Thanksgiving has come and gone and I was thinking about how this year was actually less eventful then ever before. Ever since my sisters moved down South and we no longer went to our aunt’s house, near our hometown in CT, we were in charge of creating the perfect meal for that special day on our own. Unfortunately things did not always run so smoothly and I can’t help but chuckle when I think about all the Thanksgiving’s where we had issues and just pushed through to enjoy the day.
There was the time my sister found a new and improved way of cooking the turkey, which included a baking bag. You simply stick the turkey in the bag, plop it on the pan, and you can cook the turkey to become the perfect moist, consistency. Or so we thought. Unfortunately this was not the case and the baking bag melted and tore open, allowing the poor little turkey to get burnt to a crisp. We cut off the black skin and doused our turkey with gravy and made the best of the situation. We improvised and had turkey pot pie the following day with the dry, skinless turkey though and it actually tasted great!
Then there was the time my other sisters 20-something boyfriend offered to host us at his place. He cooked and baked up a storm for my sisters and mom and I to have a feast. As we sat down to chow down on the meal, his bulldog was weaving around under the table between the legs of the table and chairs and our legs. It was then we realized the table had a broken leg and nearly lost the entire tables worth of food. Because of our quick reflexes, we straightened the table right up and proceeded on with our meal. Until the dog had eaten some scraps off the floor. He coughed up a storm before throwing up whatever was causing him discomfort. This then caused my sensitive sister to go running across the room throwing up her dinner into the sink (which was filled with dishes mind you). You can’t help but laugh when chaos happens like this!
Last year we hosted the dinner at one of my sister’s places and decided to assign out tasks for the guests to help out and my sisters and mom and I were running around the kitchen trying to get everything organized that morning. My mom was in charge of the pumpkin pie that we were so excited to have, since it was simply made from a mix from a gourmet cooking store. She mixed up the ingredients and put the wet mixture into the flaky pie crust. As she approached the oven, she lost her balance somehow and whoops…there went the pie onto the ground before it even made it into the oven!
We quickly began to realize that limiting the fuss we make and keeping the number of cooks in the kitchen low was the way to go for us to have a drama free day. So this year we ordered a catered meal for 15 guests from a local Italian culinary company. A perfect turkey, with cranberries, oranges, lemons, and parsley was provided with minimal oven time to heat it up. Plus stuffing, potatoes, and plenty of other veggies.
We assigned a few sides, appetizers, and desserts out to some of the guests, who happily helped out and came by with their kids and their dogs. We got lots of wine and snacks and just ate until we couldn’t anymore. Now that we have figured out the best plan for our turkey day, let the countdown to next Thanksgiving begin!
