Thanksgiving this year was at my Mom's. This was not unusual. What was unusual is that both my sister's family and my brother's family came up from Portland. It is the first time in over a decade that all of my siblings have been together for this holiday. It was really wonderful to be able to spend this time with them.
Amazingly, with 15 people (10 adults, and 5 kids under age 8) there were no major melt downs. We hung out, played some games, entertained the kids and ate A LOT. My mother is of the I-want-to-do-it-myself variety. It makes her happy not to let anyone be involved in the meal process. So although we each brought a side dish, she spent the whole time in the kitchen making a huge meal and shooing out anyone who tried to help. This used to frustrate me, but now I just accept that this is what makes her happy, and I make sure throughout the day that she knows I am there if she should suddenly fall down a flight of stairs or develop a tumor ("It's not a tumor!") or in any way become incapacitated. I will take over the baster if called upon!
Anyway, the food was fabulous as usual. Here's a little glimpse into our holiday feast:
The table set for the big event. See the chair down at the very end on the right? The orange one? The one with the broken back that's been taped together and covered with a towel? That would be my seat. It's so good to be loved. Yeah...
Mmmm....turkey. We have a majority of dark meat fans (me included!) so that's what went first. My mom makes a great, moist, flavorful turkey. Must be all that basting.
On the left, my mom's famous stuffing (from an old Campbell's Soup cookbook) and on the right my sister-in-law's sweet potatoes with a brown sugar topping.
What is Thanksgiving in America without some type of funky salad? The green one is a lime Jell-o salad with cottage cheese, pineapple and walnuts. The yellow one is Ambrosia, with coconut, mandarin oranges and marshmallows maybe? I like the green one. My sister likes the yellow one, so she can probably tell me what's in it. When I write it out, they both sound pretty disgusting. But Thanksgiving calls for weird family foods like this. Then we have two styles of canned cranberry sauce, plain and whole berry. My sister makes a killer warm cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries. I missed having it this year. Maybe next time.
We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, broccoli, and homemade rolls, not to mention all the appetizers we had at lunch time "to tide us over" until dinner. For dessert there was apple-currant crumble, pumpkin pie and a cheesecake. I always forget to take pictures when I get full, so sorry, no dessert shots. I made the pumpkin pie. It's a Bisquick recipe my mom always made when we were kids. It's a crustless pie but really smooth and good. You mix all the ingredients in a blender, poor in a pan and bake. Couldn't be much easier. I'll post the recipe tomorrow after I find my Bisquick cookbook and look for a picture of the pie.
I was planning to add more pictures of our day, as well as highlighting my other two nephews. But I forgot to ask everyone if that was okay. So I'll hopefully have more family pics tomorrow. Plus, most of us female-type people went to a new tea room together this morning. See you soon for the official review.
Happy belated thanksgiving! Looking at all that food has made me miss Thanksgiving already! The funky salad every family seems to have is probably true. Your family's salad doesn't seem as funky as some of the ones you see here in jelloville Utah. When I first moved here, I was socked to see massive amounts of grated carrots in green jello. Is that normal? Maybe I'm the weird one, but I still can't eat that stuff.
ReplyDeleteMy mom used to make a vegetable Jell-o salad with lime Jell-o, grated carrots and cabbage! ACK! She was the only one who would eat it, so she quit making it. Plus, we kids were merciless in making fun of it. Sorry, Mom!
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving to you, too, Nichole!