Basically, he was 2 seconds away from putting it in the oven. Which means he dealt with all the icky crap inside the turkey as well as handling the raw turkey itself. (I'm weirdly squeamish about dealing with food that looks too much like it did when it was alive.) I heart him.
I realized, after the fact, that I really know nothing more about cooking a turkey now than I did before, because the only thing I did with it was baste it obsessively and obsess over why the stupid built-in timer didn't pop when it was supposed to.
Anyway, I took over the food prep after that, while Tony and Ari took charge of cleaning up. Ari is in love with our Swiffer mops and actually asks if she can mop. Wonder how long that will last?
Somehow, "cleaning" also seemed to mean "playing the Wii." Hmm...
It's OK, though--I took a break at one point to play a quick game of Memory with Ari. In the end, she had 5 pairs and I had 3, so I explained to her that she won, but she replied, "No, I should have 3 because I'm 3 years old." Obviously we have a lot to teach her about how games work.
My first order of business in the kitchen was peeling a gajillion potatoes, which I'm glad I started on early, because it took me forever. Ari wandered in every now and then wanting to help, but there was nothing for her to do. So I enlisted her help later with the green bean casserole.
Ahh, nothing beats free child labor...
I kept sneaking little handfuls of the onions. Man, I love those things.
Mom and Dad arrived with this little gift for Ari, and she posed for me with her super-fake smile.
Like I kind of mentioned before, the turkey took forever to cook. According to the instructions on the wrapper, it should have only taken 4 hours to cook, but it took more like 6. That was the only point where I got a little stressed, because that's what I hate about cooking--trying to coordinate everything to be done at the same time. Ugh. But it finally finished cooking, and here's what it looked like before we hacked it all up.
Mmmmmmm.
Tony and my dad were in charge of carving the bird, while Mom and I got the rest of the sides ready.
And then finally--finally--it was time to eat. Here's the spread...
And then Mom offered to take a shot with me in it.
And then we ate... and ate and ate and ate. Everything tasted good to me, and everyone else concurred, so I guess it was a success. Well, Ari didn't really have an opinion, because I don't think she ate a single thing on her plate. She cut things up (that's her newest thing-to-do with her food, rather than eat it) and moved things around, but I don't remember seeing a single bite go in her mouth.
I had to take this picture of my lovely potatoes.
Think that's a lot? That's just the leftovers. Remember I said I peeled a gajillion potatoes? Well, by "a gajillion" I meant "2 bags." See, we bought 2 bags, and I could have sworn that we did that because Tony said I should use them all, but he insists he only grabbed 2 because they were buy one, get one free. Oh well. Guess we'll be eating a lot of potatoes in the next week or so.
Then it was time to clean up--ugh. The least fun part of cooking. Tony took the rest of the meat off the turkey....
...and the rest of us cleared off the table, packed up leftovers, etc. I washed the 2 pots the potatoes had been in, because I didn't want the potato gunk to harden.
After cleaning up a little, we all chilled for a bit. We played Wii bowling (and I totally won--go me) and watched a video of a magic show my parents went to see. Then we all somehow managed to find a little room for dessert--apple and pumpkin pies, brownies, and gingerbread cookies.
My dad offered to do some dishes and I told him he didn't need to do them all, but because he is awesome, not only did he wash them all, he also cleaned out our microwave for us (which was no small task, let me tell you). I heart him, too.
And now I have a fridge filled with leftover turkey, potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole and other miscellaneous foodstuffs. Anyone want to come over for dinner?
3 comments:
It was a delicious dinner & fun, too! Thanks again for having us over! :))
I have yet to deal with a raw turkey and all its icky insides. I think I'll try to avoid it as long as I can :)
Swiffers look so much easier than the squeegie mop we have. Maybe I'll get one someday. Your hardwood floor is so pretty, by the way.
I look forward to when Matthew is old enough to help in the kitchen. Was it nice having more room to cook and move around and stuff?
Matthew tries to cut his food, but he's unsuccessful. I think he sees me doing it and I tell him I'm cutting it up cause it's hot, and when I hand him the fork, he tries to copy me.
Oh, I can totally relate to Ari's eating habits because of Matthew. Sometimes he barely eats anything, or it's 2 bits and he's done. I try not to worry about it, but it bothers me sometimes cause he's all ribs when you see him with his shirt off.
Ooh, I hate hardened potato gunk. I'm glad Dad always taught us to rinse our dishes. I have to remind Josh from time to time, cause anything like cheese or egg or veggie bits are murder to clean off if they are allowed to dry.
I so can't wait for my first piece of pumpkin pie...and my second, and my third ;)
Now I'm so in the mood for Thanksgiving dinner!! I love every part of it...probably because I don't have to make the turkey. I started making my own chicken broth which means getting whole chickens and cooking them (then saving the bones, etc.), but that raw chicken is something I still haven't gotten used to...gross!
Sorry, can't relate with a not-eating child. I think I have the opposite problem, sometimes I just wish he'd stop eating! It seems like it's never enough, but I know he's not starving!
Praying for safe traveling for everyone during Thanksgiving! We get to stay in one place this year :)!
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