Turkey Eve

WINING & WINNING:  Today was chock full o' pre-Thanksgiving to do list items. We had several things to make, and one of them required a half cup of white wine. Seahawks fan that I am, I decided it needed to be the bottle in Annabelle's hand above.

Poor decision. I should have picked one with a screw top. For, you see, as I was pulling the cork out of the "12th Blend," our one and only wine opener broke. The corkscrew part snapped clean off. Meanwhile, the recipe I needed it for was ready to go in the oven - except for that darn wine. 

Hearing my dilemma, Annabelle sprang into action. In other words, she hit the Google, looking for ways to open a wine bottle without a legit opener. There are So Many Suggestions out there, ranging from ridiculous (a shoestring) to downright dangerous (a sword). 

We tried a number of things, starting with the push-the-cork-down-into-the-bottle-with-a-toothbrush suggestion.

Either our muscles or our toothbrush or both weren't strong enough. It didn't work for us.

Next up, we tried placing the bottom of the bottle in a shoe and smacking it on the wall. I think I've seen Alton Brown to this, and if it works for him, it should work for us, right? Well no, not so much. On to the next attempt.

We tried a corn cob holder. Didn't work. We tried using a bicycle pump. We finally got the needle down into the cork and pumped and pumped, but the cork didn't budge and I was afraid the bottle was going to explode, so we quit that.

Undeterred, Annabelle kept reading ideas. I vetoed all the ones involving a knife, but when she mentioned using a knife sharpener, my ears perked up. I knew I had one in the drawer, and certainly that steel rod was tougher than a toothbrush. 

It took just seconds to achieve sweet, sweet victory!

CJ helped out in the kitchen today, too. Here is is (complete with onion goggles!) helping with some mincing.

BUSY DINOS: Thankfully, the dinosaurs managed to round up a turkey last night, so now we won't have to go without on Thanksgiving.

The night before, they enjoyed a bedtime story about dinosaurs, of course.

And this weekend, they tried to help Christian build a computer.