After a breakfast of bagels, cereal, and coffee we sent the kids and their dad to the park so Spouse & I could get started cooking. We pulled the turkey out of the fridge and allowed it to come up to room temperature before transferring it to the roaster oven to warm up. Then we began with the side dishes.
The dressing was the 1st, and my favorite Thanksgiving food. Spouse recalls this differently, but I distinctly remember giving him my special dressing recipe while shopping for our very 1st Thanksgiving together. The dressing includes bread cubes, celery, onion, butter, chicken broth, granny smith apples, golden raisins, pecans, sage, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. Spouse believes HE thought up this delectable combination but I know better.
At 11:30 Spouse's brother Louis arrived with his wife Karen and Spouse's mom Evelyn. After getting them settled in Spouse & I returned to the kitchen. Once all the dishes were prepared (but not baked) I set the tables and collected the appropriate number of chairs. Then we sat for a while in the living room and visited with the family. The boys and Louis played Wii upstairs.
At about 2:00 we put all the side dishes into the oven to bake, and at 2:45 we added the cooked dishes that needed to be warmed up. Then everything was removed from the oven and placed on warming trays on the kitchen peninsula while the turkey was carved and the biscuits baked. At 3:15 we had a blessing and served up our plates! We had turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, corn, peas, Paula Deen's corn casserole, homemade gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, butternut squash casserole, biscuits, orange pineapple jello, pumpkin pies, brownies, and a pineapple upside down cake. Everything was delicious!
After dinner most of us adults sat and talked in the living room, while the 2 boys, their dad and Louis watched football in the TV room. We'd planned to have a fire in the fireplace after dinner, but it was so warm we decided against it. I actually had shorts on since it was 80 degrees on Thanksgiving day! Then Karen helped me package and put away all the left-overs, I loaded and ran the dishwasher, washed the pots and pans and fragile pieces while Karen dried, and put the clean things away. This was the 1st year I'd had help doing this and it was terrific! Just before going to bed I emptied the dishwaher, loaded it again and ran it while we slept.
At 6:00 we said goodbye to Frank & Liz. I removed the sheets from Liz's bed and tossed them in the washing machine, since that bed would be re-used that night by Evelyn and Frank's bed would be re-used by Louis & Karen. At 10:30 some folks went to bed while the rest of watched TV until midnight.
It was a very nice day and I had no trouble falling asleep that night.
Drag Queen name of the day: Donna Newfrock
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