Has Thanksgiving Dinner ever been less than you expected?

By Patricia Bradley

I love Thanksgiving. And I believe there will be tons of blog posts on what we are thankful for, or should be thankful for. As there should be. And not just on Thanksgiving.

So, I thought I’d write a post and title it Funny Disasters on the Way to the Dinner Table. Or…What had happened was….Or...What was your most disastrous Thanksgiving Dinner…

At the end of the blog, you can vote on which title you like the best.

I’d like to say I have only one disastrous story to tell. I'd really like to say that.

Story# 1:
It started out a disaster way before Thanksgiving. It was my first Thanksgiving with my husband, and we are living with his parents. See, disaster already. Anyway, Thanksgiving morning, nine o’clock, my new mother-in-law wanders into the kitchen and opens the refrigerator, looking for the turkey she meant to put in a couple of days ago. She forgot, and I didn't know you were supposed to thaw it…Hey, I was just 17.

I thought she’d be real upset, but no. This wasn’t the first time she’d forgotten. Out came the turkey from the freezer, we peeled the plastic off and stuck him in the oven. Frozen. About 3 hours later, she took the giblets out. And filled the cavity with dressing. I skipped dinner that Thanksgiving.

Story #2:
Cold Thanksgiving Day. Many years later. Company is gathering around the table. The turkey is beautiful and no, I didn’t forget to thaw it—I learned my lesson watching my former mother-in-law. Oh, by the way, the next year, she forgot again, but instead of sticking the turkey into the oven to cook with the giblets inside, we took a hammer and chisel to the bird.

As I was saying, the turkey was beautiful. Golden brown. I took the dressing out of the oven. It too was golden brown. Found a dishtowel to pick the dish up with, not knowing it was damp. Did I tell you how pretty the turkey was? It was delicious, too. Even without the dressing.

Story #3.
This last story is from a friend who is known far and near for her wonderful rolls. For weeks before Thanksgiving morning she had told her husband her oven was wonky. But he thought it was fine. She put her rolls in to bake and when she took them out, the bottoms of the rolls were black. And hard. 

The tops were nowhere near done.  She threw them out in the yard for the possums to eat. Two weeks later, the possums had not touched them. 

She thought the winter would break them down. Snows came and went. The rolls didn't. They littered her yard and refused to break down. She told her 8th grade class about them. That spring, she mowed over them. A piece broke off one, sailed through the air and broke her living room window. 

The next Thanksgiving her doorbell rang. It was a student from the year before with a large pan of baked, warm rolls and a note—“Don’t worry about the bread this year.”

So, as I look forward to Thanksgiving dinner at Cracker Barrel this year, I am thankful for so many things. My family, my friends, that I’m warm, that God has blessed me so much…and that  I haven’t cooked a turkey in 17 years.

Do you have a Thanksgiving dinner story to tell? If so, share it. If not, which title would you choose?

And have a blessed Thanksgiving this year!


Comments

  1. LOL. Good stories! Have a great holiday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I moved to cooking the de-boned turkey breasts many years ago because it's healthier and less hassle - put it in the crock pot and 3 hours later it's done. I got so tired of worrying about the bird and then having to salvage all the meat (seems like it took me an hour).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Melinda, I'm sure it was at least an hour. Now I don't cook turkey unless it comes in one of the Sara Lee rectangle boxes, already wrapped and a little packet of gravy with it. :-)

      Delete
  3. I have a few disasters. I like leftovers better than the main meal so I still cook on the holiday. They never seem as good as birds my mother cooked. Don't know if it's because we got fresh turkey from a farmer who raised them, or if it's because she baked her stuffing in the bird. Who decided it wasn't as healthy to stuff the bird. I recall reading all kinds of articles about it being dangerous or unhealthy. I think it's better cooked in the bird.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the turkey was better when the stuffing was in the bird. And I know a fresh turkey is 100% better than a frozen one! Kroger used to have fresh turkeys and we alays bought one.

      Delete
    2. Roy, it's only unhealthy if you stuff the bird with hot stuffing and then wait to cook it. If you stuff the bird and put it right in the oven, it's fine. My stuffing is usually warm because the broth is warm, but I can stuff the bird with my hands, so it's not hot. Then the bird goes directly into the oven.

      Delete
  4. Hi, Patricia! Great stories. Two years ago, the light in my kitchen burned out on Thanksgiving morning. I'd been redoing the ceiling and an electrician had come in to put in a bulb for me to use until the project was done. (It hung from wires on one of their little black cap things.) Climbed up on a ladder to change the bulb and it was in so hard I couldn't turn it. So I cooked the turkey with my husband's 'trouble' light hanging from a plant hook on the wall. For purposes known only to people who work at 'trouble,' it was red. Everyone wanted to know what kind of services I was offering after dinner. Believe it or not, dinner came out fairly well - as well as it can for a woman who doesn't really cook.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Red light district? That's funny Muriel.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Funny, Muriel. Good stories here all around. Love the dinner rolls that wouldn't die. That's hilarious. They were like hockey pucks! I vote for the Funny Disaster title.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Isn't it wonderful when we can look back on these moments in life and laugh. I'm sitting vigil on whether to take the turkey out of the freezer. My family is in Buffalo and they were coming here for the weekend. But with 7-feet of snow and possible flooding, we're on hold. I need to know today or we'll be having Cornish hens for dinner.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now, you know you can always take a hammer and chisel...:-)

      Delete

  8. Oh, my, I love the rolls. I've given my husband food poisoning, twice, and both times it was on chicken casserole. Needless to say, we are a beef family now.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Okay, wait...Pam food poisoning her hubby wasn't but the rest was ;).

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment