Thanksgiving – Just Get in the Car

Making the Thanksgiving turkey: Logic, ease, and simplicity

Just Get in the Car — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 21:32:03 +0000

Turkey day 2018 is behind us, and I’ve finally had a chance to recover.

Just kidding, I really didn’t do any of the hard work, even though we hosted my mom’s side of the family in our home. And also, the house is still in disarray, so I can’t say I’ve really done much to move on from the chaos that any gathering creates.

I had the enormous help of many people, including my mother who made most of the side dishes, everyone who brought something with them, Monique who made one million desserts, and Torrie — who made.my.turkey. Yep, I’m a lucky gal. (You might remember that Monique and Torrie are here to help my grandma, but they often times help me in ways that are way beyond their job responsibilities). Even my daughter Claire chipped in, making place cards for all of our guests.

When I offered to host Thanksgiving – to give my mom and her family the opportunity to celebrate with my 95 year old grandmom, who we live with – I intended on doing the turkey and the trimmings myself. I mean, you can’t offer to host something and expect everyone else to do the work. Right?

Wrong!

Like I mentioned in my pre-holiday post, I’m not an idiot. When everyone started listing off what they were going to do, I did not argue. I could have insisted on doing it all myself, but that would have caused turmoil, and then in the end, I’d still be making a turkey. And, I have never made a turkey before, so why start now HAHAHA.

So I rolled with it, and I am glad that I did.

As with the eclairs that Monique made for a family gathering, the turkey making seemed pretty straightforward. But also as with the eclairs, I didn’t really have to do much. Torrie did all of the work. To be fair though, she did keep telling me how simple it was.

So even though Thanksgiving is behind us, I hear that some people eat turkey at Christmas. Perhaps you are one of those people, and you have been searching for a way to keep the process simple. Perhaps you don’t have a Torrie to do it for you. Well, you are in luck.

Here is a straightforward and rather simple guide for creating a beautiful Turkey for your holiday feast.

Of note – we were not stuffing this turkey, and the preparation was as simple as it gets with vegetable oil and salt.

I’m sure you could add any spices or flavorings you deemed fit. I would suggest also checking cooking times if you are stuffing your turkey, as those suckers need to bake longer.

Prepare yo’self:

Clean out your sink and move everything out of the splash zone.
Have some kitchen shears and a sharp knife nearby.
Place a roasting pan with rack near to the sink (see the picture above).
Have your seasonings ready, which will vary depending on your tastes. This turkey was simple, with just vegetable oil and salt.
We used a Reynolds Oven Bag – you’ll want one of those, or a similar oven bag.
You’ll need regular all-purpose flour to cover the inside of the oven bag.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare the oven bag by dusting the inside with all-purpose flour. Situate it on the rack, in the roasting pan, ready for the turkey to be placed inside.

Wash and trim the turkey, cleaning out the inside. As I’ve noted before, this is not a recipe blog. I can’t give you much more instruction on cleaning out the turkey or ‘washing it’ appropriately, but I can direct you to this helpful video.

Once the turkey has been appropriately cleaned and trimmed, transfer it to the oven bag and center it on the rack.

After the turkey is situated inside the bag, sprinkle the vegetable oil on, and rub it in. If you’re the skeevy type, you could always throw on a pair of gloves.

Generously salt the turkey, inside and out.

Tie the bag, and cut slits to vent.

Put the turkey in the oven -and voila. The hard work is done.

There is no basting when using an oven bag – yay!

With the use of the oven bag, and the absence of stuffing, the cooking time was under three hours. Use a meat thermometer to assure that your turkey has reached a safe internal temperature – at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

I must admit that we made our turkey the day before thanksgiving, to make things a bit less crazy day of. While it was cooking, the house smelled amazing. Don’t worry, heating up the gravy and side dishes will provide the same ambiance, if you are concerned your guest will miss that.

The turkey came out smelling and looking amazing.

Torrie showed me that making a turkey was manageable. Next time I host, I think I can handle it on my own! Thanks, Torrie!

Although there is something to be said for presenting a beautiful turkey as a centerpiece to the holiday table, there is also something to be said for making it a day early, cutting it, and cleaning up the mess so as not to have to do it on YOUR holiday.

Life is all about choices, and I tend toward logic, ease, and simplicity.

Are you a turkey virgin? Do you have a story to tell about your attempts or successes with preparing a holiday meal? Share!

-Kristin

How I will survive hosting Thanksgiving

Just Get in the Car — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 17:14:29 +0000

Here are the actual reasons I’m not totally stressed out about hosting Thanksgiving this year.

I’m not making the turkey, technically, thanks Torrie!
I’m not making the desserts, technically. Thanks, Monique!
I’m making Stove Top stuffing, because it’s delicious. It’s also super simple to make .

Ok, so now that I’ve been completely honest, there are still quite a lot of things that could make a person feel stressed out when hosting a holiday, even when said person is not in charge of the actual meal.

Like, cleaning bathrooms, putting toys away, creating a festive environment, having enough plates and utensils and condiments, and oven space.

But, I’m not going to stress out about those things – at least not like I would have in days past.

When Shawn and I were first married, having people to our home was super stressful for me. Was the house clean enough? Did we have enough food? What about drinks? Enough places for people to sit? Did the house look sufficiently un-lived in to host people? Were the trashcans empty?

It caused some strife – because I wondered why Shawn didn’t care about these things. Like the time I heard him yukking it up with our neighbor while I was inside preparing for the St. Patrick’s Day party we were having at his suggestion – I was pretttty agitated, but he didn’t understand why.

I’m going to go ahead and chalk it up to gender differences, to be honest.

Generally speaking – because of course there are always exceptions -men just don’t seem to care that much if the house is clean, or if there is enough food when people are coming over. And you know what, they usually don’t make any comments about these things when in other people’s homes either. And they are better off for it.

But that kind of attitude takes a concerted effort for women, at least, for a lot of women that I know, including myself.

Since having children and embracing what I am not, though, entertaining has become significantly less stressful for me. I’ve embraced what I am not – a great housekeeper or event planner – and I’ve tried to take a page from Shawn’s book.

The book of ‘what’s the big deal’ and ‘they are coming to hang out, not judge us’, and I’ve adopted some mindsets that help decrease stress related to hosting people in our home.

We enjoy having people to our home for holidays, and any day, and I had to make the decision that that would not come at the price of my mental health.

Everyone wants to have that Norman Rockwell holiday – but that’s a painting, it ain’t reality. And even if we have pictures to prove that we re-created that scene in our own homes, we all know that there is more going on than what meets the eye.

Take a look at this, one of my favorite photographs of my grandfather.

I just loved him to pieces, love the home that he built with my grandma, and love the holidays we spent all together around their dining room table. But I know just moments before this picture he was cursing about something or yelling at my grandma (with love of course).

I also know that while I absolutely cherish memories from holidays spent with family, I also remember dreading many of those holidays – not because there was anything wrong with what was going on, or the food wasn’t fantastic (it always was), but for any myriad of other reasons – not the least of which could have been being a teenager, not wanting a barrage of questions from well-meaning relatives, and not enjoying chit chat.

Ok, so this year Thanksgiving is in my home – the home my grandfather built and where almost all of my holiday memories reside.

Sure, I feel a bit of pressure to live up to the holidays of past, where my grandparents were running the show, the food was plenty, the Italian music was flowing, and no one could hear themselves think, or fit around the table …. But, I’m not my grandparents. I’m not doing any of the cooking, and I’m not stressing out about the state of the house. I live here with three kids, a husband, and a grandma. Ain’t nobody got time for turning a happy holiday into a stressfest.

Here is how I plan to do it avoid it.

Choose my battles.

One of my grandmother’s caregivers, Torrie, is making our turkey. I didn’t ask her to, but she wanted to. Not gonna fight that one, I’m not an idiot. Thanks Torrie! Monique, who you may remember from the eclair post is heading up desserts. Again, not an idiot, thanks Monique! My mom listed off a bunch of side dishes that she is going to make. Great, thanks mom!

I could have insisted on ‘proving’ that I am capable of doing all of that on my own, but why? Choose your battles people, accept offers of help.

Focus on what is important.

I’m going to say that if housekeeping is not your thing, like me, just make sure the bathroom is clean and I feel like everything else is pretty forgivable. Am I going to clean up the toys and vacuum, probably, yes. Are people going to notice if I don’t? Probably not. If it’s Thursday morning and I am feeling a bit crazy, I may have to let some of the to-do’s go. And no one but me (and ok, Shawn, since I will probably lament to him) will know, or care.

I’m hoping to spend Thursday relaxed, spending time with my kids and family. (Ok, it’s going to be a lot easier since I’m not cooking – but I’m telling you, having people to our home could be super stressful in its own right, without the cooking!)

Remember who I’ve invited and why, and keep my expectations realistic

For me, everyone who will be here on Thursday is family, or close enough. I’ve invited them for this reason. They’ve all been to this home numerous times, and (I think) they all know and love me, Shawn, the kids, and grandma. They know the deal – we live in chaos. This is no longer the quiet home of two independent elderly people. It’s a home of people “2 to 92”, just like the song. If they are expecting a scene from a Rockwell painting, or a perfectly clean and organized home – they are going to be disappointed.

But that’s on them, not me.

Even if my guests might have unrealistic expectations (which I don’t think they do), I am going to have realistic expectations for myself.

This is going to be ‘A day of Chaos, featuring Thanksgiving dinner’ – you can see the beginnings of our pieced together table, with real life all over it, below. And I’m ok with that.

How do you approach hosting at the holidays?