Baldur

I hope that I didn't skip any in my haste to handle the Thanksgiving topic

Baldur

Another important matter to think about when hosting a dinner of this magnitude is the floral arrangement.
Chez Baldur is renowned for it's flowers.
An important rule of thumb to remember is that the centerpiece must never be taller than your shortest guest.
It has been conventional wisdom for generations that the arrangement must always be very low so that your guests may be able to see each other while conversing.
But do you really want to watch someone sitting across from you with giblet gravy dribbling on his goatee or with creamed spinach stuck in her dentures?
Baldur also prefers to use plants with thorny stems to prevent guests from reaching across the table.

Baldur

Always remember to keep the arrangement in tune with the season.
For this dinner a 5'6" Pyrancantha shrub with gorgeous brilliant orange berries and vicious thorns will scream out 'AUTUMN!' to your guests.
Surround the base with reindeer moss, some taxidermatized quail and a few gilded acorns. Antlers might also work as an addition.

sheftali52

Baldur's Thanksgiving extravaganza will be superb, I suspect, due to the host's meticulous planning and gracious hospitality. I'm sure many share Sheftali's pleasure in hearing about the details leading up to this festive occasion. I'll be pleased if Baldur finds the perfect table linens after making do with something nice but not to his liking. Tasteful linens, sterling silver, Spode china, great menu, carefully concocted floral arrangements. In my humble opinion, Baldur would outshine Martha Stewart and others.

Sheftali's Thanksgiving? Buy Honeybaked Ham, go to neighbor's house with husband (invited there for the day), eat too much, come home with leftovers, and eat too much again the next day. Sigh, life is good! Will have to take the dogs on longer walks to mitigate the effect of too much good, rich food.

Robindcr8l

Baldur, it sounds as if you will have enough dessert for each guest to simply indulge in his/her very own pie! Also, that centerpiece craft idea really cracked me up! Since we can't really post photos on Channel Baldur, I believe you should enlighten us by ThinkDrawing a pic of said centerpiece!

Sheftali, Your Thanksgiving sounds grand, except the ham part. (Robin is really not a fan of pig in any form. Possibly the only bacon-hater ever born, in fact!)

My Thanksgiving will be spent napping, then caring for the unfortunate souls stuck on the rehab unit in the hospital. The good news is that the kitchen will likely serve us Thanksgiving dinner that night! Much better than the usual fried mystery meat they serve on night shift!

marius

Good morning to all and ... hahaha ... Baldur, your poem for locker decorations cracked me up! Very nice, and do-able ideas too! Am thinking you had fun writing that! Thanks for a smile to start the day! : )

Your plans for Thanksgiving sound wonderful! Am especially enamored by the center piece, but mystified why Baldur wishes to prevent guests from reaching across the table! Have 'reaching guests' caused problems in the past? This is most mysterious and something marius has never considered. (Tee hee, in Missouri we just say, "Please pass the rolls." That avoids reaching you know!) : )

Speaking of which, am glad Baldur is including bread with the feast. Marius is particularly fond of bread, has some at most every meal. This fondness is strong enough that sometimes Oriental restaurants are knocked off the list of places to dine out because of desire for bread.

And speaking of that, kitchen tips offered by Baldur and Dragon are great! marius has used both, although only in the past few years. One day they just popped into the old bean and I wondered why I'd not thought of them before. Is this how it happened with Baldur and Dragon?

btw, thanks for the stuffing recipe, Baldur. Also the beef sounds most yummy.

Shefatli's Thanksgiving also sounds quite nice. We've had ham and no turkey, and one time beef. As for dining with non-relatives on that day - it'd be my vote most every time! It's a different kind of light-heartedness with those who aren't so aware of each other's foibles. (ten points.)

marius

Oh Robin ... love your idea that Baldur ThinkDraw his centerpiece! Am glad you'll get a nap on Thanksgiving ... that's a very important part of the day!

Robindcr8l

Had to share this one. This gave me my laugh of the day. Seems a hospital's sign had a few lightbulbs burn out...click on the link to see the results! http://www.asylum.com/2009/11/20/neon-elmhurst-hospital-sign-burns-out-appropriately?icid=main |htmlws-main-n|dl5|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asylum.com%2F2009%2F11%2F20%2Fneon-elmhurst-hospi tal-sign-burns-out-appropriately

polenta

I'm hurt

Dragon

Hehe, Robin that reminds me of a building that used be in Calgary. It was the 'Mr. Soft Drink" building and had a large neon sign on the front. One day someone with very good aim knocked out the R in Drink (either that or it suffered a very coincidental failure. As you can imagine it made for a pretty funny situation.

Dragon

Dragon was bored last night so here's a little something for anyone else who's bored.

PVEEVRD UR EZT PUCL GLEJZVRD XURTP BALDUR VP PQBBTROS VRPFVATB EU GAVET L JASFEUDALW.
PU VR EZT PFVAVE UC EZT PZUG GZTR SOQ PUOST EZVP FQYYOT BALG L FVJEQRT UC PUWTEZVRD CAUW L JAVWT PJTRT. ZLIT CQR!

marius

Was going to put this in Solo's "Dry Socket's" thread ... however something about it makes me think it belongs on Channel Baldur! : )

http://www.dancingpaul.com/

marius

Robin - LOL the hospital sign! Same to Dragon on drink sign! Thanks!

marius is giddy due to depletion of "social molecules" which happened cause of long day with chatty and beloved friend! A nap will restore things, and by then Dancing Paul may not be so funny ... but right now, everything is funny! (snrot, giglge, chukcle)

Dragon ... when molecules for functioning return, will take a crack at your cryptogram!

marius

A nap will restore if I'd take one. Have you ever wondered what you can do with your dryer lint besides tossing it out? : )

http://www.users.vance.net/tprewitt/lint.htm

matthew

lol @ mint flavoring... & who doesn't love Paul...

Dragon

Dragon is currently making Baldurs Braised Beef in Beer recipe. Instead of beer I used a lovely Shiraz and I am making it as a full stew. I don't know how Baldur can cook this and have this wonderful odor permeating his kitchen and still remain a vegetarian. I think this may be what heaven smells like, a mixture of beef, garlic and red wine. I can't wait to see the reaction when my fella walks in and smells this and I haven't ever finished cooking it yet.

Dragon

A correction in the cryptogram - FVJEQRT should be FVJEQAT

Dragon

Here's the full crypto with the correction

PVEEVRD UR EZT PUCL GLEJZVRD XURTP BALDUR VP PQBBTROS VRPFVATB EU GAVET L JASFEUDALW.
PU VR EZT PFVAVE UC EZT PZUG GZTR SOQ PUOST EZVP FQYYOT BALG L FVJEQAT UC PUWTEZVRD CAUW L JAVWT PJTRT. ZLIT CQR!

Let me know if I've made any other errors. Thanks Baldur.

Baldur

Oh happy day, Baldur went shopping!
What fun it is to have a wee bit of money to work with.

Firstly I went to the bookstore and purchased a couple magazines.
'Style 1900' is one of my favorites and the new issue was finally available, that will be read on the next rainy afternoon here at Chez Baldur
The other magazine is 'Ideal Home's 2009 Complete Guide to Christmas'
What a surprise as we don't usually get that here in the states before December. 'Ideal Home' seems to be a British cross of 'Better Homes & Gardens' and 'Martha Stewart Living'. Their Christmas issue is always fantastic.
They cover things such as Christmas cakes and puddings, visits from Father Christmas and home decor. It's marvelous seeing everything priced in Pounds. For an Anglophile like Baldur this magazine is pure heaven.
Oddly I've flipped through their regular monthly issues without any real need to purchase them.
I've bought the Christmas guide for at least the past 5 years though, and refer to them regularly.

Baldur

Then I headed to the mall to look at table linens.
It was a successful venture.
Macy's had historically been a good place to purchase them, but this year it was greatly disappointing.
There was not a tremendous selection, and it was all overpriced for what it was.
Baldur likes his table linens to be cotton and/or linen, not polyesther.
The pieces at Macy's that I liked the appearance of were mostly 55% cotton/ 45% polyesther. There were some extravagantly priced ones at 75% cotton/ 25% polyesther but that did not appeal whatsoever.
The color range was also oddly limited.
Baldur was hoping for something rust or deep brown, most of the choices were white, ecru or a particularly boring sage green.

So I went to JC Penney and hit the jackpot
Their 'Linden Street' line of table linens were hemstitched 100% cotton.
Even at full price they were much less than what the synthetic blends at Macy's cost. As it happened they were also all on sale at 50% off.
AND the color that they had labeled as 'Red' was a gorgeous deep rust color, exactly what Baldur needed.