Thanksgiving Realities

I've never really been that much into cooking.  Baking? Yes, I can bake!  I love baking, I don't always love to follow the recipe and sometimes it works out and sometimes.........well......it might be a new record for something! Haha!  I'm pretty sure I've made the HARDEST French macarons known to man, when I was trying something new with chocolate!  I also destroyed a few baking trays on my very first attempt at French macarons.......and there was the time I blew up the microwave popping popcorn......we won't talk about that.......it was a long, long time ago!  Now my husband has discovered that he can cook, really well, and even enjoys it.  When we were dating we cooked, a lot together.  It was his subtle way of finding out if I could cook, haha!  Joke's on him because he does most of the cooking now!!  It will forever be a joke in our house!  Can I peel a potato? Yes.  Can I use a can opener?......Well that's debatable......no, yes I can.......sometimes!

Well this Thankgiving we were supposed to go to Idaho to be with my husband's family.  Instead we got stuck at home for the 2nd year in a row.  Last year it was a massive snow storm and this year, well lets just say we are sick, been sick, and are sick again.  My little guy keeps getting sick.  Anyway, we are home and that's okay.  My mother-in-law is a fantastic cook and is a whiz in the kitchen!  We miss her cooking for sure, my husband especially, poor guy is stuck with me!  Well, with this being the 2nd year in a row where our plans were foiled I'm starting to think God is trying to tell me something......"learn to cook".....maybe?  Well, that's one way to look at it!  

My husband went shopping last night and naturally, forgot a few items.  So Thanksgiving morning, my daughter and I venture out to pick up our missing items! I know, I know sac-religious, right?  I don't like that stores are open and I believe they should all be closed on holidays like these, truly and honestly, I mean that with all my heart..........as I drive myself to Wal Mart!  We see no cars in the parking lot and I think "oh cool maybe people really are staying home today!" We walk up to the doors to find them all locked, "WHAT?  WALMART IS CLOSED???"  WOW!  Good for them, that was a pleasant surprise! So we hop back in the car and go on down the road to Harmons, halfway hoping that they are closed today too!  Well my previous hope was dashed as we pulled into a fully packed parking lot!  Okay so we aren't the only ones who forgot something!  Now I'm feeling a little better to know I'm not the only hypocrite out today!  So we get our items, spend too much money, I think Harmons might be the new Whole Foods/whole paycheck, wish the workers a happy Thanksgiving and go home.  A special thank you to all of those that work on Thanksgiving for people like me with a food crisis, or anything else!  You are appreciated!

Okay so the adventure.....or disaster begins, I really miss my Mommy right about now!  We did decide against Turkey since we were in kind of a hurry and we don't want too many left overs so we went for a very small and very expensive piece of ham.  First thing: the pistachio jello salad.  This is probably the easiest salad to make, how could this go wrong, right?  It mostly went well, mix the cottage cheese, whipped cream, and jello mix together. Okay so far, so good.  All good until......the can opener, okay so I opened the can just fine and gave myself points for not cutting myself. I was draining the water out of the crushed pineapple by pushing the still attached lid and pushed too hard......so there goes half of the can of pineapple down the dirty sink!  Oh well, I probably wasn't going to use it all anyway, it was a big can!  So I mix it all up and stick it in the fridge to set.  I'm practically starring at the bag of mini marshmallows for 15 minutes before I realize they need to go in the salad.  Okay, so a rookie mistake, not the worst thing in the world! Pulled it out and throw them in....no biggie!

On to the pumpkin pie.......it's a new recipe my husband acquired from a cousin.  "I got this, its baking"!  As I'm mixing up all the ingredients my kids are glued to the ridiculous YouTube videos.  I ask myself "what kind of mother am I?"  This is Thanksgiving Day!  Where are the Christmas specials, the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade?  The YouTube videos aren't bad, but you think "how do these people make any money?"  The kind of TV that's a big waste of time......and I love TV!  Trust me, I've tried getting rid of YouTube, but they know how to put it back on.  We lock the remotes up in the safe or I take them to work with me, haha! So the TV goes off and my daughter starts fantasizing about the Reddi Whip we just bought sitting in the fridge!  She tells me with great joy that she wants 10 layers for whipped cream around her little piece of pie!  Haha!  I know, as she continually tries to sneak it, that this will end badly! 

So, back to the pie......everything is going good, so far I opened the can of pumpkin flawlessly, I did NOT almost need stitches this time, but as I try getting it into the kitchen aid mixing bowl the attachment is in the way and maybe half of it goes where I want it to.  What the *%$#!  I can't even get the @*%$ pumpkin into the %$#* bowl! There it is, now I'm starting to sound like my mother!  See even when we are not together and I miss her, she is still there!  I move the bowl away from the attachment.  Does this pie really need the whole 15ozs of pumpkin?  Not a complete disaster........going okay until I need melted butter!  I use the microwave, my husband is always telling me to use the stove top.  I don't have time for that!  I truly am an ultimate multitasker at heart.  As I was beating the egg whites with the hand mixer I was also wiping down my oven top.  How many times have I burned toast because I get distracted and forget that I'm making toast?  We will just say.....too many times, okay so it's almost a daily occurrence! 

Those rolls......yeah.... store bought, I wish I made them.  My mother's rolls are THE BEST, I still have a ways to go to live up to her breads and rolls!  I figure if someone else makes them better and I can buy it, then why not?  People like me are the reason we have boxed, bagged, and canned food.  Although I never wanted to be this person, convenience is invaluable to me.  Why make something harder than it has to be?  I am going to do better at cooking meals though.  It also feels good to be able to do it yourself. This feeling is also invaluable!  I'm a very DIY kind of person, unless I feel like it is too much time, in which case the product is not worth the time.  I try to have a balance.  Back to the butter..........I put the butter in a little measuring cup and stick it in the microwave, 30 seconds is not quite enough so I push the 30 second button again!  While it's going I'm looking for a bowl and happen to find a whole stack of bowls that must have been mistaken for clean ones.  Then I hear exactly 1 tablespoon of my butter explode!  "AHHHH, NO! ITS LIKE THE POPCORN INCIDENT ALL OVER AGAIN!" Just kidding.......not nearly as bad!  Well, the microwave needed to be cleaned anyway!  I think the pumpkin pie will be okay!  I put the pie in the oven, thank goodness for pie crust from the store!  Its such a time saver!  Pie crust is one of those very simple things that you could make, but if you need to save time that is a good place to bank some extra minutes.  My mom used to make it, but then started buying it, she said it was just as good as her homemade crust.  It is just flour, butter, and water, but I'm pretty sure I could mess it up!  

So I bought this new timer at the store and set it for 15 minutes and 8 minutes later went back and it wasn't counting down!  "What in the crap!?!  I'm a scientist for heaven's sake, I work in a lab everyday, at one time, my life was run by timers! Who needs to read the instructions for a timer???!!!"  I do....that's who, apparently, I do! So.......yep I dug them out of the trash can!  Haha!  Pie is out of the oven, looking good, until my daughter drags her hand through the top of it revealing the cream cheese lumps!  Was the cream cheese at room temperature? Nearly!  Did I mix it thoroughly?  For about 20 minutes on high, so, yes?!?  Oh well, it does taste good..... that's all that matters, right?  Practice makes improvement!

One of my most memorable Thanksgivings was not traditional, did not include an amazing feast with my family, but one that was spent at work.  My sister and I worked at the same place, and we both worked that day, so I guess it wasn't void of family time.  We worked at Convergys call center where we took inbound calls for various products, like Proactive Solution, music albums, Bowflex, credit card applications and many other things.  One of our friends was on a call taking all the info from an older man who was, obviously ordering something off of an infomercial, when in the back ground she heard this crash and "Oh Shit I dropped the Turkey!"   Some of us, not on calls heard it through our friend's headset.  The man on the phone was patient, but said something like "oh no, not again" only with some extra color!  It was kind of funny.  There were other phone calls that were humorous that day.  All the phone calls that day bonded our little group of ladies that were at work.  We enjoyed being part of others' Thanksgiving Day by talking with them!  We were in a different home in America every few minutes, it was kind of cool! Some people talked and shared more than others, but that day was different.  It made us realize that not everyone's day was the perfect meal that went smoothly.  Some were lonely, some had large families.  It made us thankful that no matter what went wrong in our meal preparations at least we didn't drop a turkey and we were grateful that we were not alone.  When I'm in the kitchen messing something up, sometimes I think of that woman on the phone and remember that disasters happen to more people than we think.  

If you are hard on yourself or feel guilty for buying boxes, bags and cans to cut corners on your Thanksgiving spread, don't!  We all do it and we all find ourselves in unexpected situations.  I have found that it matters less what the meal tastes like and more about the journey.  I've learned to be light hearted about my mistakes and even enjoy poking fun at myself on occasion!  Today I want you to know that almost nothing that comes out of my kitchen is perfect, and that's okay.  I think there is too much comparing going on at this time and a lot of pressure to flaunt cooking skills and to make everything perfect!  Just be happy with what you make and how you get there! Let me remind you that at one point today I was digging in my garbage can! Haha! 

It all turned out pretty good.  Everything tasted great!  From our family to yours........Happy Thanksgiving!  This Thanksgiving dinner was brought to you by BioNtech and Pfizer.........No? Well, maybe next year!  Wink, wink! haha!  No, this dinner was brought to you by dairy........it's what's for dinner!  I think there was more butter and dairy in this one dinner than I've had in a year. This Thanksgiving was brought to you by BUTTER and CREAM CHEESE..........and MEAT.........let's be grateful that meat was still a part of the meal this year...........let's all pray that it is next year!  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!