Share your Thanksgiving cooking flops and successes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha. Just wanted to update on my melted tablecloth. I washed it and the mark is not nearly as visible. If you didn't know it was there, you probably wouldn't notice it.

So, yay, I get to use my pretty, red, shiny, fabric looking plastic tablecloth again!

Hooray!

I took out the table cloth and gave it to my mom to iron. She was freaking out because there were still wax patches from last year where the candles had melted. I just put it on the table and put the candles in the same place and viola, thanksgiving is saved!

And yes, it is a poly/cotton blend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Too much salt in our dry brine. Not so bad for the turkey itself but pan drippings were inedible. Fortunately, we did the stuffing on the side. I also had made a stock from the neck before, so I could make gravy easily.

Any time you brine, the pan drippings are going to be salty. If you brine you should plan on making gravy from separate stock, not from the drippings.

I made stock with no salt from the neck and back ahead of time, then made gravy from that stock. I brushed the excess salt off of the turkey before baking it, and added a bit of water to the roasting pan several times. I added the drippings to the unsalted gravy, and it came out really well!

This is helpful information but that neck freaks me out every year.

[Anonymous]

I just found a petrified dinner roll in the oven from last night that somehow got left behind.

Awesome. My kid lost his baseball in the pachysandra. Can you send it over?

[Anonymous]

For the first time in my 6 years of hosting thanksgiving, I roasted the turkey breast-side down and it worked! It was my first time not serving god-awful dry turkey. I was really pleased. All these years I shied away from doing that bc I believed the stories about how impossible it is to flip the bird breast-side up for the last hour but it was a cinch. And this was a 22 pound bird! But my failure was the gravy. Like the OP, my drippings were way too greasy bc i used so much butter. I used hardly any drippings and just did a not-great gravy with chicken stock, mushroom broth, and red wine. It did the job but wasn't that good.

[Anonymous]

Found out that potatoes really do explode in the oven if you don't poke enough holes in them. The ones that survived mashed up really well, though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Found out that potatoes really do explode in the oven if you don't poke enough holes in them. The ones that survived mashed up really well, though!

Hehe. Sounds like something I'd do and it reminds me of the time my mom forgot and left the eggs boiling on the stove for too long. Sounded like a fireworks show in that kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was setting a piping hot dish onto a trivet on the dining room table and managed to accidentally touch and melt a little spot on the fabric of my brand new tablecloth .

How do you melt fabric? Plastic you mean?

No. It's a nice, red holiday fabric tablecloth. There is a shiny spot where the hot casserole dish touched it. I put it in the wash but I'm pretty sure that the fabric actually melted a little. Didn't hurt the table - thank goodness!

K. Then your "fabric" is polyester. Ergo plastic. Real fabric doesn't melt. Geesh.

Welcome To The Tablecloth Fact Channel! Tonight our experts will discuss whether fabric can, in fact, melt or merely burst into flames. Our first caller is from Akron, Ohio. Go ahead, Akron:

My holiday flop - my ultra expensive linen napkins and placemat set. I spent a small fortune on them and spent another small fortune to get the. pressed. They seemed flimsily and wrinkled right away. So forget the linen. PP - where did you get the beautiful polyester tablecloth? I'm going that way next year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was setting a piping hot dish onto a trivet on the dining room table and managed to accidentally touch and melt a little spot on the fabric of my brand new tablecloth .

How do you melt fabric? Plastic you mean?

No. It's a nice, red holiday fabric tablecloth. There is a shiny spot where the hot casserole dish touched it. I put it in the wash but I'm pretty sure that the fabric actually melted a little. Didn't hurt the table - thank goodness!

K. Then your "fabric" is polyester. Ergo plastic. Real fabric doesn't melt. Geesh.

Welcome To The Tablecloth Fact Channel! Tonight our experts will discuss whether fabric can, in fact, melt or merely burst into flames. Our first caller is from Akron, Ohio. Go ahead, Akron:

My holiday flop - my ultra expensive linen napkins and placemat set. I spent a small fortune on them and spent another small fortune to get the. pressed. They seemed flimsily and wrinkled right away. So forget the linen. PP - where did you get the beautiful polyester tablecloth? I'm going that way next year!

Target

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Flop: Used Reynold's bag and stuffed it. Food poisoning.

Learn to use a meat thermometer.

[Anonymous]

Did you all use the fat separating pouring thing to make your gravy? I used mine for the first time this year and totally worth the purchase. Made great gravy and no grease slick on top. I think it was six bucks at tjmaxx.

[Anonymous]

Everything turned out well. We brined our turkey. Used only 1/2 of the salt + sugar, apple cider, vinegar, ect. Stuffed with apple, onion, garlic, lemon. Turned out delicious. 16 lbs and cooked very quickly b/c of the brining. Everyone in our immediate family choose a job. DH handled the turkey, kids made the sides. Alton Brown let us down with the mashed potatoes -- too much garlic -- so we added two more potatoes and that fixed it. Also we rinsed the turkey off after brining-- the gravy was not too salty. There is a website which explains this further.
What a great quiet Thanksgiving we had!

[Anonymous]

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/11/how-to-control-saltiness-after-brining/
What to do to use drippings after brining the turkey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you all use the fat separating pouring thing to make your gravy? I used mine for the first time this year and totally worth the purchase. Made great gravy and no grease slick on top. I think it was six bucks at tjmaxx.

No. But I sure wish that I had thought to try it. I'll see if I can pick one up at TJ's for next time.

[Anonymous]

Bought the turkey and sides from Whole Foods. Turkey was ok, but seemed to take longer to cook this year. The sides were not as good as last year (green bean casserole and the sweet potatoe casserole). I'm disappointed and won't buy the Whole Foods meal next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you all use the fat separating pouring thing to make your gravy? I used mine for the first time this year and totally worth the purchase. Made great gravy and no grease slick on top. I think it was six bucks at tjmaxx.

No. But I sure wish that I had thought to try it. I'll see if I can pick one up at TJ's for next time.

I have a fat separator thingy, and yet I always seem to pour out the fat right along with the juices. This year, I stuck the drippings in a Pyrex bowl in the freezer for a few minutes, then used my turkey baster to suck the juices out from under the fat. Worked like a charm!