Thanksgiving

I just wrote a note to my sister about our Thanksgiving dinner, and as I wrote, I realized that my only truly successful dish today was the stuffing.

We spent most of the morning preparing our family room for painting.  We filled cracks and holes and sanded.  Preparing Thanksgiving happened mostly during the breaks I took when my arms got tired.

The kids really wanted to use our china.  They decorated the table with the china and homemade name cards.

So here's the rundown of our Thanksgiving dinner.

• Turkey:  I only made a breast this year--since that's what we like anyway.  I used Pioneer Woman's brine recipe.   It was fine, but I think I like a simple salt and sugar brine just as much.  We expected the turkey to be roasted by 1:30.  It wasn't finished until 3:00.  
• Stuffing:  This I did right.  I used Stovetop, and added shredded apple.  Yum!
• Pie:  My hubby made our old fashioned pumpkin pie.  It was delicious.  I also made a chocolate mousse pie using pudding mix and whip cream. 

As you will see, things started to fall apart at some point:

• Potatoes:  Sticky, starchy, gooey.  Whatever you call that mess when you overcook them.  The texture was more like poi. 
• Corn:   Straight from a freezer bag into the microwave.
• Carrots:  I glazed carrots, but they weren't that great because I used mini carrots.
• Rolls:  I completely forgot the salt.  Henry tried to throw away the leftover rolls because he thought they were so bad.   Actually, I hadn't even planned to make homemade rolls.  I bought Sister Shubert's super yummy frozen rolls.  But Morgan begged, "Mom, you have to make homemade rolls!"
• Gravy:  Lumpy.  I didn't really care. 

So there you go.  It wasn't so great.  And yet we loved it.  And we loved each other.  And that's all that matters. 

Happy Thanksgiving!