Gobble, Gobble
For the first time in my adult life, I am not going anywhere for Thanksgiving. Or for Christmas. Basil and I drew a line in the sand at the beginning of this year and said firmly, 'No traveling for the holidays.'
We've been slogging back to Northern Kentucky and Cleveland for the past eight years together. Well, for the first year or two of dating, we spent Thanksgiving with our respective families and then split Christmas between them. And when I say 'split,' I mean we drove 4 1/2 hours on Christmas day from NoKY to the eastern Cleveland 'burbs (or vice versa), which meant we spent the bulk of our holiday on I-71. How festive.
For the past several years, we have been alternating holidays. One family got us for Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas. Last year, being in our (somewhat spacious) new house with a stunning new dining room set and roomy kitchen, we really wanted to have Thanksgiving at our place. But it was Basil's family's turn for Valentines with their turkey, and since the whole family doesn't travel much at all, the idea of coming to our place was met with an uncomfortable silence. So we grudgingly drove the Pennsylvania Turnpike last year for cranberries and pie in Ohio.
It was hard to pack up and leave for KY at Christmas, saying goodbye to our beautiful big tree and our own beds. At least we had our new car with plenty of space for all the luggage and bags. And with Basil's new Sirius radio and our new portable DVD player, the 9+ hour drive was more reasonable than it's ever been.
But it still wasn't the same as being home. And since we decided there was no politically correct way to spend one holiday in Virginia and travel for the other holiday (thereby stiffing someone's extended family), we just decided to eff the whole thing.
For the first time since I was in college, I'm going to wake up in what I consider my own house on Christmas morning. I'm going to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. I don't have to think about putting the mail on hold, stopping the newspapers or timing our departure around the notorious DC traffic.
Instead, I get to think about fun things. Like which Christmas Eve service to attend at the church we love so much. And what to make for Thanksgiving dinner.
I think I've mentioned before that I love to cook and host parties. So the idea of getting out my china and cooking Thanksgiving dinner makes my eyes twinkle in a big way. My mother will be staying with us for the weekend, so I've been weighing whether or not I needed to include any of her family's traditional foods: cheesy broccoli-rice casserole, canned sweet potatoes with baked apples, frozen whipped cream-marshmallow-fruit-jello salad, slightly runny stuffing (it grosses Basil out, but I kind of like it wet) and - a true family tradition - buttered potatoes. We don't mash 'em or flavor 'em. We peel, boil, drain and cover in melted butter. It's hard to go wrong.
But after tip-toeing around the issue with my mom the other day and her saying point-blank that I should cook whatever I want because it's my holiday and she's open to new traditions, I've decided to throw it all out the window. Partly because most of the food on my family's Thanksgiving table starts in cans or the freezer section, and I myself prefer vegetables and starches from fresh. And partly because I am really trying hard to lose some weight and get healthy, and a dinner laden with jarred cheese sauce, sticks of melted butter and whipped cream doesn't seem like a good fit.
Yum apparently made a delicious dinner last year, and I think I'm going to steal her idea and incorporate a Brussels sprouts dish. I also have this terrific roasted orange-balsamic beets recipe that I'm going to use, and I will probably make an easy but yummy slow-sauteed broccoli from one of my cookbooks to have something that at least is a tiny nod to tables past.
But I've still got a lot of decisions to make: how to prepare the bird, what kind of stuffing to make, what kind of potatoes to make, if a sweet potato dish AND a regular potato dish is too much, how much effort I want to expend on the cranberries, whether I want to make rolls at home or buy them from a bakery, etc. For dessert, I'll for sure have pumpkin pie from roasted pumpkin puree, which I have decided is worth the effort, and this great ginger bundt cake that makes a beautiful presentation and has molasses, which makes it very seasonal.
In the next week or two, I plan to go through all my magazines laying around (Real Simple, Everyday Food, Food+Wine) and my cookbooks to put together my Thanksgiving game plan. After all, Turkey Day is only four weeks from tomorrow, and if you can't tell, I'm a little excited!
We've been slogging back to Northern Kentucky and Cleveland for the past eight years together. Well, for the first year or two of dating, we spent Thanksgiving with our respective families and then split Christmas between them. And when I say 'split,' I mean we drove 4 1/2 hours on Christmas day from NoKY to the eastern Cleveland 'burbs (or vice versa), which meant we spent the bulk of our holiday on I-71. How festive.
For the past several years, we have been alternating holidays. One family got us for Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas. Last year, being in our (somewhat spacious) new house with a stunning new dining room set and roomy kitchen, we really wanted to have Thanksgiving at our place. But it was Basil's family's turn for Valentines with their turkey, and since the whole family doesn't travel much at all, the idea of coming to our place was met with an uncomfortable silence. So we grudgingly drove the Pennsylvania Turnpike last year for cranberries and pie in Ohio.
It was hard to pack up and leave for KY at Christmas, saying goodbye to our beautiful big tree and our own beds. At least we had our new car with plenty of space for all the luggage and bags. And with Basil's new Sirius radio and our new portable DVD player, the 9+ hour drive was more reasonable than it's ever been.
But it still wasn't the same as being home. And since we decided there was no politically correct way to spend one holiday in Virginia and travel for the other holiday (thereby stiffing someone's extended family), we just decided to eff the whole thing.
For the first time since I was in college, I'm going to wake up in what I consider my own house on Christmas morning. I'm going to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. I don't have to think about putting the mail on hold, stopping the newspapers or timing our departure around the notorious DC traffic.
Instead, I get to think about fun things. Like which Christmas Eve service to attend at the church we love so much. And what to make for Thanksgiving dinner.
I think I've mentioned before that I love to cook and host parties. So the idea of getting out my china and cooking Thanksgiving dinner makes my eyes twinkle in a big way. My mother will be staying with us for the weekend, so I've been weighing whether or not I needed to include any of her family's traditional foods: cheesy broccoli-rice casserole, canned sweet potatoes with baked apples, frozen whipped cream-marshmallow-fruit-jello salad, slightly runny stuffing (it grosses Basil out, but I kind of like it wet) and - a true family tradition - buttered potatoes. We don't mash 'em or flavor 'em. We peel, boil, drain and cover in melted butter. It's hard to go wrong.
But after tip-toeing around the issue with my mom the other day and her saying point-blank that I should cook whatever I want because it's my holiday and she's open to new traditions, I've decided to throw it all out the window. Partly because most of the food on my family's Thanksgiving table starts in cans or the freezer section, and I myself prefer vegetables and starches from fresh. And partly because I am really trying hard to lose some weight and get healthy, and a dinner laden with jarred cheese sauce, sticks of melted butter and whipped cream doesn't seem like a good fit.
Yum apparently made a delicious dinner last year, and I think I'm going to steal her idea and incorporate a Brussels sprouts dish. I also have this terrific roasted orange-balsamic beets recipe that I'm going to use, and I will probably make an easy but yummy slow-sauteed broccoli from one of my cookbooks to have something that at least is a tiny nod to tables past.
But I've still got a lot of decisions to make: how to prepare the bird, what kind of stuffing to make, what kind of potatoes to make, if a sweet potato dish AND a regular potato dish is too much, how much effort I want to expend on the cranberries, whether I want to make rolls at home or buy them from a bakery, etc. For dessert, I'll for sure have pumpkin pie from roasted pumpkin puree, which I have decided is worth the effort, and this great ginger bundt cake that makes a beautiful presentation and has molasses, which makes it very seasonal.
In the next week or two, I plan to go through all my magazines laying around (Real Simple, Everyday Food, Food+Wine) and my cookbooks to put together my Thanksgiving game plan. After all, Turkey Day is only four weeks from tomorrow, and if you can't tell, I'm a little excited!
posted by merseydotes @ 10:25 AM
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