I"m Whooped!

[so lucky]

Ugh! We waited till today to have our family thanksgiving dinner, and I am beat. It was only my two boys and their families, but we don't get them together very often, so that was great.
I ended cooking just about all the dinner (except for one green bean casserole)
I guess I am not used to cooking big meals anymore. Never did like it much, but sometimes I have to. Ah well, it is over now. I just have to deal with the carcass and the dishes.

 

[Smart Red]

I actually had help for the first Thanksgiving ever. Usually it has been me doing and providing the whole shebang. This year DIL brought spud bake, rolls, and salad. DIL's mom brought GB-casserole and wine. Gypsy helped with a lot of the work, but I, too, was completely wiped out by day's end. It was all I could do to walk to the bedroom for bed at 7:00 p.m. I wasn't sure I could make it down that long hallway.

All the lack of sleep lately just piled on all the work took its toll. Fortunately, I've pretty much recovered by today (Saturday). Also, lucky for me, everyone pitched in and helped with the dishes and cleaning before they left for the day. The carcass is about all I do have to deal with.

 

[digitS']

It's why the Thanksgiving recipes should be easy. Simple pleasures are the best when facing a gathering of hungry and expectant people.

I didn't even make my pumpkin and coffee cookies, not having remembered to buy any cardamom, a spice of apparently critical importance. They probably would have been baked the afternoon previous, with the pies.

Young people tend to place "traditional" demands on the seniors. I would have preferred to stir up cornbread rather than have DW wrestling with yeast dough for rolls. Luckily, she has her own notions of traditional and they are simple recipes. Luckily for me also, DD probably wouldn't recognize prime gravy from pedestrian nor exotic dressing what I've been asked to do every dang year ...

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

My fare is always as simple as I can make it. If you want fancy, go to a high-priced restaurant and pay for it. If you want good, simple food in ample amounts, you're welcome to stop by next year.

 

[Rose Tijerina]

My fare is always as simple as I can make it. If you want fancy, go to a high-priced restaurant and pay for it. If you want good, simple food in ample amounts, you're welcome to stop by next year.

I will bring the brownies and pumpkin bread, just kidding, I am more of a home cooked meal person too

 

[thistlebloom]

How wonderful that you had all your kids and grandkids together around the table So Lucky. That's worth all the cooking and cleaning when you look back on it.

I love love love cooking Thanksgiving dinner and don't even resent the hours of labor being culminated in a 15 minute meal. This fact would not and is not true for the other 364 days of the year. But this year we went to a friends and everybody contributed a dish or two, so my TG cooking chores were brief.

The food was excellent, the company great and I was not weary afterward.
But I have no carcass to show for the day.

 

[dickiebird]

Oh the carcass.
We spend TG at some friends place with all their kids and grand kids.
My contribution is a green bean casserole made with whats left of my home grown beans.
This year I saw that the daughter that ramrods the whole day was carrying the carcass out to the kitchen and asked where she was headed, "to the dumpster" was her answer...
Well I just loaded it up, brought it home and cooked it down to about 3 gals of wonderful turkey stock.
This evening we had turkey noodle soup, last night I cooked up a bunch of white rice in some of the broth and added some white rice. Boy was that good.

THANX RICH

 

[so lucky]

I have the carcass in a big pot in the fridge right now. I'll add water and cook it down today.
In years past, I would have taken a lot of short cuts, but as my awareness of what we are eating grows, cooking becomes more complicated. Real mashed potatoes, not instant. Cornbread for the stuffing made from organic corn. Real gravy made from the turkey drippings. Pic crust from scratch.
One of the DILs helped minimally with the preliminary clean up, but the other one had a 9 month old baby to ride herd on.
But it was good to hear the cousins playing together (shrieks coming from the downstairs bedroom) and to see the gals discussing things they have in common. And my sons have always been very close. Their brains are on the same wave length.
I hope to get them together again soon, with a much simpler meal, so I can enjoy it more.

 

[digitS']

Instant mashed potatoes!?!

I'm lucky that DW goes a little way in humoring me. Of course, I wish she would tolerate a little more freshly ground black pepper .

Not only can I mix some cream cheese into the spuds while beating but they were cooked with celery root . That Maggi sauce and Mrs. Dash in the milk gravy and the mashed potatoes and gravy comes alive!

I think the slice of pumpkin pie I had for breakfast is having an affect on me

!

Steve

 

[Nyboy]

Yep Lucky family can be a lot of work, but worth it.