Readers share Thanksgiving stories
Smart readers tell us about their holiday nightmares.
Hostess juggles mixed menu
Nightmares began for me several weeks before Thanksgiving 2002. I was planning to host my extended family, numbering 18, as I had done on previous occasions. We then got word that my husband’s sister and her spouse would be traveling up from Florida. Of course, we invited them to join us — in spite of their chosen vegan lifestyle. (Prior to meeting my in-laws, I had never heard of a vegan: as the strictest form of vegetarian, they eat no animal products at all. That’s no dairy, no eggs and no gelatin.) How do you make mashed potatoes without butter, milk or chicken broth?!
Although my sister- and brother-in-law kindly offered to bring their own “tofurkey,” placing them on the guest list added a new wrinkle to menu planning. My husband expected traditional fare, and my own family members had several special dietary needs. There’s my gluten-intolerant sister (no bread stuffing for her!), a mother and brother watching their cholesterol (no gravy for them!), one hypoglycemic sister-in-law (no sugar-laden cranberry relish for her), and another sister-in-law who gets migraines from caffeine (no coffee with her pumpkin pie)!
I decided to make enough dishes and variations of favorites so that everyone had at least three acceptable choices. After days of planning and cooking, the spread in my tiny kitchen resembled a second-rate smorgasbord more than an elegant holiday feast.
There were a few snide comments about the unappealing appearance of tofurkey and some mild evangelization regarding the benefits of being vegan. Yet, everyone managed to satisfy his or her appetite, with the added bonus that most had room to indulge their sweet tooth later that day.
We had a cookie crust, candy-topped “pizza” to celebrate my 7-year-old daughter’s birthday while so many relatives were present! My nightmare preparations ended with a sweet dream.
— Amy Graf, York Township
Family learns to follow instructions
I pride myself in making some pretty good Thanksgiving turkeys — I love to cook Thanksgiving meals and normally do two full meals, one for my family and one for my husband’s work family (White Rose Ambulance — they work 12-hour shifts over Thanksgiving, and I’ve been making them meals for 10-plus years).
I always know what size turkey to get for White Rose, but my husband always tries to get our family the biggest turkey he can find (he loves leftovers). It really wasn’t going to be a large event this particular year, just my family (three) and my mother-in-law.
The first turkey finished on time, and I started “our” turkey — first of all it was more than 25 pounds — I could hardly handle the thing! I got it to fit in my biggest roaster, but the lid was never going to fit — first time in my life, I was going to need to use aluminum foil.
Side note: If the instructions regarding turkey and aluminum foil say to make a “tent” — make a tent!
My logic was that I knew better than Reynolds Aluminum, a tent would never work properly. So I wrapped the roaster — the whole roaster — in aluminum foil.
Heavy duty aluminum foil.
I put the turkey in early in the morning, around 6 if I recall correctly, and I worked on the rest of the meal.
About noon, the mashed potatoes were about done, the sweet potatoes, the filling, the oyster filling, the mixed vegetables, the lima beans, the desserts, the table set, my mother-in-law at the house, and everything was shaping up for a beautiful meal (the gravy even looked good for a change).
My husband took the turkey out of the oven for me and I started unwrapping — it was beautiful! Golden brown, almost like a picture.
I got the meat platter and instructed my husband to lift it out and onto the platter — I took the sides, he went end to end and we lifted . . . something was drastically wrong. The bottom part of the turkey was completely raw, the top half was lovely.
My mother-in-law (God bless her) is legally blind, and she was poking at the side of the turkey saying it’s done, but blood was running from the turkey!
I got a little hysterical when my husband asked me, “What did you do to the turkey?”
When he saw the look on my face, it was like he understood why the emergency rooms are busy on holidays. Apparently, the aluminum foil wrapped around the bottom of the roaster reflected the heat away from the bird.
Who would have thought? Hard lesson to learn.
We flipped the bird over, “tented” the bottom of the bird, threw it in the oven, sat down and ate our vegetarian Thanksgiving meal and headed over to my sister’s house for turkey sandwiches.
Took a little over 12 hours total for the turkey to eventually get done, and we had leftovers forever, but I learned to follow instructions.
— Jean Firestone, West York
A feast in four hours
Thanksgiving 2006 was a nightmare. The chaos began at 10 a.m. While still in my nightgown, preparing to put the turkey into the oven, our invited guests from Delaware arrived. I was stunned.
They then informed me that they would have to return home before dark. That meant they would have to leave our house by 2:30 p.m.
The turkey was 22 pounds!
While I got dressed, I asked my husband to entertain them in the living room. Being they got up so early, the husband was asleep.
Well now for the grand finale! I cooked the turkey in one of those aluminum throw-away pans. As I was taking the turkey out of the oven, the pan buckled in half and the hot grease ran down my leg onto my right foot and onto the floor.
I slipped on the grease and fell flat on my face holding the turkey up in the air, saying, “I saved it, I saved it.”
I didn’t have time to attend to my burned leg and foot, so we proceeded to hurriedly eat dinner, as 2:30 p.m. would be arriving soon. We didn’t even have dessert.
Well now, 10 months later, I am constantly reminded of Thanksgiving whenever I get a shooting pain in my foot and look down at the scar caused by the grease.
Needless to say, aluminum pans are history in this household! Maybe we’ll dine out this year.
— Kathleen Whittock, Airville
Grandmother hopes cruise is worth it
The horror to this story is we will not be having our traditional Thanksgiving dinner with our 18 immediate family members.
You see, in February 2007, for a Valentine’s Day surprise, my husband booked a cruise that is in November . . . Thanksgiving week!!
Little did we check, back in February, that Thanksgiving wasn’t the last Thursday in November as usual.
This will be the first Thanksgiving, a horror to us, that we won’t all be together at our house, in the McNamara home, for 47 years of togetherness.
It started out with three children, then their spouses, then 10 grandchildren. It has always been a great day; 2007 will be a horror on our part.
Hope the cruise measures up to the loss of family togetherness that day.
— Jeanette McNamara, York
Next issue:
Tell us your New Year’s resolutions. E-mail “New Years” to bvrabel@ydr.com.
Submissions are due by Nov. 19.
Comments (0)
