(Photo: basykes)
]]>@hi: More: A woman healthcare worker in France gets GBS 6 days after taking the vaccine:
When it comes to seating, I run a couple of folding tables from the dining room table and around a corner into the living room. Yes, some of the kids like to sit near each other, but they are interspersed with the adults, not sentenced to Siberia.
]]>It really boggles my mind because he loves food. I can't seem to get him to budge this year. It makes me sad.
I understand a little because he does work two jobs and has few full, solid days off. But there are few family functions that I really expect him to go to, and I'm done making excuses for him when my family asks me where he is. I tell them the truth.
]]>@Kimaroo - Fortified with Kittydus Purrularis: isn;t the food and the party enough of a bribe? I could understand if it was a religious holiday, but a holiday based around food? Who could resist?
]]>@Etoiles: I would have blinked from sheer unfettered jealousy of that much bubble wrap.
]]>@Quake 'n' Shake: It's this very reason why I leave the turkey to my mother and make my own side dishes that I know I will enjoy and others can try if they want. My mother makes between 4-6 side dishes that she usually will end up eating for more than a week and the rest of us are tired of after one day (mom was born a southerner so her food is made with a lot of love calorie wise). By the time we eat everything has been sitting and has to be reheated. My birthday also usually falls on Thanksgiving or the day before/after, so in addition to all the sweet goodies that go along with the holiday meal, an unecessary birthday cake is usually bought as well that half ends up being eaten and the rest sits in the fridge so long it ends up getting tossed.
]]>I also get to make the biggest mess in the kitchen and walk away after eating. :-D
]]>@katia802: My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother have been stuffing the turkey with an apple, onions, herbs and spices as well for decades. BEST TURKEY EVER! And agreed, to avoid contamination from the raw turkey, I recommend cooking the stuffing separate. You can use the turkey flavored pan drippings and pieces of turkey to make your stuffing after the turkey is completed and your stuffing will be nice and crispy on top from baking in a pan.
]]>A few years back I picked up an 18 qt roaster oven on BF sale. Not only did it knock an hour off off the cooking time, it frees up the oven to get the other stuff cooked at the same time. Now cooking the dinner takes less than 2.5 hours, where it used to take about 5 hours (even with pre-cooking). Even better that the turkey doesn't have to sit for over an hour before eating.
That roaster oven and our Kitchen Aid stand mixer are the BEST time-savers when it comes to holiday cooking.
]]>@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Hi Eyebrows. This is off-topic. Was it you who said the h1n1 vaccine was different this time around and is safer than what they had in the 70's? I said people will get Guillain-Barre syndrome after taking the vaccine just like they did in the 70's. Do you remember this discussion months ago?
Well what I said back then is now starting to happen. Expect more to come out:
@bohemian: don't sell yourself short. at least go for the frozen pizza :P
]]>@magic8ball: Seriously. I can't remotely cook. I only go under my couch if I've lost something that may have rolled under there. I use Facebook to invite people to things. Martha Stewart actually wants to punch me in the face.
]]>The stupid rolling briefcases are the WORST, though. It's like walking behind someone trailing a tripwire through a crowd. At least a backpack you can stick on your feet while riding and on your back while walking!
]]>@cash_da_pibble: This is why I basically kicked everyone out of the kitchen this year and told my parents that I was going to handle making everything. That said, I'm going relatively low-maintenance on this. Potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce/chutney, stuffing, green bean casserole and of course, the turkey. That's it. I contemplated yams but no one likes yams enough to eat so much. I'll probably only do one pie because no one likes pumpkin as much as I do and I don't want to bring back a whole pie.
]]>I don't get to host fancy things at my house because the downstairs is still unfinished from when we bought it a year ago. It was a foreclosure, so we had to deal with the mold problem by ourselves. We're not even finished putting the walls back up, and we still need a floor and a few doors. I get bummed around the holidays because I think, what's the point of putting up decorations around here?
]]>@Toffeecake: One of my favorite Alton Brown cooking rigs was a ladder and pulleys to lower and raise a turkey into hot oil for frying. That way you could be a safe distance away and not get burned.
Both my mom and my MIL use a huge roaster. They seem to really like it.
]]>Does anyone else fry their turkey? Soooooooo good, especially with a little Tabasco or Cajun butter.
]]>gah! please please add me to the list of people begging for an edit button!
]]>My sweet 6 yr old nephew invited us for Thanksgiving this year. He talked his Mommy into making the whole spread. First time in years, I get to sit in the livingroom playing Mario Bros with him while someone else cooks :+) First time in years I'm looking forward to the holiday.
]]>@CompyPaq: What about internal temperature? I'm using a digital thermometer for the turkey breast...I figure if the turkey breast (the thickest part) is done, everything else must be as well.
]]>@Etoiles: I prefer it to the zoolike big family thing, honestly. It's just nice and quiet. Also, since we go to my uncle's, my dad feels sorry for my dog being home alone on Thanksgiving. We got the dog in lieu of a second child, and it shows.
]]>@Etoiles:
Not to metion three cooks all trying to monopolize the oven.
"Isn't your Green bean Casserole done? my YAMS need to cook!"
"I don't want smoked wild turkey. I want regular oven-cooked turkey!"
"What exactly makes a glazed ham glazey? Shoudl I just put syrup on it?"
I pulled out my hair last year. Seriously.
]]>1) Cornish hen and some roasted veggies in the oven
2) Make sure WoW servers are up
3) Books or other projects in case I don't feel like playing
@pecan 3.14159265: Better to cook stuffing in the oven separate from the turkey. No chance of the stuffing not getting to the correct temp to kill bacteria that way. I always stuff my turkey with peeled and cored apple chunks and/or whole onions, helps keep the bird moist.
]]>@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): One of my friends just breaks out four candles in orange, cream, red, and green colors. Then for Christmas, she just takes away the orange and the cream and she's got dual use for the red and green ones.
Our fall/Thanksgiving stuff is already packed away, and Christmas is already up because we're so busy the next few weeks. I'll need a week just to figure out exactly which things I will want to be making, and how I'm going to transport everything to my parents' house.
]]>@Etoiles: I admit that I get really, really annoyed with people who take up a ton of space, especially the people who have the roller bags that are only big enough for a laptop and some papers. They have to roll that everywhere and hit ankles and shins and run over feet? Arggh! I did my share of annoying though, cause when I moved, I took some empty boxes from work and broke them down. I carried six flat boxes on the metro. It was insanity.
]]>1) Plane tickets out of Dodge. SUCCESS!
]]>I basically like the way my home is decorated and while I change a few things with the seasons (welcome mat, from door wreath or lack thereof, table linens that I have an unholy affection for and own too many of), I'm not really sure why I would need to "decorate" ... my house is already decorated.
I do have special Christmas stuff like nativity scenes and the tree and the stockings, but ... I dunno, I don't really "get" all-out seasonal decor.
]]>@Kimaroo - Fortified with Kittydus Purrularis: I understand not celebrating American Thanksgiving - but who in the world can turn down the beautiful tradition of stuffing your face with turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes? Come on!
]]>@Quake 'n' Shake: You don't do Thanksgiving leftovers? I understand if the side dishes don't taste good, but I love Thanksgiving leftovers if they taste good.
]]>@DirectMailFan: My newfound problem is that I don't have easy access to a car, so I have to find nonprofits nearby that I can just haul a bag of cans to. So far, I haven't found anything that doesn't require switching trains, but I just spotted a donation box at my apartment complex! Whoo!
]]>The extent of my decorating is going to be putting the baby in the onesie with the turkey on it (if it still fits her in 2 weeks). I don't even remember where I put the tablecloths when we moved, and I'm not going to look very hard. My parents basically invited themselves over and told me I was making dinner, so they get half-assed decorating.
]]>@CompyPaq: Do you baste the turkey? I'm thinking about how much time I'll need if I were to use stuffing inside. I'm considering just doing the stuffing in the oven outside the turkey.
]]>Let the extended family squabble over giblets and football, I demand peace and quiet (and pie) on Holidays.
]]>@Oranges w/ Cheese has 2 cats! ahahaha.: I welcome the madness! I love cooking and the more insane the prep work is, the more satisfied I feel with pulling it off.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I have to start planning for that next week. I'm arming myself with my computer, tons of cookbooks from my bookshelf, and the Nov/Dec issue of Cooks Illustrated, which demonstrates (IMO) the easiest turkey recipe to date. A friend of mine swears by the oven bags, but I prefer crispy skin.
]]>Turkey: 5 minutes of prep, 3 hours of cook time. Start it in the afternoon, it will be ready for dinner.
Stuffing: 10 minutes of prep, can cook alongside turkey
Mashed Potatos: 5 minutes of prep, 10 minutes cooking, 5 minutes finishing
Green Beans: 10 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking
This is maybe 30 min of hands on cooking.
]]>@Etoiles: My dad does that on Black Friday- we have mini-Thanksgiving for my parents, dog, and me. Less hectic, more quiet and nice.
]]>@K-Bo: My cousin and I (both 22) spent last year on the kitchen island by ourselves, as the kiddie table is full of my aunt's grandkids. We had to steal food from the main table.
]]>I put the stuff my husband has to do on the whiteboard.
]]>This year maybe doritos and mixed drinks?
]]>But when I host big things like this, I start with serving time and work backwards to figure out when to start each thing (and look at what can be done ahead).
When I'm feeling very nerdy I put them on a spreadsheet so I can see what's going on with each dish and what temperature the oven's at and things like that.
]]>What is Thansgiving? Sorry I couldn't help myself :)
]]>Every year, I want to kill my in-laws for delaying the main course because they want to cook a half-dozen side dishes that they neither need nor will finish. I wind up hauling the leftovers to the trash the following week.
]]>You start from serving time and work backwards based on prep time, cook time and defrost time.
The list mentions cooking time for whatever item and oven temperature. ITs pretty cool!
]]>Reading that list is enough to make me want to just make reservations at the nice place around the corner.
]]>@seth_lerman: Water w/ swedish meatball icecubes?
]]>Well, that's pretty thorough!
But given these times, I suggest that we considerthose less fortunate than ourselves (veterans, homeless, seniors) and donate some time by helping out at a "soup kitchen". At Thanksgiving & Christmnas the last three years, I've spent a few hours 2 or 3 days before helping to prepare, then serve, a very nice meal.
Or, you can always buy a little extra (canned goods, especially) to donate to whoever is conducting a drive to put together food baskets at a food bank.
]]>But what's to drink?
]]>OK, I'm ready.
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