Wednesday, November 26, 2008

We are fat turkeys . . .

. . . fat turkeys, fat turkeys.
We are fat turkeys.
Fat turkeys are we.

We're not here for living,
We're here for Thanksgiving!
We are fat turkeys.
Fat turkeys are we.

I have been soaking up Thanksgiving week. Sleeping in. Doing the odd chore around the house.Crocheting while watching favorite movies. And cooking! Lots and lots of cooking. I'm NOT talking chef here. No, no. It's me! I don't bake pies, specialty cookies or gourmet anything. I just cook to feed the starving minions.


When the kids are at school, I only cook dinner. They fend for themselves for breakfast, and most of them then also eat breakfast at school, lunch at school and then come home and raid the refrigerator for sustenance to hold them until dinner. But when they are home, I cook. And it's not like the old days especially when they were younger and everyone was home all the time. They are all out and about at friend's houses, or biking or running or doing some church activity. That means that there is a lot more grazing than there used to be. So I make sandwiches, guard chips and other snack food (so they are not consumed in the first two hours of being brought home from the grocery store), cook single servings of Top Ramen (a crowd favorite), and make several bowls of popcorn at a time.

There's also a lot more cooking for group activities. Two Sundays ago, I cooked breakfast for our adult Sunday School class. Last Sunday, I cooked dinner for Keri Lynn and Kristofer's choir group. And now there's Thanksgiving looming. However, Thanksgiving is the one day of the year that I really do enjoy the preparation involved.  Maybe it's because the food is different. After all, I don't make yams or green bean casserole or turkey or even bother to peel potatoes, for that matter, except for Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas. But even Christmas dinner is a scaled-back version of Thanksgiving!

And I've become a lot more set in my ways. I like Thanksgiving done a certain way. I always bag my turkey when I cook it. (We never do ham -- Keith's preference). I always peel my potatoes and make fresh mashed potatoes -- with a masher, NEVER a blender (Keith's influence), and with real butter, not margarine. I cook green bean casserole with plenty of those French's Dried Onions. I cook yams with brown sugar and marshmallows. I make gravy from the turkey drippings and no longer worry about back-up gravy mix in case I mess up the gravy. I have jellied (never chunky -- ewww!) cranberry sauce, sweet pickles, green olives, and black olives. I make what I think of as my sister Beth's Jello Salad. A mix of a favorite jello, cottage cheese, pineapple chunks and Cool Whip. And pies. Pumpkin pie is a must for Keith. Then I pick a pie that I like. This year -- Key Lime. Yum. I never make my own pies. Like I said, I'm not a 
chef. And then there are the rolls. My Mom makes the best yeast rolls ever. We miss those rolls every Thanksgiving that we're away from California. The first two year, I attempted to make them myself, but they simply did not compare. So I found a yeast roll that you buy and throw frozen in the oven. They are very good. They're not Mom's, but they'll do, and they save me the hassle of worrying over the rolls for the two days it takes to prepare them!

We are so very blessed to have so much bounty. Even in economic troubles, here we will sit tomorrow and eat to bursting. We'll laugh about how full we are. We'll think of God and all of His many blessings.

3 comments:

Qtpies7 said...

I have no idea what we are doing about Thanksgiving yet, lol. Donnie did go get the turkey, so hopefully it will even thaw.
Green bean casserole is a must, but I don't think we even thought of rolls or gravy yet. I am probably going to do a rotisserie for the turkey, so gravy will have to be store bought. (then I know it will turn out!) Lefse is a usual staple for us, but I am not making it, so hopefully Donnie bought some.
I am working today, making it all Donnie's responsibility to do the shopping and planning!

Jackie said...

What in the world is lefse?

Donnie sounds like he is very capable of doing a fine job with Thanksgiving dinner!

Anonymous said...

WE do not do green beans, but rather creamed petite peas and Bridgeford makes a very good dough that you defrost, let rise and from with butter and bake in muffin tins. Yummy with my pomegranate jelly.

This year I rubbed Kosher salt into the bird for several days (I saw this in the paper) and then let it sit uncovered the last night. I roasted it breast side down for the first 1/2 hour and then lowed the temp. It was soooo good. Skin for the people who like crispy!