Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope those of you here in the States have had a pleasant day, and that you were blessed to find yourself surrounded by loved ones.  Here at the Patrick household, the dishes have been cleared, and the leftovers stored in the fridge.  Most of the menfolk are at the movies watching the new James Bond movie, while the women paid a visit to a dear friend who is in the hospital.

As I'm gearing up for my Black Friday shopping (no Thanksgiving shopping for me, thank you very much!), I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone well, and to say that there was only one more mishap added to my Thanksgiving adventures.  I got up early this morning to start the turkey.  I pulled the neck and a bag of giblets out of the bird's chest cavity, stuffed it with celery and onion, and into the oven it went (with a little help from my man; no need to break another toe by dropping a big ol' bird on it).  It only took 45 minutes or so longer than I really thought it would take to cook (which was factored into prep time, so no biggie, we still only waited about 15 minutes for it to come out of the oven beyond the promised time for lunch).  BUT, I did leave the bag with the gizzard inside the turkey.  I didn't realize there would be two bags.  Oops.  But it didn't mess up the bird.  I'm happy to say that the turkey was quite moist, the broccoli casserole was creamy and tasty, the gingered potatoes had a pleasant warm undertone, and the red velvet cake was baked to perfection.  Yes, I am patting myself on the bag.  By the grace of God, my man and I were able to present a perfectly edible (okay, more than edible) meal on our first hosting occasion.

Okay, that's all for today.  Stay safe, everyone.  I'll be back with stitching updates before too long!

Preparing the Feast, part 2

Noon: I start mixing the cake.  Not much can go wrong here.  It's been a while since I baked anything from scratch, but I think I'm pretty good at it.
12:10 Spike yaks in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Gross.  I briefly consider leaving it there while I finish with the cake, but decide that the risk of forgetting it's there and then stepping in it is too high.  I clean it up, wash my hands again, and finish prepping the cake.  Into the oven it goes.
12:20 I fill my new salt and pepper shakers.  They match my fancy wedding china.  I ordered them in July and they finally arrived on Saturday.  Just in time for THanksgiving, hooray!  But where are the plugs for the bottom of the shakers?  I. Have. No. Clue.  I can't find them anywhere.  They're brand new, how is this possible?!  Sigh.  Masking tape it will be.  Wonder how long it will take someone at the table to notice what I've done.
12:30  I start washing the first of what promises to be many loads of dishes.
12:45 I declare the cakes to be done.  Temporarily distracted by the realization that our oven IS NOT LEVEL, I bobble one of the cakes.  THankfully, it doesn't land on the floor.  Not so thankfully, I partially catch it with my upper arm.  Just a flesh wound, really.
12:48  Ow.  Even minor burns hurt.  Oooh, icy turkey bath water.  Aaaah.  Relief.  I wonder if this is sanitary.  I don't think I care.
1pm  Icing is made, lopsided cakes are cooling.  Dad's baked sweet potato is slowly cooking in the oven.

My feet hurt.

Preparing the feast

Mostly for my own amusement, I have decided to post once or twice during the process of preparing for our Thanksgiving feast.  Since it's my first time making several of these dishes, this could turn out to be verrrrry interesting.  And no one who will be at dinner reads my blog as far as I know.  Except my husband.  And he'll never tell, will you sweetie?

7am: run the last load of laundry so there will be clean sheets on the guest bed and a clean tablecloth on the table.
7:30: prepare the sausage balls (appetizers in case the turkey takes too long to cook).  Hmm, Mom's recipe says this should make about 90 sausage balls.  I have 48.  Hope they cook all the way through.
8am: hubby leaves for work, sausage balls go in the oven.
8:30: sausage balls look done.  I haven't eaten one of these things in decades.  They just aren't my thing.  Break one open to see if it looks cooked through.  It does.  Decide to taste it to make sure it isn't too mushy or something.
8:32: Oh crap!  These things are tasty!  I want another one.  Or maybe two.  Just to be sure.
9:15 call Mom for clarification of her vague candied yam recipe.  Wake her up.  Seriously, Mom?  Sleeping?  No fair.
9:45 sweet potatoes boiling, first pitcher of sweet tea is cooling on the counter
10am to 11am type and email a long list of properly formatted children's names and Christmas wishes for the Robeson County Giving Tree event.  Choose a name for myself and another for my sister.  This is always such a bittersweet experience.
11am sweet potatoes are done, cooled, and ready to go in the casserole dish.
11:15  whoops!  I could have sworn that jar said cinnamon.  Exactly how much ginger have I accidentally added to the pan?  And do I think it's bad enough to start over?
11:16 Nope, not bad enough to start over.  I'll just add extra brown sugar.  This could be fun to serve.
11:20 sweet potatoes go into the fridge.  I pat the frozen turkey.  It's still frozen.  That isn't good.  I thought it was supposed to thaw in two days?  Why do I believe such silly lies?
11:21 begin filling sink with cold water.  Tom goes into his bath.  According to the bag, this is going to take about 8 hours.  Guess I won't be brining the turkey, huh?
11:45 what to start on next?  What will go wrong next?  Stay tuned!