Weird Thanksgiving

We were invited over to a friend's house for Thanksgiving, but we've all been so busy lately that we really just wanted to hang, rest, watch copious amounts of television.

I wanted to spend the entire day cooking only to have things turn out weird. It's true, just weird.

Where should I start? The apple pie was delicious, but we ate it yesterday morning, so that doesn't count. The pumpkin pies we ate this morning also turned out very good, as did the banana cream and the chocolate cream. The cherry was a different matter. The crust on it was weird. I have no idea how I screwed it up, but I succeeded. It didn't brown, was exceptionally sticky and hard to roll out, but then was dry and didn't hold together after it had cooked. Tasted OK, just an odd texture.

The potatoes were mealy, so I had to send Dave to the store at 2pm for more. I just cannot do Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes. And the weird thing about that is I haven't been able to ruin potatoes in at least 5 years. Who knows what I did wrong on those. The second batch was delicious. I ate many.

I knew I was in trouble with the turkey when I got it out last night and the giblets and neck were still frozen inside. The outside fridge doesn't hold it's temperature so it was too cold to thaw it all the way. No problem, I adjusted dinner for 4 instead of 2. Plenty of time to thaw it in the sink! Thank goodness, it turned out fine. It was really juicy too. Maybe the water bath paid off! :)

The first batch of rolls was heavy and yeasty. Too little rise time. They still got gobbled up, but before I knew how heavy they were, I started another batch to be sure we had enough rolls for sandwiches tomorrow. There are 24 left over, so that should get us through Sunday quite nicely!

The sweet potatoes were probably the weirdest of all. Every single one of the kids ate them. Not only that, Dave ate them too. In the past 13 years I have lived with him, I have never seen him do more than choke down a bite of sweet potatoes, and only if the person who made them is watching. Apparently, that new recipe I tried is a keeper.

At any rate, it was not a relaxing day, but I was extremely glad I hadn't tried to cook things for people besides our family. I would have been totally stressed out, rather than just a little grumpy from my lack of cooking karma.

The kids had a rousing game of Charades after dinner. I wish I had remembered to get a camera out at any point today!

And, it's quite relaxing now.

Hope everyone else is also enjoying their post-gluttony stupor.
Happy Thanksgiving!