Every year we host Thanksgiving at the farm. The guest list includes my mom and sisters and their families, Kits mom and dad and siblings and their families, and then some of those families in-laws and also various cousins and relatives who are in town. We love hosting because we have room to host, a huge kitchen, and selfishly... by hosting I get to have everyone come to us, so that we don't have to pick sides on this Holiday - and I also get to control how the meal goes down. Not that I'm controlling, but well.... I'm controlling. I just want to eat a nice meal on nice linens, and drink wine out of nice glasses. So, I make that happen, and that keeps me from getting really bitchy. I think that's a benefit for everyone. I think a number of years back I pretty much made sure that "store-bought" food wasn't welcome at my Thanksgiving too. It has to be home made - and if you don't like to cook, no problem, the rest of us do, so you can bring booze.
This year we had 2 turkeys, one smoked turkey, and one oven roasted. We also had a delicious ham and all the fixins - sweet potatoes, gravy, onions, cranberry, rolls, brussels sprouts, great salads, more food that we needed of course. My cousin and I both made stuffing, mine in the bird, and hers baked out of the bird - both from my Aunt (my cousin had a direct recipe, mine a recipe from her through my mothers interpretation over the years!) Both were yummy - and I'm happy to say we had leftovers, which means either nobody else liked either of our stuffings, or we just got lucky.
Everything went great - only one broken glass - no injury's, no fighting, and no major problems. Highlight was my brother in laws Mom teaching my sister Steph how to tap dance. Pictures to follow, but c'mon - now that's a successful evening. Minor event - my cousin's (first cousin once removed- whatevs... you get it, let's just say cousin) daughter left without her stuffed animal - which normally wouldn't have been a big deal except it was on loan to her from her classroom - apparently this animal (a kangaroo puppet) went home on weekends with students, in this case as a reward for improvement in reading. Well, during the party, the little kids were playing with the kangaroo, and it got "hidden", but nobody seemed to know where. So I spent some real quality time looking for the lost kanga, my sister finally found it the next day in a desk cupboard - waiting to be found out.
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| This little guy took hours to find. |
The only bad deal about hosting Thanksgiving is the ramping up and tearing it all down again.
1 WEEKEND DAY BEFORE: We started set up a weekend early, rearranging the house - living room furniture into the dining room, dining room into the living room to accommodate 22 people. Then clean the house and get the guest rooms ready. Buy turkeys in advance.
DAY BEFORE: Take day before Thanksgiving off work, get to grocery store for all the things necessary to make day awesome. I meet my mom at the farm around 12:00noon, we visit, start making food. She usually makes the cranberries - they are beautiful. Then we eat lunch and I start sweeping, mopping, getting things in order. I make the giblets for the stuffing in advance so they will not be scorching hot when I put the stuffing together. I brine the bird for the smoker and put him outside overnight to brine. I make pate, Moms recipe, for my appetizer for the next day.
THANKSGIVING DAY: I set the tables, make sure the wine glasses don't have spots, organize the bar glasses and clean the house again. Everyone shows up and it's mayhem - and they all go home and we site exhausted in the living room dining room. This year I was so sentimental that I cried all through people's gratitude speeches - so I didnt really get to eat my dinner. Everyone said it was good.
DAY AFTER: Get up and wash all the glasses. We save those til the next day - I don't like other people to wash them, they are fragile and hard for other people to wash. I know them, so I wash them and Kit puts them away. Then I start the process of cleaning up and putting the rooms back together.
And now its SATURDAY and the weekend feels like it's almost over - boo hoo. So... I love Thanksgiving, but it goes by so fast!
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| I had lights in the living room for Thanksgiving and now I've moved them into the kitchen for Christmas - feeling like I'm a hero because I got one Christmas thing done. |
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| And, finally - what do you do with leftover mashed potatoes - make potato pancakes! Awesome! |
