Planning for Thanksgiving

I get a lot of pleasure out of planning. Sometimes I find it more fun to plan an activity than to participate in it. I'm working on this problem with a mindfulness practice.

I try not to put expectations on my plans. That was a necessary mental adaption that I resolved in the 1990s. Plan, make lots and lots of plans, but expect nothing. Things fall apart and it's better to have lots of options in place than to get heartbroken when something/anything goes awry. That was a hard lesson to learn. But once I accepted the reality I've enjoyed everything much more, including planning. If someone is unable to attend, if weather forces us inside, if a car breaks, if everyone gets violently ill, if I acquire a severe burn, I am better able to roll with it.

So on to the planning. In mid October I start thinking about the holidays: Thanksgiving & Christmas. I send out feelers and invitations (with no expectations). I have learned that when I plan for an event like this the most important person to make happy is me. If I'm happy with what I'm planning then everyone else will be happier. I try to get information from invitees about what they need to make it feel like the holiday.

For instance, to me Thanksgiving is always going to require turkey and dressing with mashed potatoes and gravy. Everything and anything else become lovely additions. But I know of other people who must have cranberries from a can or the right version of yams etc. The more details I can get from my partygoers the happier we all will be.

Usually guest volunteer to bring items, but this is never required. This year dinner is going to include a couple of yummy new items from my guests/family: a sweet potato soufflé and oat dinner rolls. I'm really looking forward to trying these. But if it doesn't come to pass It'll be fine. After all I still have my mashed potatoes and gravy.

Other information I like to know is who is going to be coming and staying at my house and for approximately how many nights. Will others be staying with other friends, at their own houses or at hotels? Why does this matter? Well for one thing other meals may need to be planned for (or stated as 'on your own') and other activities might be fun to arrange.

Once I know these things real planning starts. Let me demonstrate:

I know a couple of my friends may/will be arriving on Wednesday after they get off work (midmorning). They live 3.5 hours from my home so I expect they may arrive sometime between late in the afternoon and late at night. It would be nice of me (and helpful to my own food plans) to provide dinner.

As I started thinking about autumnal foods, multi day visits, leftovers, and breakfast/brunch on Thanksgiving day a couple of ideas/themes came to mind: 1. apples and cinnamon and 2. middle eastern food. This planning phase is going to evolve as we get closer but here's the current menu plan:

Dinner on Weds night Bean & turkey chili with crackers/tortilla chips (here we have a super healthy dinner choice to help balance the desserts of the holiday) Apple cinnamon & regular baklavas (this lets me create additional desserts for Thanksgiving including one that has the apple cinnamon flavors that I love.)

Breakfast/brunch on Thurs morning, I'm still deciding between:

1. Scalloped potato and sausage casserole with huckleberry muffins
   Here's a version of the breakfast casserole
INSERT IMAGE of orange cake
2. Mideastern buffet: pita & tzatziki, vegetables, hummus, cheeses, nuts, olives, orange cake
   Here's a version of the orange cake

Thanksgiving dinner = the traditional fare plus the new stuff sweet potato souffle, oat rolls, pumpkin bars w/cream cheese frosting, cheesecake, and the rest of the apple and/or standard nut baklava.

The rest of the weekend food will be about leftovers. Though Chinese takeout may make an appearance.

As for activities I currently have too many things in mind and this will narrow as we start getting closer to the day. I'm taking the whole week off from work so maybe...

Possible activities:

1. Create gingerbread houses. I've done this on several Thanksgivings and it's fun if frenetic. (Check out previous gingerbread houses at the end of this post
2. Going to Lava Hot Springs to soak.
3. Set up the lightbox and play with still life photography/art - everyone coming is an artist of one kind or another.
4. Create tea advent boxes - we all love tea so this could be fun.
5. Drawing names for the Christmas book exchange based on the Icelandic custom.
   For more information on this custom see: NPR article or Yahoo article
6. Get the holiday decorations out of the basement and put up the outdoor ones.
7. And of course there's always playing board games or watching movies, and napping which I may desperately need.

Will we do all of this? No it's just not possible. Will we do some of this? Absolutely. If everyone bails because of weather or other reasons will I still have a great Thanksgiving? Certainly because I like everything that I've listed. - Jenny

Gingerbread house 1:

Gingerbread house 2:

Gingerbread house 3:

Thanksgiving



(Image from: http://www.cupcakestocarrotsticks.com/2010/11/i-survived-one-thanksgiving.html)

Menu
APPETIZERS
• Devilled Eggs
• Crudités
• Cheese Balls with Crackers - H & D

MAIN DINNER
• Turkey
• Mashed Potatoes
• Gravy
• Candied Yams
• Dressing
• Corn with Butter - oops forgot to buy
• Cranberry sauce - H & D
• Rolls - Geraldines - oops forgot to pick up or bake the substitute
• Butter
• Salt & Pepper

BEVERAGES
• Spiced Apple Cider
• White & Red Wines
• Water
• Coffee

DESSERT
• Cheesecake - purchased
• Banana Cream Pie - purchased
• Pumpkin Mousse - H & D

Gingerbread Houses

Nick's traditional/realistic house

It was entertaining to have all three of us begin with the same kit box house. We ended up with three very different houses. On Thanksgiving day we were lucky to get the walls up, it took us a couple more days to finish them.

Heather & Duo came for the gingerbread house raising and appetizers. They found a train kit that had premade frosting that was ready in its own piping bag. Now that was awesome cheating.  We watched cooking and house shows and then 'How to Train Your Dragon' and 'The Incredibles'.  Terry and Robin came for dinner and afterwards we watched 'Up!', the two short movies on Up! and 'Boneknapper Dragon'. It was an animation extravaganza.

Shanna's Viking/How to Train Your Dragon inspired Swedish Fish house

I had dinner prep interruptus. I was going to baste the turkey for the first time and got a severe steam burn when peeling back the foil. I ended up with second degree burns. And while we're on it, that dang turkey was quite the trial. First I wanted to brine it. I've never tried it before but it's all the rage right now, so why not. I made the brine on Monday and left it to cool on the stove. I remembered it the Tuesday morning and had to chuck it out. You do not cook with chicken broth that's been left out overnight. Then I needed to figure out how long to cook it the way I normally do. So I took the weight on the package and did the math. Good thing Nick figured out the weight was in kilograms not pounds and redid my conversion. Now I felt I was in a hurry, eep. Instead of using my tried and true Betty Crocker for the timing, I used the Joy of Cooking. It suggested to preheat the oven to 450 degrees then turn it down when you put the turkey in. I put the turkey in and forgot the turning down part for 30 minutes. I'm really glad I remembered at all. So the Turkey was finished about two hours before dinner was on. Nick is the hero of the day. We turned down the heat and he basted it every 15 minutes till dinner was ready to be served.

My Cinnamon Bear Fantasy Cottage

The burn on my hand gave me the opportunity to do two new things. One, let go of the control of the dinner. I continued to help as best I could with a cold pack on my hand, but everyone else had to do the cooking. Nick, Shanna and Heather pretty much finished the dinner, set the table, and served the food. The second one was to cry in front of people without freaking out. I was in real pain for about 8 hours even using the prescription burn ointment, cold packs and pain killers. I was also no longer in control of my dinner and it just kinda messed with me. I do not cry in front of people. It seems like a sign of weakness. I also feel that I'll be mocked or perceived as weak and or that it will be used against me. It's one more symptom of my inability to trust people. I seem to have a huge need to keep who and what I am and what I feel a secret in order to prevent mocking/shaming/dismissing. Well Thanksgiving 2010 seems like it was a breakthrough.

Friday was a day of rest for me if not for Nick who was the hero again cleaning up the kitchen, doing the dishes etc...

Journal Entry - Preparing For The Holidays

Weekend before Thanksgiving:

With some 13-19 social engagements for the holiday season, and being the control freak I am, we started our preparations early. It took all three of us but we managed to make and freeze a bunch of stuff ...

Nov 20 - Saturday
• Huckleberry Muffins (36)
• Butterscotch Banana Bread (26 mini loaves)
• Meatballs(40 some)

Nov 21 – Sunday
• 1 (foil) big lasagna
• 2 (foil) cake pan lasagnes
• 6 (foil) bread pan lasagnes (1 noodle wide)
• 1 (glass) big lasagna (had to add prego)
• 1 (glass) sml alfredo lasagna with broccoli, cauliflower & tortellini. Serve with grilled chicken.

Unfortunately I still want to get a bunch of cookies, biscotti, truffles and other candy premade.

Cheating...Sometimes it's good to know when you don't want to or perhaps don't
have the energy to do everything yourself. I broke my toe three weeks earlier so I wasn't feeling all that capable. Our sweet real estate agent sent us a letter gifting us with free rolls from a local bakery. Our persistent auto dealer sent us a letter gifting us with a free turkey if we test drove a vehicle. Instead of making our gingerbread houses from scratch we bought kits. And for dessert I purchased frozen cheesecake and banana cream pie.


The turkey operation was fun. We went on a very snowy day to the dealer and test drove a Toyota Highlander. It was awesome! I'd really love to have one, but can't afford it at this time.

The rolls became a comedy of errors. Hubby got them reserved then we forgot to pick them up. So late Weds night he was running errands and picked up Pillsbury crescent rolls, which I forgot to bake. First Thanksgiving in a long time without rolls of any kind.

The cheesecake was lovely with huckleberry jam (from the Idaho store) as a topping.

Heavy duty paper plates and glasses were the final, lifesaving, cheat.

Cheating. Definitely going to try it again next year.

(Images, I have no idea where I got any of these on this blogpost... Sorry)

 

Thanksgiving in Sacramento

DSC07443
Originally uploaded by J Semenza

Shanna moved to Texas in August to work for her grandfather. She started out as part of the grounds crew but ended up as an interior house painter.

The weather was good and we were missing Shanna so we loaded up the car and headed for Ellisa's house. Wells NV makes a good place for an overnight stop.

On the way down we stopped at Winnemucca for the best Mexican food. Melinda and I found this restaurant a couple of years ago.

Ellisa decided not to do a traditional Thanksgiving feast and served Italian food instead. Yummy, though I did miss the turkey. It was really nice to hang out with them for a few days! I volunteered to watch In Bruges, a show which is totally ridiculous. There are some truly funny bits, and some terribly tacky bits too. Not my cup of tea, but certainly something I'll remember. I definitely like to stretch my cinematic point of view now and then. This qualifies as the stretch for 2008.

I started and mostly finished the book "Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise" by Ruth Reichl. It was a fascinating look into food criticism, restaurants, food, newspaper publishing and New York.

We didn't get out and do any bird watching. I was still fighting with the chronic migraine issue.

Loved hanging out with the family though.