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Prepping for Thanksgiving

Coming down to the final stretch... only three days until the big production. I've gathered recipes from all over the place, selected the ones which sound best to me (with a little tweaking here and there), and figured out a rough schedule of how things will go down on turkey day. I'm nervous, yet I know I shouldn't be — I've done this before. It has been awhile, though, so maybe "out of practice" is the correct phrase.

Maybe "glutton for punishment" is the correct phrase. This is going to be a mostly home-cooked meal in addition to being a mostly local meal. Primary roles will be filled by turkey, potatoes (both sweet and white varieties), green beans, and cranberries; supporting parts will be held by staples like flour, broth, eggs, butter, and various spices. And in the dessert category, cameos from sugar, brown sugar, and chocolate chips. We'll see how it all comes together.

The most challenging part is the coordination. I'll be at a place where there are two ovens, so I do have that going for me. If I only had one available, I don't think I'd be able to pull this off in a timely fashion. With two, I can have the bird going in one and everything else going in the second one... and it looks like "everything else" is going to consist of one dessert, followed by one side dish, followed by rolls, which should hopefully cook quickly. And the temperatures are close enough that I could probably double up at the end and get everything out at the same time. I could get that one dessert ready Wednesday evening as well, provided I can keep everyone out of it. Yes, that includes me.

Those of you who saw the words "one dessert" and wondered what parallel dimension you'd fallen into, not to worry... other desserts are coming, I'm only making one of them.

One of the things I remember about Thanksgiving as a kid was Dad would come home from work on Wednesday and start cooking sometime that evening. I don't remember what he cooked, but I remember it had a savory, spicy smell as opposed to sweet, and I knew it meant the big day was coming. Then Thursday morning was the Macy's parade (always with Santa Claus at the end) and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and the big meal sometime later in the day. When we lived in Mullens, after sunset on Thanksgiving day, we'd go drive around town and look at the town's Christmas decorations, which traditionally were lit for the first time that evening. I always thought they'd hung them up during the day when everyone else was eating, but I'm pretty sure now they went up before that and the town's municipal workers got the day off too.

I always liked seeing those Christmas decorations immediately after Thanksgiving. That's one of my favorite childhood memories. They were fake pine branches intertwined with lights and hung across the streets, and most of them had plastic lit candles hanging on either side near the light poles — and there were a few which spelled out "NOEL" in lights instead. Sure, it was 1970s kitsch, but it was the 1970s, and most things were kitschy like that. When you're a kid, though, that's magic. Lights which mysteriously appear downtown while you're gorging yourself on turkey and rolls, the Macy's parade on TV when all you got were seven channels (one of which was PBS), and the smell of spices whose names you don't yet know.

Good stuff. I miss it.

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