I have always loved thanksgiving. Not for the food or the football game, not for the parade or for the traveling, but for the time spent with family. Even though most of us live fairly close, we rarely see each other. Some of my happiest, and funniest, memories are of thanksgiving.
I got to Mom's house early to help with setting up and the meal in general. Preparing the meal with Mom, Wade, (mom's boyfriend) and Etta was very nice, very calming. We laughed and joked while pealing potatoes, making appetizers, and decorating. The smells of thanksgiving in the air. The spiced cider I had going in the slow cooker and the turkey made for a yummy and very appetizing combination.
After everyone got there, everybody had their advice for the perfect turkey. Mom, who has not roasted a turkey since us kids were little, had asked me for my advice. I told her how I season the turkey under the skin, put a very small amount of broth in the pan, keep the lid on and don't bother basting. The birds baste themselves right? Well, everyone was shocked when Mom said she didn't baste the turkey. "oh you gotta baste it. it will be dry. you will burn it" Despite my advice, Mom decides that she has to baste this turkey. She opens the oven, and there is turkey juice all over the oven. she pulled the rack out and turkey juice is all over the floor. She grabs a towel, throws it on top of the stove to take the turkey out, slipping and sliding on turkey juice she attempts to move the turkey. Not a good move. The turkey didn't hit the floor, but it was a near thing. Suddenly, there is a fire on top of the stove! Hot burner, towel, not good. Wade throws the towel in the sink, runs water over it. That's taken care of. Meanwhile there are now towels all over the floor to clean the turkey juice. While cleaning up this little mess, I ask Mom how much broth she put in the roaster. She tells me that she felt a small can of broth was not enough. She went on and put a REALLY big can of broth in. Plus, the same size can, filled twice, with water. Good god! this was a 21 pound turkey. They make a lot of juice on their own! I guess that it is a good thing that everyone convinced her to baste the turkey or an hour later we would have had a bigger mess.
So, once we got the mess cleaned up, we had an amazing meal. My sister made the most incredible cranberry sauce, we had all of the staples of thanksgiving including green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing. We also had incredibly moist cornbread made by Wade's sister and this totally sinful chocolate fudge peanut butter cream pie made by my brother in law. Absolutely incredible!
We played pool, painted Christmas ornaments with the kids, and showed them the joys of the old metal Slinky by making them walk down the stairs. Etta played her violin for everyone. She is getting so much better at it.
It was a great day. A lot of fun and great memories. I'm sure the story of this years turkey will be told, and laughed over for many years to come!
Pictures from top to bottom:
I got to Mom's house early to help with setting up and the meal in general. Preparing the meal with Mom, Wade, (mom's boyfriend) and Etta was very nice, very calming. We laughed and joked while pealing potatoes, making appetizers, and decorating. The smells of thanksgiving in the air. The spiced cider I had going in the slow cooker and the turkey made for a yummy and very appetizing combination.
After everyone got there, everybody had their advice for the perfect turkey. Mom, who has not roasted a turkey since us kids were little, had asked me for my advice. I told her how I season the turkey under the skin, put a very small amount of broth in the pan, keep the lid on and don't bother basting. The birds baste themselves right? Well, everyone was shocked when Mom said she didn't baste the turkey. "oh you gotta baste it. it will be dry. you will burn it" Despite my advice, Mom decides that she has to baste this turkey. She opens the oven, and there is turkey juice all over the oven. she pulled the rack out and turkey juice is all over the floor. She grabs a towel, throws it on top of the stove to take the turkey out, slipping and sliding on turkey juice she attempts to move the turkey. Not a good move. The turkey didn't hit the floor, but it was a near thing. Suddenly, there is a fire on top of the stove! Hot burner, towel, not good. Wade throws the towel in the sink, runs water over it. That's taken care of. Meanwhile there are now towels all over the floor to clean the turkey juice. While cleaning up this little mess, I ask Mom how much broth she put in the roaster. She tells me that she felt a small can of broth was not enough. She went on and put a REALLY big can of broth in. Plus, the same size can, filled twice, with water. Good god! this was a 21 pound turkey. They make a lot of juice on their own! I guess that it is a good thing that everyone convinced her to baste the turkey or an hour later we would have had a bigger mess.
So, once we got the mess cleaned up, we had an amazing meal. My sister made the most incredible cranberry sauce, we had all of the staples of thanksgiving including green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing. We also had incredibly moist cornbread made by Wade's sister and this totally sinful chocolate fudge peanut butter cream pie made by my brother in law. Absolutely incredible!
We played pool, painted Christmas ornaments with the kids, and showed them the joys of the old metal Slinky by making them walk down the stairs. Etta played her violin for everyone. She is getting so much better at it.
It was a great day. A lot of fun and great memories. I'm sure the story of this years turkey will be told, and laughed over for many years to come!
Pictures from top to bottom:
My sister Katie and her daughter Courtney
Katie's son, Broden
Painting ornaments
Etta, Mom and Wade
A decoration I put together for the appetizer area
1 comment:
It sounds like you had a great time! and some good memories made with the whole family!
Everything looked really nice!
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