Decorations--Yeah, J never got around to setting a pretty table. A couple candles, a few gourds...but we did use real cloth napkins. The parade was blaring on the television in the background. K arrived home Thanksgiving morning and J was already hard at work. K jumped in and helped with everything, including dishes and trash. We ate one big meal at 3:00 p.m. and had pie for "supper" around 9:30 p.m. We talked about our first Thanksgiving which was at the Red Lion in San Diego during our honeymoon. They had a Thanksgiving themed buffet. Doesn't matter where we are so long as we're together. We should invite others to join us and share all the bounty, but our time together is so limited that we just mostly keep to ourselves. Maybe someday we'll have someone besides ourselves for Thanksgiving.
Deviled Eggs--Well, for such an important holiday, we HAD to have an appetizer...
The Bird--This fourteen pounder cost one dollar thanks to J's coupon prowess! LOVE having our own turkey. LOVE getting all the leftovers! LOVE saving the bones for soup and stock!!! LOVE being the Kitchen Boss!
Whipped/Mashed Potatoes--I grew up calling them mashed, but K lets me know they're whipped. His family mashes with a potato masher by hand adding milk (and some salt?). My family uses the hand mixer and beaters to "mash" with milk, butter, and salt. K requested "whipped" and that was just fine by me.
Gravy--Yes, it's from a packet. K dumped in some of the juice from the turkey. I was willing to make gravy from scratch, but we just doctored up the packet.
Dressing Casserole--our version of stuffing, a recipe from K's mom.
Green Bean Casserole--K didn't request it, but J INSISTED. Certain foods BELONG to certain feasts.
Apricot Salad--not as good as our version of it last Christmas, but we did the best we could under the circumstances.
ROLLS!
It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Pumpkin Pie (in J's opinion).
Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy?
how do you do your potatoes exactly? we do evaporated milk and butter when we mash them (it's MASHED, ken, not whipped.... :P ). except this year we managed to forget to put salt in the water as they boiled, so they were a little on the bland side. oh, and which kind of potato do you use/prefer? we are red potato people. (let's get all gourmet here... ;) )
ReplyDeleteSo much to say here. First of all, we just use whatever potatoes we have on hand. Usually, they are the cheapest we can find at the store, but sometimes we get into Reds for awhile or whatever. K is not fond of Yukon Golds. Having said all of that, these potatoes came from the neighbors who participated in the community garden over behind the church. They brought us a whole big box and they are roundish, but due to the color we suspect they could be Yukon Golds, but hey, free spuds. I asked the neighbors what they grew and they didn't know because they are technically NOT their potatoes either. They people with a garden plot next to theirs (fellow stake members) just told them that they were going to leave their spuds in the ground unless my neighbors would like to dig them up, so they dug them up, and somehow, we are the recipients!
ReplyDeleteWe peel and cut up and boil the potatoes with salt in the water. We drain them. If we MASH with a hand-held potato masher, we just, you know, mash, manually, adding a little milk. When we WHIP (which I still call "mash", but K calls "whip" to differentiate), we use the electric hand mixer and beaters to mix drained and cooked spuds PLUS one whole stick of real butter (I know...which likely explains the difference in physiques of each side of the family), PLUS a little more salt (to taste), and whatever amount of milk is necessary to get the right consistency. One year, I put too much milk in, but we were able to fix it by adding some dehydrated potato flakes from the pantry. Also, we just use whatever milk is on hand...usually skim, but we've had it all the way up to half and half or even cream! We've never tried chicken boullion, garlic, or sour cream. And that's pretty much all I can say.