HAPPY (BELATED) THANKSGIVING!

Of course everything that I do has to have the (belated) with it...I'm never on time!

So, everyone, how was your Thanksgiving? Mine was good. Blair and I are on two different sleep schedules so I woke up about four hours before him. (He only got up then because I couldn't stand it any more and woke him up....can you hear the maniacal laugh in the background?)

So, while I was fixin' our 'Very First Thanksgiving Dinner' he put up our Christmas tree (in front of the chic FALL swag my lovely sis sent me). God love him, it took him the entire time I was cooking to put up a spindly, 'can definitely see through the branches' tree. BUT the end result is lovely. Of course, he didn't appreciate the 'odds-n-ends' decorations I had from last year, so the tree only has white lights to adorn it at the moment. He would rather a mono-chromatic theme, whereas I prefer the "rainbow belch." But you know, this is his tree too, so whatever, he's doing the work!!!

Anyway, back to our meal. Yeah, it was good, but it didn't taste like Mama's. I called her in advance for the recipes and what does she tell me?! "Well, I don't measure anything so you just have to taste it."

Ok, so those of you that know me know that I have my moments of anal-ness. Moments where I want things to be just so, like our first Thanksgiving (remember Blair was TDY up here to Minot last year this time) and I don't want him to take a bit, curl his lip and say 'good job, baby' while pushing food around on his plate to make it look like he'd eaten. Granted, he's never done that, but theres a first time for everything right? And I definitely didn't want to be that day.

So what you ask went incorrect (not wrong, right Ash?) with our meal? To be honest, and not trying to pat myself on the back (ok, maybe a little) but the cornbread and the dressing were the main things with the sweet potato souffle bringing up the rear. I'm not telling you that the only other thing I made was green bean casserole (besides the turkey), and I couldn't screw that up since the recipe was right there on the can of French Fried Onions!

Let me just give you a run down. First of all, I thought I'd be smart and make the cornbread the night before and be all prepared (what an ugly word). I should have known better than to be prepared. I did make the cornbread, chopped the onions and celery Mama said just had to be in there, but what I didn't do is taste the corn bread.

Bad decision number uno. The first problem with the corn bread was, well, you could have used it for an ocean liners anchor. Who needs a few little itty bitty teeny teaspoons of baking soda. I didn't have any (the only thing on the back of the corn meal bag recipe I didn't have) so I figured I didn't need it. Um, yes, yes, I did. I looked it up on the 'all-knowing internet' and it's what makes the bread rise apparently. Ahh, I think to myself, that's why its an inch tall and dense as a rock! DUH!So to be frank, mistake number two (don't know how to spell it in Spanish...), was not running frantically to the nearest grocery store with a wide-eyed look that tells the clerk, back off this lady, she's desperate, to buy baking soda. UGH!!

*Note to self, get baking soda.

So since the corn bread was screwed up...the dressing was a bit 'off.' However, not by as much as you'd think. I sauteed the onions and celery, chopped the apples (yes people, Mama uses apples, yum), and made it 'soupy' like she said. Then I put it in the oven to cook. Actually the only complaint Blair had about the entire meal is that the dressing was a bit bland. (Oh, but, he didn't eat the cornbread I made extra...wonder why?) But if that's the only complaint, I can definitely live with that.

Now, onto the sweet potato souffle. This, my dear friends, was just poor planning. I mixed up one large can of sweet potatoes (yes, I used canned potatoes, don't hate), but it just didn't seem like enough. So I went to get the other large can of sweet potatoes and proceed to make it like Mama, to taste. Bad decision number tres, not using a large enough baking pan...You got it, folks. The butter I used in excess (since Thanksgiving calories don't count) bubbled over and dripped all on the bottom of my stove. On which I had not yet put the God-blessed tin foil, so it got everywhere. Another ugh. However, once I seperated the 'too much for one pan' souffle, it baked well and turned out delicious.

And the turkey. The whole point of Turkey Day. One word. Yum. I am huge fan of crock pots. Since I didn't stay up late enough to put it into the crock pot, I left specific instructions for Blair. To his credit, he followed them to the letter. He put it in at 4 a.m. and it cooked on warm for a long time (until I realized it & turned it on low...). Point being, after cooking for 12+ hours in a crock pot, it was so tender it practically fell off the bone. And moist! Whoo boy, it was melt in your mouth moist. Score one for me!!

Anyway, all of this is to say, in the process of cooking I thought our Very First Thanksgiving Dinner was going to be a world-class flop. To my surprise, it turned out really well. Thank the Lord Jesus!

Maybe my attempt at Christmas dinner will be better...