It is 5:59 AM. Halloween is over and the holiday season now picks up its pace.
November will be a busier month than usual: I’ve got a number of meetings, there is business review and a new person has been hired for the vacant territory so I’ll be spending time with her helping to train and get her up to speed. Thanksgiving will be here soon and I’ll need to refresh my memory on how to cook all the food.
Thanksgiving is the one time of year that I primarily do all the cooking. There is some stress because if I were to mess up then the holiday would be completely ruined! :-O But I have my recipes, I watch YouTube instructional videos over and over again and prepare so I can begin the day cooking with confidence. Since I cannot really cook ‘by instinct’ I need to follow the directions perfectly. And since there is no way I was taught how to cook I’m free to read forums and try new ways of doing things. I’m very efficient at reading forums and following internet directions and this has worked out very well for Thanksgiving dinner.
One method that isn’t usual but very effective is to cook the turkey upside down. This ensures the juices drip down through the breast creating the most tender and succulent meat. I also make my stuffing and gravy from scratch. The stuffing is easy but gravy can be a challenge. I’ve succeeded twice and failed once on the gravy but I do have packets as backup because even if I succeed the quantity isn’t enough.
Wine is also heavily consumed on Thanksgiving and on this day wine, like the turkey, comes with instructions:
Step 1: Buy a turkey.
Step 2: Have glass of wine.
Step 3: Stuff turkey.
Step 4: Have glass of wine.
Step 5: Put Turkey in oven.
Step 6: Relax, and have another few glasses of wine.
Step 7: Turk the bastey.
Step 8: Wine of glass another get.
Step 9: Ponder the meat thermometer.
Step 10: Glass yourself another pour of wine.
Step 11: Bake the wine for 4 hours.
Step 12: Take the oven out of the turkey.
Step 13: Floor the turkey up off the pick.
Step 14: Turk the carvey.
Step 15: Get yourself another wattle of bine.
Step 16: Tet sable, pour yourself another glass of turkey.
Step 17: Say grace, throw-up, and pass out.
Interesting that this post suddenly turned into a Thanksgiving one. I guess this is good as it means I’m getting into the holiday mood which I failed to do for Halloween. The jack-o-lantern now sits in the pumpkin graveyard slowly rotting away and in a few months there will be nothing left. This always serves as a reminder of the passage of time and to appreciate and enjoy life. (2015, 2014) Life is fleeting and soon it will all be just a memory or an experience written down in a blog.
With Halloween over my son and I had to find new songs to play in the car. The only one I could think of was Adam Sandler’s Thanksgiving Song and Kai thought it was hilarious. I used to listen to Adam Sandler when I was in high school and it brings back the memories listening to him now. However, I have to quickly sensor one part of that song and most of his stuff we cannot listen to. His best song in my opinion is Lunch Lady Land, especially because of the interpretive dance by Chris Farley, one of my favorite actors. Chris is another marker for the passage of time as it is hard to believe he has been gone since 1997, almost twenty years ago.
As for Thanksgiving weekend I’m pretty excited because we’ll have a longtime friend and her family join us. I’ve known Kazuko since I studied in France and I’ve kept in touch with her all these years. We met up a few times when I lived in Japan and then our families get together when we take our yearly trip back. Now, her husband is on sabbatical in Santa Barbara and they’ll join us for Thanksgiving! This means I really better not mess up the food and better get the gravy right. Perhaps I should only go to step six on the wine consumption instructions but we all know this is highly unlikely. Then again, we’ve got the Dickens Faire the following day and I’d prefer not to have a headache. Good thing they have those Irish coffees as soon as you walk in the door. ;-P
Links:
1. Upside down turkey: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_roast_turkey/
2. Stuffing: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/13693/bread-and-celery-stuffing/
3. Turkey Giblet Stock: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/249553/turkey-giblet-stock
