Last week, we celebrated Thanksgiving. As an adult, Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday. The sole purpose of the day is to get together with our loved ones, eat together, and be thankful for what we have and those we love. There are no ulterior motives, no gifts required - just a day of being grateful.
8 years ago, we decided to celebrate our first Thanksgiving in our home, hosting the event for both sides of our family. Our home, at that point, was a work in progress to say the least. We bought the house for it's potential, and at that point had just begun making some minor cosmetic changes to the home. The kitchen was horrible, and by horrible, I mean truly disgusting and atrocious - no exaggerating, if anything I cannot find words to describe exactly how bad it really was. Scott decided, in October, to remodel the kitchen, which consisted of taking a sledgehammer to most of the walls, and much to my delight, removing that fake 70's era brick from the backsplash. Needless to say, we were naive at that point, and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. My dad came to help. The counters were installed the day before. I was not able to practice - I had to go into cooking for a house full of people "cold turkey".
That day was an exhausting success, which inspired me to keep going with the holiday year after year. I found a book entitled Thanksgiving 101 by Rick Rogers, and it became my handbook - I studied it starting in the beginning of October each year. I began inviting people early in the day for appetizers, and serving a late dinner. Quite elaborate and nice, but a large expense. My timing was off - the turkey always took longer than it was supposed to, there was never enough oven room for all of the side dishes, and there was chaos with too many people in the kitchen trying to help. Also, I noticed there was always a lot of dinner leftovers because tummies were full of appetizers and most couldn't fit dinner.
I consider this year to be my most successful yet. It was organized and much simpler. First, the decision was made to eat dinner much earlier, which means that 95% of the appetizers didn't happen, thus saving funds, saving time, and saving valuable tummy space for dinner. Second, I scaled back on side dishes, as I have learned that no matter how good the food is, people can only eat so much, and the taste buds can only appreciate so much as they get easily saturated with too many flavors. I thought back on Thanksgivings past, and took note of the things that were the biggest hits, and simply made choices. Borrowing my mom's little, portable convection oven gave me just the extra oven space I needed, and while the turkey rested, I was able to bake my stuffing and sweet potatoes separately for a simultaneous finish. Smashed red potatoes (no peeling required!), and steamed green beans completed the menu - both stovetop items. My dinner was timed to the minute!
Somethings that I learned early and haven't changed:
- The day before is spent doing any prep work that can possibly be done.
- A pot of turkey broth is prepared the night before and simmered all night long for use to baste the turkey, and in many of the side dishes and the gravy. (My favorite tip from Rick Rogers).
- I baste the turkey - it takes a little longer, but I have not had a dry, bland turkey, ever.
- My mother-in-law makes the gravy. I'm not a gravy lover, and therefore do not feel capable of producing a crowd-pleasing gravy.
- My father-in-law carves the turkey - he's a true artist.
- My mom and me work feverishly to keep up with the dishes.
- I buy my bakery. My favorite is Costco - their pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and apple pie are as good as (if not better than) homemade, and they are extra large for lots of servings. In fact, people are shocked to find out that these are Costco buys.
The kitchen is not completed yet - that project was tabled for 2010, hopefully the first quarter of the year. The Christmas decorations are almost completed thanks to Scott's momentum this weekend.
I will not be hosting the family's Christmas festivities; this was a choice I made to preserve my sanity. We will, however, try to host some nice get-togethers over the season, and I look forward to documenting those events.
24 days until Christmas!
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