Since going back on Weight Watchers, I have really come to appreciate the foods I desperately miss, as I am currently on my diet of vegetables, diet coke and oxygen. That said, there are only 60ish days until Thanksgiving, so I haven't a moment to lose! Let's plan!!!!
See, I am an Irish Girl, adopted into a Polish Family. As an honoray Polack, I HAVE to be able to cook, or they might think there is something seriously wrong with me (I just KNEW there was something that wasnt right with her...") Easter and Christmas Eve Dinners are critical for proving one's worthiness in a Polish Family. While I love making pierogies, mushroom soup, kluski, haluski, etc, I LIVE FOR THANKSGIVING!
This Thanksgiving is going to be a drastic change for me. My husband and I have managed to get out of having Thanksgiving with our relatives for 12 years. The reason? We got married the day before Thanksgiving and we have always insisted that we go away for our anniversary. It didn't matter that Thanksgiving is a different day every year. It was just understood and no one gave us grief for it. Instead, we have had the good fortune of having Thanksgiving with various friends all these years. And it has been AWESOME! No stress, no family fistfights. Just lots of drinking, eating, laughing and belching. We have enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner in our various apartments, our friends' home in Virginia, a cabin in Pennsylvania, a cabin with a hot tub in Maryland, you get the picture. This year, my husband has decided that it would be rude if we didn't invite his family here since we live only two hours away from them.
WHOA.
It's not that I don't like his family--quite the opposite. It's just that it's going to be weird. I now suddenly worry that my food will be deemed too fancy because it isn't out of a can (except for the canned cranberry sauce--yum!). Whenever we have hosted Thanksgiving, I have always gotten in touch with friends to go over the menu. I have always felt it is important to have dishes that they love in addition to my own. "Mashed potatoes with parsnips you said? Sounds great. I will make those plus MY kind with cream cheese, garlic and heavy whipping cream!" or "Pumpkin pie? Certainly. I will also make two of my sweet potato bourbon pies..." If the food item was something they wanted to prepare themselves, so much the better! I think the bottom line is that I am a Thanksgiving control freak. I want everything to go well, but I ultimately want it to go my way.
A Husband's Family Thanksgiving also means little drinking because it isn't appreciated (unlike a holiday with my mother in which her morning coffee is spiked with bourbon at 5AM.) I am ashamed to admit that I don't think I have actually been completely sober for the past 12 Thanksgivings (except for the 2 in which I was pregnant and all bitched-up). Those dinners are some of the best I have ever eaten. What if they were actually figments of my drunken imagination and my food really tastes like dog crap? What if last year's Organically Fed Free Range Turkey wasn't as succulent as I remember, but because I was pregnant, my hormones led me to believe that it WASN'T cardboard? Now what do I do?
It just seems to early to get hives on my chest over a silly meal. But they're there.
I am off to do some reconnaissance work. I saw that there is a turkey farm down the road and I want to find the best one before someone else gets it. Tonight, I will start planning my menu...
9 comments:
OMG...now I'm in holiday panic. I just started thinking about Halloween yesterday. I am just thankful I have a dishwasher this year. Dinner at your house sounds yummy. Don't forget to throw ideas out when you plan your menu. I'm looking for something new this year. Glad you seem better today.
Tewkes Farm in Kentucky somewhere is good for fresh turkeys..... for thos who are interested :) Last year was my first time hosting Turkey Day, and it went really well.... I'm a Southern girl, and married to a Northern family. Cooked it like we do in the South, and everyone was pleasantly surprised! :) Have fun planning the menu!
I think we're hosting my in-laws, too, girlfriend. Hubs is on call Friday, and we're heading to your house Saturday, so there ain't no way I'm rounding up a car full of babies to go to Central New York.
We will have to conference about the menu. Any and all help is appreciated,people!
And Saturday, it will all be over, and we will be drunk and merry in Cincinatti for your anniversary.
I have a fabulous turkey brine that makes the bird PHENOMENAL. Let me know if you want the recipe.
My anniversary is Nov. 26; it was Thanksgiving weekend for us, as well!
And we (me and you and SNM really should meet up in the city somewhere...)
Yee haa! I think our anniversary is the 23rd or 24th. We always forget.
We brined our turkey last year and I do remember LOVING IT! The brine had honey in it--yum!
Hey Misfit--we should get together when SNM gets here for some Indian or sushi--how bout it?
Dammit, you all can't get together without me! So not fair.
To make up for it, you will need to print the recipie for the mashed potatoes with the cream cheese and garlic and heavy cream. Wow, I think I just put on five pounds typing that.
And drunk at Thanksgiving is the ONLY way to be. My ENTIRE in-law family will be in town--like your mother, I will be spiking my coffee early and often.
I'm down for getting together! But, is that weird? Misfit, I promise I'm who I say I am, and not some dirty old man in Tuscon. Susan--- you'll be there in spirit. We'll have a martini sitting next to an empty chair....
just remember -- once every 12 years is a pretty good record for the beginning of the holidays-from-hell season. Also, delegate -- I'm sure your MIL thinks one of her finest dishes should grace your table, and you don't have to eat it, just serve it, and there's one less dish for her to make. My aunt always brought dessert, and I don't think anyone except those of us too young to drink ever noticed its presence. Or if there's some dish your MIL loves and you detest the idea of preparing -- creamed onions are good that way -- so are whatever other vegetables you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, then let her go for it.
Completely sober is overstated as a method for coping with family. If I didn't have Dewars by the liter at my house, my mom would never stay for dinner.
Right on, Alice! I WILL let her make her overcooked veggies!
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