Assignment: Share a Favorite Thanksgiving Memory
*I am re-posting my recent Canuck-Thanksgiving memory because it's just too memorable not to...LOL! It was originally "aired" on October 10, 2011*
Cheater, Cheater Pumpkin Eater! (And Eater of Almost Inedible Food...)
What did I learn this Thanksgiving? That when you try to cheat, disaster ensues!
It wasn't until Tuesday of last week that Daddy Dave and I realized that Thanksgiving weekend was fast approaching. In a panic, we invited his siblings and their significant others over to have dinner on Saturday evening. His parents are away on holidays and had his mom been around, well, let's just say I would have been WAY more organized for dinner!
Dave had a WONDERFUL idea. He suggested we order the pre-cooked Thanksgiving dinner from Safeway. I, of course, jumped at the opportunity to forsake the daunting task of cooking an entire meal...I wanted to "cheat". In my humble defense, the kids and I have been fighting a ferocious cold & cooking was the last thing on my mind. Why did we invited the family over then? It WAS Thanksgiving and being with family is important.
Anyways, I had to call 3 Safeway's before I was able to "secure" our Thanksgiving meal. I was quite excited as I was sure they MUST be delicious if 2 stores had already "sold-out" and at $69.00, it almost guaranteed a delicious meal. Right? (It also made me feel a lot better about "cheating", after all, I wasn't the ONLY one "cheating"! LOL!)
Fast forward to Saturday morning, allow me to take you on a picturesque timeline of what should have been a carefree-stress free Thanksgiving "cooking" day...
TAKE ONE-Early Morning
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9:30am- I thought I had better get to preparing the VERY Little I had to Prepare... |
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| Slow Cooker, Dijon/Pineapple Ham...Easy Peasy! |
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| My Mother-In-Laws Sweet Potato Casserole...Simple! |
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| My Mom's Homemade Stuffing...We had to have SOME family traditions! |
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| Dinner Table Set...Ready to GO!!! |
TAKE TWO- Early Afternoon
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| 12:30 pm The Pre-Cooked Safeway Dinner is Picked Up... |
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| WTH? Seriously?!?! THIS is worth $69.00??? I may not have been soooo upset if it had all been actually defrosted...It was still FROZEN. STIFF! |
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| Into the Oven the FROZEN bird goes. When I looked at the Gravy, I had a BAD feeling so I added my own "broth"...just in case! I was getting a bit STRESSED at this point! |
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| Are THEY for REAL? How was THIS suppose to feed 6 adults & 2 kids? (Those are the mashed potatoes by the way!) I was getting MORE STRESSED as the minutes pass... |
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| I scavenged my kitchen and found one small bag of baby potatoes and I started to boil them up to make MORE mashed potatoes. |
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| I also whipped up a salad and got some frozen veggies ready to go! (Apparently, they forgot to give us the vegetables) |
STAGE THREE- Late Afternoon
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| 2:20pm- Time to "check out" that gravy they sent and get the "other" mashed potatoes ready. |
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| Oh. My. Gawd. Can you say "LUMPY-FATTY" pot of disgusting? Thank heavens I thought to add some "broth" to the turkey roaster so I can make another pot of Gravy! I was OFFICIALLY STRESSED now! |
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| I asked myself- "Too Early for wine?" I answered myself- "Yes. Yes, I do believe it is." |
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| WTH? What ARE those on the left? Oh Right. Those would be the SAFEWAY mashed potatoes. I started implementing some stress management tactics..."Stay calm. Stay calm Ginger! B-R-E-A-T-H" |
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| The stress management techniques were unsuccessful. "Holy $hit! What the? Heat them...they WILL be fine. Just heat them!" |
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| They weren't. Yummy... NOT! Can you say "Lumpy-Runny" potatoes! |
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| 2:45pm- I was now BEYOND STRESSED. I was loosing my mind... |
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| ...so much so that I OPENED the box of wine...but I showed some restraint. I remembered the Hostess Goddess Guide for when things go wrong: "You must FIRST FIX the problems before drinking yourself happy!" |
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| Problem Solved. "You are such a GOOD problem solver Ginger!" (Hey, I had to toot my own horn by this point in the day) I was now beginning to CALM, somewhat... |
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| That Turkey was so DARN small...good thing I thought to buy a Ham! (It was also, totally overdone...LMAO!) I had now come to terms with Thanksgiving Dinner....it was, what it was. |
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| At least the gravy turned out! I felt better as I thought, "Everyone can just smother the rest of the food in the gravy" (Gravy makes everything taste better...doesn't it?!?!) See...I always told you guys that I was a 1/2 full kinda girl! |
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| Hey! I deserved a little drinkie-poo after my "carefree-stress free" cooking day! |
TAKE FOUR- Early Evening...DINNER!
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| All in all, Thanksgiving Dinner was a success. Ok, maybe not a success but not a total disaster! I am so thankful that Dave's family are gracious guests...they raved about the dinner. (A little too much now that I think about..hmmmm.) |
Truth be told, the only thing that kept me "sane" on Saturday was taking all these pictures to share with all of you. I just couldn't imagine that all this "good luck" wasn't meant to be a life lesson for ALL OF US...
If you chose to "cheat" be prepared to deal with disaster after disaster! (AND you can kiss a "carefree-stress free" day good-bye!) LOL!
FROM OUR HOME IN CANADA TO YOUR HOME IN THE UNITED STATES...HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
Wow, that sure turned out to be a bad idea! I would have been stressed as soon as that food arrived and I realized I still had to cook! UGH! I love that you shared the timeline with us and it finally turned out okay in the end!
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving!
Stopping by from Writer's workshop: http://karenzemek.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-favorite-thanksgiving-writers.html
This was classic! And I hope you don't mind that I mentally referenced it when I was prepping for my little party a couple of weeks ago...everything wasn't going 100% smoothly, but I reminded myself it could be worse! ;)
ReplyDeleteHappy "Thanksgiving" to you and yours!
OMG, that is a rip off. I hope you sent a complaint to the folks at Safeway about their food. Blech.
ReplyDeleteGlad everything turned out okay anyway.
a fellow Canuck Visiting from Mama Kats
Hello, Safeway called and they regret to tell you that you are forever banned from being one of their Social Media superstars. :-) :-) :-)
ReplyDeleteClearly you are an improvisation in the kitchen superstar b/c good Lord you still pulled off a great meal and TOOK PICTURES!!
Thanks for a laugh!