Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Black Friday!  It’s 7:30 am, and we’ve been up since 2, having just now gotten home, completely finished with our Christmas shopping, and boy it was cold camping in our tent outside of Best Buy this year.  Just kidding!  In truth, I haven’t been out shopping on the day after Thanksgiving since they started calling it Black Friday.  Used to be that the day after Thanksgiving was a fun day to shop, only because it was the official (or maybe it was unofficial) first day of the Christmas season.  Which was what made it exciting and fun.  We weren’t really hunting for bargains, just for the perfect gift.  It was lovely and had that sense of excitement because no one ever shopped for Christmas earlier than that.  Well, I suppose some people did—there have always been those strangely organized people who do all their shopping early—but most of us looked forward to those 4 or 5 weeks before Dec. 25 to immerse ourselves in the enjoyable hustle and bustle of shopping and snacking special Christmas-only treats and buying the tree.  Which, by the way, was not color-coordinated, but instead full of big lights and ornaments we loved, in every color imaginable.  Remember?  Some were lovely hideous handmade ones; some were old ones handed down from Grandma and Grandpa Eimers or McCormick, in my case; and a few were brand new ones we bought in a set at the drugstore.  Boy, there was nothing like it.  In fact, I still do it that way, pretty much.  And I still like a red and green Christmas, although I have gotten to really like some light dusty blue in there, too, in the last few years, for some reason.  Which is certainly a departure from tradition.  I mean, better to not totally live in the past.

Steph & Jim

Our Thanksgiving was quite nice this year.  In the morning, in what has become our Thanksgiving morning tradition, our kids/ grandkids Steph, Bobby and Stevie came over to hang out and then go walk at their old school near our house, while Jimmy got a chance to run like a wild boy.  You can hear his paws thundering as he flies past, and he’s so excited he’s often airborne as he chases the birds.  It’s a sight to see.  I, however, chose to be a martyr and stay home to slave in the kitchen this year, rather than doing any exercise on a holiday, for heaven’s sake.

Stevie

When they came back, Steve made eggs on the stovetop at the exact moment I was trying to put the bird (as Martha Stewart loves to call it) in the oven and then we ate breakfast way too late to be hungry for our 2pm dinner time.  First snag!

Steve & Bobby

And why was I slaving in the kitchen when I never ever make the Thanksgiving dinner?  (We always always always go somewhere else for Thanksgiving: my parents’ house, Steve’s brother’s house in Tucson, my brother’s house in Phoenix, to a restaurant with the family.)  But this year the stars aligned in a unique way and it was just Steve and me to be thankful at our own table.  Which meant it was my turn to do it all.  First time!  I was very excited to do it, but also a little anxious.  I kind of enjoy cooking, but hardly ever do it.  But I’d have to say it was a success!  The turkey turned out brown and beautiful.  But it was done an HOUR early, which I've never heard of happening and which threw everything off as you can imagine. (I mean, it was only supposed to cook for 3 hours total, so an hour early is pretty early, don’t you think?  I did.)  Anyway, I was prepared for it to take much longer than expected—that had certainly long been the tradition in my family growing up, when that damn button would never pop up.  But no, in the Chandler/Eimers oven, the button popped up and the temp read 190 (!) after only 2 hours.

But here I have to admit something.  I mis-identified my bird parts and thought the calf, if you will, was the thigh.  I didn’t really know birds had both a calf and a thigh.  So even though the directions very clearly said to put the thermometer in the thigh, I thought the leg was the leg.  Steve very kindly and off-handedly mentioned that he thought just maybe the thigh was the part underneath the drumstick.  So it did have to cook a bit longer--but not much.

Thank heaven for Steve, who exerts no pressure and would have been perfectly content to eat either early or late, without care.  He made potatoes and gravy and I made cornbread, roasted nuts, and avocado/black bean salad.  (I was going to make the pumpkin pie, too—which I have made before, many times--but in the grocery store on Wednesday it was so overwhelming trying to find the darn Eagle Brand condensed milk, and then I saw all those finished pies sitting there ready to eat looking just perfect, and realized they were the best idea I’d ever had.  So I bought two!  Cherry for me and pumpkin for Steve.)  The potatoes were supposed to be mashed, but we now know that we do not own a potato masher.  I suggested Steve just use a big fork, but he came up with an even better and definitely simpler option: boiled potatoes.  No mashing needed!  Or more importantly, no masher.

 

I had also planned, as an elegant before-dinner treat, to serve baked brie in puff pastry.  I was quite excited about it, having heard a very simple recipe on Martha Stewart Sirius radio last week and was all ready to go.  However, we had a little glitch in the system and that plan had to be aborted because (1) there was no time since the bird was done early, (2) we weren't really hungry since we’d just eaten breakfast an hour and half earlier, and (3) Steve put wet potatoes on top of the puff pastry that was thawing on the counter.  When I questioned, with horror, why my puff pastry was wet, he said, "What is that?  I put the potatoes on it.  I thought it was a towel."  There was no talking for quite some time after that in our kitchen.  And an unspoken agreement to skip the brie.  But in the end it all turned out just great, and the food was delicious and even beautiful to look at.  Very neat!

So the day turned out to be sort of lazily chaotic and very nice all around.  We finished the evening reading for a long while, then watching an episode of The #1 Ladies Detective Agency.  W never got to the dessert, but after Steve went to bed I had a piece of cherry pie all by myself, while finishing my book. Just right.

And now it’s Black Friday, and it’s time for another first.  We’re in “need” of a new flat screen big TV, so what better day to do it?  Wish us luck and pray we don't get trampled.

Bring on Christmas!