Let's Talk Turkey-Thanksgiving

[Missyboxers]

I helped my mom start organizing our menu, but naturally I've forgotten what's on it. I know I'll be making pumpkin, pecan, cherry and apple pies, and possibly a Toll House Pie as well. We're not set on numbers yet, though the day is fast approaching.

I've been looking for the Thanksgiving horror stories, so I guess I'll start with one, although it's not really that bad.

Last year my sister was studying abroad in Paris, so we decided to make one of our visits coincide with Thanksgiving. We rented an apartment for a week and a half, and we'd even reserved a turkey from an American "grocery" store in Paris (aptly named Thanksgiving) which was billed as the best turkey we'd ever eat. We planned to host a Thanksgiving dinner for my sister and her friends from her program. Well, two days before we left for France, the Paris subway workers went on strike. No biggie, we thought, as it's only transportation and Thanksgiving was more than a week away at that point.

It must be said that transit strikes in Paris differ greatly from my experience with the transit strike in NYC. Here, a transit strike literally shuts the system down for the duration of the strike--not a train here or there, but literally no service. In Paris, strikes are more of a guideline, so while far from good service, parts of the system were still operating. And rather than everyone standing hard and fast until they get what they want, they return to work in dribs and drabs.

Well, we figured they'd lose enthusiasm fast, so we were surprised when, two days and then a day before Thanksgiving, a healthy chunk of the employees were sticking to their guns. What we weren't prepared for was the sympathy strike. Yes, we woke up Thanksgiving morning to realize that the gas company had cut the gas lines to the area where we were staying, in support of the metro workers. For us, this meant no heat, no hot water and of course, no oven. We made several calls to the landlord, who showed up and shrugged, saying, "It is France..." (If you've ever read any of Peter Mayle's Provence books, you'll know what I'm talking about.) Fortunately, we hadn't picked up the whole turkey yet, so we only lost the deposit, but we couldn't get into any of the Thanksgiving dinners at various American restaurants, so finally we just gathered the group of kids and ended up going out to dinner.

[Google]

 

[Bunny555]

Originally Posted by prhoshay

Some of my good, good girlfriends and I are celebrating T-Day at the race track, where they lay out a really good meal. We decided that we would each buy a Thanksgiving dinner or two to some needy families and then report to the track with a minimal amount of betting money! Of course, we'll be all dressed up and cute!
Family dinners will be that next weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Sounds like a lot of fun Shay and good for you for helping out those who may otherwise have gone without. There are more and more families in that situation this year because of this economy where people need to choose between making their rent/mortgage payment to keep a roof over their heads or having food to put on the table.

[myrosiedog]

Shay, that's a very cool idea.

Missyboxers, great story. I bet it made a memorable Thanksgiving (I love Peter Mayle's books) and please post the recipe for Toll House Pie.

My mom used to run a newspaper production plant. One year we were all going to drive to my cousins for a huge family reunion thanksgiving about 3 hours away. Our contribution to the meal was a roasting pan full of sweet potato casserole. Well the presses broke and my mom couldn't leave until they got them fixed and got the paper out. She slept on her desk that night and didn't get home until about 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving day and then it was too late to go to the reunion. The only thing we had was the pan of sweet potatos which I hated at the time (I was 10), we had a hard time finding a resturant that we could go to and ended up a a Hungarian resturant being seranaded by a Gypsy with a violin as we ate somthing else besides turkey and I don't remember what. We ended up doing our own Thanksiving that weekend, but I remember being very put out by it all. Once I was grown, I realize how hard it was on my mom to end up having to work like that and ruin our day, but it couldn't be helped. But at the time I was 10 and of course, took it all very personally.

[Missyboxers]

Originally Posted by myrosiedog

Missyboxers, great story. I bet it made a memorable Thanksgiving (I love Peter Mayle's books) and please post the recipe for Toll House Pie.

Done! It's over in the recipes thread. (Peter Mayle is one of my favorites, and partly because there are some things that he describes just perfectly. So it's funny because he is funny, and it's also funny because it's true.)

I would have felt the same way as you did at that age! Holidays were sacred. Now I'm old enough to understand that things don't always turn out exactly as planned.

[prhoshay]

I prefer unusual holidays instead of the same old thing every year. I like getting creative about the whole thing, anymore. We've always only done the same things since childhood, and we had no control. I believe in whooping it up with unusual foods and unusual situations! The important thing to me is to be with people who make the time special....and that's not always 'blood family'; sometimes it's our 'created/chosen family'.

[brunette trixie]

I think I could brine my shoe and it would taste delicious! Something so simple makes poultry so juicy.

[myrosiedog]

BT, I so agree with you about the brining and the shoe.

Shay, we tend to whoop it up at Christmas and do different things. Thanksgiving is sacred and I'd probably be the sacrifice if we did unusual foods that day.
But Christmas is usually different year to year around here. But dayum, that prime rib looked good the other day, so we may have to do one of those this year.

[Lil Bit]

Originally Posted by myrosiedog

BT, I so agree with you about the brining and the shoe.

Shay, we tend to whoop it up at Christmas and do different things. Thanksgiving is sacred and I'd probably be the sacrifice if we did unusual foods that day.
But Christmas is usually different year to year around here. But dayum, that prime rib looked good the other day, so we may have to do one of those this year.

Same with us. Thanksgiving is pretty traditional, but a couple of years ago we had Prime Rib for Christmas. We've been known to grill out too. Now that we no longer have to go to my in-laws for the holiday we are more free to do what we want.

[myrosiedog]

Originally Posted by Lil Bit

Same with us. Thanksgiving is pretty traditional, but a couple of years ago we had Prime Rib for Christmas. We've been known to grill out too. Now that we no longer have to go to my in-laws for the holiday we are more free to do what we want.

We've done an all hors d'oeuvres Christmas. We once did a traditional English Christmas dinner with goose and plum pudding, we've done lobster, we've done italian, we've done fondue. Just depends on what we feel like.
We usually do Christmas Eve as the big dinner or eating event and then do breakfast with Mimosa's and a lighter lunch on Christmas day.

[bbnbama]

We've done Christmas as "non-traditional" for many years now. Thanksgiving is always the turkey and all the trimmings but for Christmas we've run the gamut over the years: grilled steaks, lasagna, hors d'oeuvres, chicken pot pie, ham, soups, etc.