Nov. 20, 2006 - Innards and charring....or my Thankgiving menu
In planning our Thanksgiving menu, I realized that we still have cans of pumpkin, yams, and gravy in the cupboard from last year. They're still good, right? The 13.83 lb. turkey is thawing in the fridge. DH loves my turkey, absolutely swoons over it. I'm not sure why, I follow the Butterball directions that come with the turkey. My very first year of making a turkey, I was very careful to remove the hideous, nasty package of innards from the turkey. I was not going to make a rookie mistake. How was I to know there were two packages in there?
This year, since we aren't have any guests, our menu will be:
turkey
gravy from a jar/can
Stove top stuffing
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes with marshmallows AND pecans
biscuits/rolls
cranberry sauce from a can
pumpkin pies with Cool Whip
some other kind of pie, maybe cherry or pecan
You can tell I'm not cooking to impress anyone. It's a pretty carb heavy menu! Why bother to make green veggies? They are mostly for show, everyone really just wants the mashed potatoes. We have a rule on Thanksgiving and Christmas that everyone can eat what they want. No "you must try at least one bite" or "have some of this nice casserole".
Last year, I finally gave up on home made gravy. I can stir that pan of drippings, adding the shaker flour just like my mom does, all afternoon and I will not get anything resembling gravy. I noticed they sell something called "turkey gravy" and it's already made, you just pour and heat. Perfect. Sometimes I add a little of the drippings just for some authentic flavor, but no one cares.
It is with great disgust that Stove Top is on this list. It is wrong to have Stove Top for Thanksgiving, but that is DH's tradition. I have tried to make wonderful, homemade stuffings and the disappointment in his eyes is too much to bear. If we do have guests, I either make a separate dish of good stuffing, or at least apologize in advance for the Stove Top when they accept the invitation.
No matter how much I make, there are never enough mashed potatoes. I don't think I make them any other time of year. I used my two largest pots and filled them with potatoes last year and it was still the first thing we ran out of. I made the sweet potatoes for me, I don't think anyone else touches them. There's nothing like left over sweet potato casserole for breakfast on Friday morning. There's a major rift in my extended family over marshmallows vs. pecans. In a spirit of unity, I use both.
I really love cranberry sauce made from scratch. This is another thing that's not worth making just for us, so I buy a can. I'm really the only one who likes it. It's fun to make, waiting for the cranberries to start popping out of their skins. I may decide to make it after all. So what if it's just for me and I can't possibly eat a whole batch. It's easy to make the day before and if DH can have his Stove Top....
I usually burn the rolls. As my step-dad says, it just wouldn't be a holiday if we didn't have to scrape the charring off of something.
I'll get started on the pies on Wednesday. The hardest part is keeping DH away from them. We've had several "pie incidents" over the years, including the year I had gestational diabetes and made a special diabetic pumpkin pie just for me and he ate it all. He was totally unprepared for the hormonal meltdown. "You can eat anything! And you ate my pie! Waaahhhhhh!"
Whenver we have Thankgiving and my great-aunt/step-grandmother Shirley is there, we can't have Cool Whip. Shirley won't hear of it. We have to have actual whipped cream. In a chilled bowl. Not me, bring on the Cool Whip.
Alex doesn't care for pumpkin pie, so I'll buy/make another kind. I tried making pecan pies for two years and it's been unreliable. One time we had sweet pecan soup in a crust. Pecans are so expensive, I'm thinking I'd be better off to buy the pecan pie.
This year is nice because not only will DH be home, he doesn't have to serve dinner at work this year. It's a tradition for the leaders to serve the troops on Thanksgiving and he wears his dress uniform and ladles potatoes to his candidates. He usually has a 2-4 hour shift and we try and organize dinner around it, eating either quite early or rather late. This year, they've wised up and planned the big meal for Wednesday evening. Most of the candidates will be going away for the holiday, so it makes more sense. Grace is planning to dress up in her finest dress and accompany him this year.
For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving, what's on your menu? For everyone else, have a nice Thursday!
Comments
Nov. 20, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by drewsfamilytx
What?! There are TWO packages??? I don't think I've ever noticed... Guess I need to take a closer look this year.
And my turkey comes out great each year as well. I follow the BB recipe and just slather real butter all over the skin....Mmmmmm... Regarding gravy, I really like the Pioneer turkey gravy mix that comes in a packet. It stays hot longer than the can/jar stuff and each packet makes TWO cups (instead of McCormick's 1 cup). I also add some drippings to make it more "authentic."
I think this year I will actually make some fresh green beans and serve it along side the traditional green bean casserole. These are yummy beans though...cooked in a little bacon grease, then add worcesteshire sauce, white sugar, garlic and a bit of hot sauce; then top with crumbled bacon. YUMMY!
And I can only imagine the horror of finding out that he at YOUR pie! I'm waaaahing along with you just thinking about it. :-)
Wishing you a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING, my friend!
Love,
Marsha-- who also prefers *gasp!* Cool Whip over "real" whipped cream
Nov. 20, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by nsremom
I had to laugh at the pie incident. That is to hilarious that your husband could eat anything in the kitchen....but he ate your pie. That is both sad and hilarious all at once. :)
Sounds like an ordinary dinner to me. Good job. Being to fluffy can get ya into trouble, huh.....I've had the same issue with my pecan pies. And I'm not allowed to make gourmet stuffing either....but this year. I'm going to see what happens and do both.
Have a great one.
