Thanksgiving and needle tracks

The title of this post is slightly misleading.  It should read Thanksgiving and a quick word about injections, but that's so wordy and boring.  Sorry for misleading you :)

I don't think I've mentioned that I had Thanksgiving here at our house.  We had six guests, including my good friend A and my Mom.  I put my Christmas decorations up a few days before.  Its earlier than I normal do, but I love Christmas trees and their twinkling lights!  (Forgive the backlighting, it was very bright outside.)

Our dining room table only seats four, so we had to set up the card table.  It worked out well enough with three at the dining room table, and three at the card table, despite the height difference.

The dinner menu included:  turkey (of course,) cheesy potatoes (a family favorite,) green beans and almonds, brown sugar and honey glazed carrots, orange walnut sweet potato casserole, homemade cranberry sauce, cornbread stuffing, and herb garlic pull-apart bread. 

The spread

It was my first attempt making this particular dish, orange walnut sweet potato casserole.  It was very tasty and different than the usual sweet potatoes and marshmallows.  Here's what you need:
8 sweet potatoes
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
honey

I used a bag of pre-peeled, pre-sliced sweet potatoes.  I boiled these for about twenty-five minutes until they became soft.  Then I drained them and placed them in a 1 1/2 quart baking dish.  Then I combined the brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, orange juice, butter, and orange peel in a sauce pan until well blended and boiling.  Mixture should get a little thick.  Pour mixture over potatoes.  Sprinkle walnuts on top and drizzle honey over the whole thing.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, keep an eye on the walnuts so they don't burn!

The other new menu item was herb pull-apart bread.  I don't have a picture of this but it was soooooo good!  Melt 1 stick of butter in sauce pan, stir in two cloves of garlic, chopped,1 tea of dried basil, and 1/2 tea of dried thyme. Take a bag of frozen white dinner rolls and dump half of them into the bottom of a bundt pan.  Brush half of the butter mixture over the top.  Dump the rest of the rolls into the pan and brush the remaining mixture on top.  Cover with dish towel and set in a warm place for 4 hours to rise.  The recipe said it should double in size, that didn't happen for me but it still came out great.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  This was a hit!

For dessert I filled fillo shells with pumpkin mousse, chocolate mousse, and cranberry cherry lemon tarts.  They were light and gave everyone a choice, seeing we have some picky eaters in the group.  And of course, I doctored up a bottle of apple cider.  Cinnamon sticks, allspice, cloves, dried cranberries and apricots, YUM!

I love cider!

I'm trying to figure out what to do for Christmas dinner now.  I'm leaning towards ham but it all depends on what ideas I come across in the next few weeks.


On a side note, I mentioned bruising in my last post.  Check out my colorful abdomen!

I think I might have found a better way to inject the Menopur.  The syringe I'm using is quite vacuum-y and its difficult to depress the plunger, I wind up letting go of the skin I've pinched to inject.  Don't do that.  Ever.  I have managed to find a way to depress without letting go of the skin and the bruising is much more slight.

The difference is clear; the large bruise on the bottom, to the hardly visible one just above the right side of it (in the red circle.)  But my tummy is starting to look like a connect the dots puzzle.

As far as the injection experience.  It's really not so bad.  It's surprisingly difficult to actually stab yourself with the needle.  I had quite a few false starts for the first week, I lacked the conviction to actually stab myself, it's kind of a self-preservation instinct.  You want to insert the needle fairly quickly, in a darting motion, or it will hurt.  If you do it quickly you won't even feel the needle going in.  Pulling the needle out causes me a slight sting, but that only lasts for a second.  Not so bad.  Not so bad at all.  I'm not looking forward to the up-coming butt shots, but hopefully they won't be so bad either.

My follow up is tomorrow morning.  I have the crampy, pressure feeling I had during my Clomid rounds, so I think my ovaries will be in better shape tomorrow, but we shall see...