It has been so long since I blogged. It has been a busy past week or so.The holiday was so nice. My son Mike and my grandson Tyson arrived about nine-thirty Thanksgiving morning. They were only here for overnight so we wanted as much time to spend together as possible.
After everyone got settled and the excited voices quieted somewhat I made hot buttered rums for us all. I made the low fat mix I love (not!) Let's see.......ice cream, brown sugar, butter and powdered sugar. A Fat Fix for sure. But who is counting right? I only had one with one small teaspoon of mix so I guess I was.
I put out a spread on the bar to wet appetites and keep the men content while I prepared in the kitchen. My son said, this like a meal Mom, I guess it was a lot but we never want anyone to go hungry at our house. Food is love you know.
So while they grazed at the bar I worked on our main meal.
This was our menu this year.
Roasted turkey with a rub of warm earthy spices and stuffed with fresh rosemary, lemon slices and unpeeled granny smith apple wedges
Smashed potatoes with garlic, sour cream and butter salt and pepper.
Sausage, apple, walnut cornbread stuffing.
Turkey gravy
Sauteed brussel sprouts with crispy bacon bits, shallots and toasted walnut pieces.
Cranberry orange relish
A relish tray with pickles, green uncured olives and black olives and my homemade pickled peppers and veggies.
Sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon nutmeg sprinkle
Butterfly dinner rolls with creamery butter
Desert. Mom's apple pie with my homemade crust. Rum cake (hubby's fave) both served with Umpqua vanilla bean ice cream.
There are two things that I like and dislike about Thanksgiving dinner if you are doing a turkey. The first thing is good. If you get a lot of prep work and things made up ahead you need only do the last minute things on Thanksgiving day and once the turkey goes into the oven it leaves several hours of bliss. Just puttering and peeling potatoes, doing the veggies and the relish plate. So it gives you plenty of time to enjoy your guests.
The part I dislike is when the turkey is pulled from the oven and is resting, the buns then are popped into the oven to bake or brown and gravy making proceeds and the last minute dishing up into the pretty serving dishes for the table, all this while craving the turkey. A lot of multi- tasking and believe me if anyone is talking to me while I am attending to all the above who knows what will make it to the table? One year I left the relish plate and the cranberry/apple salad in the fridge. We never missed it and I never noticed it until I went to put things away after the meal. So it is best my guests stay out of the kitchen and let me proceed alone. I would ask hubby to crave the turkey but I do a much better job :)
We finally relax once we are seated at the table, then hold hands and say our thank you's. Then of course we dish up way more than we should. Then complain and moan later as our tummies hurt.
I find cleaning up after a turkey dinner a nightmare. Even if there is not one dish in the sink when we sit down to dinner once the items start coming off the table it is chaos. There are pots and pans to be washed, then there are the serving dishes to be washed because I put all items into plastic wear after they come off the table. So the bottom line is the counters are filled with a huge mess.
Everyone pitched in and cleared the table for me and put away what they could. Hubby took all the meat off the carcus and stored the remainder in a big plastic bowl with snap lid. Mike wanted the carcus to go home with him. He was going to boil it down for the scraps of meat that still clung to the bones and make turkey broth with meat bits for his dog. So there was no waste. I sent some things home with Mike and Tyson and we will finish the rest off in a couple of days.
I realized after our guests left the next morning that I did not take one photo on Thanksgiving day. No pictures of my son and grandson or hubby. Also Mr. Turkey we took from the oven all browned and perfect in every way did not have his picture taken either. I suppose I was so caught up in the moment I did not think. Those photos that never happened can never be repeated. That makes me very sad indeed.
Well right now I am feeling tired. I went for a long walk today in the cold air under deep blue skies with little whisps of feathery clouds. I talked to my brother as I walked. It was an exhilerating walk this morning but my energy was down so it took effort. But I am glad that I followed through with my daily exercise.
Now it is time to lounge in my comfy chair and polish off a book that I have very much enjoyed. It is a light and entertainng read. I like a book that is not too weighty sometimes.
Till later.
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