Whatcha doin' for Turkey Day?
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We will go back to the restaurant at Lodge in the Desert. Hacienda del Sol has become too busy.
I stayed at Lodge in the Desert two years ago. It’s a beautiful place!
We just got back from dinner at El Charro - the oldest family owned Mexican restaurant in the country. I can see why it’s been so successful - everything they served us was just a little bit better than I’ve had other places. Cool decor as well.
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RM says he's not going to Thanksgiving lunch because he's got two jobs on Thanksgiving.
Between you and me and the lamppost (another of my Jewish grandmother's favorite phrases) I know this family well enough to know we will be fed whether we can make it or not.
His mother expresses love through food lots of food and especially baking. She makes sure her son never goes without food. I can't imagine he won't bring home everything on the menu including dessert.
I love to socialize with people but on my own terms. I don't like holiday meals like Thanksgiving because they remind me of growing up celebrating them at my Jewish grandparents' house.
Hanukkah was an exception when I look back but the rest were very formal, traditional, and stifling for me.
The women all gathered in the kitchen and the men would watch sports in the living room, baseball, football, basketball. It was like we were living in the '50's.
RM and I moved far away from our families for reason.
He was extraordinary at cooking, celebrating, and gift giving. We would send and receive presents from home and make phone calls. This is how I celebrated holidays for twenty five years. I can't complain.
I have so much to be thankful for. My health, my home, my RM such as he is, and the fact my brother and I have reunited after our father's passing following more than fifteen years of estrangement.
Our reunion has been the highlight of my year! Mik, you were right about there being no better time to forgive. The years of not talking slipped away like water under a bridge.
He's taken on his father's loving and caring role toward me. He said as much.
Our relationship now is the best it's ever been and it finally has a feeling of permanence.
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Had to hop on here to say that I have Cindysphinx's Bourbon Cranberry sauce in the oven as I type! Off to Oldest's in laws where his Father in Law is the cook and we all get to enjoy his amazing dishes. He does not allow help, only with the dishes.
"Wealth is like manure; spread it around and it makes everything grow; pile it up, and it stinks."
MillCityGrows.org -
Had to hop on here to say that I have Cindysphinx's Bourbon Cranberry sauce in the oven as I type! Off to Oldest's in laws where his Father in Law is the cook and we all get to enjoy his amazing dishes. He does not allow help, only with the dishes.
@BeeLady Happy Thanksgiving!
And a good reminder....here's the link to @Cindysphinx Bourbon Cranberry Sauce. If you hover your cursor over the link, you can see the post in a popup Or you can click on it and it will take you to the actual post.
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I got a text today from SIL person asking me if I was going to come. I texted back No but thanks for the invite. She said she would "bring you guys a plate."
I plan to send her and others Happy Thanksgiving! GIF's
Also her a thank you note in the evening. Lol!
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I miss Publix!!
Re the salad, if it’s molded, I’m thinking it’s probably in the realm of sauces or jellies, because you can’t really mold a relish.
@ShiroKuro For a cranberry relish, my mom has always just used the recipe on the Ocean Spray bags - I'm sure it is online. Just fresh cranberries, cut orange with peel and sugar in the food processor.
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RM says he's not going to Thanksgiving lunch because he's got two jobs on Thanksgiving.
Between you and me and the lamppost (another of my Jewish grandmother's favorite phrases) I know this family well enough to know we will be fed whether we can make it or not.
His mother expresses love through food lots of food and especially baking. She makes sure her son never goes without food. I can't imagine he won't bring home everything on the menu including dessert.
I love to socialize with people but on my own terms. I don't like holiday meals like Thanksgiving because they remind me of growing up celebrating them at my Jewish grandparents' house.
Hanukkah was an exception when I look back but the rest were very formal, traditional, and stifling for me.
The women all gathered in the kitchen and the men would watch sports in the living room, baseball, football, basketball. It was like we were living in the '50's.
RM and I moved far away from our families for reason.
He was extraordinary at cooking, celebrating, and gift giving. We would send and receive presents from home and make phone calls. This is how I celebrated holidays for twenty five years. I can't complain.
I have so much to be thankful for. My health, my home, my RM such as he is, and the fact my brother and I have reunited after our father's passing following more than fifteen years of estrangement.
Our reunion has been the highlight of my year! Mik, you were right about there being no better time to forgive. The years of not talking slipped away like water under a bridge.
He's taken on his father's loving and caring role toward me. He said as much.
Our relationship now is the best it's ever been and it finally has a feeling of permanence.
@Daniel said in Whatcha doin' for Turkey Day?:
RM says he's not going to Thanksgiving lunch because he's got two jobs on Thanksgiving.
Between you and me and the lamppost (another of my Jewish grandmother's favorite phrases) I know this family well enough to know we will be fed whether we can make it or not.
His mother expresses love through food lots of food and especially baking. She makes sure her son never goes without food. I can't imagine he won't bring home everything on the menu including dessert.
I love to socialize with people but on my own terms. I don't like holiday meals like Thanksgiving because they remind me of growing up celebrating them at my Jewish grandparents' house.
Hanukkah was an exception when I look back but the rest were very formal, traditional, and stifling for me.
The women all gathered in the kitchen and the men would watch sports in the living room, baseball, football, basketball. It was like we were living in the '50's.
RM and I moved far away from our families for reason.
He was extraordinary at cooking, celebrating, and gift giving. We would send and receive presents from home and make phone calls. This is how I celebrated holidays for twenty five years. I can't complain.
I have so much to be thankful for. My health, my home, my RM such as he is, and the fact my brother and I have reunited after our father's passing following more than fifteen years of estrangement.
Our reunion has been the highlight of my year! Mik, you were right about there being no better time to forgive. The years of not talking slipped away like water under a bridge.
He's taken on his father's loving and caring role toward me. He said as much.
Our relationship now is the best it's ever been and it finally has a feeling of permanence.
I’m glad that worked out well. We mostly punish ourselves by carrying old disagreements, and you only get one family, such as they may be. No one will ever treat you better or worse.
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Turkey day at the in-laws house. Jane put out a truly magnificent spread and we all agreed it was the best ever! She cooks her turkey in a really traditional way - stuffing in the bird and roasted in a bag and I have to say it was as good as any I’ve ever had. Spatchcocked, brined, cooked in pieces, deep fried - this turkey beat them all!
Two things were particularly memorable. The first was the wine - a Chianti of all things, the Macaroni Grill house brand. I know, I know. Jane tried it when they ate there earlier in the week and liked it so much she bought a magnum to take home. Dirt cheap - like $25.
I never drink Chianti but this one is nothing like I’ve ever tried. The flavor just explodes in my mouth, and the only other wines I have ever tried that do that cost 10X - 50X more. Gonna go out tomorrow and buy a whole lot if it. It really is that good!
If one of you decides to try it I’d really like to know what you think. I don’t drink much wine and my palate is far from sophisticated but this crazy stuff really stands out to me.
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Second surprise was a series of photos Kim took on the back deck in bad light. She has a new iPhone and the quality of the photos she took blew me away. Not sure you can tell how fine they are using converted photos and forum software but the difference between her photos and the ones I took with my iPhone 12 with scratched lenses is like night and day.
ATT is running deals and I’ve been considering upgrading before tariffs drive the prices out of sight. My battery doesn’t last long, my screen is scratched and the new AI stuff looks interesting.
Maybe I’ll stop by the ATT store on the way home from Macaroni Grill.
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Great photo!
Our turkey day was very nice! I did a precooked turkey, because that’s the extent of my abilities! But it was very good. Then I made green beans almondine, simplest recipe but super yummy. For stuffing, I got two boxes of stove top and added toasted walnuts, celery and craisins, it was a huge hit! Then gravy and mashed potatoes of course.
And finally! I made fresh cranberry orange relish. It was called Publix’s recipe, but it’s probably like what @Rontuner said above from the Ocean Spray bag.
Anyway, my mom brought her food processor with her and we used that. We didn’t have a way to zest the orange peel, so because Mr SK is talented and brilliant, and an expert at carving, he used paring knife to pare off the orange peel from the pith of the orange. Then I added that to the food processor, with cranberries and orange sections, and then added sugar. I actually read the recipe wrong, it called for two bags of cranberries and one whole orange plus zest, but I only bought one bag of cranberries and we used one whole orange plus Mr SK’s version of zest. Let that sit in the fridge over night.
Mr SK loved it! It’s more like orange cranberry relish rather than cranberry orange relish, and he said he likes it better that way. It was a big hit with our guests as well
One of our guests brought Chinese sweet dumplings for dessert and the other guest brought a Japanese dessert, so we had those instead of pie, but I sent them each home with pieces of apple, pumpkin and pecan pie.
I wrote about playing in the other thread. -
Eleven of us from 3 generations gathered at an Airbnb in St. Louis. Mr AM’s mom lives in assisted living in St. Louis (she’s the 4th generation). We managed a reasonable dinner of roast turkey, gluten free stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, spinach salad, and gravy. And gluten free apple pie and pumpkin pie. Then we packed it all up in coolers and brought it over to the party room we’d arranged for at the assisted living center. it worked out fine.
I’m really happy that all members of the family made it! This is the first time in a few years that all the kids one generation down made it. We did manage to all get to Mom’s 90th birthday in 2022, too.
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We had a wonderful visit with our friend who came in from out of town. She arrived late Thursday and left just a little while ago. Our Thanksgiving dinner was on Friday, and we did a multi-day turkey extravaganza, though we went for carryout from our favorite Chinese restaurant yesterday.
She brought a killer Washington State wine. Abeja Beekeeper's, the red blend.
She brought the 2016.
She also brought these chocolates. Really, really wonderful.
