Thanksgiving 2007

For some reason, I wasn't looking forward to Thanksgiving much this year. Because of The Boy's basketball season, we haven't been able to visit family during the holidays for about 3 or 4 years now. And we don't know anyone without family out here, so we don't invite anyone extra. Just our little family. Last year I felt a little sad.

So I decided I'd make all new recipes this year. Try something new. But every time I saw something good on the TV Food Network, I couldn't find the recipe online. Or, it turned out to be soup. People, I made pumpkin (or squash) soup for my entire family one year, and no one was into it. I guess I was ahead of my time.

Turns out, I LIKE all of our usual recipes. So I asked K if we couldn't cut something out this year, because it seems like SO MANY dishes! Since we're having mashed potatoes, can we cut out stuffing? Turns out, no, the family really likes ALL those dishes. Plus, some of them I only make once a year.

I was not feeling well on Wednesday, but I gathered up the energy to get up and make the Cranberry salsa and the stuffing ahead of time.

The next day was Thursday, Thanksgiving. K came home from work around 3pm, but the Boy had to work until 6:30, so we decided to wait and have dinner with him when he got home. This gave me ALL DAY to make the rest of the food. I liked that. I made the two casseroles during the day - this year I made it seem easy.

The turkey gave me some trouble, as it hadn't defrosted in the 4 days it had been in the refrigerator. It's hard to know this ahead of time, but luckily, it wasn't the first time this has happened to me. I soaked it in cold water until it defrosted. I like to cook turkey in one of those plastic cooking bags. I put 2-3 heads of garlic, separated, underneath it, and pour a cup or 2 of wine on top of it. Then I close up the bag and pop that sucker into the oven!

It smells SO GOOD when that turkey is cooking!

We had:
Cranberry salsa
Stuffing
Turkey
broccoli/cheese casserole
sweet potato casserole
mashed potatoes
gravy
roasted garlic
crescent rolls

YUM!!

When the turkey was done, I took it out (to rest) and popped the casseroles (including stuffing, which I don't actually stuff into the bird because I like it crunchy.) When you're the cook, you get to decide things like that.

The Girl made the mashed potatoes and set the table, which was very helpful. I made the gravy and the rolls right before we ate. This gravy, flavored with the roasted garlic (and wine) drippings, is SO good (IMHO).

We gave thanks for:

The Boy: That he's not living on the streets on Thanksgiving. And for his good looks and charming personality. (yes, he really said that)

Me: All of our health (usually it's indoor plumbing)

The Girl: Her family, soccer, and TV

K - The family, and water (because we're 75% water) -huh?

It was a truly nice meal, and I was thankful to have us all together for dinner, which seldom happens anymore.