Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving meals have been spread throughout the week. I cooked a turkey on Monday. I baked breads and pies on Thanksgiving day so Noel and I had a small meal. We had an official meal at Joseph and Kim's on Saturday. By Sunday I added dressing to our leftovers. Maybe I'll get to the jello next weekend.

So here's how the week long sporatic Thanksgiving preparation went

Noel said he didn't want to pick a turkey. I thought he meant he didn't want to pick one out at the grocery store. No, he didn't want to pick the meat of the turkey bone. That's getting pretty darn lazy if you ask me. This has been he and Kim's assignment for years because I didn't like the job. Did I say lazy? This year I solved this problem and bought a turkey breast. Upon closer look I realized I purchased a para paraplegic turkey, no legs, with a turkey breast still on the bone. So I did the deed.

On my way home from work Wed. I stopped at Wal-mart to buy canned milk to make pumpkin pies. Staring at my hungry face were pre-made pies. I purchased the milk and succumbed to the 3.00 Wal-mart special which I do not recommend. The generic pie tasted like squash, probably similar the true, original American pumpkin pie. Isn't this what what the pilgrims and Little House of the Prairie folks ate? When I eat pumpkin pie, it shouldn't taste like a vegetable, I want something that tastes like dessert with sugar and spices. So Thursday I mixed traditional crustless pies with all the spices.

This tradition came about because of my laziness and dislike for making crusts. The best part of the pie is the pumpkin filling not the crust. Save consumed calories of crust by eating more filling.



This tradition worked fine until the Joseph married and I had a daughter- in law to impress. I didn't want Kim to think I was some slouch so I bought pre-made crust for the pie. She and Joseph arrived Wed evening before Thanksgiving as I was just about to pour the filling in the crust. Kim announced "I don't like crust."

"Hallelujah, and welcome to our family. "Well, then why am I pouring filling into this crust?" Because there's a crust.

Back to the present:

Since cooking disaster is listed in my title page I must report on one occasionally.
I started to mix bread and couldn't find the yeast which I swear I just opened the previous seek. I searched in all the obvious and odd places \where I might have placed the newly opened yeast. Couldn't find the yeast so I opened a new package. By then the bread dough was cold so the loaves never rose to a decent height.



Trying to fulfill my assignment for Kim and Joseph's thanksgiving dinner I decided to Make Parker House rolls which have always been successful using mother's recipe. Whoa, I didn't have shortening. So I researched several recipes on the Internet which called for butter. The mixed dough turned into unleavened rolls. More yeast problems.If we hadn't eaten them we would still be waiting for them to raise. Rule number one in our house, We eat all mistakes. great flavor, just a flat look.



Saturday we drove to Ogden to Kim and Joseph's for a decent meal. I was in charge of carbohydrates, mashed potatoes, and rolls. That's why I was trying to make them in the first place. The potatoes turned out great and I summoned my courage to try again a new batch of rolls using a different Parker House Roll recipe. I could tell they weren't going to rise either. I headed to the craft fair with instructions to Noel. "If I"m not home by 11:30 bake those rolls no matter what they look like."

Upon my return I was pleasantly surprised to see the baked rolls had risen somewhat. Noel did a great job. First he turned up the heat in the house, then he turned on the oven and warmed those babies up so they would rise half mast. I didn't get a picture because Noel ate them so quickly.

We took store bought rolls to Joseph and Kim's since the half mast rolls didn't look light and fluffy, but they were an improvement over the un-leavened ones. Next time I going back to mother's recipe and turn up the thermostat.