Manolo for the Big Girl Fashion, Lifestyle, and Humor for the Plus Sized Woman.

You all know how this works by now. I post a picture. You send in your best captions via the comments section. Next week I declare a winner and eveyone else rends their garments and gnashes their teeth in shame and disappointment that they lost…or just, you know, sends congratulations to the winner and forgets the whole thing.

Okay, fingers on keyboards…aaaaaaaaannnnnnnd, we’re off!

Ready…set…snark!

I love Thanksgiving. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love Thanksgiving. A day devoted to enjoying and appreciating the bounty provided to us strikes me as an excellent idea. Taking time out to share our best fortune with others feels wonderful. Oh, and pies are never a bad thing.

That said, I’ve had a couple truly scaly Thanksgivings over the past few years. Mostly they have been caused by the fact that I don’t have a dining room, so I can’t invite more than two people to share Thanksgiving with us…which would make it kind of pointless to roast an entire turkey and make a huge feast. So Mr.Twistie and I have had Thanksgiving with other people for years. Seeing as I love to cook and love to feed people, this has been a tidge on the depressing side for me.

Of course, it doesn’t help that two years ago I did all the cooking, transported the feast across town with the aid of a very sulky Mr. Twistie, and then was met by the spectacle of the owner of the house gagging at the sight of each new dish as it was uncovered, as well as his snide comments on the inedible qualities of my stuffing as he fed it to his dog at the table. Mind you, that’s the same stuffing I’ve been making for the past six years because this guy and Mr. Twistie both raved about it the first time I did it.
That was very nearly the end of Thanksgiving for me.

The same folks have asked me to cook Thanksgiving for them both years since The Incident. I don’t think they understand why I will never do it again.

So for the past two Thanksgivings, I’ve gone to dinner with other folk bringing pumpkin pie with me. It’s okay, but it’s not the way I want to celebrate the holiday.

This year, though, except for the fact that all I got to cook was pie and I had no leftover turkey the next day, was a really nice Thanksgiving that I certainly wouldn’t mind repeating.

We ate with different friends this year. The food was good and it was bountiful. My pie was praised to the skies. Nearly everyone around the table was a musician, so the evening ended in a big jam session. The only person who had too much to drink was a gregarious, cheerful drunk whose worst sin was constant repitition of the same lines and a tendancy to fawn on Mr. Twistie for his musical abilities. I can live with that.
Best of all, there wasn’t one word of body hate all day and all night. Nobody simpered about how ‘bad’ they were for having an extra helping of mashed potatoes or a sliver of pie. Nobody excused themselves for eating a full meal by talking about how much they planned to exercise the next day to ‘make up for it.’ Nobody looked squiggle-eyed at anyone for daring to have some gravy while wearing a double-digit dress size. The one person at the table who has been dieting not only took the day off and left others to make their own decisions, she made the cornbread dressing (Mr. Twistie later said that and my pumpkin pie were the two best things on the table, which made me preen a bit) and ate heartily of it.

So, good friends, new friends, good food, live music, and no anti-body talk. About the only thing that could improve on it is if next year I get to make a little more of the food. Maybe I’ll offer up another veggie dish.

How about those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving? Did you have a good one? What did you do to make it a truly happy day? What would be your perfect Thanksgiving? Or, alternately, what was the worst one you ever survived? And can you laugh about it now?

Long, long ago, before the advent of Diet Coke and Sweet Lady Internet, two very different groups of oddly-dressed people got together in the spirit of fellowship, began a tradition and changed our fair land forever.

I am, of course, talking about the annual University of Texas/Texas A&M football game.

So whether you’re a decent, thoughtful, caring human being or you hate America and want A&M to win, I hope this day is special to you.  If you watch the game on the TV, look for the fat girl in the orange Hermes scarf with a balloon tied around her wrist (what? I’ve never been to a football game before and I don’t want to get lost. I tend to wander off when distracted, and what’s more distracting than college athletes bending over?).

Hook ’em Horns!

(oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!)

Francesca apologizes for the lack of the postings this week. Together with a few friends, she is hostessing the Thanksgiving feast, and so she has been shopping and cooking, and polishing the fancy silverware.

Just now Francesca finished preparing her delicious traditional Thanksgiving zucchini soup (because she prefers the green squash to the pumpkin) which is this:

In a large pot, prepare 8 cups of chicken broth.

Separately, in a large pan, sautee together (in batches, if necessary):

2-3 chopped onions

4 potatoes, peeled and chopped

8 zucchinis, chopped

1 tspn salt

1/2 tspn dried basil

1/2 tspn dried rosemary

1/4  tspn dried thyme

1/4 tspn ground white pepper

As the batches finish sauteeing, add them to the pot of chicken broth.

Cover, bring to a boil, and then lower the flame and allow to simmer until the potatoes are soft, about 45 minutes or so (this does not have to be exact). Stir occasionally.

Use a hand (immersion) blender to puree the soup. Then add 1 cup of cream and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Mix it all together.

Before serving, bring the soup just to a boil, but do  not allow it to continue boiling.

This recipe will serve 10 people.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You’re welcome.

Welcome to the latest utterly pointless fitness tool: the mobile treadmill:

I think I need a long drink and a short nap now so I can forget.

Sorry that I just linked it rather than embedding it, but for some reason YouTube and WordPress didn’t seem to want to talk to each other.