Thanksgiving 2007

I'd like to be live blogging Thanksgiving today to fill all of you in on the play-by-play action over here. It would be fun chronicling cooking disasters and triumphs, but there's too much to do. Maybe I could hire a ghost writer.

I didn't make it to the grocery store until last night. I figured it would be total bedlam at Market Street. It was crowded but wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I didn't see anyone cute. The kind of people that do their Thanksgiving shopping late Wednesday night are lazy procrastinators anyway. Since opposites attract, not my type.

I did have a guy approach me, though. He said, "Can I ask you a dumb question?" He held up a 9x13" foil cake pan. "You can use this pan for cakes, but can you use it for green bean casserole, too?"

"Oh yeah," I replied. "I would use that." Except I would never make green bean casserole, so boy did I lie to him.

Then I came home and ate some bread and took a nap. No need to start cooking yet. It's not Thursday morning. Mom and Wendy came over to help. We finished filling up the dishwasher, and I started the cycle. A few minutes later, we smelled something strange, and smoke, not steam, was coming out of the dishwasher vent. I'm not really sure what's up. I just know I'm out of a dishwasher the night before Thanksgiving, which is probably the worst day that could happen. Bad karma. Ooh! I am totally low on dish soap. The turkey is finishing its thaw in cold water. Next year: five days ahead for turkey thaw. Duh.

The American Farm Bureau reports that the average cost of this year’s Thanksgiving dinner for 10 is $42.26, a $4.16 price increase from last year’s average of $38.10. Where are they shopping? I'm feeding eight, and my grocery bill was higher than that.

Mom set the table for me and chopped vegetables with me. She's the best. I think the next step is making the Pumpkin Cheesecake. After that, the dressing and gravy. The turkey will need to be in the oven at nine for dinner at two o'clock-ish. To get in the cooking mood, I've been streaming NPR segments like: Cooking Disasters: Tales from the Kitchen and Getting a Time-Saving Jump on Thanksgiving Dinner.

11:00 am update: Well, I kinda slept in. Big surprise. So the cheesecake is cooking in Mom's oven. The turkey is in my oven. It looks pretty. No billowing smoke like last year. Still need to do the dressing and gravy and take a shower and then the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Mom is a dear and sent the cranberry salad. She's also bringing broccoli and rice casserole, rolls, and pecan pie. I can't say I did it alone by any means.

Also, big gigantic snowflakes are falling from the sky right now. Also, Wendy put me on Facebook. I mean, I asked her to do it, but I still think it's dumb. Now I can feel guilty that my Facebook page is as dull as my life. Add me as your friend.





12:45 pm update: I don't have time to be blogging! Mom just called and said there was a mishap when she took the cheesecake out of the water bath. I don't think she was kidding. Looks like I'll be making another cheesecake tonight. I can't let Thanksgiving pass without it. The turkey is out of the oven. The dressing is going in. Still working on potatoes and gravy. Forget the shower. There is a lot of snow on the ground.

6:00 pm update: Dinner is over. The gravy was the last thing to the table. Besides me, that is. Mom said she liked the dressing and the cranberry salad. Daddy said the turkey and gravy were very good, but we need to go to meat-cutting school. Wendy liked the cranberry salad. Scott said it was all good. Grammy ate some Cool Whip and said, "This ice cream is not good." I was glad that my lover wasn't at dinner, so I could wear fat pants and eat as much as I wanted. Helluva day for the dishwasher to break down. Thanks, Mom, for doing the dishes.

Menu:
Roasted turkey and gravy
Buttermilk cornbread dressing
Mashed potatoes
Mashed sweet potatoes
Broccoli and rice casserole
Cranberry salad
White rolls
Relish tray
Pecan pie
Apple pie
(also a Pumpkin cheesecake that didn't quite make it)
How come there's always something on the menu that "didn't quite make it?" Mom wasn't kidding about the cheesecake. The details are still a little fuzzy, but she said that the bottom of the springform pan fell out when she was moving it. I tried the remnants. Not awful. I'm very sad. I am a baker by trade, and I want dessert to be the highlight of dinner. Maybe next year.

This snow has definitely put me in a holiday mood. I'm going to start putting up the Christmas tree tonight. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!