Belated Thanksgiving Favorites: Or How We Still Serve a Cow-sized Amount of Food For Our Family of Five
Yes, my friends.I know.
I know it's Monday after Thanksgiving.
Poo!
I had all sorts of ideas to write about this last week-end...
Really I did!
Then endless Pictionary games, with the kiddos, hours of movie watching, and of course, endless Turkey munching somehow got in the way.
And by saying endless?
I mean endless.
It seems you can take this girl from a family of eight, but you can't take the family of eight mentality out of this girl.
Our last Thanksgiving hosted in California among family had 32 guests.
This time?
Just us five.
We searched high and low for a smaller turkey, but somehow the smallest we could find was 16 lbs.
Sigh. What to do!
It was difficult, but we settled for the larger bird.
We strategized that we could cut back on the excess with the sides.
We had the kids pitch in to help.
PB helped peel and cut the sweet potatoes.
And yes, I mean real sweet potatoes.
You know the golden ones with brown peels.
It's very strange up here in the Pacific Northwest where they label Garnet YAMS as "SWEET POTATOES."
I totally call bull shit on that.
Yams are not sweet potatoes.
Get it right Costco and QFC.
We finally, at Safeway, a California-based grocery chain, found the real deal.
Grrr...
Li'l Man helped roll out dough for CG's Grandma's treasured Pilgrim Pumpkin Pie.
Ah, pumpkin pie! CG's specialty. Well that and cheesecake. He passed on his skillz to the young whippersnappers this week-end.
It's always quite reassuring to see one's children cook.
It makes you triumphant that perhaps your little cubs won't starve if ever something were to happen to you.
At least the young pups won't eat themselves, eh?
So where was I?
Or Eldest for that matter?
Just driving his skinny butt to swimming in the morning.
...
Yes, swimming!
As in we so crazy to be on a competitive swim team that swims on Thanksgiving morning when tummies should be rumbling and gurgling, curled up on the couch watching parades as the smells of not yet done turkey wafting through the house torture young minds.
So back to the food!
After picking up Eldest, we chopped, basted, and lightly bickered as only more than one cook in the kitchen often allows.
Okay, maybe more than lightly because everyone, but CG, knows that I am the superior cook.
Heh!
Heh! Heh!
So we scaled back recipes and still we ended up with 24 servings of caramelized onion and mushroom stuffing, cider sweetened carrots, homemade cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes for twenty, and too many other dishes to bother listing:
OOPS!
It pretty much looked the same even after we had gorged ourselves.
Le sigh!
No worries. No sadness here because my second favorite part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers....
And more leftovers...
And more dreamy leftovers...
'Cause everyone knows that gravy and stuffing are empty of calories after Turkey day, right?
That's my story and I'm sticking to it because these leftovers mean no cooking for at least a week. Heh!!
Happy Belated Thanksgiving, my friends.
Oh, I almost forgot! No holiday is complete without the ass in the family.
You know there's always one.
This year, it was difficult to choose, but I nominate Seb:
And by saying endless?I mean endless.
It seems you can take this girl from a family of eight, but you can't take the family of eight mentality out of this girl.
Our last Thanksgiving hosted in California among family had 32 guests.
This time?
Just us five.
We searched high and low for a smaller turkey, but somehow the smallest we could find was 16 lbs.
Sigh. What to do!
It was difficult, but we settled for the larger bird.
We strategized that we could cut back on the excess with the sides.
We had the kids pitch in to help.PB helped peel and cut the sweet potatoes.
And yes, I mean real sweet potatoes.
You know the golden ones with brown peels.
It's very strange up here in the Pacific Northwest where they label Garnet YAMS as "SWEET POTATOES."
I totally call bull shit on that.
Yams are not sweet potatoes.
Get it right Costco and QFC.
We finally, at Safeway, a California-based grocery chain, found the real deal.
Grrr...
Li'l Man helped roll out dough for CG's Grandma's treasured Pilgrim Pumpkin Pie.
Ah, pumpkin pie! CG's specialty. Well that and cheesecake. He passed on his skillz to the young whippersnappers this week-end.It's always quite reassuring to see one's children cook.
It makes you triumphant that perhaps your little cubs won't starve if ever something were to happen to you.
At least the young pups won't eat themselves, eh?
So where was I?
Or Eldest for that matter?
Just driving his skinny butt to swimming in the morning.
...
Yes, swimming!
As in we so crazy to be on a competitive swim team that swims on Thanksgiving morning when tummies should be rumbling and gurgling, curled up on the couch watching parades as the smells of not yet done turkey wafting through the house torture young minds.
So back to the food!
After picking up Eldest, we chopped, basted, and lightly bickered as only more than one cook in the kitchen often allows.Okay, maybe more than lightly because everyone, but CG, knows that I am the superior cook.
Heh!
Heh! Heh!
{I am sure CG will have more to say in the comments...all of which will be LIES! }
So we scaled back recipes and still we ended up with 24 servings of caramelized onion and mushroom stuffing, cider sweetened carrots, homemade cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes for twenty, and too many other dishes to bother listing:
OOPS!
It pretty much looked the same even after we had gorged ourselves.
Le sigh!
No worries. No sadness here because my second favorite part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers....
And more leftovers...
And more dreamy leftovers...
'Cause everyone knows that gravy and stuffing are empty of calories after Turkey day, right?
That's my story and I'm sticking to it because these leftovers mean no cooking for at least a week. Heh!!
Happy Belated Thanksgiving, my friends.
Oh, I almost forgot! No holiday is complete without the ass in the family.
You know there's always one.
This year, it was difficult to choose, but I nominate Seb:
Always looking for opportunities: Don't worry, there's enough for you my beloved furry friend.
8 Witty Comments For Me:
Looks like you had a great Turkey day in spite of the swimming thing. (If I hadn't read the previous swim team posts, I'd think you made that up - grrrrrr.) Leftover = no cooking for a week? Life is GOOD!
This is the main drawback of always going to my grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner, I haven't had leftovers in years!
PS- Belated Happy Thanksgiving!
I had just checked your site half an hour ago to see if I was missing a new post from you....I never trust my list on my site....and here you are.
When my eldest left several years ago my other son's good friend filled up the slack and ate with us almost every night. When he went off to university I was cooking too much again. Re-enter my eldest who started showing up in the middle of the day to eat the leftovers in between his work calls. I don't think I will ever learn.
Wow! Looks like a lovely Thanksgiving.
Your meal looked fantastic and your family looked very cozy. I travel 7 hours to a huge gathering each year and then the next weekend I cook similarly to what you've done--so that the five of us can have another T-giving meal with it cooked the way we like it. Awesome that your crew cooked too!
Okay, so everything I write here is evidently lies.
Yeah, scoutshonor is a pretty good cook. :p
I had the first non-turkey dinner and lunch today. Almost one week later, and since we're out of stuffing, the turkey consumption rate will go down.
I had a lot of fun cooking with everyone!
Wow....looks very great Thanksgiving,
I love it...!!!!
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