The little guy heard me in the
kitchen, and woke up about the same time I did... While he
munched on a banana that I gave him, he watched me get
things going with the bird..
I followed the same basic formula I had last year... I
stuff the bird with apples, Onion, and a clove from an
Elephant Garlic... those things are HUGE! The apples
and onions steam in the oven while the bird cooks, and it
really makes for a flavorful turkey. It also helps
prevent it from drying out, I think, anyway.
once the 'stuffing' was ready, I cleaned out ol' Tom,
oiled him down, filled him up, and got the onions, carrots,
and the innards set up for the gravy...
While Tom was baking, I got the sides prepared. I
used a checklist I got off of Butterball.com, which also had
a suggestion to make a timeline for the items you're
cooking, so you can schedule everything to come out all at
the same time... it really worked out. I was busy, but
I had everything staggered nicely, and luckily, I have a
shelf left in the oven even when the bird is in, so I could
bake the potatoes and squash, after getting them ready.
The Shadow Lady's sisters and Mom handled most of the
sides... I decided to do spiced baked apples for the "First
Desert" -- we also had home-made pumpkin pie that the Shadow
Lady's sister made... good stuff! I put the apples in
the oven as we sat down to eat, so they'd be ready not long
after we finished.
Tom came out pretty good, I think... Even the gravy
trimmings came out great! I'm getting better at it, I
think!
Just like last year, we used a side table to make room
for everything...
... it didn't stay this way very long... =] We all
ate too much, that's for sure!
After we ate, we visited and talked... It was a fun time.
After a bit, the little guy got Grandma to pull out a few
books to read... I'm really glad he likes doing that!
While we visited, somehow the conversation went to
guns... one of the Shadow Lady's sisters is thinking of
purchasing a weapon for personal safety, and was checking a
few of ours out... the other sister, however, isn't that
enthused with the whole idea, and wasn't very happy to have
her picture taken with one... =]
We had a lot of fun, and we got the opportunity for some
laughs with the family... It ended up being a T-Day that
we'll remember for quite a while, I think.
For
thanksgiving, we had The Shadow Lady's family over, which
made things fun! It mostly meant that I got to cook a
lot of stuff again, which I really like doing. =]