Thanksgiving report, aka, Beckee's big whoops...

Well, most of you that read this blog are fully aware of the great Thanksgiving explosion of '03. For those that are not aware, I will shortly recount that before I tell you about my whoops of '07.

Picture this: it is Thanksgiving 2003, Wes, Solace and I have just moved to Omaha a few months before (and as a total side note, we had found out Ender was expected in April on the day we moved in). So there I was in a new place, pregnant and still not really sure of anything for Thanksgiving, as I had never cooked it by myself before. Now, I am a pretty good cook, and have always helped my mom cook, but I just had not done it alone, and of course being the perfectionist I am, was planning to cook each and ever thing my mom had on her list. To add to my excessive strive for the perfect Thanksgiving, I had never cooked a turkey before, ever, and my in-laws we coming into town for the big day. By in-laws I mean Wesley's parent and siblings, and I of course invited a couple from the med school class to come over as well.

Well, as the cooking and the day is moving along, all is well, Everything is going great until I look at the recipe my mom gave me for my Grandma's cranberry dressing, which I thought was a cold dressing. With time winding down, I look at the recipe on last glance and find the there is actually cooking directions on the very bottom of the page that I had not seen. Panicked, I grab out my very last 2 pyrex dishes to try to shovel in the cold dressing and shove it into the already crammed oven with the yams and turkey. I set the pyrex pans on the stove while I opened the fridge and got out the cold stuffing and brought it into the (carpeted) dining room, and set it on the table where Wes and his parents were sitting peeling potatoes for the mashed potatoes. Next, I go back to get my Pyrex dishes, notice the water for the potatoes on the other burner is not yet boiling, and I wonder why as I pick up the pyrex pans I had set on the stove earlier and head toward the cold table where everyone is still peeling potatoes. As I set the pans down on the cold table, they explode. And I mean EXPLODE! Shattering and melting into the carpet, and really just making a disaster carpet. No one was hurt (though there is a funny side note about Wes that I won't go into at this juncture). Basically, for those that don't know, I do not feel heat in my fingers very well evidently. The pyrex pans were actually sitting on the burner that the potato water should have been on because I had turned on the wrong burner. SO when the very, very hot pans hit the very very cold table, we had a massive explosion.

This is the Thanksgiving whoops I will always be remembered for, so I figure that no other mistake I ever make for Thanksgiving after that point can ever be too bad. That being said, enjoy the story of the debacle of Thanksgiving of '07.

Firstly, I must say that my first turkey was good in '03, but Wes was highly disappointed as it did not have the perfect crispy skin he loves. Never has a turkey I made been quite to his liking, and thus, I have not made many turkey's in our marriage. I only like to cook stuff I know the people eating it will LOVE!! So, I have been stressing over this year's turkey for weeks now, and it is no exaggeration to say that I have been studying, nay cramming for this big test for weeks. I have watched hours and hours of Food Network shows to see every cook's take on making the perfect turkey, I have read hundreds and hundreds of recipes and advice online, and I have really just studied for this turkey like it was the freaking boards! So, come Thanksgiving day, I was prepared and ready to go. Convinced by the chefs of food network that the perfect turkey had to have fresh herbs, I had gone and bought some the day before. I had defrosted the turkey in the fridge for days, discovered it was still frozen on Wednesday, and used the water/sink method, and felt good and ready on Thanksgiving morning.

When my alarm went off at 7 am I ignored it a while, then got up to begin the turkey prep. I opened my turkey to discover that overnight in my too cold fridge, it had frozen quite a bit again. SO, I called in reinforcements. Wes then did the bathtub water method for a couple hours, then the mostly thawed turkey was off to be cooked, as we were both really ready to eat before the next day! So, I stuffed the bird with the fresh herbs and an onion and garlic, thinking that a 14 pound turkey really has a lot less room in the bird then the big ones my mom usually makes, but that aside I keep stuffing and get that darn bird in the oven.

Fast forward a few hours, and there I am making the ambrosia (it's basically a fruit salad with mandarin oranges, pineapple, marshmallows, coconut and sour cream-the "food for the Gods" so say the Greeks). I had decided to spruce it up by adding marachino cherries, and I thought I would impress Wes by adding toasted coconuts to the top. So, as I am a disaster at toasting coconut, I of course burned them and caused fire number one in the kitchen.

Later, I picked up the rolls from the counter and placed them in the oven. a few minutes later I noticed smoke billowing from the oven, and open it to see burning paper as I had apparently picked up the pan with a piece of mail stuck to the bottom, thus starting fire #2.

Regardless of these 2 minor fire, I was able to make a fabulous dinner, and I even achieved the perfect crisp skin, yet moist turkey for Wes. When it came out we let it sit, as I learned you must do before cutting and we just admired it. Then I began to unstuff it and saw this cute little tail, and I said "Wes. look, it's the tail." Wes, very confused and interested, came over to see what I was talking about, looked in the cavity and as he pulled the "tail" out said, "Actually, that is the neck. I think we were supposed to take that out." I told him I knew we were supposed to take that out if there was one, but after reading our turkey's packaging, I was under the impression there were no giblets or neck in this one, but apparently there was a neck after all. Which by the way explained the reason it was so hard to stuff. As Wes carved the turkey, he also found the giblet.

Moral of the story? Even with all the mistakes and big problems, we had a GREAT meal, and we managed to learn that you totally can cook a turkey with the giblet bag and neck in it, and it can be awesome!!