7:36 am: Damn it. These dogs are like an alarm clock. I was hoping after a bottle of wine last night that they’d be forgiving and let me sleep past 7:30. I guess they gave me 6 minutes. It’s foggy outside. And it looks cold. I’d rather not walk them, but I guarantee no one in this neighborhood is out with their dogs at 7:30 am on a foggy, cold Thanksgiving morning…so it’s time for a walk.
8:12 am: One of my most guilty Thanksgiving traditional indulgences is a peppermint mocha from Starbucks. Since I could drive, I have always gone there first thing in the morning to get one. I’m sure the last thing I need on Thanksgiving Day is a 300-calorie drink for breakfast, but I’m going for a run later that will cancel that out. I also forgot my travel mug in Chapel Hill, damn it. But that’s a pretty red cup.
8:34 am: The turkey is out of its brine, dried off, and sitting in the bottom shelf of Dad’s fridge. The extra time in all this involved cleaning the cooler the turkey was brined in and then trying to figure out a place for the milk, orange juice, soda, and wine I had to take OUT of the fridge in order to fit the turkey. Good thing I cleaned the cooler.
10:18 am: Eight miles and one shower later, and Dad and I are sitting in the kitchen shelling beans*. Is that what’s it’s called when you break the end off of fresh green beans? Whatever it’s called, that’s what we did, for three pounds of green beans.
11:13 am: Not food-related, but Snoopy just made his appearance at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Woohoo!
11:15 am: It’s 11:00, so I decided to go ahead and blanch my beans, which can be done six hours in advance. Get some stuff out of the way before the rest of the fam gets here. Cooking at my dad’s house is always a bit of an adventure…
It’s actually a ton of fun once I get used to the mismatched pans and figure out where everything that I need is located. He has a lot of kitchen stuff…like a million different sized seives and at least a thousand different sized whisks…so I get to use everything I want.
11:29 am: Well, shoot. After all that, I can’t find a 13×9 pan. There’s like a 6×8 pan as evidenced by that last photo, but that’s not big enough for the huge amount of stuffing I’m going to make. I guess no Wilson Thanksgiving is complete without at least one trip to the store….
12:21 pm: After a relatively painless trip to the store, I’m back, and about to start on my stuffing. This stuffing is like, the best dish I’ve ever had. It’s got apple…it’s got apple chicken sausage…it’s got sage and thyme…it’s amazing.
12:34 pm: No sage and rosemary on hand, damn it. I left them in Chapel Hill. Dad’s running back to the store.
12:39: After that run and no breakfast or lunch, I’m starving. I’m cooking some shrimp so I can snack until dinnertime. I hope the guests get here soon so they can actually enjoy some shrimp too! Actually, maybe not….mmm, shrimp.
1:04 pm: Dad’s back with the spices, and I’ve started preheating the oven for the turkey. Hurrah!
1:20 pm: I’ve cooked the stuffing for a little bit, just to get rid of excess moisture…and I’m buttering that bad boy turkey down right now.
Gobble gobble, buddy.
1:34 pm: In he goes! Stuffed with a carrot, onion, and thyme…breast side down for the first 2.5 hours, then right-side up for crispiness. And I’m opening a bottle of wine because I can. And it’s dinner-time somewhere. I don’t really need a reason.
2:01 pm: Chris and Sonja and Lexi are here!
2:35 pm: It’s snack time for Lexi, and for me, too. More shrimp.
2:55 pm: Ouch. I just cut up four shallots for my green bean dish. I’ve never had an onion family member make me cry as much as I am right now. I’m in serious pain!
3:00 pm: Consolation for my messed-up eyes – Sonja’s cranberry pumpkin bread. It’s healthy because it has pumpkins and cranberries in it.
3:46 pm: The rest of our guests are here! Sonja’s parents and brother, Eric. They arrived with pie, sweet potatoes, and a deep-fried turkey. Good god.
4:06 pm: Time to flip the turkey…one and a half hours til eatin’ time!
4:23 pm: I’ve thrown in the garlic for the roasted garlic mashed potatoes…this is the point where everything starts getting down to the wire and it all starts happening at once! I think I have time to take the dogs out one more time and enjoy another glass of wine before it’s really go time. I suspect updates won’t be readily available then, but I’ll try! And happy eating to those of you already at your tables 
4:59 pm: Paul and his family just got here, right as the turkey finishes. Perfect!
5:42 pm: All of a sudden, everything is finished. Holy crap. How did 45 minutes pass by!
5:58 pm: OK. No pictures. The food’s on the table and the turkey’s carved. I’ll be back later if I don’t have too much wine.
7:57 pm: Well, that was a successful dinner. Nothing got set on fire…no one tried to kill anyone. However, my dad did spill some wine on my camera, so I’m letting that dry out until tomorrow. So no pictures of the finished meal until then. Suffice to say, it was delicious, and a complete success. I hope everyone had a beautiful, happy, delicious, and delightful Thanksgiving as I did!
*Paul has informed me that this is called “stringing beans.” I apologize for the misnomer.**
**Rosie says this is called “snapping beans.”
So I realized today that during the last 45 minutes of prep, I didn’t get any pictures. Between cooking, helping delegate responsibility, saying hello to my future-in-laws when they met my dad for the first time, and occasionally picking up my niece, I didn’t have an extra hand to use. But here’s the finished table – at the bottom you’ll see my roasted garlic mashed potatoes and my green beans; next up it’s Julie’s sweet potato casserole; then Kevin’s deep fried turkey (on the left) and my roasted turkey (on the right); then my gravy, Sonja’s cranberry sauce and Kevin and Julie’s deviled eggs; finishing up with my stuffing and Julie’s mac and cheese. And we also had chocolate chip, pumpkin, and apple pies. God.
Anyway, this was a great Thanksgiving. The potluck style is a great way to get the family together, with less work and less money spent for everyone. And I love tasting other people’s favorite dishes. P and I decided the next time I liveblog, he’ll be there to help take pictures if I get caught up in cooking, which I thought was really sweet.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tags: Coffee, Liveblogging, Thanksgiving, The Girls
November 26, 2009 at 6:43 pm |
Courtney! Congratulations on surviving live blogging AND doing an excellent job on Thanksgiving dinner. Everything looks amazing! Even though I’m stuffed, I feel like I could still find some room for those garlic-mashed potatoes
November 26, 2009 at 8:34 pm |
Thanks, KJ! It all worked pretty well until the very end when I actually had to cook everything. I had to delegate kitchen responsibility AND cook myself…may be what it’s like to actually be a chef on a much smaller scale? it was wonderful…i’ll be back tomorrow with more pictures!
November 29, 2009 at 4:47 pm |
Yes…stringing beans is what I called it growing up. Your meal looks great. I did a compound butter rub under the skin of my turkey. This made it deliciously browned. We also made a sourdough loaf for the leftover sandwiches…which I’m eating right now. We had stuffing from leftover heels (go Heels!) and slices from breads of lunches past…which was a nice combination of wheat, sourdough and plain ol’ white). We stole a pumpkin from our front stoop leftover since Halloween (the beauty of an apartment complex and a cold fall) and cut up a bunch for the freezer as well as a tasty, makeshift pumpkin bread. A very basic mashed potatoes and steamed greens (broccoli and brussels sprouts) rounded out the meal. I made a Mama Dip’s pecan pie (with a teaspoon of vanilla thrown in for good measure) for dessert. Yum. Hope you had a great remainder of the weekend.
November 29, 2009 at 7:47 pm |
Mama Dip’s Family Cookbook! I interned at the publishing house that did that (our very own UNC Press). I’m not a terribly huge fan of the restaurant, but her pies rule. Pecan pie is one of my favorites, and so therefore I’m very very glad we did not have one for Thanksgiving, because I obviously ate too much anyway. Your meal sounds delicious!! When are you going to start your own blog? You seem to appreciate food just as much as I.
Go Heels!
November 30, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I had one once and let it lapse and never picked it up again. Now I just like to follow my friends’ blogs and prefer to just comment. That way I can talk about food and politics and comics and sports and anything else that catches my fancy. I’d be too much of an A.D.D. blogger, so I comment. Just keep the delicious pictures coming!