Adventures In Preparing Holiday Meals

Nathan and I celebrated Thanksgiving with my extended family, and I only baked a pumpkin cheesecake for that gathering.  We are celebrating Christmas with my in-laws in Nebraska, so I will not get a chance to bake or cook for that gathering.  (It's kind of hard to travel with sweet potato casserole as a carry-on.  And I don't even want to think what would happen if I packed it in my checked baggage).  But I wanted to prepare a proper holiday meal, so Nathan and I recently hosted a generic holiday meal for my parents and sister. 

First off, I don't know how professional chefs do it.  I had so much fun cooking all of the side dishes, and I love preparing big meals for my family.  But holy crap, I was so exhausted, I fell asleep at 7 p.m.  I was lying on the couch watching The Muppet Show with Nathan.  At the end of an episode, I said, "I just need to rest my eyes for a few minutes."  Right.  Just a few minutes.  I passed out, only reviving briefly at 9:30 p.m. to devour a Quarter Pounder with cheese.  (We'd eaten the holiday meal at 2 p.m). I ate that burger as fast as I could because I just wanted to crawl into bed and zonk out for the next twelve hours.    

As I prepared all of the side dishes for the Generic Holiday Meal, I vacillated between Serenity and Panic.  My inner monologue went something like this:

- Oh my god, it's already 7 a.m.!  How am I going to prepare all this food!
- This is so freaking easy.  La de da, I'm going to take a break and watch some t.v.
- What was I thinking?  STUPID STUPID STUPID.  There's no time for television!  We'll be lucky if I finish even one of these dishes.
- Oh, why was I so worried?  I am a Side Dish Goddess.  I can make this stuffing with my eyes closed.
- ^#@&*^*!(_*#_(!)*$)(*!)(*!!!!!!!!!

And so on.  I probably passed out at 7 p.m. from emotional, and not physical, exhaustion. 

But the food was delicious and I was so happy to share the meal with my family.  (If anything, my panic probably made the meal tastier and satisfying for me).  If you are looking for some good holiday recipes, this is what we enjoyed:

- Turkey fried with infra-red technology in The Big Easy.

- Sweet potato casserole with a pecan topping, using this recipe.  This thing is criminally delicious.  I was skeptical because I've always loved yams with marshmallows, but this casserole should be on every holiday table. 

- Stuffing using this recipe.  It was very delicious, but I am not ready to sign up for a committed relationship with this stuffing.  I still want to audition some other recipes.

- Balsamic braised brussel sprouts with pancetta, using this recipe.  Oh, so delicious.  I am in a monogamous, committed relationship with this recipe.  Whenever I want fancy brussel sprouts, I'm inviting these guys to the party. 

- And for dessert, nutmeg maple butter cookies, using this recipe.  We really didn't need dessert, but these cookies are delicious and stay tasty for a week.  They manage to be crispy but chewy at the same time.  I'll definitely be baking these cookies again next December.  (Oh hell, who am I kidding?  I'll definitely be baking these cookies again next week!) 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a safe, festive and happy Thanksgiving.  I am baking an exciting pumpkin cheesecake today for my extended family's gathering.  I need 24 ounces of cream cheese for the cheesecake, and there are exactly 24 ounces of cream cheese in the fridge.  If anything goes wrong, I am going to have to return to the Heart of Darkness (aka the grocery store).  In retrospect, I should have bought 48 or maybe even 1000 ounces of cream cheese.   

Also, here's a random Benjamin Franklin fact: did you know that Benjamin Franklin thought our national bird should be the turkey, and not the bald eagle?  If Benjamin Franklin had had his way, would we still be eating turkey on Thanksgiving?  You can't eat the national symbol, right?  So it would have to be something else, like the Thanksgiving meatloaf or the Thanksgiving chicken enchilada.  Or, if we wanted to stick with the large bird genre, I suppose we could eat the Thanksgiving peacock or the Thanksgiving ostrich. 

When I started writing this post, I had no idea I would use the phrase "Thanksgiving ostrich."  It's my brain, but I can't always control it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I Hope It's Legal To Make Cranberry Sauce Before Thanksgiving.

Call me impatient, but I couldn't wait for Thanksgiving.  I made cranberry sauce yesterday because I could no longer resist their siren call.

There's another bag of cranberries in the fridge and three more in the freezer.  It's not enough.  I need to go back to the grocery store AND BUY ALL OF THE CRANBERRIES.

I might have some hoarding issues in the cranberry department.

p.s. I will eat the cranberry sauce with every meal until it's all gone.

Thanksgiving Shopping: DONE!

I am not a brave woman.  Recently, I was home alone at night and heard several suspicious creaks.  Ominous creaks.  The sort of creaks that a serial killer might make as he sneaks inside a closet.  My imagination was in rare form.  When Nathan got home, I was in the car, shoeless and in my pajamas, ready to flee at the first sign of the serial killer.  

But you know what is even scarier than things that go bump in the night?  The Pre-Thanksgiving supermarket.  

Over the next few days, it's not just that the supermarket gets crowded.  It gets dangerous.  Every year, 1 in 5 Americans die while shopping for their Thanksgiving groceries.  (I have no proof for this statistic, but it sounds right).  Emergency rooms across the country are overwhelmed by Thanksgiving victims.  Last year, an entire family was buried alive by an avalanche of canned sweet potatoes.  My neighbor suffered a concussion when he was hit in the head by a frozen butterball turkey.  And once, I saw a shopper turn into a werewolf and actually tear off another customer's arm as they battled for the last bag of cranberries.  

I can barely handle the creaks my house makes when I'm home alone at night.  I simply cannot handle the grocery store in the days before Thanksgiving.  That is why I finished buying the ingredients I need for my Thanksgiving cheesecake today.  And that is why, if I forgot something, I'll be sending my husband back to the store.  Like I said, I'm not a brave woman.