Thanksgiving 2010

Timi's How To
Not Ever Host Thanksgiving Dinner 

Yes I'm 29- 39ish and I still don't cook one stinkin thing for Thanksgiving!

It's not because I don't know how or because I don't want to.  It's because my family revoked my holiday hosting privileges many years ago.

Back in the early 90's I worked for a company in downtown Seattle.  I loved working for this company. They are now out of business so the name isn't important, but this was one of the best jobs I ever had.  I worked with really great people, met some friends who I'm still close to, and I got to travel for the first time with this company. 
This is also when I got bit by the travel bug.

We were a young group at this company. Most of us were single, no kids, and barely makin it on our own.  This company also liked to recruit employees from all over the country and send them to towns where they had no family or friends. 

Well Timi decided that she would host Thanksgiving at her little 2 bedroom apartment for 9 of her orphan coworkers, parents and brother.

Super excited! 
Went shopping days before, got my big 20+ lbs. turkey in the fridge defrosting, special cocktail recipes found, spent days cleaning, decorating and making things beautiful for hosting my first Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving came and I got up at O'dark:30 in the morning to get started! 
Just like my Grandmothers always did... and my mother.  Dinner would be served at 2 and guests would start arriving about noon.  Cocktails, apps, and football was on the agenda before dinner.

When I went to get my turkey out of the fridge it was FROZEN SOLID!  That sucker had been in there for 4 days and not done a damn thing to help me prepare for my big day! 

I panicked! 

What to do? What to do?

So I filled the sink up with warm water and let it sit, with warm water running on it.  There I sat on a stool staring at a frozen turkey freaking out trying to figure out what to do. 

Finally after a couple hours I got that ole' bird to a point where I could at least try to attempt to get the guts out of it. 

I fished around in there, got the flashlight out and looked in there, and could not for the life of me find them.   What's a girl to do?
I needed to get this bird in the oven!

Totally stressed out!

Call Grandma!  
I called my Grandmother to find out where else they may have hid the guts.  After she gave me some pointers on how to get that turkey more thawed out I was able to find the frozen solid packet of giblets stuck up inside of that bird.

Time to get that bird in the oven! 

So I prepared it and in the oven it went.

Now to get the other items prepared.

Next up............. The sangria! 

It was important that this be made early so it could sit for a while and all the flavors could marry together.  Because I was 20 something the booze was always important.

Here's the recipe.
This seriously is one of the best sangria recipe ever!

Timi's Sangria Recipe

2 16 oz bottles of Cabernet Wine ( I have always used St. Michele cab)

1/4 bottle of Dubonnet I leave this out most of the time; it’s not something always on hand.

3 oz Brandy

3 oz Peach Schnapps

6 oz Triple Sec

Sugar to taste about 4 Tablespoons

Simple Syrup works better because the sugar doesn’t always dissolve.

32 oz Orange Juice (1 Quart)

I use the Orange Pineapple Juice concentrate mix when I can find it or the carton in the refrigerator section. It works really well.

6 oz Pineapple Juice
Mix and garnish with

Lime Slices

Orange Slices

This makes a lot and you will need a pretty good size bucket to mix it in. All amounts are approximates. You will want to taste as you mix. Always taste before you serve it. Especially if it’s been sitting for a day or so. The flavor changes a lot.

This keeps for about a week and it’s always better the second or 3rd day. I suggest mixing before hand and let set over night at a minimum.

So I'm mixin, a tastin, a mixin, a tastin and trying to get this recipe just right.  While doing this I was multi-tasking and trying to get everything else ready too.

Well then BAM!
Out of  no where it hit!
 I was drunker than a skunk!

My guests started showing up and I was H A M M E R E D!

images from Apron Goddesses

Things went a bit downhill from there. 
Ok,  a lot downhill!

Thank GOD for Mom's. 
My Mom showed up, didn't pass judgment and stepped right in and got dinner going. 

She wasn't frazzled at all by the drunk daughter and the husband (my Dad) telling her "I told you, she should have just done BBQ Hamburgers!"

2 pm.............The turkey................. NOT DONE! 

It took that mostly frozen bird about 2 hours longer to cook than planned and Mom getting dinner ready by herself took a little longer.

Mom saved the day!

This would be a Thanksgiving that guests were spared the disappointment of no dinner and chewing off their arms from starvation.

It's been almost 20 years and I have never been asked to host Thanksgiving dinner

again!

When I suggest that I might like to do it

I'm given the "look"

Yes the look of

"no I don't think so"

Then I'm quickly reminded of "that Thanksgiving"

I called my mom the other day to see what I could bring on Thursday

This was her response;

"oh I think I got everything, why don't you just bring a banana for the fruit salad"

Now none of this was planned out... it was just an unfortunate sangria accident, but now that I'm older and not so ambitious...........

It's worked out pretty well.

That my friends is how you get out of all work involved with the holidays.

It just takes one incident of drunken irresponsibility and you are off the hook for years!

 

Have a wonderful day and take a moment to be Thankful for all the good in your life.

Me..........

I'm thankful I accidentally got drunk 20 years ago!

I'll be enjoying a day of lounging in my eatin pants.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

 

These are some fun pictures my mom sent to me that she found in my Grandmothers stuff.

How fun are these?

Pictures of Thanksgivings past when my mom was just a toddler. 

I remember these Thanksgivings at my Grandpa and Grandma Ayars House. 

All the adults crammed together around the big table in the living room.  Grandma would put all the leaves in that table, then add on to it with every card table she could find.

The grandkids (there were A LOT of us) sitting in the middle of the kitchen with two picnic table pushed together and filled to maximum capacity. 

You would be surprised at how many little butts you can get on a picnic bench.

Each and everyone of us with black olives on our fingers goofing off during Grandpa saying grace.

Then there was the bread board that pulled out of the counter.  She would put two stools up to it on either side for us to sit.  That was called the dollar table.

Of course we would fight over who got to sit there.

Grandma had a kitchen table that was always off to the side of the kids tables.  It was filled with pies, cakes, cookies, and sweet breads.

This was so hard to stay out of!

If it wasn’t for my love of mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, homemade dinner rolls, pickles and olives I would have been having desert first.

On the Thanksgivings that we would go to my Grandpa and Grandma Weathers house it was totally different. 

A much smaller group. We would spend all morning giving Grandma a bad time about putting guts (the giblets) in the gravy and stuffing.  Telling her we wouldn’t eat if she put it in there.

Finally she would give in and forgo the guts in the gravy and sulk the rest of the day. Or at least until she kicked your butt and took all your money in a game of cards.

To this day we are a GUT FREE House on Thanksgiving.

While the turkey was doing it’s thing there would be a lot of card playing going on, football game watching, and looking through all the store ads getting a strategy together for the next morning.

Yes! I learned to gamble and shop at a very early age.

Thanksgivings are a lot quieter now.  My mom makes enough for an army and all 5 1/2 of us stuff ourselves silly.

I still look through all the ads and map out a strategy for the next day. Even if I need nothing.

There is still a lot of football watching going on, smack talkin about teams, and some card playing.

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Have a wonderful holiday! 

Functional or dysfunctional

Family is family

if they fight, bicker, accidently get drunk (it happens to the best of us. I’m guilty of it myself. Another story for another time)  make snide remarks or show up late just remember, it’s never going to be Norman Rockwell! 

That’s what makes it fun.

If it was perfect it would be boring and uneventful…you would be sitting around and staring at each other all day.

You will miss all that when they are gone.

I might put olives on my fingers for old time’s sake tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Hope you and your family have a wonderful Norman Rockwell day today!

Is this what your Thanksgiving Day looks like?

I know ours doesn't.


What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving?


Mine.........Spending time with my family and friends of course

My mom's stuffing and gravy


Putting olives on all my fingers

Oh Yeah, I'll do it as long as I can get away with it and

I'll teach any kid about it that will listen and follow.


Planning my Friday shopping strategy
Every year I say "I'm gettin up at 4:00 am and goin to town" I have NEVER done that! I usually make it to town about noon.


Here's a pie recipe Laurie Ann at Tinkers Piggies wanted me to post after I had written about on WSU Laura's blog.


Eggnog Pie
Make a pie crust. You can use store bought if you wish. My mother the fantastic pie maker would have a stroke if I used store bought pie crust.

I doubled the batch to get two pies. I suggest you use a deep pie pan if you have one. If not, a single batch makes a pie and 1/2.

Make pudding mixture. When thick and bubbly, let it cool a little, then add your egg yokes. Stir quick when you add these.

This pie uses a lot of bowls when making it.
Make your meringue out of the egg white. Isn't that beautiful?

My Kitchen Aid mixer does the best job of whipping. It makes whip cream, meringue, and marshmallows in a flash. I did it for years with a little $9.99 hand mixer. That worked great but this works soooooooo much better.

Whip Cream
Fold everything together in the biggest bowl you own.

WALLAH! Eggnog Pie

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tbs Corn Starch

1/4 tsp Salt

1 cup milk

3 egg separated

1 Tbs butter

2 Tbs vanilla (use clear if you have it)

1/2 tsp cream of tarter

1/2 pint whipping cream

9" baked pie shell

Nutmeg

Directions

Pudding In a sauce pan blend; unflavored gelatin, sugar, corn starch and salt. Gradually stir in milk. Place over low heat stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil one minute. Remove from heat, add 3 beaten egg yokes a little at a time. Return to heat and bring back to a boil stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add butter and vanilla. Allow to cool.

Meringue; Beat egg whites and cream of tarter until stiff. Set aside

Whip Cream; whip whipping cream until stiff. Add a little powder sugar if you prefer a sweet whipping cream.

In the largest bow you have, fold pudding, meringue and whip cream together until mixed. Then add to pie shell. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Keep Refrigerated.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

3 Days Until New York!