Post Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving yesterday turned out to be a nice day; fairly calm, quiet, and stress-free. The aforementioned alcoholic friend came over, and he had been imbibing a little bit, but he did his best to refrain from obnoxious behavior and was actually quite pleasant to be around. He wasn't tipsy drunk, just a bit into the weeds. I was glad he decided to join us, as Thanksgiving is a day for sharing and it would have seemed a shame to have made all of that food without being able to share it with someone outside of our home. As planned, I prepared candied yams, mashed potatoes (free of garlic, skins, or anything else our little one would turn her nose at), rolls, stuffing, corn on the cob, and the obligatory green bean casserole (I don't know about anywhere else, but here in America this dish is almost mandatory at any Thanksgiving function), as well as slow cooker mac and cheese which turned out a bit chewy but delicious at the same time. My husband was in charge of cooking the turkey, which he did with the help of a deep fryer. This is probably the fastest method by which to cook a turkey, and, when done properly, yields a pleasantly crunchy, golden skin and moist, juicy meat. Welllllll......enter my husband with the turkey. It was black. Coal black. This was a rather shocking sight for all present to behold and I confess that my first reaction upon seeing the bird (after I picked my jaw up from the floor) was to laugh. Being Cajun, he joked that this was a blackened turkey in the Cajun style, and proceeded to slice into it with a hopeful countenance. To our pleasant surprise, the turkey tasted okay. While it was not as juicy as the turkey he fried last year, it still tasted good. The skin was not really edible, but the skin isn't good for us anyway so it was probably better that we couldn't munch on it. I, myself, am not a major fan of eating turkey or chicken skin; I feel the texture to be rather unpleasant.

The only disappointment with regard to Thanksgiving is that I couldn't include my daughter in the preparations as much as I'd hoped. When baking is called for, she is right alongside me in the kitchen, mixing, scooping, dumping, sifting, etc., to her heart's content. Yesterday, however, most of what I needed to do involved sauteing and cutting, neither of which are safe activities for a five year old, no matter how talented she is when it comes to creating in the kitchen. She wandered in a few times to ask if I had any jobs for her to do, and was very sad that I had no real work for her, as was I. I regretted that there were no other children here for her to play with; both my husband and I have lots of children in our families, but none of them live here in Florida. This is particularly troublesome during the holidays, when celebrating with family is so much fun (at least, in our cases-I know some who prefer not to see family during this time, or any time!).

After dinner, we all lounged on the living room couch, eating pumpkin pie and feeling grateful for our full bellies and the companionship of one another. Neither of these things is to be taken for granted!!!