Turkey-Gate 2014

Turkey-Gate, the great pumpkin pie disappointment...this Thanksgiving was a trip! Sit back with your leftover pecan pie and read on!

Everyone knows that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love it. I love the watching the parade in my pjs. I love the abundance of food and people. I love hanging out with family all day! I love everything about this day.

About six or seven years back, I started a tradition - The Day after Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. We always get to spend Thanksgiving day with John's mom's side of the family. Charlie and Janice go all out, waking up at 4:30am to start preparing food. Even though we all live in the same town, life gets to be so busy, and Thanksgiving is the day I know we'll get to spend a lot of quality time catching up with everyone.

 

And Evan talks about seeing Mamaws daily....I mean DAILY. So anytime he gets to spend time with her is a special day. He loves loves loves that special lady. We all do. And Luke...well, he love bubbles.

 

TurkeyGate 2014
I woke up Friday giddy. Pure giddiness. I had made a schedule starting at 9am. I had pages of notes for my day of cooking. One major big problem. Most people know my memory isn't the greatest, hence the reason for this blog. Last year we got a HoneyBaked Turkey from Kroger. Two years before that we ordered a turkey breast from Fresh Market. I just don't do the whole all day roasting turkey thing. I have heard too many horror stories; not being thawed, meat to tough, not being cooked all the way. All my other dishes I have full confidence about. The main dish?? I was leaving that to the professionals. I was convinced we got the Honey Baked Turkey the day after Thanksgiving last year. John even questioned me about this and I dismissed him with a wave of my hand and said, "Oh no, they have PLENTY left on Friday." John, being the amazing husband he is, treks up to Kroger Friday morning. No turkey. I call around and the Krazy Kroger (one on Byhalia) told me they had some. I asked if they could hold it for me. She said, "Oh, they are handing out samples. If they are passing out samples, they have plenty." Dirty dirty lie. John drove there and they didn't. While he walked around the store, I called Fresh Market. They had some, but they wouldn't be ready for another hour. I was officially freaking out. John had dropped several hints about the fresh turkey he had already in his basket as he walked around. I was still calling places. Long story short, he convinced me that millions of people cook a turkey every year. We could do it.

As he drove home, I frantically searched for tips on how to roast a turkey while crying talking to my mom. Everything I found told me brining my turkey over night was the way to go. Great....I needed to serve 13 people in less than 6 hours and I did not have a brined bird. I decided an hour of brining was better than none. We put the turkey in the brine for one hour while I continued to search for roasted turkey recipes. Once I found Ina Garden's I knew I was done. But hold up...I didn't have a roasting pan. John and I had every dish we owned out on the counter trying to fashion something that resembled a pan and a rack. It was useless. Trying not to freak out for the second time that day, I call my mom again. Of course, my mom saved the day. John jetted over to her house to pick up the pan and rack. I quickly made up Ina's 'paste' substituting what I didn't have in my pantry with what I did have. No thyme?? Just add more rosemary. No sage?? Just drop some more poultry seasoning in the mix with a dash for garlic and wine seasoning. Surely, it'll come out okay, it's just seasoning! By this time the chef had already allowed the wine to start flowing....

Then came the hard part. I had to get this paste UNDER the skin. I found some strength that could have only come from above to block out what I was actually doing and rub this paste under the skin. It really was a higher calling at this point.

The turkey is wearing more make up than I am.

I crossed my fingers, opened the convection oven, and slide that bird in. Wouldn't you know...the damn thing wouldn't fit in the oven. Because it is a convection oven, there is a fan with a heating element in the back. The rack in the roasting pan was hitting that fan and not allowing the oven to close. Freak out number three, if you are keeping score. We shifted racks all over the place to finally fit him in.
Everything else went just as planned with side dishes coming together in perfect harmony. After 2.5 hours, my turkey was roasted to perfection. John did the honors of carving the turkey, with some special little helpers (who also helped me with the side dishes!)

John deemed it "the best turkey he's ever eaten" (he had to say that - he was the one that convinced me to roast it) and all was well. The turkey went perfectly with the green bean bundles, dressing (John's mom's recipe), sweet potato souffle, brussel sprouts gratin, corn casserole (mom's dish) and roll. A spectacular feast!

Bellies were full, hearts were fuller. We had some missing family and friends due to illness and it wasn't the same without them. :( Plus there are waaaaaay too many leftovers.

 

 

The Great Pumpkin Pie Disappointment

I usually make dessert for Thanksgiving at Grandmom's house. When I told Evan this he flipped with joy over pumpkin pie. Sadly, pumpkin pie was not on my menu, which produced great big crocodile tears. Seriously....the child who eat 6 things was crying because I was not making a dessert in which he has never eaten. (I might have mentioned he is a tad bit dramatic.) He swore up and down he loved pumpkin pie, which made Luke then swear he loved pumpkin pie, which then made me the bad guy for not making their favorite dessert. Thankfully, the youngest one changed allegiances when I mentioned I was making special cookies. The big one...not so much.

During one of the many freak outs I mentioned this to my mom, who happened to make an entire pumpkin pie for her and Jed. She, as good grans do, jumped at the chance to make her grandson happy. She brought 2 pieces of pumpkin pie for Evan and Luke.

Once dinner was over, Evan jumped at the chance to eat his pumpkin pie. Family and friends know how picky he is and started questioning when he tried pumpkin pie. He answered that he tried it and liked it a YEAR ago at his Kindergarten Thanksgiving feast. A year ago but never said a word. So we cut him off a piece. He takes a forkful of pie and sticks it straight in his mouth. Let me back up. This is the kid who took twenty solid minutes to eat a bite, not a piece, a bit of cheese. Twenty minutes and many many sobs. When the pie went into his mouth John said "What in the world is happening right now." He started chewing. About 4 chews into it his face screws up and he bolts out of his chair screaming and crying. He grabs and towel and tries to wipe the pumpkin pie out of his mouth. I get him to the trash can where he can at least spit it out. The entire room is crying with laughter. Poor Evan was crying for other reasons. Thankfully, mom wasn't too offended by his reaction. She shouldn't have been. The other pie she brought was devoured by the people who DO know what is good.