Yes this is almost brown but then Thanksgiving is about brown food. Brown turkey, brown rolls, browned and candied sweet potatoes, brown gravy, even the veggies are made brown with the right amount of brown soup. The only bright spot would be the cranberries and the ever present, famous and oft forgotten Jello Mold.
We had a great time.
Our drive to Portland was interrupted by a quick (not!!!!) stop at a German restuaant. Margaret was wanting German food. We had reasonable traffic but then I was asleep after all the great food. Rheinlander on Sandy Blvd in the Hollywood district.
Mom called us on the phone about 6:00 p.m. announcing that she was going to bake the pies. I capitulated and told her the secret to Sally's Amazing and wonderful, not to be surpassed Pumpkin pie recipe. Just so you know, doubling the nutmeg is not the secret.
We arrived in Eugene about 8:00, settled in, learned that Mom thought 63 was an acceptable house temperature and offered us all hats and coats and more layers if needed. We fussed with some preparations for dinner and did math problems.
Yes, math problems. Why do you doubt me??
If you want to eat at 2:00 p.m. (because that is between important foot ball games) and the free range organic holistic turkey with a budist mother and a hippy father weights 30 lbs and has been lightly stuffed and put in the roaster breast side down, what time should it go into the oven and at what temperature?
Well we all settled on the following formula:
15 minutes per pound. 4-15 minutes per hour therefore divide 4 into 30 and you get 7.5 hours. Add 30 minutes to keep from getting samonila from the dressing. Keep in mind the turkey has to set while you cook the rolls. Count back from 2:00 p.m. and the answer is 6:00 p.m.
So we all headed to bed and imagine my shock to let the dog out around 5:30 a.m. and have the house full of those great Thanksgiving smell. The shock and confusion did disapate when Mom told me that she had put the turkey in at 2:00 a.m.
Evidently the dog was up and it sounded like a good idea. A full turkey dinner at 12:00 p.m. allows you more time for leftovers.
I called Ruth on her cell phone to let her know that the tradition of Turkey breakfast was being continued.
It all turned out, the guests were told to come in early for dinner, the turkey was perfect, no one spilled any water. Austin made if very clear that he would be the only one to put food on his plate so not to let anything touch. Dad carved with great old doctor skill and Alex can still mash potatoes.
We all offered as a prayer the things for which we were thankful.
Mine was Chemo Therapy.
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