annual thanksgiving thread

I won't be going home for the holidays. I'll be working (for shitty regular pay). I'm usually the one to do all the cooking and have it at my house, but my brother-in-law wants to invite our estranged nephews. I don't know if they'll accept the invitation, but I don't want them in my house, so if I do dinner with family at all, it will have to be held at my brother-in-law's. It may sound bitchy of me to not want to do it at my house, but they (the nephews) are racists (one in particular) and I won't allow that kind of talk in my home, period.

As far as Christmas is concerned, I don't care what the b-n-l wants. Even if it's just the hubby and I, I'm making dinner at my house.

 

As Flash said, real Thanksgiving was last month.

For those of you actually doing the cooking, the NYTimes has a special online section devoted to recipes etc for Thanksgiving.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/thanksgiving_day/index.html

If you are the person who's going to be responsible for cutting up the bird, there's a video showing the proper and most efficient way.

Oh, and DON'T wash the turkey

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/24/dining/24WASH.html?_r=1

 

This will be the first Thanksgiving without my dad, so I suspect it will be tough. Going to a relative's house with my mom. There will only be 4 of us and I am not expecting to have a good time. At least said relative is a good cook.

 

This will be my first Thanksgiving off in seven years. As a matter of fact, in the time I've been employed in this biz, I've probably only had a couple off. But I've spent them in some choice spots, including Puerto Rico and Hawaii, where a few of us had our Thanksgiving meal at a luau! My coworkers are quite lost as I usually organized the in-office potluck so someone else had to take over this year. Looking forward to this one though I won't be with the new one who is drawing all the fervor on the Love on the Internets thread!

 

Not working, but going to be out of the Lions blackout area, so I wish I were. Plus, my uncle always screws up the turkey.

 

Thanks for that... can't wait to cook this year

 

I'm responsible for two portions of the family meal this year -- the two most important: the turkey and roast beef.

Fine, no problem. Wednesday night the turkey gets injected with Cajun butter, Thursday at 8 a.m. it goes into El Cheapo Brinkman. Noonish, the roast beef follows suit. (The ECB has two racks; I'll use a disposable aluminum roasting pan to ensure that the roast beef drippings don't get on the turkey.)

 

Going to my Aunt Brenda's with my dad. Will be the first time I've seen that side of the family in, oh, 13 years or so.

 

For cookers of the turkey, don't baste it. Put what your going to cook it with in the pan, cover it with foil, and don't touch it again until it's done. Uncovering it to baste it lets all the steam out and will dry it out.

 

Probably won't have to make the turkey this year, but Ms. Slappy volunteered us mefor the ham.
Simple enough -- precooked one since there will only be six of us. Taking a 3-4 pound pre-sliced ham and rinse it out. Put in a ziploc bag on Tuesday morning and fill with Vernors -- using small skewers (like the kid you use to sew up the turkey cavity) to keep from falling apart.
Change the mixture maybe once or twice and heat up on Thursday morning...

 

I'm working Tuesday and Friday, and possibly Wednesday and Thursday if dumbass football team I cover defies the odds, wins today and makes it to the FCS playoffs.

So I think I'm going to drink myself into a coma Wednesday, and maybe Thursday too. And maybe have a pizza and watch the Cards-Eagles Thursday night.

 

Thus the ECB . . . the turkey will be sitting over a steel basin filled with apple juice and water, which itself sits a foot over an electric heating element1 and some hickory chunks to make smoke.


____________________
1Cheaper and more consistent than a 10-pound bagful of charcoal, which is what I would need to cook the turkey all day. Less maintenance, too.