, I have a small batch of limonbuddhacello started up for Christmas and I plan on making little packages of candied lemon and buddha's hand to give with it.  Feel free to steal my idea because it's a definitely tasty one; and' I'm sure I'm not the only person to ever think of it.   If you're my friend irl, then you know what you're probably getting as a gift.  Too bad, I'm not changing it.