I think ours is going to be chili size…ie, a can of chili over spaghetti, topped with jalapenos, cheddar, and a dollop of sour cream. This is Jane’s favorite, and I think I am just about able to deliver that. The traditional dinner just isn’t going to work, this year. But with the pond frozen, and the temperature dropping, I think most of our ‘tradition’ is going to be the chili, watching people use mediaeval weaponry to throw pumpkins, and starting to put up the Christmas tree and such.
Jane had ordered a backup Wiishu—ie, a blank doll body/basic painted faceplate that could sub for parts for Wiishu in the event of an accident—because I really, really do not want to cope with Jane’s upset should something happen to that little fellow who is so dear to her heart. Well, the blank doll came, and to our vast surprise and dismay, they’ve very subtly changed the facial ‘sculpt’ and the painting has changed. The body is ok, and good to have that—but the face is—shock—different. Jane is coping. But it is not what she actually hoped to get. Waa!
She is, however, a very good painter, and sculptor, and because she is learning the art of these faces, I think she can change this little surprise into something more Wiishu-like—if need be.
Meanwhile, we’s curious. What’s everybody doing for Thanksgiving? Cooking? Eating out? Traveling? Having company?
mrgawe—heaven help you. Make sure it’s thawed, above all.
I have a funny story. My roomie Holmes and I, back in postgrad days, got a late monster bargain at the supermarket the night before Thanksgiving, and envisioned a lot of openface sandwiches and buckets of gravy, being poor students. We ran hot water on that turkey, which was frozen harder than granite. We used a hairdryer on it. We did get in to get the giblet packet out, and ran the interior full of hot water. We didn’t dare stuff it because it was still cold and we feared stuffing would only complicate things: we put stuffing to cook in a pan. On Thankgiving, at 5 am, we heated the oven and began cooking. By 7 pm, we had the meat separating on the drumsticks. We declared it should be dinner, and carved: but we ran into ice. So we cut off the done part, and had that for supper, but we kept cooking it til midnight. We finally had it so we could take it apart, so there was no longer ice, but we found there was still pink, in deep. So we carved it up and stored the slices, except the pink stuff, discarded the carcass, because by now our plans for turkey soup were just too objectionable. And by Easter we finally threw out the tag end of the Turkey Scraps, because we could not face another turkey sandwich. Lol! It was one of those learning curve things, and we went well off the rails!
About the only thing you might have been able to do to that beast would be to brine it — in boiling water!
Omg. o_O
We’re hoping that if we start defrosting it on Monday, it’ll be thawed by Saturday.
We attempted a brine one year…pretty sure there was at least one critical piece of info missing because it had started to rot by the time we were supposed to cook it. Had ham that year…
Had Thanksgiving dinner last night, as my son’s working at the hospital through the holiday weekend. 12 days in a row. We had rolled pork loin with cornbread stuffing, wild rice, peas/onions, corn, cranberry relish, dinner rolls, apple/walnut pie, ice cream. I’m now trying to decide whether I want to do another dinner on the day and invite a friend from exercise class and my upstairs neighbor, neither of whom have plans.
Good story about the frozen turkey. My daughter, just out of college, called me one Thanksgiving morning to ask when to start defrosting the bird. I gasped, told her to put in the sink and run warmish water over it steadily, and as far as I know she did manage a successful meal. But it was a very small turkey.
Here’s Butterball’s guide to defrosting turkeys: http://www.butterball.com/how-tos/thaw-a-turkey#section_564
By what they’re saying, your best bet for a big turkey is the cold water method, starting now, and involving, ultimately, a meat thermometer. You can store the thawed turkey in the fridge for a few days: better thawed early and sitting for a few days.
Read this this morning and went “Eep!” Turkey is thawing in fridge. Thanks for the kind advice!!
Lol! When you said it was a heavy turkey, I thought —oh, dear. And looked up that table: a 40 pound bird takes 10 days by the refrigerator method, about 20 hours by the cold water one! And that could bring Thursday real close!
Thanksgiving means Family at my moms. Twenty some people from 79 years to 5 months. Mom will have a full Thanksgiving dinner ready by 11:00 AM. Turkey, Ham, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes,Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, and Macaroni and Cheese. For desert there will be Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie. Mom likes to cook, and we like to eat and talk, laugh, play games and be together. I like to think of it as a big dinner on an Alliance Family ship.