| By Tina Russo | November 26, 2009 |
Someone made the mistake of giving me a platform on Thanksgiving.
I love turkey.
I fell in love with my first turkey at age 10. Oh I’d eaten plenty of them before that, but that was the year I got to pull the wishbone and my pull ended up with the largest part, thus my wish would come true. If you don’t know the legend of the wishbone you can read it here.
The next turkey I fell in love with I married. I got up at 3 am on Thanksgiving day to prepare our first Thanksgiving meal. I discovered the bird (20 pounds) only took 4 hours. (I went back to bed) All those years my mother got up in the middle of the night to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. To this day I am still confused.
Today I will have officially prepared …wait, I can’t tell you how many turkeys I’ve made, you’d do the math wouldn’t you?
Let’s just say more than forty and less than seventy.
That’s a lot of turkeys I have loved. All those turkey dinners were made from scratch: stuffing, potatoes, pies, breads, yada, yada, yada.
After all those turkeys the lightbulb has finally gone off.
I’d rather be writing!
Here’s the plan for today:
Up at 8: Work on WIP (writer lingo for my work-in-progress) until ….
10 am: Throw the bird in oven. Take Marie Callender’s pie assortment out of freezer to thaw in fridge.
10:15 am -1:30: Work on WIP.
1:30 pm: Microwave instant mashed potatoes (4 minutes), Zap the Reser’s green bean casserole, and mashed sweet potatoes. Throw jars of gravy in saucepan (heat on low). Prepare Stovetop stuffing. Keep family member’s busy making tossed salad and opening cans of black olives and jellied cranberries.
2 pm: Remove turkey and slice. Toss rolls in oven. Set table. Pour generous glass of very nice Washington State wine.
2:15: Eat with the family.
2:30: Throw dishes in dishwasher, leftovers in fridge. Insert DVD- Die Hard 17 for family to watch on the couch.
2:30 - 9 pm: Work on WIP
THE END
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 26th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Happy Thanksgiving, Tina! (says I who am waiting for four pumpkin pies to finish baking so I can get some sleep! The apple is already made. Yum. No wip for me today.)
November 26th, 2009 at 5:56 am
I am completely with you on making it as EASY as possible! Whenever we host, we buy a turkey already cooked, then all the rest you said! Happy Thanksgiving!
November 26th, 2009 at 9:27 am
No matter where you are in your turkey love life, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!
November 26th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I’m impressed at the number of writing hours you’re getting in today, Tina! Great job! My kids are bringing the pie and dessert. I love Sister Schubert’s rolls, just thaw and bake. I only make gravy, dressing and mash potatoes once a year, my love offering to our family, so they’re always from scratch. I love turkey, but the sides are my favorite part of the meal.
November 26th, 2009 at 11:27 am
No writing for me today, either, Tina.
It’s 11:30 and I’ve baked a pecan pie, made creamed spinach and peeled a pot full of little white onions and creamed them also. In about 20 minutes I’ll be stuffing the turkey and putting it in the oven. At 4:00 I’ll be making the gravy,AND I’M not even having Thanksgiving dinner AT MY HOUSE! It’s all got to be carted to my sister’s home a half hour away. I should’ve been a lousy cook. Then no one would want anything I make.
November 26th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Okay I must admit, my turkey is in and I am working on a blog now. HOWEVER I am dreaming of Sister Shubert’s rolls and Lauries’ creamed spinach.
Recipe Laurie??
November 26th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my 007 sisters!
I’m exhausted. Going to go put my feet up an NOT work on the wip!
November 27th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Tina, your post made me smile and want to hug a turkey
. We got back a few hours ago from my brother’s house. He was hosting the celebration, but my mom was the one doing most of the cooking — and, ohhh, it was good! Tomorrow, I’m hosting in-laws and it’s going to be: stick the boneless bird in the oven (inside one of those easy-cook aluminum bags), heat the pumpkin pie and microwave the various prepared versions of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, veggies and gravy. My goal is to write as much tomorrow as you did today!! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 
xo
November 27th, 2009 at 3:18 am
Tina, YOU ROCK!!!!!
I wrote some today, too! I’m almost done with the first draft of this manuscript! Yay! Now I’m off to try to finish it tonight!
Camy
November 27th, 2009 at 10:55 am
A day late, but Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Tina, I love that you could give working on WIP such a prominent place in all your preparations! You are my hero! All I had to make was Sweet Potato casserole and it took me most of the morning!
Hope the day brought blessings and happiness to all! At the very least, VERY full stomachs!
Let the shopping begin!
November 27th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Okay, I knew I was doing this all wrong!! The only thing I got right, apparently, was the Stovetop dressing, jar gravy and having hubby grill/smoke the turkey. Spent the whole prior day cleaning, baking pies, making slush and sweet potato casserole and peeling wrapping off umpteen candles. Translation: No writing for 2 days!!
And to add insult to injury, I’m several pounds heavier today …
Happy Black Friday … it will be for me because I will NOT be out there in the chaos, but home writing …
Hugs,
Julie
November 27th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
LOL! I love your plan!
I usually get around roasting turkeys. Everyone in my family knows I am NOT a cook. I do host Christmas every other year, but I always have a sister or a mother-in-law or father-in-law around for turkey back up.
Love the bit about marrying a turkey.
November 28th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Oh my stars, I love this.
Who is Sister Shubert?
And what does she roll?
Tina, I think this dinner sounds absolutely YUM and I’d be there in a heartbeat.
Creamed onions.
Green beans with mushrooms.
Ah, lovely. Lovely.
Did you know our local grocery stores will have a full dinner for 10 hot and boxed and ready for pick-up at 2:00 P.M.????
Everything done.
Sweet.
Ruthy
November 28th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Thanksgiving is the only day I’ve taken off in I don’t know how long. My family and I went to Longwood Gardens, enjoyed the scrumptious buffet and walked through the indoor and outdoor gardens. Their Christmas decorations are spectacular and so was the day spent with my family. Well, all except the ride home. I really thought the girls had outgrown the “Mom, she’s touching me!” thing.
Oh well, there’s always next year.
November 28th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Camy you had steak. I read your tweet. Next year I want steak on the grill for Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving weekend to you all.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
oh, Tina, I love this post! This is great. Why waste an entire day cooking…unless you just love to cook, of course. Sounds liks you had a wonderful dinner AND more importantly you got to do something YOU wanted to do!
Good for you!