Thanksgiving started out great. A little sleep in, a nice hot cup of tea, the Macy's Day Parade and then the dreaded cooking of the food. As a non-chef, this day is daunting for me as it means spending more than one hour cooking a lot of different foods at different times. It is a fine tuned orchestra that comes together as a meal. However for me, multi-tasking in the kitchen does not come easy. Pots boil over (I am one that believes higher temps = less time in the kitchen), timers beep every six seconds, smoke detectors go off and kids stare at me in disbelief.
But this year was Mark's first Thanksgiving as they do not have Thanksgiving in Australia (yes people ask all the time) so I was determined to cook that turkey to perfect, mash those potatoes, steam those green beans and hear that orchestra playing the sweet tunes of Thankfulness.
You can see where this is going, right? All started out ok (minus a few boil overs) and it appeared I was going to pull it off. Tyler even baked apple and pumpkin pies which is where the fun began. He accidentally emptied some of the pumpkin contents into the stove (mistake #1) while the turkey was baking. Let me tell you that pumpkin pie filling sure smokes a lot and smells awful. So the house was filled with smoke.
Then the timers (or was that the smoke detector….hmmmm) started going off to get the turkey out, mash the potatos, make the gravy, etc. I "acted" like I was the conductor and Mark was there to take my direction. (mistake #2). I asked him to hold up the bag that I baked the turkey in so I could punch a hole and drain the 2+ cups of turkey drippings to make gravy. Then I had the bright idea of moving over over to the sink so he held up bagged turkey over the aluminum (which I was holding onto) as we moved it toward the sink (mistake #3)…..when……………………….
the bag gave way and said turkey fell into the aluminum tin tray I was holding (mistake #4 to let me hold anything) and boom: Down went the bird, the veggies, and the 2+ cups of turkey drippings all on the floor.
There was a moment of silence and then sheer panic from me in an attempt to save the bird……………."GET THE DOG" came out of my mouth because I could hear those four legs pattering toward the kitchen. Then more silence as Mark and I stood in a lake full of turkey grease accessing the damage.
The great thing about a girl with OCD is you can pretty much eat off my sterilized floor……I had mopped the floor between all the cooking so my dear family did not even blink an eye and on to the platter the bird went to be carved. There was the roar of laughter from the kids as we carried on and I pretty much just told Mark….welcome to a "Tracy Thanksgiving" where you are just thankful I don't burn the house down in the process.
Did I get pictures of the turkey on the ground…NO but I sure wish I had.
Ta-da…………
For my next act I will pull gravy out of a hat?
ahhhh……..time to be thankful and eat the turkey with the Earthly Seasonings" as Mark said it best….
So Mark what did you think about your first Thanksgiving? He now knows without a doubt I am a wreck in the kitchen and I cannot juggle a turkey worth a darn.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did and I am thankful for so much this year and those sitting at that table top that list.
As for me, I have put the conductor batons down and I am leaving the kitchen concerts to others. This may seriously show my incompetence so well I will not have to do that again. There is nothing like throwing your meal on the floor to get out of cooking the holiday meals.
I wonder what I could do with a ham at Christmas…………stay tuned.
When we are in the state of thankfullness, we are in a higher state of awareness, gratitude at our doorstep. ~ Author Unknown