Thanksgiving plans, or the lack thereof.
Nov. 22nd, 2006 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angledgeI'm not going to my parents' house for Thanksgiving, & it is seriously bumming me out.
My mom, the famous Little Lucy Woman, the Great Enchilada Lady, is a world-class cook & she goes ALL OUT for Thanksgiving. If the turkey farmers of America ever manage to grow a 500-lb. turkey, my mom will probably build a new house with a large enough oven to cook it in. The standard Thanksgiving menu includes: mashed potatoes, homemade gravy (I still can't match her gravymaking skills despite a 20-year apprenticeship), candied yams, green beans, the Best Stuffing in the Universe, an olive & pickle plate, soft white rolls, cranberry sauce, apple pie, pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie, other pies, ice cream, & several hundred cookies.
Most of Wednesday afternoon/evening & all of Thursday morning are spent in preparation, but at a certain point, everything is ready & all that's left is waiting for the turkey to finish cooking. At that point, the smell in the house is good beyond belief & most of the flat surfaces of the kitchen are filled with dishes waiting for their big moment. Someone is circling the dining room table, filling water glasses & calling out "Who wants red wine? Who wants white? Who wants that Martinelli sparkling apple stuff?" The coffee maker gets set up so it will be ready to go when the dessert round begins. The TV gets turned off & holiday music gets turned up. Gus the Awesome Schnauzer is doing his best to look irresistably cute, & if he had much of a tail he'd be wagging it in anticipation of days filled with turkey-laced dog food.
And finally, the meal begins. Grace is said, & dishes are passed. My first plate is always balanced, trying a little bit of everything. And I'm always amazed at how quickly I clear that first plate. The second plate is usually biased towards favorites - heavy on the stuffing, lots of gherkins, another piece of white meat smeared with cranberry sauce. The third plate is one filled with reservations (I know I should leave some room for dessert....) but, as someone once said, I can be remarkably resistant to learning from experience. So I make the Third Plate Mistake every year. By the time that plate is empty, the feeling of complete gastronomical satisfaction is upon me.
My family calls a break between the main dinner & the dessert course. This gives us a chance to clear the table, start the dishes, check the football scores, feed Gus a few choice tidbits & maybe even take him for a quick walk.
But after a little while, the pies & ice cream & cookies roll out. Everyone loads up a fresh plate & trundles over to the TV, balancing their collection of sweeties on top of their rotund bellies, with a cup of coffee to wash everything down. Despite the caffeine, consciousness levels in the room drop as the tryptophan takes hold, & before long, only the dog is moving, nosing from plate to plate in search of crumbs.
The rest of the day usually passes in a blur, with lots of football, idle chatter, & exhortations to "get in here & help with the dishes" echoing from the kitchen. The days that follow include shopping & eating leftovers. Really, what is there not to like about Thanksgiving? Food, family, football, & OK a little shopping can I please do it on the intarweb?
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But this year I didn't get my plane-ticket-buying butt in gear early enough, & I was impoverished by the recent move. So it's Thanksgiving in NYC for me & la chica. Weather permitting, we're going to go watch the Macy's Parade & just bop around Manhattan. Four days at home ought to give us plenty of time to make the final housecleaning push in our apartment - hanging pictures, organizing closets, etc. We're going to meet up withchaosvizier on Friday to see a movie, & hopefully we will also meet up with xgreenjudasx & kielbasa_007 at some point. I might bake some cookies, & we may even make a trip down to Jive Turkey in Brooklyn.
But it won't be quite the same.
-----------------
So, what are your plans for Thanksgiving?
My mom, the famous Little Lucy Woman, the Great Enchilada Lady, is a world-class cook & she goes ALL OUT for Thanksgiving. If the turkey farmers of America ever manage to grow a 500-lb. turkey, my mom will probably build a new house with a large enough oven to cook it in. The standard Thanksgiving menu includes: mashed potatoes, homemade gravy (I still can't match her gravymaking skills despite a 20-year apprenticeship), candied yams, green beans, the Best Stuffing in the Universe, an olive & pickle plate, soft white rolls, cranberry sauce, apple pie, pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie, other pies, ice cream, & several hundred cookies.
Most of Wednesday afternoon/evening & all of Thursday morning are spent in preparation, but at a certain point, everything is ready & all that's left is waiting for the turkey to finish cooking. At that point, the smell in the house is good beyond belief & most of the flat surfaces of the kitchen are filled with dishes waiting for their big moment. Someone is circling the dining room table, filling water glasses & calling out "Who wants red wine? Who wants white? Who wants that Martinelli sparkling apple stuff?" The coffee maker gets set up so it will be ready to go when the dessert round begins. The TV gets turned off & holiday music gets turned up. Gus the Awesome Schnauzer is doing his best to look irresistably cute, & if he had much of a tail he'd be wagging it in anticipation of days filled with turkey-laced dog food.
And finally, the meal begins. Grace is said, & dishes are passed. My first plate is always balanced, trying a little bit of everything. And I'm always amazed at how quickly I clear that first plate. The second plate is usually biased towards favorites - heavy on the stuffing, lots of gherkins, another piece of white meat smeared with cranberry sauce. The third plate is one filled with reservations (I know I should leave some room for dessert....) but, as someone once said, I can be remarkably resistant to learning from experience. So I make the Third Plate Mistake every year. By the time that plate is empty, the feeling of complete gastronomical satisfaction is upon me.
My family calls a break between the main dinner & the dessert course. This gives us a chance to clear the table, start the dishes, check the football scores, feed Gus a few choice tidbits & maybe even take him for a quick walk.
But after a little while, the pies & ice cream & cookies roll out. Everyone loads up a fresh plate & trundles over to the TV, balancing their collection of sweeties on top of their rotund bellies, with a cup of coffee to wash everything down. Despite the caffeine, consciousness levels in the room drop as the tryptophan takes hold, & before long, only the dog is moving, nosing from plate to plate in search of crumbs.
The rest of the day usually passes in a blur, with lots of football, idle chatter, & exhortations to "get in here & help with the dishes" echoing from the kitchen. The days that follow include shopping & eating leftovers. Really, what is there not to like about Thanksgiving? Food, family, football, & OK a little shopping can I please do it on the intarweb?
-----------------
But this year I didn't get my plane-ticket-buying butt in gear early enough, & I was impoverished by the recent move. So it's Thanksgiving in NYC for me & la chica. Weather permitting, we're going to go watch the Macy's Parade & just bop around Manhattan. Four days at home ought to give us plenty of time to make the final housecleaning push in our apartment - hanging pictures, organizing closets, etc. We're going to meet up with
chaosvizier on Friday to see a movie, & hopefully we will also meet up with xgreenjudasx & kielbasa_007 at some point. I might bake some cookies, & we may even make a trip down to Jive Turkey in Brooklyn.But it won't be quite the same.
-----------------
So, what are your plans for Thanksgiving?
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 11:58 pm (UTC)I'm at school today (which is Thursday here) even though it's a Japanese national holiday (Labor Thanksgiving Day). We have three classes, and then there's a PTA meeting. So I'll have one class with my favorite special ed kid, and spend the rest of the school day at the computer, trying not to be cold. Tonight I need to clean. But then I'm going to Osaka for a few days to enjoy big city eating, book shopping, etc for a couple of days.
This is my 3rd year of not being home for Thanksgiving (last year I was here, and the year before in Italy). I do kind of miss it, but then we haven't done a big dinner with the extended family in a long time. We had dinner with the Lebanese Taverna family's extended family last time, but it wasn't quite the same.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 01:34 am (UTC)it's insane.
anyway, you doing anything friday evening? i think i've still got that free.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 03:49 am (UTC)Actually, it's my food because I bought it. But I'm totally eating piggish stuff that he'd never ordinarily let me bring into his house.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 05:02 pm (UTC)So I decided to cook for all of my MIT friends who are not going anywhere for the holiday, which makes me feel a lot better. What I'm cooking is limited by my budget, but I've got all the major things except the turkey (as I don't really like turkey, it's a pain to cook, and I'm not buying duck for 10 people...) and we should have a rocking good time.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 09:32 pm (UTC)Xo.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-26 02:30 am (UTC)Hey, in case you haven't seen this--50 fun things to do in your neck of the woods. Enjoy. :)