Thanksgiving

This is a very interesting Thanksgiving for me this year. As I have mentioned in other weeks, I am the oldest in a very, very large family (there are ten kids!). So, traditionally the holidays have been a really exciting and memorable time. However, this year I am on the opposite side of the country as my family and am not able to go home for Thanksgiving. (My husband and I are very lucky because we are able to go home for two weeks during the Christmas season, but in order to do so we decided to stay in Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving).

We were in this same situation last year, and we were invited to one of my co-worker’s homes for Thanksgiving and spent the holiday with her and her family. We were invited to do so again this year, but instead my husband and I decided to have our “First Thanksgiving” together as a family (we were just married this summer).

Although I have been really excited to make my first turkey dinner by myself (and also only for two people instead of 12+), a large part of me is scared to death of preparing such a memorable meal! Let me take a step back for a minute. My husband’s mom was a stay-at-home mom his whole life and consequently he had wonderful, home-made meals for him every day growing up. She is a wonderful cook and every time we have a birthday in the family, or any kind of event to celebrate, we always get together and she cooks a homemade meal. That is their family’s way of celebrating. Now, I am not a terrible cook by any means, in fact I think I am pretty good. However, pretty much every single meal that I have prepared for my husband ever since I have known him has been compared to something his mom makes. I usually get some response like, “Wow sweetheart, these (fill in the blank here) are really good…you know my mom uses this special sauce when she makes them. You should give her a call and get the recipe”. (This is usually followed by a *roll of the eyes* on my part). I know he would never mean to or want to hurt my feelings, but he just grew up with a mom who was a very good homemaker. Moral of the story: I needed to figure out what to do for Thanksgiving.

So, the last week and a half I have been looking through all kinds of cookbooks and websites trying to read up on cooking a turkey, making homemade stuffing, (I was SO thankful for GFriday’s pumpkin pie recipe…thank you!), and baked sweet potatoes. My mom isn’t really available all the time for me to call and ask her for advice. So, I ended up calling my mother-in-law and asking her for advice. We get along really well, so I wasn’t afraid of calling and asking her. My biggest concern, however, was using the same recipes she has always used and then having the way I made the meal compared to how she made the meal.

I called and left her a voicemail yesterday. I said, “Kathy, I am having a mini panic attack. It is two days before Thanksgiving and I really have no clue what I need to be doing”. I got a phone call about a half hour later and we had a great phone call! She gave me all the great recipes I will need and also a few helpful tidbits while I was preparing the meal. I laughed when she warned me that if I don’t save the juice out of the canned pineapple and canned mandarin oranges cans (for the fruit salad) then my husband will probably pout. Also, I found out some other funny antics that he has. For example, apparently he never thinks the turkey is cooked for long enough and is afraid of eating under-cooked meat. But, he gets obsessive about it and will make you cook the turkey for almost an hour longer then it needs to be cooked. So, she lowered her voice and said, “When this happens (and I guarantee it will) just tell him, ‘ok sweetie, thanks for noticing’ and just turn the temperature down on the oven so that he thinks it is still cooking and it guarantees that you won’t have an incredibly dry turkey”. We talked for at least an hour and laughed about some of the funny things that have occurred in the past on Thanksgiving.

Tonight we made the pumpkin pies together, tomorrow morning we are running in a Turkey Trot race, and after that the adventure in the kitchen begins! Although I was initially sad that I won’t be with all my brothers and sisters this year on Thanksgiving, and am very excited to create a brand new memory and start my own traditions! I feel incredibly lucky that I have a wonderful husband to spend this holiday with. Although I guarantee something will likely go wrong tomorrow (in fact, I already burned the crust on the pie tonight!), I also guarantee that the day will be full of rich memories and lots of laughter. I could never ask for anything more.

Happy Thanksgiving!!