Going Nuts with Holidays and Memories.

"Chestnuts will explode if you don't pierce them before cooking."

Yup. Been there done that. Still it was a late night fun fact I hadn't expected to hear from a crappy horror movie. It'll teach me to watch what I watch after midnight.

I learned my chestnut lesson a few years back. Every Thanksgiving MyUnwife and I worked together in the kitchen to prepare a weeks worth of food to eat in one day. That year MyUnwife picked a stuffing recipe with chestnuts. Neither one of us knew anything about them except they were part of a song. The part you roasted on an open fire while Jack Daniels nipped. Jack Frost? Oh sorry. Either way, no biggie, we'd just buy our chestnuts and roast them in our conventional oven. We'd roasted almonds before, what could be the big difference? We tossed the chestnut strewn cookie sheet in the oven, then after a few minutes, we pulled it out. Tada!

They looked kind of like the little eggs from Alien stretching across the sheet. I'm looking over the lot. Nudging them with a spatula then-

BAM! One of them blows up! I fall back. MyUnwife dives for her gun. Ok, no gun, but it sounded fun. I think another one blew up. I'm still shell shocked. Shrapnel rained down.

Thinking quickly for a slow person, I yanked the hand towel from the oven handle, and tossed it across the cookie sheet. Now it's safe to stand up. The nuts are still popping. Neither of us had any idea they'd do this. We both edged closer to the popping towel. I grabbed a mallet and busted up the lot before they broke out. These are the types of things that make the holidays tough.

Last night I went to the grocery store. I picked up a few of the preparations for my Thanksgiving solo . I bought a Cornish game hen. It's like a midget chicken who'd rather be eaten than made fun of. I don't see a reason to cook big turkey that'd just go bad. I love the leftover sandwiches, but after a month of leftovers I'll start mailing what's left to my family as Christmas gifts. I grabbed a can of cranberry sauce too. I'm on the fence concerning the pumpkin pie. MyUnwife hated pumpkin, so it's safe food. But still, do I need a whole pie? And then I'd buy a thing of whipped cream that will go bad too. Maybe I could make a mini pie. We'll see. I haven't picked a veggie yet either. We usually did a thing with green beans and slivered almonds. Almonds don't fight back, so maybe I'll do that.

What about the stuffing? The hens are too small to stuff, so I won't be putting any in the bird, but I do love stuffing. Maybe I'll go with Stove Top. Then again, maybe I'll find a recipe that I like between now and then. It needs to be something uniquely mine though. A recipe that doesn't involve memory bombs and exploding chestnuts.