Monday, November 30, 2015

BETTER LATE THAN . . .




We had our little Thanksgiving gathering last night, postponed and consulted on and dithered about with three sets of us, with our first group having to make what my Daddy always called a “flying trip,” when a visit was short.  The GA bunch came last Sunday, spent thee nights---I had great daytimes to spend with the Kiddos, while their parents went house-hunting a couple of hours away (hooray!  Closest they’ve ever lived).  We all gathered for our suppers together, and had a wonderful time, but no chance of settling in to a real Thanksgiving dinner together.

So we settled on last night, for the few of us “in town,” and little did we know . . .    You know how I’ve always liked the combination of pink and orange, especially at Thanksgiving, when it’s time to bring out the special old cloth and those fabulous clunky pink Fostoria goblets?   Or just in general, enhancing my new kitchen with a few Fall items all around this room? 

Well.  The niceties of that certainly did NOT predict nor include having a big old ORANGE extension cord wound all across kitchen counter, behind the sink, and down to the coffee-and-Bose corner, because suddenly THAT plug gave up the ghost as well.   And there we were, with things out of place, and all that cooking going on, and suddenly it dawned:   Whatever breaker that plug was on must deal with the FURNACE, as well, for we were getting colder and colder, and no warming chuff of the igniting, nor the cheery hum of the faithful fan to distribute the warm air.   A call to “our” electrician whose month of delays occasioned the taking-down and desperate putting-back-up of the kitchen cabinets before the GA contingent arrived brought him immediately to the house while all the good dinner smells of sage and onion and sweet potatoes wafted through the rooms.   Verdict:  sump’n sump’n “outside line”   “Power Company” “they will be right here” as he called it in.

And they were, with the verdict that they’d put us on their schedule for today.  So, as he had checked and metered and called, we asked him twice to sit and eat with us, but he’d already eaten, so we wavered.   You can't just SIT DOWN TO THANKSGIVING with another person in the house, even though they've declined, and are working, can you?  It just seem so not right, somehow. And we'd waited DAYS to have the special time together.  So when he left almost three hours after our scheduled mid-afternoon repast, we got out all the hot dishes and Caro quickly cooked the broccoli, Sweetpea grabbed her little page of History of Thanksgiving in Color and Prose to read to us after the Blessing, and we sat down.

And even with all the delay and chafing at the probably-dried-out everything, the meal was absolutely perfect.   The dressing was moist and delicious inside its lovely golden top and bottom crust, the sweet potatoes sweet and rich, with the marshmallows gently melted atop, the pineapple casserole still creamy beneath the Ritz-crumbs-fried-in-butter topping, and the TURKEY---oh that Turkey---simply delicious and tender and moist and still nice and warm, through some magical alchemy of prayer and hope and gritted teeth at all the delays.   It was the weirdest, nicest thing---the wait seemed to have created some sort of strange bubble of peace and perfection after we sat down, and everything seemed even to taste better than usual.


The sublime Pecan-Wood-Smoked Turkey:
 





Dressing:



Caro’s stir-fry/steamed Broccoli in Mother's Vegetable-Bowl-to-match-her-china:



Sweet Potato Custard:





Gravy with boiled eggs:






Pineapple Casserole, sweet little nuggets in a rich cheese sauce with Butter-sizzled Ritz crumbs atop:



Devilled eggs, before the compote of Cranberry was set into place. Actually the plates were half-served when Chris mentioned it, and I heard a little whisper of “It’s probably in the Microwave,” (family joke about the One Missed Thing), as I got it out of the fridge.




Sweetpea’s Mama’s wonderful Pink Salad:










Dessert was a fabulous, moist Pumpkin Roulade with a Ginger cream cheese filling, a gift made by a friend of Caro’s.

What a day, memorable in all sorts of ways, and you certainly deserve a big Turkey Sandwich, with all the trimmings, if you’re still here.



10 comments:

  1. The "Night Before Christmas" came to mind as I read your post! Everything turned out great even with the interruption. Now I am ready for Thanksgiving dinner again after seeing all that food!

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  2. Racheld may I come to your house next Thanksgiving? (just kidding) It sounded so wonderfully crazy, so delightfully enchanting, so yummy delicious. The place you gotta want to be.

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  3. Wow, you had a lot of good things to eat. I am glad all could be there to share a few meals.

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  4. ummm....it all looks and sounds just delicious. Your table looked so nice...and I simply MUST have the Pineapple recipe. Our food this year seemed especially delicious, too...something in the air..? or just that we all were so glad to be together, with wonderful and favorite foods and a chance to escape all the bad news on tv...? A little of both, I think.

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  5. What a wonderful, wonderful story- even through all the delays and mishaps you still had a wonderful, delicious meal. I have to ask though....eggs in the gravy? I have never heard of that. Looks like a real feast to me even though you celebrated a few days and hours late. xo Diana

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  6. I am glad it all turned out well in the end. You are made of stronger stuff than me.

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  7. LOVE AND GOOD FOOD NEEDS NO SCHEDULE TO GATHER. JUST MAKE SURE THERE IS LIVER IN THE DRESSING GRAVY. EVERYTHING ELSE WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF!

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  8. Talk about better late that never, I am so...late. Late visiting you. And, I still haven't posted about our Thanksgiving. Never mind, I will get around to it. hahah

    I now know that we are officially family. How do I know??? Because I put sliced boiled eggs in my gravy, too. Also, I include sliced chicken livers. Yum! Everything must have been the best ever.

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  9. Hello Rachel, What an untimely thing to happen. Thank goodness help came It sure didn't keep the great food from being prepared. YUM! I have never heard of putting sliced boiled eggs in gravy but I know I would love it. We also do not make cornbread stuffing. I do have Yankee blood in me. LOL. The turkey looks so good it makes me hungry for some of it NOW. Your table looks lovely. We were in FL for Thanksgiving and it was a wonderful day. Blessings to you all even though they are belated.

    Love.
    Jeanne

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  10. Your story reminds me of the Christmas dinner my SIL’s family had this year in spite of a power outage in their entire neighborhood. With turkey and trimmings improvised on the grill. We were banished because of our colds (there was an imminent bride-to-be in the household), but were told that it was a meaningful, delicious family meal anyway! Just as yours was! It looks wonderful and I already know that everyone sitting around your table is blessed. (And you know how much I love that pink salad!)

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