I Surrender, Mr. Turkey. I Love Thanksgiving!

This was the first year I vowed to not hate Thanksgiving.  For the last 16 years I’ve been sort of a Grinch about Turkey Day.  I won’t bore you with the long and complex explanation as to why, but just suffice it to say, that while Thanksgiving represents one of the richest times to spend with your family and be grateful for the things you have, I couldn’t help but dread its coming and count every second until that fourth Thursday of November was officially over.

But, this year has been different.  It’s been hard.  It’s been long.  It’s been sad.  And so last week, on Tuesday morning, as I was milling about my apartment, going through the motions, just begging to get to Wednesday so I could finally go Home, I stopped and made a conscious decision that I was NOT going to hate Thanksgiving this year.  I was going to find a way to revel in the wonderful parts of it that everyone else seems to find, and that it was going to be, for at least those 24 hours, my refuge, and my harbor from the storm.  My mother was relieved to hear this, though I think she was, at first, skeptical.  She’s been encouraging me to end my campaign of misery on Turkey Day for a number of years.  And I’ve always felt a tremendous amount of guilt that she shoulders any ounce of responsibility for my aversion to the holiday; it has absolutely nothing to do with her.  But, alas, actions speak louder than words, and I imagine it’s been hard to believe that when your daughter is moping around, pissed off and marginally engaged, getting drunk just to shoulder the day, that you have nothing to do with it (though let me reiterate, that she truly doesn’t).  So, I started my holiday off not hating Thanksgiving.  I realized that this was the first opportunity I had had in the entire shithole of a year that was 2011 to be completely surrounded by the people that love me the most.  I decided that fact would be my crutch, and my center.  And miraculously…it worked.

Thanksgiving is My Mom’s Holiday.  She loves it.  She loves every second of it.  No one is allowed to help her—not because she doesn’t think anyone can do it as good as her, but because she just LOVES it, so much.  She is the only woman I know that isn’t grumpy and overwhelmed at some point in the process of getting the turkey from fridge to table.  She cooks alllll daaayyy, and arrives to the table rosey-cheeked, cheerful, and sooo excited for the people she loves to eat the food she’s so lovingly crafted. 

And let’s just get this out of the way, right now:  No one, not a single human being on the face of earth, makes a better Thanksgiving meal than my mom.  She starts early in the morning, and this year I slept late enough that the smell of the roasting turkey had time to waft upstairs and into my nostrils—what a freakin’ awesome smell to wake up to! 

Uncle Mike a.k.a. Vulture No. 1 descending on the Turkey Skin.

No question, the pièce de résistance is her turkey skin.  Yeah, that’s right.  Turkey skin is a big deal in my family.  Most people are probably appalled at the idea of eating the turkey skin.  If you’re one of those, one of those people that turn up your nose at this idea, one of those people that in anyway shape or form finds fault in eating the crispy fatty skin of any animal, you have no soul and should probably stop reading my blog right now.  Crispy Skin ranks up there in the top 10 greatest foods on the planet.  You can tell it’s awesome because I capitalize that shit. That’s just how I feel, and my entire family feels for that matter.  Get over it.

I'd say that's a damn photogenic turkey.

There’s pretty much almost a fight over the skin every single year.  The turkey is finally done cooking, and as my mom is reaching into the oven to grab it, family from all corners of the house start creeping towards the oven, acting like no one can see them, like they’re freaking Mission Impossible and it’s this uber-covert operation.  Mom sets the turkey down, steps away and the vultures descend, ripping, shredding whatever parts of the crispy skin they can get their talons on.  And then, literally seconds later, the poor turkey is bare.  Left to rest with its breasts exposed, looking rather forlorn and well…naked.  I missed raiding the crack-like turkey skin this year, as I was at my father’s family’s gathering, but luckily my cousin Allison is a talented photographer and she managed to fight off the lurking buzzards for long enough to snap a non-naked-turkey-boobs pic of my mother’s lovely creation.

My brother, Alex, playing Turkey Bodyguard so a few precious shots of the non naked turkey could be taken. The vultures are lurking nearby I'm sure of it.

Because my mom’s family eats later in the day, my Aunt Kay brings a spread of appetizers for people to snack on throughout the day.  Sadly, she and my Uncle Thom were not able to join us this year, so I offered to take up the responsibility of snacks.  After much deliberation, and preparation, oh, and with a minor segue in which I literally incinerated 2 cookie sheets of roasted nuts in the oven (Yes, even I make mistakes in the kitchen.  I know, hard to believe, since I’m a kitchen superhero…), we arrived on Turkey Day with a nice little spread if I do say so myself.

Appetizers

Yeah, those balls are covered in bacon.

*Mini Bacon-Chive Cheese Balls
*Spicy Salty Sweet Nuts
*Crudites with Ranch Dip
*Smoked Gouda
*Greek Marinated Olives
*Assorted Crackers

These are roasted with cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, and sugar.  They're basically an addictive drug.

Cheese & Crackers

The full spread of appetizers.

Look! Alex and I are in the same room and we're not fighting!

Dinner
*The World’s Best Damn Roasted Turkey with Pan *Gravy
*Grandma’s Mashed Potatoes
*Corny Corn
*Green Bean Casserole (this is usually Green Beans Almandine but Mom mixed it up this year)
*Mom’s Magnificent Stuffing
*Gem’s Cranberry Relish
*Grandma’s Homemade Applesauce
*Warm Rolls

It's my job every year to set the table and design the center piece.  I love the way my mom's collection of cobalt blue things compliment the reds, oranges, and golds of Fall.

Dessert is entirely my Aunt Maggie’s realm, as it should be; she’s not only the Queen of Hearts, she’s basically the living incarnation of the Sugar Plum Fairy.  Every single dessert she makes is amazing.  And since my mom, like me, is more inclined to take care of savory items, having Maggie (or Auntie Gem as I lovingly call her) crafting desserts for our family gatherings has become somewhat of a wonderful tradition.

 

Mighty Delicious Apple Crumb Pie

*Apple Crumb Pie (Despite my general aversion to pies, this is one of my favorites, and she makes it every year, and every year it is DELICIOUS!)
*Pecan Pie
*Hazelnut Cookies

Pecan Pie! (I'm saying that with a Paula Deen accent)

This is a horrible picture of me, please note I've eaten 2 Thanksgiving meals, drank at least a bottle of wine, and the Hazelenut Cookies got me really excited.  They were DELICIOUS.

In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have been such a Grinch about Thanksgiving for so long.  Enjoying it wasn’t that hard, or terrible.  Just looking at the menu and photos above makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.  This has certainly been a year that has tested just about every shred of my will, my maturity, and my emotional capacity.  It’s tested every single interpersonal relationship I have, it’s made me both question and solidify my belief systems, and more than anything it has shown me that when your life is a pile of smoldering ashes around you, there are some trees that are miraculously still standing, unscathed, healthy, beacons of hope and strength:  Good Food, Good Friends, and an Amazing Family.  This Thanksgiving was without a doubt a testament to that lesson.  And for that, I am eternally and unwaveringly grateful.  From this year forward, no matter how hard it might seem to put on a good face, I vow to Not Hate Thanksgiving.  Instead, it will become for me a time to hunker down inside the intense love and joy that the most important people in my life create with the food they serve, the hugs they give and very simply, their presence. 

I hope each of you had a Thanksgiving during which you were able to revel, even for a moment, in what you are grateful for.

Buon Appetito!

p.s.  I am happy to provide recipes for any/all of the menu items in the appetizers section!  Leave me a comment if you’re interested—the nuts are tedious, but AMAZING.  Just sayin’…

Also, mucho kudos to my lovely cousin, Allison Lindsey, who was my resident photographer for Thanksgiving Day.  I couldn't have done this without her talent!