I’m feeling a short blog post today because I’m not particularly inspired by anything.
First, things I forgot to include last week: Happy Thanksgiving! I haven’t really been a true Thanksgiving head ever since learning how fucked up those pilgrims were, but I still enjoy the day. Good food + time spent with family + a reminder of everything you are grateful for = good times. If you are reading this blog, I am grateful for you. Thank you for spending your time finding my website and reading my aimless rambles. This blog is possible thanks to viewers like you. Thank you!
My family has hosted Thanksgiving for the past few years now. My mom is notoriously and self-proclaimed not the best cook. Personally, I don’t think she’s the worst, but maybe that’s because I was raised on her cooking. Frankly, I think the thing holding her the most back is her own self-doubt and fear of rejection. But then again, maybe she just can’t cook. However, this theory is disproved by her Thanksgiving. The woman whips up quite the spread, and it’s not just me who thinks so. Everyone wipes their plate clean, and many even go for seconds! A few times has her turkey been ever so slightly dry, but we have discovered that’s because that’s the way she likes to eat it! I don’t mind a dry turkey, so I, along with everyone else, still devour it.
I think she is able to make such a good Thanksgiving meal due to it all being a matter of logistics. My mother is a planner, for better or worse. She plans our meals, holidays, and outings; her literal job consists of logistics. Mom, if you ever read this, you know I love you, and you know I’m right in saying sometimes the planning can be overbearing and stressful. Sometimes the plan isn’t what everyone wants or needs, and sometimes she crumbles under the pressure of being the designated planner. But goddamn, can she plan.
Preparations for our first time hosting Thanksgiving felt like preparing for a NASA launch more than it did a family dinner. She was doing calculations and made spreadsheets to ensure that every meal was hot and ready by the time our guests arrived. And it was! She’s gotten it down enough by now that she barely stresses anymore beforehand. Well, “barely” may be an understatement, but nonetheless, her time-management skills are impressive! She assigns each of us something to make to help her out. I am the master of the cranberry sauce, and oh boy, did I mess it up severely this year.
Picture this: It’s my slotted stove time, so I make the cranberry sauce, following the recipe as per usual. About a cup of sugar, a cup of water, some citrus, a bag of cranberries, and a pinch of salt. I only see kosher salt nearby, so I ask my mom and brother, who are working on other foods, if kosher salt is the same as table salt. Because I’m smart enough to admit I don’t know everything. They reply yes. I proceed as normal. Once it’s time to plate the sauce, I give it a taste, and Holy Shit. Why the FUCK is it so salty? I hope it’s just me, or maybe the sauce needs to cool, but then my mom tries it and she can’t hold back her sour reaction. Well, shoot.
We send my dad to get another bag of cranberries, and once he returns I make it again. After deliberation, we think that because kosher salt is a bit stronger than table salt, it must have been too salty because I did add more like a pinch and a half. This time, I plan on just adding half a pinch. So I make it again, and ask my mom if she could pass me the sugar since it’s near her. She asks, “What sugar?”
I gesture to it. “The one right there in that jar.”
She goes, “Luna, that’s not sugar. That’s salt.”
All four of us go, “Ooooohhhhh.”
I had added about a cup of salt, a cup of water, some citrus, a bag of cranberries, and a pinch of more salt. And I almost did it again! If I hadn’t asked for sugar, we would have had two very salty sauces on our hands. 2 Salty 2 Sauces.
The second sauce ended up delicious. Although, I couldn’t really taste how good it was until dinner. When I tried tasting it before plating, all I tasted was salt. I think the first sauce was so salty that I accidentally gave my mother and I a bit of sodium poisoning. My bad! But it was scrumptious during dinner! A perfect pair with my mom’s dry turkey, and I mean that genuinely. Wet, tangy sauce with dry, savory turkey. Mmmm. My mouth is watering just remembering it.
What else happened this week? Let’s see…
I went to christkindlmarket with a friend! I was this week years old when I learned that it’s not “Kris Kringle.” It was a lot of fun! I saw Krampus. I should get into Krampus. He seems up my alley. Spooky monster who can easily be imagined as just a silly guy. I mean, c’mon. How am I not a fan already? Well, I am somewhat of a fan, just from afar.
No way, apparently the day we went, December 6th, is the day of the Feast of Saint Nicholas, which is right after Krampusnacht (Krampus Night). Pause. Why did my wifi go out as soon as I wrote Krampus Night? Krampus? Hello? Resume. So lucky us for seeing his booth after such a busy day, wow. I feel so honored.
Today was the final F1 race of the 2024 season. I don’t want to get too into it at the moment, because then it won’t be the short post I promised (and want…), but I’ll give you the fast facts.
McLaren, despite Ferrari’s best efforts, won the World Constructors Championship for the first time in 20+ years. Happy for my fave Oscar Piastri. Congrats to the engineers and mechanics. Lando Norris. Zac Brown, you can choke. PLEASE choke. I should be compensated for seeing Zac Brown happy. I need that man to [redacted] or maybe even [redacted] before I [redacted]. For real.
Ferrari… Next year will be our year. It has to be. Charles Leclerc did an insane drive from P19 to P3. Carlos Sainz, I’ll miss seeing you in red, but it’s time to make room for the man, the myth, the legend… Sir Lewis Hamilton.
I got teary eyed seeing him exit his Mercedes one last time. It’s the end of an era and everyone is emotional. I really fucking hope Ferrari doesn’t ruin his reputation anymore than Mercedes has these past couple of years. Please let him retire with a bang, and please don’t let him retire anytime soon! I’m not ready for that yet!!!! Long live Lewis Hamilton.
I’ll have to explain Max and George’s fight next post because, damn, is it funny, but also long as hell to explain.
Goodbye to Valterri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Kevin Magnussen, Franco Colapinto and maybe(?) Liam Lawson. Maybe! You made this sport so much fun to watch. Fly high!
What a great season, man. I’m currently working on THE F1 video wrapping it all up, so stay tuned for that.
Lastly, I’m halfway done with the first chapter of my fanfiction! It’s actually so much fun to write. Only problem is, my writing time has been in the wee hours of the night, which is not good at all for my sleep schedule. So I definitely need to fix that. I’m thinking I might be done with the rough draft by the end of this week, then I’ll send it to a beta reader to have it a bit edited, and then I’ll possibly post it? Perhaps? I might want to start the next chapter before I do. Just so I don’t have too huge of gaps between uploads. But who knows? Life is a mystery.
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