NaBloPoMo (11/2016) – Day 23: ‘Twas the night before Thanksgiving

Well, I’m still in hyper-drive mode. The stuffing is almost ready. I need to clean the turkey. Once the turkey is in the oven, I need to clean the kitchen, which will consist of washing pans and bowls too large for the dishwasher, and putting everything else in the dishwasher. Then, I will get to sleep while the turkey cooks. I will wake up to the wonderful smell of a roasting turkey. In fact, the wonderful smell will likely be what wakes me up.

I have a 21 pound turkey. It will need to cook for about 5 1/2 hours. I’ll unwrap it and cook it for an additional 30 minutes, basting every 5 minutes, so that it will (hopefully) brown a bit. Then, the stuffing goes into pans and the pans go into the oven.

This is the 5th year I’ve made the stuffing. Well, the 5th year I’ve made it by myself. Prior to that, I helped my mother. When my grandmother was alive, I helped her. When it comes to how the stuffing tastes, I’m very pleased. I’ve found the right combination of ingredients and it tastes almost exactly the way my grandmother’s did.  My failure, however, has come with consistency and texture. I haven’t gotten that right yet.

You see, Gram didn’t write this recipe down. At least, I haven’t found it anywhere. The recipe was in her head – and in her heart. She just knew what to do and how much of everything to use. I was her taste tester every year, so that’s how I know when my stuffing tastes right. But, dammit! I need to get that consistency right. Hopefully, this will be the year.

While the turkey is cooling and the stuffing is cooking, I’ll go to church. I can’t find my schedule to determine if I’m supposed to be doing readings tomorrow. So, I guess I’ll just be prepared. I usually get scheduled for holidays, but I also didn’t get a reminder call this week from Mary (the woman from church who makes the reminder calls each week). So, I’m unsure. So, better to be prepared.

I need to be at my aunt’s house at 1:00pm, food cooked and ready to go. Of course, this means we won’t actually eat until 2:30pm – that’s just the way it’s always worked with our family. But once I get there and hand over the food, my work for this particular holiday is pretty much over. *whew* I get a break until Christmas.

I’ll likely go from my aunt’s directly to the movie theatre.  I really want to see Arrival.  Perhaps on Friday I’ll see Loving. I’ll wait to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them when the kids are back in school.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers. I am thankful for each of you.