Okay, I know what's up with turkeys. Soaking them in brine is the big deal now. A few years ago, it was deep frying. I've had both and they were delicious. I'm way out in front this year: crock-pot turkey. Revolutionary cook that I am. We put it in the oven the last hour so it would brown. It was quite good as turkeys go. I am not a great turkey lover. I'd prefer ribs.Obviously, it was a small turkey. It only had to serve three of us. Tom and I and my sister, Janie. I wish I had asked her to bring a friend, because there was plenty of food but I don't think of these things until after the fact. I always assume that everyone has a place to go on
Thanksgiving Day, but Tom and I didn't. Our boys all went to the in-laws. And Janie didn't. Her daughter is in Seattle and her son is in San Francisco. And it turns out that many of her single friends didn't either.
One year, Janie spent Thanksgiving alone, because no one in her family thought to ask her. She has a million friends and half a million family members. She said she read and watched TV, ate some chocolate and had a rather enjoyable day.
I like both small and large Thanksgiving celebrations and I imagine that one day I will have a Thanksgiving Day all by myself. If that time ever comes, I'll have a large chocolate eclair. Maybe two. And I'd make my gratitude list as I always do. It's always a long list, but I'm especially thankful for my cyber friends who seem to me as real as anyone I know.
Is your tree up?
I already spend two days shopping, baking and cooking for the big meal. Spending another two babysitting a salt-water-bathing turkey is more than I can bare. How much better can it be?
ReplyDeleteSince Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here, Christmas has been in full swing since the middle of November. All of the christmas markets are going strong. Really tempting, but I couldn't betray my Thanksgiving like that.
We should have gotten together! I'll tell you about our Thanksgiving when I see you on Sunday. Unless you sleep in.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who hosts Thanksgiving dinner for her friends, and their friends, who don't have anywhere else to go. I want to be like her. She is a saint.
ReplyDeleteI don't usually put my tree up until the first week of December. I know, this sounds so out of character being the spawn of Teddy, whose house transforms into Santa's village 5 minutes after Thanksgiving dinner. If Santa's village ever emerges at Halloween, there will be an intervention.
The little tree stall on the north-east corner of my building went up today. I love it. Especially at night when the lights go on. Gives the area a nice old-fashioned New York neighborhood flavor. I'll visit the trees at Rockefeller and Lincoln and Time Warner and the park. I think there's one in the Cloisters as well. I'll bid them all a fond farewell and take them with me to Utah. I think I'll put them in a cluster around the cherry tree my sisters and I used to play with as children. It's an attempt to populate my psychological landscape with happy memories, as tinged with that melancholy of things past, as they inevitably are.
ReplyDeleteI love the crock-pot turkey idea. My Thanksgiving this year was quiet, but satisfying.
My tree will be up on Dec. 3rd. That's when Costco stocks its fresh trees.
ReplyDeleteEclairs are my favorite dessert. In fact, the day before Mother's Day, I drove 50 miles to the best eclair bakery in AZ and picked up eclairs for all the women in our ward.
The crock-pot turkey is pure genius, Louise.
Crock-pot turkey? Is awesome. Anything that can make Thanksgiving easier. This year we did disposable dishes. It was great. The food still tasted the same.
ReplyDeleteTree is up. And the worst part with it... those damn lights. I hate stringing them around the branches. But it's done, and my little one runs into the family room first thing every morning and plugs in the lights. It makes my heart happy.
ReplyDeleteWe did a turkey in the crock pot today actually. If you get one with a bone in it, you don't have to add a single thing to it when you throw that gobbler into the crock pot. It was genius.
I would way rather have ham than turkey, but nobody wants to commit to not having turkey for leftover sandwiches. The next Thanksgiving I'm in charge of, we are having ham, by gum.
ReplyDeleteLouise,
ReplyDeleteCan I be one of your cyber friends? I'm not a weirdo. I just thought, when I read this, "I would like to be one of those cyber friends that Louise is talking about. I like Louise. I think she is funny. If I were her neighbor, I would buy her a whole box of chocolate eclairs."
How does one go about being cyber friends, actually? Is there an introduction needed? References? Do I need to do anything to prove that I'm not a stalker? (Stalker . . .ha! That would be funny. I don't have time to stalk. I have one baby who is nursing and another child who is potty training. All I do is get fluids from one place to another.)
Oh, you make me laugh. I loved the "beating the bottoms of each other's feet as we speak" comment from one of your posts.
ReplyDeleteGuess what my 4 year old son did THIS year at Thanksgiving dinner? When asked what he was grateful for, he replied, "My butt cheeks." It really looked like he gave it some thought too, so I couldn't be too mad.