Happy Happy

Saturday was the BIG day for our family.  That day when we gather to share our love for each other, laugh together, eat way too much, indulge in sweet treats we wouldn’t touch the rest of the year and last, but never least, watch football and knit.  Saturday was our Thanksgiving.  After a week of cooking and preparation, and with a great deal of help from sweet daughter-in-law and daughter, it went off swimmingly.  I took on the task of preparing 90% of the food (turkey, duck, stuffing, duck and turkey gravy, sweet potato casserole, fresh cranberry sauce, yeast dinner rolls, buttermilk and caramel pumpkin pies), which was complemented by daughter’s mashed potatoes and DIL’s Asian chicken and green bean casserole.  YUM!!

---

I didn’t know if I was up to the task because most of the time I cook for two and not a lot at that.  Cooking for eight was once a way of life for me, but I knew the formidable task of cooking a full Thanksgiving meal for 10 was something for which I would have to do prior planning as well as preliminary training.  On a calendar I planned a cooking event for every day during the week before the dinner and broke down the required dishes into one or two a day, the last being the turkey and duck on Friday. 

---

I learned three lessons this week:  1.  That I could carve the turkey and duck and store them tightly wrapped overnight.  An hour before eating I reheated them after dousing with a little of the meat juices and broth to keep them moist.  It worked!!  2.  That the rolls that have been baked on Wednesday and that look a little dry can be made warm and fresh with a little splash of water and a zap of the microwave, and 3.  If you make cranberry sauce on Monday and DH eats it as jelly on toast and sauce on meat and other things, you will have to make cranberry sauce again on Friday.

Life is good!

Football knitting

 

                                                                                      Ready for a nap