Turkey Day Recap

Ah, the great american celebration of Gluttony and Football has come and gone once more, as well as the annual homage to the gods of capitalism and commerce.

I actually like Thanksgiving the best of all the holidays. It's about family and friends, but without any of the stress or pressure from Christmas. Now that I'm the one behind the scenes every year, Christmas just doesn't seem to have the magic it once did. Take it from me - knowing how the magic really works doesn't make it better, it spoils the show.

I don't even mind the leftovers. In fact, I kind of like them. But, once again, we are out of turkey already. I cooked a frickin' 20 pound bird, and nothing is left. Granted, we let our guests take home as much as they wanted, and that seemed to be all they wanted (we have lots of potatoes, stuffing, green bean cassarole and gravy left, but no turkey. Kind of weird to make a plate of all of that without it. But tonight is probably close to the last of it. We are heading to bd's Mongolian Grill tomorrow night for a friend of mines birthday (it was actually on Saturday - Happy 26th Birthday James!), and by Wednesday they will be a little old. Of course, the boys are already sick of them, but that is kids for you. Not even any to make Turkey Cassarole with.

I've been telling that story, so I'll put it out here as well.

When I got married, my mom gave us a bunch of her recipes on cards. One of them was for the Turkey Cassarole - labeled "Mike's Favorite Turkey Cassarole", and her saying how much I loved this recipe. Mom always remembered how much I looked forward to her making it after each Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now don't get me wrong, it is good and I like it, but it is not on my top ten list by any means. She completely mis-understood me about it.

See, the turkey cassarole was always what she did with the last of the left over turkey. So I would always look forward to it, not because I wanted it so much, as it meant that the leftovers were gone, and we could go back to eating normal meals! So it wasn't the dish itself, but what it signified that is what I loved so much.

Of course, the kids hate it. Matt also hates Green Bean Cassarole, and none of them like stuffing much. I have to hang my head in shame - I don't know where I went wrong. We had 12 people, so I made a double batch of GBC, and it was barely touched. When I was growing up, we not only stuffed the bird, but had a second big pan of stuffing as well (the in-the-bird stuff always went first - much juicer and better). Of course, I have most of the stuffing left as well. The mashed potatoes were really good - a whole bag of idaho's (the yukon gold's we had gotten a week before were bad), a stick of butter, a pint of sour cream, and this garlic/herb mashed potato mix that Diane found (it was intended for 3 lbs of potatoes, we had 10, so it worked out nicely, adding just a little bit to it, but not overwhelming them). And I made a huge amount of gravy, simply because you need it for all the leftovers.

I did good on the gravy as well. Once again I turned to my Mom. I remember every year, she would have the neck and giblets boiling all day long on the stove, and make gravy with them. So once I was out on my own, I had to ask her what the recipe was. Boild the giblets (I knew that part), and chop them fine. Then add them to canned gravy. Yep, my mom's secret giblet gravy was from a can. I don't quite do that (I don't like the canned type), but I do use the powdered gravy mix for mine. But I try never to use plain water, I use the broth from boiling the giblets, and the juice from the turkey, plsu some chicken bouillon.

Another cute item. After dinner, we were talking. Amy (James' wife) and her mom were sitting at the table, and I mentioned something about the giblet gravy. They both turned a little pale. "You put the giblets in the gravy?" "Of course" "But I hate giblets." And especially her mom, who hates giblet gravy but had two helpings of mine! :-):-):-)

And I think my weigh in this week will be ok. Diane, Becky and I went and did Step-Aerobics on Thursday morning at the rec center (they had one special class - admission was canned food). That kicked my butt hard (my calves are still sore). They need to do a step class for uncoordinated white guys. It wasn't the exercise, it was trying to keep up as she kept changing what we were supposed to be doing, especially when it was just one step of something. But it was a hard workout, allowing me to eat more. And mowing the lawn one last time to pick up all the leaves on Friday, then going to the rec center both Saturday and Sunday to work out. Now I just have to be good until weigh-in (and going to The Melting Pot on Friday for a family dinner didn't help, but I think I survived it. (For the past several years we have made it a tradition to do one big family dinner out the day after Thanksgiving - before it had been to Sake' - a local Japanese steakhouse and sushi restaurant) , but we decided to splurge and do something a bit bigger (and more expensive) this year)).