Our first Thanksgiving away from AZ was actually a pretty good one, despite missing our family and cousins. Dan started the day by playing football with the ward, young men vs. old men :) The young men won... he was sore, muddy and frozen mess when he returned home.
We finished cooking the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, fruit tray, and veggies and dip and pies before heading to the Hawkins. We had a FABULOUS feast (our friends prepared an amazing spread of food), and we ate our selves silly.
I've never cooked a turkey from start to finish before and candidly... I am not a fan of the preparation process :-) My parents have always cooked the turkey, or one year - they prepped and brine a turkey then sent it over for me to put in the oven. It was so easy! I used Alton Brown's recipe for the perfect turkey. It has a few steps - starting with brining it the day before. Unfortunately, I had to call a friend for turkey help, cause I couldn't find all the innards to pull out. I pulled the neck out, but didn't know you had to open the OTHER end to find the innards bag. EWWW. I was SOOO grossed out as I had my arm up to my elbow, fishing around inside this giant bird, trying the find the parts. (I needed to look in the other end :)
Trussing the bird was another challenge - it felt like I was handling a small child! Dan had to step in and give me a hand. The turkey came out beautiful in the end, and was delicious! Dan had the task of potato-peeler. Poor guy, gets this daunting task every year... Good thing he doesn't seem to mind. He sets up a trashcan by the couch and watches football while peeling. Last year, for the Barnette Thanksgiving - I think he peeled 20 lbs of potatoes!
It was a good experience to have to venture out of my assigned dishes and have to cook other things this year. My family is pretty large, so we all bring a few dishes and we have a giant feast. I wasn't too happy with my pies this year - I need to perfect them a bit more for next year. I enjoy the dinner part of Thanksgiving - but I live for the pies!!! It's the one time a year that we really eat them. Growing up, we always had a smorgaspord of pies to choose from. I would follow my Dad's example, and take a sliver from each pie - so you could sample them all. I did miss the pies this year. It wasn't worth making a whole pie, just to eat one piece.
It was a great day, and we had some family time to reflect on ALL the things we are thankful for. We feel so blessed in our lives and are extremely grateful for all the love we feel from our amazing support system. We have wonderful extended families and some dear friends that enrich our lives.
We opened our Thankful Jar and read each slip, we spent all last year writing things we were Thankful for on slips of paper and filling up our jar. It was fun to read them - a year later. Some of the things we are thankful for are: family, friends, healthy, working bodies, our testimonies and knowledge of the gospel, the amazing women (moms, sisters, grandmothers, neighbors, friends, etc. in my life - their examples, love, and service that they give to us, modern conveniences, warm house, toys, job, clean water, A/C, and so forth.
Thank you to everyone who has enriched our lives and lightened our load, and touched our hearts. We love you all dearly.
No comments:
Post a Comment