More Leaves, Sauerkraut Balls & Cheesecake

The first morning of my long holiday weekend began at roughly 7:30am. The entire family was up around the same time. We had a busy day planned. Like most others, I completed my exercises and then took Ykraps on his morning walk. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning. It was both warm and sunny. What’s more, it was expected to remain that way through most of the day.

Mindy had our coffee mugs out and filled by the time I returned from my walk with Ykraps. I drank coffee and check headlines, but then hurried out onto the deck to bask in the glorious weather. I grabbed my guitar, too. I hadn’t played guitar outside on the deck for a couple of months. It was that nice.

While I enjoyed the nice weather, Mindy showered for her lunch date with her old friend Laura. I left for my run just after 9am. Mindy and the kids left to take the Thanksgiving stuffing mixture that Gloria prepped to her brother Craig, who’s cooking & hosting TG dinner. Gloria’s stuffing is a tradition for the Thompson family regardless of the venue. Mindy explained that she’d likely be out until 2:30-3pm. I’d have most of the day to myself. For this I was grateful!

I ran in shorts and a long sleeved running shirt. Again, it was truly that nice. After my run I was eager to get started on my agenda. I planned to rake leaves and cook TG treats most of the day. I had a few previously forgotten winterization tasks to complete, too. Before starting on the leaves, I woofed down about half of Jacob’s leftover gyro. I had another cup of coffee too with a shot of butterscotch schnapps added in for taste.

I decided to use the leaf blower to aid in gathering leaves this AM. Except for a few areas, they were very scattered and dry. And using the blower would save wear and tear on my shoulders, which always stiffen after raking. I picked up where I left off last weekend, out by the shed. The blower made quick, easy work of the leaves, although I still had to rake them onto the tarp for easy transport to the dump pile.

There was an occasional stiff breeze blowing out of the SW that was sending more leafs my way even as I toiled. I laughed it off, realizing this was something I couldn’t control.
After filling two tarps I was finished with the back half of the yard. Still relatively early, I I decided to move back up by the house to blow & gather leaves from on and underneath the deck – the same area I cleared over the weekend. I filled another tarp. Even after all that raking, I know that there will be even more as there are still trees and shrubs holding onto their foliage. We’ve had an extended fall season for some reason. I finished up the raking and moved onto a few other winterization tasks.

Before heading in for phase two of my agenda – cooking – I hung the Xmas wreath from the apex of the garage roof helping usher in the Xmas spirit. Satisfied with all I had accomplished outside, I headed inside to begin my holiday cooking.

My first order of business was to prep sauerkraut balls. I planned to concoct the entire mixture and then let it set up in the fridge overnight. That took about an hour. In the end, I was very pleased with the texture and taste of this batch. With little hesitation I moved to making and baking cheese cakes. A couple of folks are allergic to nuts, so to avoid anaphylactic trauma I made one with nuts and the other without. The first with nuts would be my signature turtle cheesecake, while the other, raspberry & chocolate.

I’ve always been one to think of a recipe as a guideline and rarely if ever follow it to the “t”. But sometimes this haunts me. For example, I forgot to add sour cream to the batter despite it being on the major ingredients list. I didn’t realize my mistake until I had one already in the oven and the other poured and in wait. Rather than pulling it out I decided to let it ride and hope for the best. I wouldn’t have realized my error except for the fact that I couldn’t explain why the batter mixture didn’t go as far as usual. It was short 24 ounces of sour cream!

To help calm my jitters, I looked over a plethora of other cheesecake recipes and about half didn’t include it. I knew then that it would be OK.

Mindy and the kids arrived home around 3:30pm. By then the second cheesecake was in the oven while the first cooled After running, working in the yard, and baking I stunk to high heaven and really needed a shower. I headed to shower. Mindy’s nephew, Joe showed up around 4pm. He stopped over to pick-up an extra Xmas tree and a slew of older decorations Mindy had stashed in the basement. Before Joe left, the once nice weather took a turn for the worse. It was now gray, windy, and starting to rain.

Jimaken arrived to pick-up the kids around 4:30pm. Soon the house was quiet. Jim left with the kids and Joe headed home with his ornaments. Mindy and I relaxed & enjoyed a beer and wine before settling on our dinner plans. We had just under three hours. We decided to visit Barley’s hoping to see some of our friends and fill a jug for TG.

We arrived just after 5pm. We were surprised how crowded the bar was. But according to Jersey, who was working the bar, it’s always crowded on TG Eve. It seemed like a Friday, and save for Bob & M.A. most of the regulars made an appearance – even Jeremy, Courtney, and Porter Jump. We had an exceptional time. We stayed only until 7:30pm, but were there about as long as we are on a Friday night only earlier hours. I had three beers so Mindy wisely drove home.

Jimaken and the kids were waiting in the drive when we pulled up. We gave Jacob the combination but he said he forgot it by the time he hung up the phone. J But they only had to wait something short of five minutes. The kids were tired and ready for bed rather quickly. Soon they were neatly tucked into bed. I decided to top the cheesecakes all the while enjoying another of my seasonal ales.

Mindy and I did a buttery nipple shot before heading to bed. We watched the Buckeye basketball game from bed. We didn’t last ‘till the end, however. We fell asleep.