Thanksgiving 2014

So LOTS of catching up to do! First- a blog about Thanksgiving.This year I spent the holiday with a few other wives and their families. Jenny, Melanie, Patty and Patty's son Kameron all came over to my place for dinner. Each person cooked (or attempted to cook) dishes and we all came together to eat at my house :).

our attempt at a group picture. not amazing since we used the camera timer and
set it on a bookcase! :)

It was a lot of fun too because it was Melanie's first real American Thanksgiving. She is German and is a girlfriend to one of the guys in Rob's company. We all spend a lot of time together and were super excited to have her there for the holiday- BUT having a first timer amongst us definitely laid the pressure on!

I was in charge of a few desserts, sweet potato casserole, the turkey, and the gravy. The pumpkin pie was easy- just baked a store bought one. My cherry cheesecake bars turned out AMAZINGLY (anything with cheesecake is my absolute favorite!). The sweet potato casserole was good too- pretty sweet but tastey; Kam couldn't stop stealing the marshmallows off the top. Then there was my turkey and gravy- neither were anything near a "win".

TURKEY- So, the turkey had several mishaps. This doesn't surprise me since I've A) never cooked one and B) am a part of the Re family (who is known for cooking mishaps on holidays). Anyways, like I said LOTS of issues. Firstly, the turkey thawed in the fridge for 4 days - which apparently is not enough. When I took it apart that morning it had little ice chunkies in it (first bad sign, no bueno). Then, I learned I think that rubbing down a turkey with seasonings and stuff is ewy. Rob would have laughed because I am so weird about food when it looks like it did when it was alive. So pathetic I know. But yes rubbing it all around was ewy. Then, while seasoning and stuff. I removed the inside baggy and gravy (but apparently left things I shoulldn't have - which we learned later after cooking :/). Then, once the cooking began I learned I only could find the rubber top to my baster and not the actual tube- yet another fail. what is that fail number 4 now?! So basting was horrid, wish we had photos of that. Then came time to check the temperature (another part of the process no one knew how to do). We all hovered around Kam and the oven with YouTube and the thermometer and welp, ruined that step too. Our thermometer said it was ready, and it really wasn't. So since we thought it was done Kam and Jenny started carving it. When starting to carve they found the neck. I apparently let it inside? So unappetizing looking. :/ But, as far as the carving goes- The turkey was only like 8-9lbs and carving didn't work well. Jenny and Kam claim a bigger turkey would have worked better. By this point I'm pretty sure I was grossed out by the turkey- it looked rather mutilated, oh and STILL BLOODY. We were thinking we may have touched the bone when  checking the temperature and that was the problem? Who knew. Point is it wasn't ready so they carved it up and we put it all on a tray and back in the oven.  BUT, no one ever ate it. 

oh turkey...

gnarly neck that I left in the turkey. nasty faces.

they say don't play with your food? oops. we did that.

so many good photos - I couldn't resist.

Then came the GRAVY. EW BAD GRAVY. Why was the gravy so hard?! We used the pan drippings and the gravy packet and some water. It was suuppper runny. We added some flour - bad bet. It was nasty and chunky. It tasted like gravy but lordy not appealing. Lots (and by lots I mean all) of it was thrown away too. Buried right alongside the turkey.

As far as the rest of the dinner, Patty saved the day by bringing a ham but she injured the potatoes with lots of milk and chicken broth. Melanie brought lots of coffee cake and rolls (both of which were yummy and even edible!). My grandma would have LOVED the coffee cake recipe- super coffee-y. Jenny made green bean casserole (which we must have left out of the oven too long because by dinner time it was literally cold, not just a little cold, a lot of cold) and the BESTEST STUFFING EVER. I'd say the best main dishes were the ham and stuffing. The stuffing had sausage in it?! I just know that recipe is happening every year now. Oh and the canned cranberry sauce and the rolls turned out good too :D

my yummy + sweet sweet potato casserole. served
with the perfect mallows.

More side dishes! No one messed up the cranberry sauce!! :D

All in all we had a great time! Lots of laughs and definitely good memories to go along with it. After dinner we all enjoyed some wine and watched Free Birds. The movie was made by the same people that did Shrek and I loved it! It was super cute and I wouldn't mind watching it again next year. We realized there really aren't many "Thanksgiving" movies. The time difference made it kind of a pain to watch the parade but that was really the only "tradition" I didn't follow through with this year. Next year I'll find a way to squeeze it in!!