Fish for Breakfast: Thanksgiving dinner, birthday, and Chanukah

We're not lacking for yummy meals around here!

First, a little Natalie update: she's much, much better than she was - but still not all better. During the day, she's actually fine, and has been back at school for some time. We're still struggling to get the pain and itching under control at night, with some sleepless nights for all of us. One consequence you'll notice are that the transitions are somewhat lacking in this blog post. I guess you get the writing you pay for, no?

But, hey, here's a picture of her being cute:

After the shingles diagnosis, we considered just skipping Thanksgiving - we weren't going anywhere and no one was coming over, so it wouldn't have been a big deal if we'd just decided to go the frozen burrito route. But Mike was adamant. And so we cooked the meal we'd planned. And it was great, and so worth it.

We started with my favorite easy appetizer of goat cheese, dried cranberries and roasted salted pistachios. The tangy of the goat cheese, the sweet of the cranberries, and the salty of the pistachios just all taste so good together. Try it, for real.

We also had garlicky green beans with pine nuts. We served our beans in my great aunt Toni's china dish. Green beans were always her thing at Thanksgiving, and while we didn't use her recipe, I wanted to use her bowl.

Next was the vegetarian turkey: enchiladas. Mike went all out on these and made his own tortillas and his own sauce. And, yeah, they were that good.

And what goes with pretend turkey? Real mashed potatoes, of course. We used (as we always do) the recipe belonging to Miso's mother.

For dessert? Pie. Please. I made two pies, because, really, how can you choose between apple and pumpkin-praline on Thanksgiving? And I know that there are people who might suggest that two pies for three people is excessive. In fact, pre-shingles, I was one of those people, and had planned to freeze half of each pie. Post-shingles, I needed 50 pies. So, two was, really, quite a modest amount with that perspective, no? And since you can't have pie without ice cream, I made some cinnamon-vanilla ice cream.

Official pie-taster:

Post-meal smiles:

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we started to think about how we'd manage the week ahead. I had the sick time I could take from work to care for Natalie, but - being pregnant - I wasn't really supposed to be caring for her all that much. And it was Mike's last week of classes, complete with student presentations - so he couldn't really cancel class. And so you know what the tough do when the going gets tough? Yeah, you do. You make some calls - and not to ghostbusters, either.

My mom arrived the same day we called. She stayed for six days. You don't know how much help you need until the help arrives. We are so appreciative.

Switching gears for a minute, here are some pictures a friend's father took about a month ago. These were taken at the jungle-themed birthday party for Natalie's friend, Liam.

And, well, I guess that cupcake shot provides a nice transition back to my birthday. I had a cupcake, nicely provided by one of my co-workers.

The weekend before my birthday, Mike went all-out again, making me a lovely birthday dinner at home. We started with some delicious artichoke-potato soup (no picture, sorry) and then had some of my favorite eggplant patties with yogurt sauce:

And then, smoked paprika cod with olives and peas:

Followed by my favorite, yellow cake with chocolate frosting:

The official cake-tested approves:

Here's some more proof of Natalie's daytime return to health:

And here's Natalie practicing writing her name (or some approximation thereof):

Friday was Natalie's Chanukah celebration at school. This was less of the kids putting on a show and more of just some Chanukah celebration tacked onto their regular Shabbat program. However, the snack on Friday was latkes + jelly donuts + gelt. Natalie was okay with that.