Your Thanksgiving Mistake

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve realized I don’t like the family stuffing recipe. Everyone else does so next year I’m just not going to eat any and let the rest of them have it all.

Stuffing is one of my favorite sides but I won’t eat it unless I made it. I use good sourdough bread, shallots, celery, fresh sage and some seasoning. Plus the butter to sauté the vegetables and homemade broth.

I hate mystery stuffing ingredient like cranberries, sausage, or god forbid chopped up giblets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did not prep the Turkey last night. We will eat it tomorrow. Seems like our tradition.

Did you forget?

What does prepping the turkey entail?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve realized I don’t like the family stuffing recipe. Everyone else does so next year I’m just not going to eat any and let the rest of them have it all.

Stuffing is one of my favorite sides but I won’t eat it unless I made it. I use good sourdough bread, shallots, celery, fresh sage and some seasoning. Plus the butter to sauté the vegetables and homemade broth.

I hate mystery stuffing ingredient like cranberries, sausage, or god forbid chopped up giblets.

Oh God, same. SAME. Rice, sausage, and…I’m choking…giblets have no place in stuffing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Miscalculated how much time I needed for cleaning. Kitchen, living/dining room and guest bath are ok bit I hope nobody will open other doors

If I am invited to a meal/holiday, I do not care if your house is not in perfect order. I’m just happy for the invite.

Thank you so much to whoever replied to my post. In really helped me to keep things in the right perspective

You’re welcome!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The turkey we bought was too bulky to fit our oven. I ended up removing the legs and part of the breast. I cooked them separately in a fig juice and turned out to be a success.

Sounds yummy. I was tempted to spatchcock my turkey this year, at my teen's urging. He's always looking for new food ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scheduled lunch at 1, everyone showed up after 1:30-2. Ugh!!

Did you ask what time people wanted to eat? That might have been their small mutiny.

Did they have small kids? Because 1 p.m. is smack-dab nap time, and I would have driven around until my kid had at least a bit of a car nap, meaning yeah, I would have arrived at 2.

It's rude not to tell the host that the time doesn't work for you. Let the host decide whether to move the time or expect late arrivals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our big thanksgiving is tomorrow and I still have to make a pie tonight and I don’t wanna. Should have made it this morning.

Send DH to Wegman’s.

Gasp! Perish the thought. I’m going to do it, and then I’m going to have a whiskey and a bath.

I quite like their baked goods.

I’m sure they’re good but I can’t bring a store bought pie to Thanksgiving, I have a REPUTATION to uphold.

A reputation of being a stressball procrastinator who drinks whiskey to cope with something that’s as…easy as pie? -NP

Someone needs to find a way to relax, and it's not the poster baking a late pie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scheduled lunch at 1, everyone showed up after 1:30-2. Ugh!!

Did you ask what time people wanted to eat? That might have been their small mutiny.

Did they have small kids? Because 1 p.m. is smack-dab nap time, and I would have driven around until my kid had at least a bit of a car nap, meaning yeah, I would have arrived at 2.

It's rude not to tell the host that the time doesn't work for you. Let the host decide whether to move the time or expect late arrivals.

When did I say I would tell the host? The only thing I would say is, “We’ll likely be late since that’s nap time and we’ll need to drive Janie around a bit to make sure she gets a nap. If that’s not OK, I understand. We don’t expect you to save anything for us.”

I would kindly state what I could do, make it clear that I needed no special treatment, offer them an out…but do what I needed to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My first time hosting thanksgiving. DH and I are 30 but we’ve always gone to thanksgiving at someone else’s house.

My fruit pie didn’t cook through well enough and never firmed up at all, the sides were passable but nothing special, the mashed potatoes weren’t fluffy, I made WAY too much of everything.

That sounds like an altogether great first time out. You survived! And have some ideas for next time. Hope you are enjoying the calm after the storm.

+1. Serve pie in bowls and call it fruit pie pudding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scheduled lunch at 1, everyone showed up after 1:30-2. Ugh!!

Did you ask what time people wanted to eat? That might have been their small mutiny.

Did they have small kids? Because 1 p.m. is smack-dab nap time, and I would have driven around until my kid had at least a bit of a car nap, meaning yeah, I would have arrived at 2.

It's rude not to tell the host that the time doesn't work for you. Let the host decide whether to move the time or expect late arrivals.

When did I say I would tell the host? The only thing I would say is, “We’ll likely be late since that’s nap time and we’ll need to drive Janie around a bit to make sure she gets a nap. If that’s not OK, I understand. We don’t expect you to save anything for us.”

I would kindly state what I could do, make it clear that I needed no special treatment, offer them an out…but do what I needed to do.

PP's guests' late arrival seems to have taken her by surprise. My comment was not a criticism of you but of guests with a similar kid/nap issue not bothering to tell their host.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scheduled lunch at 1, everyone showed up after 1:30-2. Ugh!!

Did you ask what time people wanted to eat? That might have been their small mutiny.

Did they have small kids? Because 1 p.m. is smack-dab nap time, and I would have driven around until my kid had at least a bit of a car nap, meaning yeah, I would have arrived at 2.

It's rude not to tell the host that the time doesn't work for you. Let the host decide whether to move the time or expect late arrivals.

When did I say I would tell the host? The only thing I would say is, “We’ll likely be late since that’s nap time and we’ll need to drive Janie around a bit to make sure she gets a nap. If that’s not OK, I understand. We don’t expect you to save anything for us.”

I would kindly state what I could do, make it clear that I needed no special treatment, offer them an out…but do what I needed to do.

PP's guests' late arrival seems to have taken her by surprise. My comment was not a criticism of you but of guests with a similar kid/nap issue not bothering to tell their host.

Fair point! Her guests should definitely communicate. But if OP really wants to troubleshoot, she should consider that a 1 p.m. “dinner” time is practically the worst time for small kids. Not saying there aren’t other guest factors to consider—like elderly people not wanting to drive at night—just saying, that might be a factor.

[Anonymous]

Mis-timed the turkey cooking time, so dinner didn't make it to the table until 8pm. I've never miscalculated this badly before, and I still don't understand why it took so long to cook. I swear our oven just wasn't as hot this year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I made my umpteenth try at homemade green bean casserole. Turned out watery and bland, as always, no matter the recipe. Next time, I'm using soup; at least I know it'll taste good.

Or skip the casserole and prepare green beans in a way that you know tastes good. My whole life, we've done Indian-style sauteed green beans with an otherwise traditional Thanksgiving spread (I'm Indian-American). When I started hosting for ILs, I kept up the tradition. My white, not-into-spicy-"ethnic"-food ILs are complete converts. They tell me it's the thing they look forward to most about the meal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve realized I don’t like the family stuffing recipe. Everyone else does so next year I’m just not going to eat any and let the rest of them have it all.

Stuffing is one of my favorite sides but I won’t eat it unless I made it. I use good sourdough bread, shallots, celery, fresh sage and some seasoning. Plus the butter to sauté the vegetables and homemade broth.

I hate mystery stuffing ingredient like cranberries, sausage, or god forbid chopped up giblets.

Oh God, same. SAME. Rice, sausage, and…I’m choking…giblets have no place in stuffing.

+ Same and I read on here people are also putting things like hard boiled eggs and olives in it. No thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mis-timed the turkey cooking time, so dinner didn't make it to the table until 8pm. I've never miscalculated this badly before, and I still don't understand why it took so long to cook. I swear our oven just wasn't as hot this year!

This happened to us one year! We never could figure out what happened. The only reason dinner wasn’t ruined was because I got up at 5 to start cooking. The pie that should have taken an hour took two. Luckily, we had two turkeys (one fried) so we were able eat at a reasonable time.

It hasn’t happened since. So weird