Well, yesterday my wife & I had a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast "on the house" at the Edgewater Hotel. We've done this now for a couple of years. Seated at our table was an elderly man wearing a U.S. Navy (ship name) cap, and his son, about 50. The Vet was 91, spry, sharp as a tack. Between eating the wonderful fare offered buffet-style, and conversing with these gentlemen, I learned a new word, new to me at least. They are "Preppers". I suspected Mormon, but out of my line to ask, and figured they might say. They did not. They were at all times courteous, and as willing to listen as they were to talk, unusual nowadays. The son did reveal that amongst several other brothers and himself, they owned houses in Northern Utah, as well as Bullhead City, AZ, and California. At any rate, my traditional Thanksgivings while young involved my Mother preparing dinner, and my Sister and her family participating. Since we have no kids today, nor local friends, the repast was welcome and appreciated. Preppers. My wife knew, and clued me in later........... Frank
I have been cooking for family get-togethers since I was 13, but I didn’t understand how many relied on me for their family gatherings until now. For some reason this year, half of those that are still part of my family group had to work on Thanksgiving. So on Thanksgiving day, I took seven of them to our local Denny’s for dinner, and on the following Friday, I cooked a dinner with all the fixings, for those that worked the day before. I’m so glad I decided to split the group as we did, I would have been exhausted if I had cooked both days. But it was worth it. It’s the first time since Michael passed that I felt up to the task. I missed two years, so some of my family had to sort of float around for that period. You don’t realize how large a part you play in other’s lives until they come to you and gently ask if your up to the task this year. But I think I’ll be asking for volunteers to help me next year. I was actually surprised that I saved money this year. I thought it would be expensive to take everyone out to dine, but not so. My home cooked dinner was the large amount of the cost. Today I’m so tired I’ve decided to stay in bed. The kitchen’s all spick and span, so no need to do otherwise.
We cooked again this year, but next year will go out. Our kitchen is just too small and my wife told me "it's just too much work anymore". I agreed with her. Besides the size of our kitchen, the turkey legs we bought me tasted like I had just shot the turkey in a woods. Both of the legs were really tough. Threw out on of them. Wife's turkey loin was great though. Thanksgiving Dinner is always great at home, but with no family or friends to share it with..............
This is what we had but daughter bought ala carte and 2 turkeys so she'd ha e leftovers. Think it was about $450 with tax and service charge but it was the BEST dark meat I ever had. Even the white meat lovers went crazy over the dark meat....wish I knew their recipe...all I know it was slow cooked in duck fat and bourbon. She's doing it again next year but just ordering the turkey.
I'm glad you were able to have Thanksgiving with family @Ina I. Wonder even if you had to do in in two shifts over two days. It really can end up being cheaper to eat out during the Holidays instead of cooking it all from scratch now days. Eating out also let's everyone order what they really want to eat instead of picking at what has been cooked to get only what you like. Since we no longer let just one person cook the whole meal or do all the cleaning up afterwards, Holiday home gatherings still work for my family. Everyone brings their favorite things to cook, etc. and the Hostess makes sure we are all not bringing the same thing, she will assign us a category like vegetables or desserts, etc. The Host and Hostess usually do the meat and a favorite dessert...but anyone can choose to bring whatever they want as long as they let the Hostess know ahead of time...so she can balance the menu between the rest of us. We keep everything that needs to stay warm in crockpots which has been a big help and we all have at least two of these. Holiday gatherings are fun but one day I wouldn't mind if we just all went out and ate our Holiday meal at a Restaurant, etc.
Yep, even with my daughter ordering most of it...still tiring with set up and clean up and appetizers etc.