This is the first year of our lives that we hosted and prepared Thanksgiving dinner.
Up until this year, the Thanksgiving meal has just magically appeared before our eyes and we gratefully ate.
This year was quite different because we had to plan ahead, shop ahead. We had to google how to cook a turkey and how to use a nesco. We had to call up random family and friends and ask for their amazing recipes we remembered from past Thanksgivings.
We didn’t eat until about 3pm and the whole day I was a bit antsy. Aleah and I made the cranberry sauce the day before and we cut both sweet and russet potatoes Thanksgiving morning. We were as prepared as we could be and there was nothing else we could start without getting done way too soon.
Turkey: There is something very daunting about cooking an 18 pound turkey. We had never cooked a turkey before and we were quite nervous. We have done 2 or 3 pound whole chickens on the grill before but that was all our experience with this sort of thing. An 18 lb turkey is such a big commintment and we did not want to mess it up.
The gravy. Gravy has a special place in my heart. Growing up we would always host Christmas. We did a huge turkey meal and had a lot of relatives stay with us. My great grandma would be in charge of the gravy. She made the most delicious gravy on the face of the planet. And that is in no way a hyberbole. It would be a golden brown soup of wonderful deliciousness. I would have drank it from a cup if that was culturally acceptable.
Anyways, I took it upon myself to tackle this sacred part of the meal. I called my grandma who has taken over the gravy role since my great grandma passed away a few years ago at age 103. She gave me the run down and made it sound very very easy. I will be honest with myself and my gravy skills: I was not completely happy with how my gravy turned out. It was too salty and didn’t taste exactly right, a bit burned perhaps- but it was my first go of it. Maybe by the time I am 103 I will get the hang of it.
Our menu included: turkey, gravy, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, rolls, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, orange and carrot jello, cranberry sauce and broccoli cheesy rice casserole. Oh man, just writing those things makes me want to have Thanksgiving dinner all over again. Good thing there are leftovers, eh?
After all our work, it made me glad that I have a blog to show off our meal. =)
All in all our first Thanksgiving dinner behind the scenes was a huge success. We were very amazed that it all worked out. Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving.
He Sowed She Sewed 