tiredmommy
Well-Known Member
What favorite recipes are you using this year? Any funny memories to share?
There's less than a week until US Thanksgiving!
- Thread starter tiredmommy
- Start date
DDD
Well-Known Member
This year I'm mixing it up. I have declared that this is the last Thanksgiving and the last Christmas at my house. No, I don't expect to be too sick next year etc.......I'm just tired of doing it. For the first time I am having others bring stuff for TDay AND for the first time we will have a Christmas tree up and ready before Thursday.
I'm giving the holiday decorations to difficult child#1 for his new house next year. He and his SO are doing the tree Sunday. We have some WWII decorations from when I was a baby and I'm going to divy those up and give to the adult kids. Also some of the sentimental (made in school etc.) decorations. The rest of it will get good use at his new house!
I remember when my friends and I got in our 40's and 50's we affectionately talked about how "old people" started giving stuff away long before they were seriously ill. It made alot of people uncomfortable when Gramma's would say "do you want your Great Grandmother's vase?" or whatever. I'm hoping this doesn't make them uneasy but I just plain don't want to have to think about who gets what.
I actually think this holiday is going to be fun for everyone and much easier on me than the last fifty or so have been.
DDD
I'm giving the holiday decorations to difficult child#1 for his new house next year. He and his SO are doing the tree Sunday. We have some WWII decorations from when I was a baby and I'm going to divy those up and give to the adult kids. Also some of the sentimental (made in school etc.) decorations. The rest of it will get good use at his new house!
I remember when my friends and I got in our 40's and 50's we affectionately talked about how "old people" started giving stuff away long before they were seriously ill. It made alot of people uncomfortable when Gramma's would say "do you want your Great Grandmother's vase?" or whatever. I'm hoping this doesn't make them uneasy but I just plain don't want to have to think about who gets what.
I actually think this holiday is going to be fun for everyone and much easier on me than the last fifty or so have been.
DDD
Marcie Mac
Just Plain Ole Tired
So and I are already debating - he wants to go to the Casino for dinner since the boys are older. I asked them about their plans to be home and got an "of course" and a "maybe" We went out last year and although the food was good, it seemed, mmm weird to come home with no left overs in the fridge. It was the first time ever I didn't cook.
So I have ended the debate - am getting a small turkey and cooking - guess SO will figure it out when he sees it in the fridge. Guess I am not ready to give up the tradition yet.
Marcie
So I have ended the debate - am getting a small turkey and cooking - guess SO will figure it out when he sees it in the fridge. Guess I am not ready to give up the tradition yet.
Marcie
DammitJanet
Well-Known Member
We are doing something new. Tony has a friend who works for Butterball and he gave us five 9 week old Butterball live turkeys...lol. We are giving 3 of them away and keeping two of them. 1 of them for Thanksgiving and 1 for Xmas. They are about 10-11 pounds a piece. Yes we will have very fresh Butterballs this year...lol.
The things that I never thought would happen in my life!
The things that I never thought would happen in my life!
Calamity Jane
Well-Known Member
My mom and dad always worked long hours, so I learned to cook very young, and was fairly confident in the kitchen, and was making full dinners for my family by the time I was 13. We are Italian-American, and when I was growing up, we always had a big Thanksgiving dinner, but neither my parents nor my brother liked turkey, so we skipped that whole traditional American food thing and had lots of Italian food instead, but we still honored the day, Know what I mean??
I got married young (22), and wanted to impress my in-laws when I was a newlywed, and decided I'd do Thanksgiving. I'd never cooked a turkey, but how hard could that be? Anyway, Thanksgiving morning, the turkey wasn't thawed out, it was like a rock (I bought it the day before), and I had this hulking frozen thing, like a piece of cement in my kitchen sink, and I didn't even know which end to stuff! I was hysterical and called my mom, who lived on the other side of Brooklyn, and didn't drive, so my dad drove her to our apt., and we had to thaw that thing, our arms were ice cold up to our elbows trying to remove chunks of ice, we accidentally left one of the giblets bags in the bird, mom left because I didn't want to seem incompetent to my in-laws, and the bird took forever - I should've put it in the oven very early in the AM.
Dinner was exhausting, I was in over my head, and my in-laws didn't suffer fools lightly. H's grandma angrily said she had to "fill up on cake!" God help me, I have stepped up my game since then!
I got married young (22), and wanted to impress my in-laws when I was a newlywed, and decided I'd do Thanksgiving. I'd never cooked a turkey, but how hard could that be? Anyway, Thanksgiving morning, the turkey wasn't thawed out, it was like a rock (I bought it the day before), and I had this hulking frozen thing, like a piece of cement in my kitchen sink, and I didn't even know which end to stuff! I was hysterical and called my mom, who lived on the other side of Brooklyn, and didn't drive, so my dad drove her to our apt., and we had to thaw that thing, our arms were ice cold up to our elbows trying to remove chunks of ice, we accidentally left one of the giblets bags in the bird, mom left because I didn't want to seem incompetent to my in-laws, and the bird took forever - I should've put it in the oven very early in the AM.
Dinner was exhausting, I was in over my head, and my in-laws didn't suffer fools lightly. H's grandma angrily said she had to "fill up on cake!" God help me, I have stepped up my game since then!
DammitJanet
Well-Known Member
LOL Calamity Jane! I think most of us have had one of those stories. I think it is a right of passage. I also cooked the gizzards and giblets inside the turkey the first time we hosted Tony's family for either Thanksgiving or Xmas. Cant remember which one it was. I simply forgot to take out that bag. Before that we always went to my mom's house so I had never cooked a turkey before. That was the year Cory was an infant. We had Tony's entire family down to our ancient 2 bedroom mobile home. Well not everyone....I think it was his sister and her 3 kids, his grandma, 2 of his brothers. We were stacked like sardines.
DDD don't laugh but I find myself doing the same thing. When easy child comes over I try to pawn off things on her and then remember that she just lives in a one bedroom apartment and most of her "stuff" is down our basement anyway. I am in the winding down stage of my life, no longer collect things. I too use to be uncomfortable when my parents did this and now I am.
Janet ewwwwww now that's what I call fresh. too much information for me. I couldn't eat it after watching it walk around in my yard.
I love reading everyone's stories.
Janet ewwwwww now that's what I call fresh. too much information for me. I couldn't eat it after watching it walk around in my yard.
I love reading everyone's stories.
The funniest Thanksgiving I recall was when my Dad was still alive and the entire family went to Florida to my parents house, there must have been about 25 of us there. My husband, who my Dad really liked was there, and my brother in law, my older sister's husband, who everyone hated, (he was a real jerk), was there too. My Dad, who was really the very first major difficult child I ever met sat at the head of this long table, us "kids" at the other end. During dinner, my creepy brother in law says really loudly, "hey Dad, how come you treat RE's husband so well and you don't treat me that way." What an idiot to ask my Dad that, my Dad who loved to be 'right' and to be the center of attention. The whole table got silent since we all knew this was going to be AWKWARD!! Everyone was fidgeting while my Dad enjoyed the tense moment and in fact, prolonged it for a long time, while he pushed his plate forward, sat back smiling, folded his arms in front of him, looked at my brother in law, waited a moment for comedic timing and said, "Because you're an A-hole and he's not." For a long moment there was dead silence, no one moved or said anything and then I just couldn't help it, I let out this huge belly laugh, I just couldn't contain myself, and then everyone cracked up, even my idiot brother in law. I can still see my Dad sitting there grinning from ear to ear as if he had been contacted by God to deliver that sage message to the rest of us mere mortals. It was really funny.
H
HaoZi
Guest
For years it's been it's been just me and Kiddo, so it's been canned hams and biscuits or pepperoni pizza for TDay. I've never cooked a turkey in my life. This year there's a local boyfriend, so it's going to be hams, little smokies, a no-bake pumpkin pie, crescent rolls, and whatever other sides we think of to add in, cooked at his place (he has a bigger kitchen than I do) after I get off work.
BusynMember
Well-Known Member
I ordered a turkey dinner because the days following Thanksgiving are going to be tiring (we are taking off to Chicago to see my oldest daughter very early on black Friday and doing some shopping along the way!). My daughter, being a chef, will be cooking something too for when we get there. She's very tired too from working six days a week, and doesn't want to do any heavy cooking, but, in the end, at least promised me a Red Velvet cake! YUM!
tiredmommy
Well-Known Member
This year will be, well, interesting. It's the first major holiday since mother in law died. Older sister in law and father in law are very uneasy around each other. Younger sister in law continues to struggle. I offered to host father in law and younger sister in law if older sister in law wanted to go out of town to visit her boyfriend. But... it's on at her house, lol. Oh, the joys of family togetherness!
DammitJanet
Well-Known Member
Im not one for watching these things walk around my yard either. They are in a pen out in the woods so I dont have to see them but eventually they will make it somewhere around me because you have to pluck them.
I have gotten much better with the killing/butchering of fresh meat. Tony has already bagged 3 deer this year which means he has to clean them in the yard. He made this contraption in the side yard. Years ago I would have died before I watched him do that. Now I can sit outside while he is skinning the darn things and carry on conversations. Instead of seeing Bambi or Rudolf, I see hamburger, steaks and stew meat...lol. I have already told the kids I am gonna kill the first person who shows one of the grandkids the movie Bambi.
I actually believe we get better meat eating venison. At least they arent being raised cruelly in those cattle houses and tortured for years. They dont have all the antibiotics and steroids in them and they run free until we get them. If we get a couple more, we may have enough meat for a whole year.
I have gotten much better with the killing/butchering of fresh meat. Tony has already bagged 3 deer this year which means he has to clean them in the yard. He made this contraption in the side yard. Years ago I would have died before I watched him do that. Now I can sit outside while he is skinning the darn things and carry on conversations. Instead of seeing Bambi or Rudolf, I see hamburger, steaks and stew meat...lol. I have already told the kids I am gonna kill the first person who shows one of the grandkids the movie Bambi.
I actually believe we get better meat eating venison. At least they arent being raised cruelly in those cattle houses and tortured for years. They dont have all the antibiotics and steroids in them and they run free until we get them. If we get a couple more, we may have enough meat for a whole year.
MyFriendKita
Active Member
husband has always been an avid hunter, and difficult child got the Bambi movie when he was about three. I was dreading the day difficult child would make the connection, and one day he came to me and told me he knew that the deer in the movie were afraid of the hunters. I was afraid he was going to be upset that Dad was one of the hunters, when he proudly exclaimed, "We're hunters, aren't we, Mom?!" He wasn't the least bit upset about it, lol. I should have known then that he was a difficult child.
DammitJanet
Well-Known Member
LOL. I had just met Tony in July of 83 and we had to go to his father's the fall of that year because he had been in a very serious accident. We took my son Billy with us and he was 2 at the time. Somewhere around early December Tony had gone hunting and brought a young buck home with him and he called us outside to see it. Billy ran outside and screamed "You shot Rudolf!"
