Sunday, November 23, 2008

Thanksgiving Prep

I bought four pounds of butter today. Four. Pounds. And they're not divided into sticks--each pound is wrapped whole. I was giddy just adding the package to my shopping cart.

My obsession with butter aside, I have to say that shopping for Thanksgiving fixings is fun. Putting all the food away in our pantry is like trying to stuff an elephant into a coat closet. And I haven't picked up the turkey yet.

After much planning and re-planning, we are having Thanksgiving here, at my house, with my IL's, and my husband's sister, BIL, and their 17 month old twins. Total of 10. We've got the space. We even have matching chairs at the dining room table (for the adults, anwyay). My only regret is that the kiddos aren't quite old enough to eat at the kids table (yep, we've got one of those, too, with 4 little chairs...too bad a 4 year old can't be left to supervise 3 toddlers). Did I mention that this year we were supposed to be spending Thanksgiving in Indy, with my family? Strange the way things work out.

Really, I'm trying not to go too overboard on food. It's way too easy for me. I grew up in a family of 4 kids (with a 5th who came along much later), so every dinner was "big". And now, when I think "big", I make enough food to feed half the county. And I do it all with one oven. (Hah!) (Though I daydream of double ovens and a 6-burner stovetop...No, I actually do daydream about them...)

So, I promise not to feed all four pounds of butter to the group in one single sitting. We must save some for the leftovers.

And, I don't have a Thursday Cookbook Series post queued up and ready to go. Not that I'm sure that anyone's actually reading them. (Actually, I'm not sure anyone reads the blog at all, but I'll pretend that I'm not talking to myself, just in case). I was thinking about posting a few Thanksgiving-y recipes (possibly even for the things I actually intend to cook). Stay tuned.

On second thought, don't stay tuned, just check back--I do not want to be responsible for cleaning drool off the keyboards of my whole 2 fans if they actually stared at the screen waiting for a new post.

5 comments:

Robin Bielman said...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We're going to my cousin's house and I'm bringing two dishes, so not a lot of cooking on my part. It sounds like you really love cooking. We'll have to swap recipes some time!

Bethany said...

Hey :)

I read your blog from time to time. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, your Mom/sis aren't coming out too?

Gerd and I are going to my parents for a big Thanksgiving dinner, probably 14 adults and 4 kids, although it's not as big as usual, 8 adults are missing...The Rochester crowd are staying put.

We've started doing dinner potluck style, although my aunt who hosts has two ovens and does the turkeys, plural, and hams, plural, with an over the counter roaster.

My job is usually green beans, which even I find hard to mess up.

flatflo said...

See, you have more than two readers!

I only have to make an apple pie and cranberry relish for Thanksgiving, as we are heading to Columbia, MO to my B&S-IL (is that acronym valid?) Getting off easy, don't even need to clean house!
But...
Christmas is at my place. Which is why I have my guest bathroom torn up in the midst of redecorating. Just hit a snag with mold under the linoleum near the toilet. I'm pretty handy around the house, but I draw the line at toilets!

So what recipes are you working from for Turkey Day? (Nice segue, yes?)

Amanda said...

Wow, you do have more than 2 readers. There are at least 4 of us. I like the Thursday recipe books. It's fun and something different.

BriteLady said...

I will try to post a couple of recipes in lieu of this week's cookbook post. Well, that's the idea. We'll see on Thursday if it worked out or not.

Most of the stuff I'm making comes from that America's Test Kitchen Cookbook (Seriously, I Love these people. They publish Cooks' Illustrated magazine, too, and have other cookbooks out...every recipe always works!). Brining the turkey, mashed potatoes (just normal ones) & gravy, stuffing, a cranberry-apple relish from Cooking Light many years back, apple and pumpkin pies. Guests are bringing wine & veggie side dishes.

I like to go snazzy for some things, but I'm a traditionalist for Thanksgiving--traditional but good & from scratch (the cooking's half the fun of the day, for me anyway).