Thanksgiving Meals

I’ll be cooking a big thanksgiving meal this year. I’ve cooked almost all of the individual things before, but trying to do them all at once may be a little more daunting. I’ve learned that a 20lb turkey does not like to de-thaw in a day, which is one of those life lessons that I don’t know how I missed up to this point.

I love trying new foods, and at a Thanksgiving meal, I love covering all of them in gravy (although it can result in me getting some strange looks). I made gravy for the Xpedition potluck, but I didn’t have much of it. It seemed ok to me, so I’ll have to see if I can do at least that well or better this time. I was a little confused by the “4 cups of chicken stock”, because I didn’t know what chicken stock was. I was 90% sure that it is just the juice left over from cooking the turkey, but then I got nervous when it looked like there was a lot of fat in the leftover juice. I ended up trying to skim off the fatting looking stuff, and later decided that maybe it wasn’t fat. I’m hoping that Jen’s Mom can clarify the finer points of turkey gravy making, although, if any of you happen to have input, please let me know. I found some really good guides on how to make the gravy online that assumed you knew next to nothing. Sadly, they underestimated my vast lack of knowledge on turkey terminology. Apparently they didn’t read my blog very often.

One of my favorite meals to make around the holidays is biscuits and gravy. My Mom honed the recipe over the years, and I have inherited it. I think that one of the things I like best about the meal is that no one looks at me strangely for absolutely covering my plate in gravy. It can’t be that bad for you, because it’s mostly milk and flour, and those things are very good for us, right? It even has onions (although I could leave them out or use powdered for you Dustin). If anyone really likes biscuits and gravy, let me know and we’ll have to do a breakfast/brunch of it. We should probably do waffles as well, because Jen doesn’t go for gravy (I think that Jen is more inclined to treat syrup like I treat gravy, although not as badly).

No wonder we put on so much weight over the holidays. I’ll have to eat salads the week surrounding Thanksgiving. Does anyone else have a favorite meal they like to make?

Hmm… This breakfast/brunch thing might go well with Ali and Abe’s Nintendo Wii party, or something like that. I really wish someone had named the new Nintendo something over than a Wii. Seriously, quit playing with your Wii, and make sure you wash your hands when you are done.