Wow

[dancerjodi]

Its amazing how much one can get done if one has the day off of work :)

I got up "late" for me (8 AM) and put away costuming stuff from last weekend. I cleaned the craft room a bit, wrapped some Xmas presents that have been sitting around since our North Conway trip, and once Brian got his lazy ass out of bed I went downstairs to make breakfast for us (omelettes, toast and bacon). You see, since we're frying our turkey tomorrow and I wanted to make the gravy one day ahead of time, so I'm taking Paisley's suggestion of using some bacon grease for it (hence, the need to cook up some bacon). :)

So far completed after breakfast were:
-Stuffed shells (my sister is a vegetarian and I wanted to have something for her besides the regular sides)
-Squash
-Turnip
-Sweet Potatoes
-Green bean casserole
-The injection marinade for our turkey

Later on when Brian's home (I want a break from cooking) we'll unwrap the turkey, get the bag o' gizzards (ew) and start the gravy adventure. We can also clean, peel and cut the potatoes and get them ready for tomorrow for cooking, mashing and such (that's Brian's job - in addition to frying the turkey). We may try and figure out some kind of rub for the outside of the turkey and dress it up before putting it back in the fridge for the night. Most rubs I've found were "Cajun", but I'm not sure that will cut it for my family (mom isn't nuts about a lot of spices). We'll have to experiment with the spices and such that we have.

Tomorrow I'll heat up the above mentioned stuff, and we'll do:
-Turkey
-Mashed Potatoes
-Stuffing (Mom is bringing)
-Cranberry Sauce (you know, the stuff from the can . . . we're working class folks)
-Boiled baby onions (a family tradition)
-Baked dinner rolls w/ butter
-Msc picky stuff (olives and pickles) for before the meal

For drinks we have msc soda, tomato juice (another weird family tradition), milk and if my parents bring any, some kind of wine. After dinner we'll have pies (my sister is bringing) with cool whip and I'll make coffee and we can drag out the egg nog and cider.

Pre-dinner entertainment will be the Macy's parade. Post dinner entertainment can include the America Documentary I just got in the mail (its so weird seeing Frank on the cover of a Disney movie DVD box) - yeah, its Waltham and all but its a *good* movie, dammit! Or alternately, perhaps we could watch the Peanuts Thanksgiving . . . I don't think my nephew has ever seen it.

****

I'm off to do a bit more cleaning, bathing, and then homework. I'm a bit sick of cooking (and I know I will be tomorrow) so Brian and I will go *out* for dinner tonight - Thai :)

Comments

T-day

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"One year my Mom got the whole cranberry stuff and we all hated it. And, yes, we're slicers (once lengthwise, and then many times across, so you get semi-circles)."

We got some as a side from Boston Market once and my sister said "what the hell is that red crap?!". She hated it after trying. I found they sell the jellied stuff *and* "real" cranberry sauce out of a can . . . so we'll have both sliced and mushy :)

"Mmmm, we used to do this, too."

Brian thought my family was nuts for it, but when we saw them in abundance in the supermarket with the other thanksgiving things he believed me that my Mom's family didn't invent it.

"We used to have little pickled onions, too. I could eat jars of bread and butter pickles."

That's the kind of pickles I bought :)

"I really miss the old family Thanksgiving. My Mom and I would tear the bread for the stuffing while watching the parades on TV. I've never tasted anything like her stuffing (she made it with a bit of ground pork and lots of sage). It was also my job to snap the green beans. She'd fish out the giblets and the neck. The neck went into a pot for stock, with half the giblets. The other giblets she would fry in butter, and we'd snack on it while cooking."

Mom's stuffing recipie is a good one . . . she got it from her Mom (who used to host the large Thanksgiving dinner). We always watched the parade there during food prep (hence, why I like to do it now, that and liking musicals and the Rockettes). I never ate the giblets . . . all of them went into our gravy.

"Fred is Jewish (and both he, his Dad, and his future sister-in-law are all vegetarians), so Thanksgiving dinner is understandably a bit different. It's a bit stressful, in an amusing way, because I can't ever remember which side of the kitchen is dairy and which is meat (they keep a kosher kitchen), so I just leave each plate individually so it doesn't touch any other plate. I am petrified of putting butter on my roll because I might forget and put it accidentally on my dinner plate with the meat! The turkey is still wonderful, though (it's one of the few times I will eat meat in front of Fred)."

An old co-worker of mine kept kosher and he hosted a department summer party there so I got to learn a bit more about how to work the kosher thing into a household where only 1 person is kosher (his partner wasn't Jewish). They have 2 complete sets of dishes that are color coded :) The meat ones are red, the others green or yellow or something. They also had 2 different sets of utensils (also coded in some way). It was a riot seeing how a super-anal data analyst goes about doing it :)

Have a great holiday!