Our Thanksgiving

We held our Thanksgiving on Wednesday, since I work on Thursdays. For the last few years, our celebration has been small, just the three of us (Don, myself, Older Daughter), though we spoke to Younger Daughter in the morning at her overseas duty station in Europe.

Older Daughter and I started cooking the day before since, of course, it would be foolish to try and cram all the dishes we wanted to make into one day.

For dessert, I made very easy pistachio pudding pies. These are light desserts, not too heavy after a large meal, and nice and refreshing.

Graham cracker crusts:

Mixing the filling:

And voilà: Dessert is done.

Next I turned my attention to stuffing. Don and Older Daughter like bread stuffing, so I started with that.

Oddly, it's while making bread stuffing that I always piercingly miss Younger Daughter, who used to love to snitch the uncooked mixture. I'm glad we were able to talk with her earlier in the day.

Older Daughter doesn't like onions in her stuffing while Don does, so I divide the batch and everyone's happy. To my way of thinking, Thanksgiving is a yearly indulgence in everyone's quirky tastes and preferences.

My personal once-a-year treat is wild rice stuffing. No one else cares for this lovely side dish, so I can add all the onions I want and no one complains.

On Wednesday, our feast day, I made a small batch of mashed potatoes for Older Daughter, since she still has that childish love of making mashed potato volcanoes with gravy lava...

...while she made a large batch of her famous scalloped potatoes, which are to-die-for good (no photo, sorry).

There are, apparently, a zillion-and-one fancy-dancy ways to prepare a turkey. While I'm sure they're all wonderful methods, I go the easy-peasey route: I rinse and dry the turkey, then slather on some shortening, and it's ready to bake. Honestly, it's the easiest thing ever.

Meanwhile, Older Daughter made a split batch of biscuits and dinner rolls. The biscuits she cut and put aside until after the turkey came out of the oven...

...while the dough for the dinner rolls spent time rising next to the wood stove.

I fetched the turkey platter, which is normally stored in a plastic bag under our bed. Many years ago while preparing Thanksgiving dinner, I lamented that I didn't have a wooden turkey platter like my mother's. Don inquired as to what the turkey platter was like. I sketched out an idea, he disappeared into the shop and emerged two hours later with a solid maple platter. What a blessing it is to have a woodworking husband!

Don did the annual ritual of sharpening knives. The reason for this stems from a time we had our beloved pastor (David "Spike" Shine) join us for Thanksgiving. He offered to carve the turkey, since he was quite good at it. To our everlasting embarrassment, every knife he tried was dull. Don hastily sharpened a knife, and Spike was finally able to carve the bird. Since then, every year without fail, Don gives a bunch of knives a good sharpening on Thanksgiving. (Rest in peace, Spike. We still miss you.)

We had planned to eat around 2 pm, but as it turns out, the turkey was finished about an hour before that.

While the turkey "rested" ...

...we bustled about getting all the last-minute stuff done: Baking the biscuits and rolls, reheating the stuffing and mashed potatoes, making the gravy, etc.

During all this bustle, of course, Mr. Darcy had planted himself inconveniently in the middle of the kitchen floor – practically wrapped around the table leg – and stayed there. Smart dog.

At the last minute, Older Daughter decided to make some deviled eggs for her and Don (a dish that makes me gag), which she does very well.

She also folded the napkins fancy and set the table.

Don carved the turkey while we set some of the side dishes on the table.

It was a feast worth waiting for. And the nice part about an early dinner is everything was washed and cleaned up by 3 pm, giving us time for farm chores and walking the dog before dark, and then a relaxing evening when we could pick at leftovers or have a piece of pie at leisure.

A blessed and bountiful Thanksgiving to everyone!