The Feast

I love Thanksgiving; it's one of my favorite Holidays of the entire year. I'm a little perturbed, however, at how Thanksgiving has become the bright red flashing signal light announcing the Christmas shopping has now become the top priority for just about everyone. Stores are opening earlier, staying open later, having the "deal of the century" every hour on the hour. It feels like quite a few people are forgetting the real reason for Thanksgiving and Christmas both. It breaks my heart, really.
But, I'm not here to continue preaching on my soapbox - I'm hear to say that I am thankful for my beautiful family who wouldn't let me take pictures of them in their turkey-stuffing-pie-induced vegetative states, the people who work hard to make this country go 'round, like the garbage men (yes, the garbage men), the mail carriers, the doctors, the cashiers, the librarians, the girl who hands me my coffee in moments of not-so-quiet caffeine needing despair, the boy who bags my groceries, and so many more that I can't even mention them all. Thank you for helping me.


I would also like to thank the men and women in the Armed Forces that serve us every single day and protect this country and its people. I thank them for their sacrifices and hardships. It is because of them that we can continue to celebrate Thanksgiving every single year, and I for one will not forget. Thank you servicemen and servicewomen. God bless.


With that being said, we can't forget the first Thanksgiving and how they celebrated by breaking bread with each other and giving thanks for all that they had survived and endured, and all that they were blessed with. It is with that same spirit that we celebrate today, with food, friends and family, and thanks.

And so we survived: Two days of cooking and prepping, dirty dishes reaching the ceiling, last minute trips to the store because I forgot __________. It's all over and everyone is still in a turkey coma and very thankful for it! We have the traditional fare at our house; turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, sweet potatoes, cornbread casserole, green bean casserole, buns, etc. But for me, the fun part isn't eating the food, it's making it.


I grew up watching my grandmother and mother host Thanksgiving year after year. Now, my Mom wasn't the greatest cook, but since Grams rocked it, everything turned out wonderful. Every year all of our relatives got together, whether we liked each other or not, and celebrated with a feast. I've continued that little tradition in our small family, and I completely go overboard and love it. I make way too much food and we live off of leftovers for days, but I get such a kick out of cooking the meal itself that I just can't seem to help myself.

 

This was the result (well, part of it). A wonderful, beautiful meal 

that everyone enjoyed and ate with gusto!

 

This was my poor little fridge, bursting at the hinges trying to hold

all the yumminess that would become Thanksgiving Dinner. Don't mind the soda :) 

 

 One of the eight, yes, eight pies for the day, seven of which are still

left and awaiting their turn in either someone's tummy or the freezer, whichever

occurs first. I'm not saying how it ends. That would probably be embarrassing.

 This is the yummiest stuffing ever - shown in stages from sauteing the onions and celery with salt, pepper, a hint of garlic, and sage, to adding the wonderful chicken stock and simmering for just a bit before adding the toasty little bread cubes. Yum. I think I'll go have some now. Excuse me for just a moment!

 The buns that you saw in the top photo started out like this - raising in my very warm kitchen and getting yummier and yummier by the second. This recipe is super fantastic and I use it for buns, cinnamon rolls, and sweet rolls. Its good. Ask Racheal, she'll tell you - its her favorite thing in the whole world.

 

And here's the Bad Boy - a 19 1/2 pound Grade A Turkey who was hatched just to make our tummies happy - and did it ever. Slathered with butter, sage, garlic salt, and pepper and then roasted in the Nesco for 4 hours and 25 minutes, it was a little bird-shaped piece of heaven on a platter. Hmmmmmm. Hold on - I'll be back; I have to go, err, drink something. Yeah, that's it. Be right back!

 There were many more dishes to be sure, and below you can find some of the recipes I used. I've been told by the children that all of these Thanksgiving recipes "absolutely have to go in the cookbook you are making for us!" So, that's where they are going. Maybe some day they will make Thanksgiving dinner for me and I won't have to lift a finger. Yeah, right. Who am I kidding. I'll probably be busting my way into the kitchen looking for something to do! Did I mention I love cooking this meal?

Happy Thanksgiving all. God Bless.