So. Yesterday I fixed a traditional American turkey dinner for Lars and all of his relatives. That means his mother, his siblings, his sibling's children... and their children. It was quite the houseful of people. His family is pretty laid-back and easy to get along with. I like them all a great deal so I was happy to take this challenge on.
Turkey is not a popular meat here in Sweden, so finding it was a task in itself. We did finally find one store with a small bin of small turkeys though. I had to go with 2 8-pounders rather than one 16 as that was the biggest bird available. Ok. No harm no foul.
I solicited you wonderful folks for a stuffing recipe since these people have never heard of the stuff. Not only are there no boxes of StoveTop lining the grocery shelves, there is not a bread cube in sight. I improvised with a crusty Swedish bread and broke it into chunks. It worked. The stuffing tips I got here worked beautifully.
so.
The food was fantastic, if I do say so myself, and judging by the moans and second heaping helpings it went over very well with this crowd.
Then we served after-dinner coffee and papparkaken.
Those of you with children know well the popular high chair game of 'Bend & Fetch.' Baby (in this case Robin) tosses everything off the tray and onto the floor and stares at you, daring you to not pick it up and give it back right away. I became engaged in this game with young master Robin for a while, then decided to try to foil him. That was my mistake.
Back to the beginning of the day though... Lars mother has all of this really old and treasured stuff, like china and elaborate table coverings. We used them yesterday. A beautiful white table cloth with embroidered decor along the edge. Get the picture?
So. I decide to foil Robin. I see him glance at the sippy cup. I watch him begin to reach for it while staring me full in the eyes. Just as the swipe to the floor is about to happen, my hand darts out to catch the cup before it can leave the tray... and my sleeve catches the handle of my gorgeous antique coffee cup, sending it and its content just flying across the table into the lap of Sarah.
I hadn't realized just how much coffee those dainty old cups held until I saw the spread of that stain...
OHJ!
Luckily, this family is fantastic and everyone was laughing like hell. Even his mother. I felt terrible, but all I could do was laugh myself, and hope like hell that stain comes out...
So. That was my first adventure in impressing the family.
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Comments: 22
It's my guess that the event was more endearing than disastrous. Such things tend to 'humanize', and may have been necessary if your meal was too good for the women who, I am sure, pride themselves on their cooking.
I see I have been flagged by the community for 'Shit list.' Guess I should have said 'Crap List' instead... I have always wondered why it is ok to say the same exact thing with different letter groupings... strange people, Americans. HA!
I see a ton of typos, but will not change them until I see what happenes with this latest report to Daddy Gather...
As for those who flagged you for the use of do-do's synonym I can only say they are on even more of a mission than I am to discourage the use of four letter and other curse words and obscenities in comments and articles on the web and in ordinary conversation. Too often they are used simply to grossly insult and show disrespect for another human being or purely for their shock value. I do not think that was your intent in this instance nor do I recall such words being used in that sense in other articles by you that I have read.
While I would not have flagged your article I will suggest that a colorful euphemism might have had equal or more effect and eliminate the possible of a reader concluding that the substitution of obscenities for more literate expression is acceptable.
My stance is that such words are only qualifiers, and taking offense at them is on par with saying it is ok to say Better, but saying Best is taboo. The words have a purpose and a place.
My title was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, not literal.
As far as trying to get s**t off the internet, sorry to say, Carol, it's a losing battle.
Btw, I'd say you were more of a candidate for the list, and; I agree, its how you use the word more than the word itself no?
I updated this to fix some glaring typos today. When I go to the publish page, it of course had marked the Language, so I published. POOF went the adult designation. So I once again went in to edit to put back in the adult language warning. It will not let me touch it since an editor has touched it. So, your language warning has gone on walkabout, and there is nothing I can do to right this technical glitch. Sorry.
Everyone else: They are all still laughing about it. Two have expressed regret that the stain did come out. They sooo wanted to make that stain into Rudolph for future gatherings...