Plan B Forum

I'm going to do some venting here...

We were supposed to go over to Little Sister's new place in Belmont for Thanksgiving, but I think we're going to pass on that....

Kelly and Jeannine have been fighting with each other over the phone almost constantly since yesterday morning...

It's 2:30 in the morning here, and they just got through with another round....

Christ on a bike, Kelly is 40, her sister is 32, but they fight like a couple of jealous teenage sisters....(It usually starts with a Smothers Brothers, "Mom always liked you best" kind of deal, and goes downhill from there)

And of course my brother-in-law Roman Craig had to get involved in the drama...(he lacks the good sense I have developed to not wade into this cat fight...I do not get involved in fights between Kelly and her sister, and I do not get involved in fights between Kelly and her mother...no good can come of that... )

Holiday drama isn't unusual around here, but this seems particularly bad and I don't want the kids, (ours or Jeannine's two little boys) having to deal with this on what is supposed to be a happy occasion...

I told Tati last night that if they keep this up, I'll take her and her brother to Chuck E. Cheese for Thanksgiving....

She seemed to think that was a splendid idea....

I won't go that far, but I think I'm going to make a run to the store in the morning and get our own bird and fixings, and we'll just have a quiet little holiday here by ourselves, (with maybe The Queen Mum and her boyfriend) and avoid The Dueling Diva Drama....

I'm having Thanksgiving with three other single professional gals, the two kids of one of them, and two elderly gals. I'm bringing two bottles of red and the sweet potatoes.

Later I'll stop at my boss's house for a plate of her food and another glass of wine.

It will probably be 10x more pleasant than most family Thanksgivings I recall, where the food was good but the tension was always high. Absence of family drama is a good thing; while I love my family, it was a conscious choice to reside 2500 miles away from them.

Hope you enjoy a nice, quiet Thanksgiving just the four of you, LJ!

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

LJ, I understand you situation believe me. We have for the past 15 years held the position that you are welcome at our house for holidays as long as you leave any issues on the outside, if not don't bother to come in.

I do not get involved in fights between Kelly and her sister, and I do not get involved in fights between Kelly and her mother...no good can come of that...

You are a very wise man LJ.

As far as I know I only have good memories of Thanksgiving.

Today I am heating the "Pagan" ham.

Youngest is doing her 1st solo Thanksgiving dinner with her family.

Son & oldest daughter bringing family to our house.

S&L @ NOLA producing the radio program for the LSU vs UA (Tigers vs Hogs) football game.

I'm Thankful as always for everything...

Lord Jim wrote:
I won't go that far, but I think I'm going to make a run to the store in the morning and get our own bird and fixings, and we'll just have a quiet little holiday here by ourselves, (with maybe The Queen Mum and her boyfriend) and avoid The Dueling Diva Drama....

That didn't leave you much time for you to cook the bird, did it? Or, did you find one of those pre-cooked ones?
Sure, I can relate, the last time I spoke to my mom was a Christmas Eve afternoon over fifteen years ago. I was newly married, and my husband was already being given tasks to perform for her. Of course, this didn't make Mom happy at all, so she commenced the Holiday tradition (as opposed to the non-seasonal, weekday and weekend traditions) ...of finding something harshly critical to say about everyone, as her own personal touch of Christmas Cheer.
That was it; my new spouse wasn't going to have to go through this unending drama; it just wasn't worth it, and I said to my husband, 'Let's go, we're not wanted here.'
Out the door it was, and I've never spent another holiday with them.

Wishing you a Drama-Free Thanksgiving and Holiday Season!
Let us know what you picked out for dinner

We're having Thanksgiving* in Sydney. We're spending the weekend up there, and going to see this geezer's live stand up comedy show;
And this movie;
Hatch is in love with Alan Davies, and is at college with hundreds of "inbetweeners" so she's rapt....





*of course we won't be celebrating Thanksgiving per se....

I was invited to my cousins' house, as was my mother...and I learned something. That being: those particular cousins can't cook. The turkey was OK, the stuffing was OK, everything else bordered on inedible.

LJ, so sorry about the drama--I hope the four of you are having a good day on your own.

Ouch, Jarl. There is nothing quite like the letdown of a bad Thanksgiving dinner.

Well, we're running considerably later than normal, but everything should be ready to roll out in about a half an hour....

In addition to the turkey, we're having the Italian dressing that is a family tradition, mashed potatoes, biscuits, green beans with chopped walnuts, cranberry sauce with diced jalapeno and cilantro, and baby carrots....

For dessert we've got two pies, one pumpkin and one apple...

Normally I pick up the pies at a bakery, (or I let Mrs. Smith make them) but Tati had a friend over and they wanted to make them from scratch....

Kelly supervised; we'll see how that turned out.... (they certainly smell good)

It's just going to be the four of us for dinner, but the Queen Mum and her boyfriend, and Tati's friend and her parents are going to come by for dessert and Irish Coffees....

ETA:

Nice to see you back Jammies....

We can use every oar in the water around here...

The more the merrier....

I have to give Strop credit....

He's really good rounding up the strays....

You can't stop posting around here for more than a few days without hearing from him....

bigskygal wrote:Ouch, Jarl. There is nothing quite like the letdown of a bad Thanksgiving dinner.

No kidding. There are plenty of Thanksgiving stories in the family (including two involving fire extinguishers and one involving the fire department), this is one more.

Lord Jim wrote: You can't stop posting around here for more than a few days without hearing from him....

That's why I keep posting. The ignore feature doesn't block his PMs and emails...

Hey, I am not a stray! I'm glad it's all going well for you and that the drama is far, far away!

Jarl, see, in my family, anything involving fire is a good Thanksgiving story, like the blowtorch last year!

Jammies wrote:Hey, I am not a stray! I'm glad it's all going well for you and that the drama is far, far away!

Jarl, see, in my family, anything involving fire is a good Thanksgiving story, like the blowtorch last year!

Well, there was the time someone turned on the oven to preheat...with a paper towel inside. (A blast from a CO2 extinguisher, a few minutes to air things out, cooking resumed.)
Then there was the time one of the relatives lit his cigar on the porch, and dropped the match onto the grass. (Lots of yelling, followed by a bucket of water, some frantic and highly-entertaining stomping, and finally a thorough soaking with the garden hose.)
Then there was the time someone dumped a big pan of very-hot water on the ground in the backyard...a neighbor saw the huge cloud of vapor and called to report a fire. (I think he was drunk.)

Is that why the Fire Department has been through the Trailerhood, twice already?

Have to disagree on the funny, @#%&ing Turkey video; I've had some very, very good deep fried turkey in one of those over-sized stainless steel pots filled with vegetable oil.
Yummy!

Gob wrote:We're having Thanksgiving* in Sydney. We're spending the weekend up there, and going to see this geezer's live stand up comedy show;


...
....



*of course we won't be celebrating Thanksgiving per se....

Alan davies is cool - he used to be in 'QI' which was one of my favourite shows whenever I could find it (they kept switching the time or dropping it off the tv for a while, or I ould be busy etc ... but I really enjoyed it when I watched it).
I 'discovered' him in Marple, didn't know he was so funny until QI, and didn't know he was an 'actual' comedian until after that again.
Lucky you for going to see him

Sean wrote:

Lord Jim wrote: You can't stop posting around here for more than a few days without hearing from him....

That's why I keep posting. The ignore feature doesn't block his PMs and emails...

Watch it sunshine!

For you Thanksgiving people....

ROAST TURKEYServes 6, with leftovers
Prepare: 20 minutes, plus brining
Cook: 3–4 hours (40mins/kg), plus resting

Ingredients
4–4.5kg free-range turkey
800g salt
200g unsalted butter, at
room temperature
3 onions, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
3 leeks, sliced (white and pale
green parts only)
50ml dry white wine
15g rosemary
15g thyme

Method

1. Chop the wing tips off the turkey and reserve for the gravy.

2. Brine the turkey on Christmas Eve by mixing the salt and 10 litres of water in a clean ­container and stirring until the salt has dissolved. ­Submerge the turkey in the brine, cover with a lid or foil and leave in a cool place for at least nine hours or overnight.

Remove the bird from the brine and submerge it in cold water for one hour, changing the water at 15-minute intervals. Dry the turkey well with kitchen paper.

3. Preheat the oven to 210c, fan oven 200c, gas mark 6. With clean hands, work the skin away from the flesh of the bird and rub 100g of butter between the skin and the flesh, being careful not to tear the skin. Rub any remaining butter over the skin of the bird. Season with salt and black pepper.

Set the bird on top of the onions, carrots and leeks in a roasting tin; add the wine and cook in the oven for 30 minutes to colour the skin.

4. Melt the remaining 100g butter in a pan and add the rosemary and thyme.

5. Reduce the oven temperature to 130c, fan oven 120c, gas mark ½. Baste the turkey with the herb butter and cook until the thickest part around the neck or thigh reaches 70c (you’ll need a probe thermometer). Continue basting every 45 minutes (when the butter gets used up, use the cooking juices in the roasting tin to baste). This should take three to three-and-a-half hours, depending on the size of the turkey and the type of oven.

It is important to check that the turkey is cooked by cutting into the thickest part (between the breast and thigh) to be sure that none of the meat is pink, and the juices run clear.

6. Remove the turkey from the oven and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes before carving. Reserve the pan juices and vegetables for ­making the gravy.

Per serving 560kcals/8g carbs/6g sugars/38g fat/20g saturated fat/2.6g salt

(Warning, long.)

And, of course, there is the Thanksgiving that Liz and I did the shopping. It was at my mother's new house (it was frequently at my house)...my mother had shoulder problems and was under strict instructions to not lift anything with her right arm; this made shopping, while not impossible, impractical. My stepfather was planning to do the shopping the Saturday before Thanksgiving. He left work early Friday, though, and by Saturday, he had what seemed to be a raging stomach virus; needless to say, he was not doing anything that took him more than 50' from the bathroom. I told my mother that if she'd e-mail the grocery list to me, Liz and I would do the shopping. She did, we printed out two copies, and on the way to my mother's house, stopped at the supermarket.

Liz and I each took a list & a carriage...she started at one end of the store, I started at the other, we'd meet somewhere in the middle. (Being for eight people, it was a large list.) Now, I must explain two things: first, my mother wrote the list for my stepfather...some of it was a bit vague, but he would know exactly what she meant after 20+ years of marriage. Liz and I didn't, necessarily. Second, I am cheap and will look for the lowest price on just about everything, and if a larger package is a better buy (and it won't spoil), I will usually buy it.

Liz started at the meat department. Topping the list was, and I quote, a "LARGE" turkey". So, Liz did the logical thing: she told the guy behind the counter, "Please bring me your biggest turkey." He did: he went into the freezer and came out with a 37lb (about 16.5kg) frozen turkey! We got the rest of the stuff...things like 10lbs of potatoes, 5lbs of carrots (the list was "5-1lb carrots", which I assumed to be a typo) a squash, 6lbs (3.5kg) each of ground pork & ground beef (My stepfather is a Canuck...he makes meatpies & uses meat stuffing.), four bags of stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, etc. (She also put "dinner napkins" on the list...we got a package of 800.) We filled about ten bags, plus a large box for the turkey. We brought everything to the house, I backed into the driveway, and we began unloading. My mother began poking through the bags as Liz and I went back to get the turkey. She seemed puzzled when I asked if she would get the door, but she did. The expression on her face when she saw the banana box was priceless! (Also, we were pulling this stuff out of Liz's tiny Festiva.) After spluttering for about thirty seconds, she finally said, "What is that? I'm not feeding the whole town!" Liz innocently replied, "Well, we were hoping to persuade you to make soup!" She shook her head as she poked through the bags, then saw the carrots. No typos, she really DID want five one-pound bags of carrots. Her reasoning being: the carrots in the 5lb bags tend to be much thicker. With her bad shoulder (can't push down on a knife), they are very hard to slice. Well, OK, this is easily solved: if someone would peel them, I would slice the carrots.

Now, we have to figure out how to deal with a 37lb turkey. It needs to thaw...which, to put it mildly, will take a while. There were 5 days to the day before Thanksgiving (when it had to be prepared for cooking)...thawing it in the refrigerator would take about a week and a half, so we did the cold-water method. The turkey went in a large Sterilite tote, which was then filled with water, in the (unheated) basement. That took all night and most of the next day...then, it went in the downstairs fridge (after taking out all the shelves).

Then, cooking it. It would JUST fit in her oven (1/2" from the top of the cover to the top of the oven), and took about ten pounds of stuffing. (It took all the stuffing we'd bought, PLUS all the stuff we had gotten for meat pies.) It went in the night before (like, 11pm), because it would take a LONG time to cook. Getting it in was another adventure: between the bird, the stuffing, and the massive cast-iron roasting pan (the bird JUST fit), this was close to sixty pounds going in the oven. We managed, and it cooked. My stepfather & my sister kept making dire predictions that it would be dry before it was properly cooked...he doesn't like frozen turkeys & thought any turkey over 25lbs is nearly impossible to cook properly, she just doesn't like Liz. So it cooked, then came out (two people to take it out) to cool. My mother made gravy with the drippings (needless to say, there was plenty!), my stepfather carved. Despite his predictions, it was PERFECT. (My mother is a very good cook.) To almost everyone's amazement, my father in law ate an entire leg from this huge turkey. There were, of course, leftovers...everyone ate lots of turkey sandwiches that weekend! (Which is not a bad thing.)

The final comedy came a few days later, after my stepfather stripped the carcass & my mother got ready to make soup. She discovered that even cut into pieces, this gigantic turkey wouldn't fit her biggest pot! She wound up making TWO batches of turkey soup. She demanded I take home three containers of it, since I was the one that bought this huge bird. I was, of course, heartbroken at having to take home a gallon and a half of homemade soup.

We still talk about that one...anytime someone mentions a turkey, my mother says, "No more 30-pounders!" or something similar.