Thanksgiving 2024 - Sweet Potatoes, Fruit Salad, and Dinner On the Table

 Thursday,  November 28, 2024

I got the sweet potatoes ready while the turkey was in the oven. I halved the recipe on the can.  

Ingredients: 1 29 oz can of sweet potatoes; 1 egg; 1/4 cup milk; 3/4 cups brown sugar; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract;  1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. 

Directions: Heat oven to 375 degrees; spray 9x9 in baking pan with Pam; mix ingredients in large bowl; add marshmallows on top. just before baking; bake 30-35 minutes and then take out of oven and let rest for 10 minutes

Mom arrived around 2:00 and Dale got the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes while I entertained her.  He got the sweet potatoes in the oven by 2:10 so they could be out by 2:45 and rest for 10 minutes. 

At 2:30 I got the fruit salad together. Easy to make. Two cans of mixed fruit with whipped cream. Dale got gravy ready using the giblets I cut up. He also got the stuffing ready.

Dinner was on the table by about 3:10 and it was delicious.

Dale seems to think I do a great job carving the turkey. I feel like I'm hacking away with an ax to the carcass but I guess I do okay since there's barely any meat on it when I'm finished. There's gotta be a youTube video out there that shows the most efficient and perfect way to cut it up. Maybe I'll look for that sometime. 

Mom brought over a pumpkin pie that some friends from church had made. She said they usually make about 100 pies every year to sell to people for Thanksgiving. It was delicious and one of the better pumpkin pies I've ever had. That's sayin' something cuz I LOVE pumpkin pie. 

She also brought over some port wine. Dale didn't think he'd ever had any before. I poured some for us after the pie. Mom and Dale didn't like it. They said the alcohol level was too hight (turned out it was 20%) and they just didn't like the taste. I thought it was fine but what do I know. 

Can't believe another Thanksgiving has come and gone.

Thanksgiving 2024 - The Macy's Parade

 Thursday, November 28, 2024

Kylie Minogue performed by 10:30. I don't know that there's every been a parade with so many acts Dale and I didn't recognize. Kylie was just about the only one from our era althought the Temptations, Joey McIntire and Jennifer Hudson made appearances. 

Although the Rockettes should be recognizable to everyone. 

Some of my favorite balloons from this year.

Jennifer Hudson performed and then Santa and Mrs. Claus appeared. After the parade we watched the dog show. 

Thanksgiving 2024 - Cranberries

 Thursday, November 28, 2024

At 9:40 Dale started the cranberries. He brought 2 cups of water and a half cup of sugar (the recipe on the bag called for 2 cups) to a boil. 

He rinsed off the cranberries...

And by 9:43 added them back to the pot and took the burner temperature from hi to 3.0.

He let them sit for a while but continued to stir them from time to time. 

At 9:55 Dale called me in to taste them to see if they were sweet enough. He had turned the temp up to 4.0. At first I thought they might need a little more sugar but as I let them sit on my tongue a little longer I decided they were just right. 

At 10:02 Dale scooped them out of the pot.

They stayed out until they came down to room temperature and then we put them in the fridge.

Thanksgiving 2024 - Bloody Mary Time

Thursday, November 28, 2024

At 8:30 I turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and mixed up a Bloody Mary.

Kowalski's makes a great Bloody Mary mix. My unopened bottle's been sitting on the counter since last Christmas. It had settled quite a bit so it required a LOT of shaking. In fact, after shaking it up and giving it an initial pour I realized I needed to dump a little out to make a little more shaking space in the bottle. 

Anyway,  it all turned out great. I garnished it with a pickle,  an olive, and a couple of pearl onions.

Delicious. And by the way,  as a second career I think I might have some potential as a food and drink stylist.

Thanksgiving 2020

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Thanksgiving was scaled back this year due to the pandemic. We often head out to visit Pete & family for the holiday but that was not to be this year. When we've been in town for the holiday over the last few years we've gone out to eat. Also, due to the fact Covid-19 cases are surging again we decided not to have Mom over. We did, however, run a care package to her after we finished our dinner today. 

The day melted away seemingly quite quickly due food prep here and there throughout. There was time in between for the scaled back Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. . .

...and a Bloody Mary. . .

...and the coloring of the turkey in the Star Tribune. 

We ate at 3:15. Dinner was awesome and we watched a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. 

After we ate we got Athena taken care of and then ran a care package over to Mom. She met us at the entry to her building with her mask on and seemed pretty excited to be getting delivery on Thanksgiving. She texted me that she was impressed with the amount of food. She also texted how delicious she though it was. Pictured above are Mom and I during a pre-pandemic Thanksgiving. I believe the photo was taken at Jax in 2015. 

Thanksgiving 2020 - The Turkey Rests

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Temperature taken. It's supposed to be 165. The thermometer in the photo is still registering. 

Athena took it all in with a great deal of interest. 

Thanksgiving 2020 -Turkey's Out

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Dale had put the turkey in the oven at noon and it came out at 2:00. As it rested he got the Brussels sprouts ready and took care of boiling off and mincing the giblets. 

We think the giblets are the liver, heart, and something else, not sure what. 

The were boiled for 45 minutes at the 4.5 setting on our stove. 

Dale basted the turkey with white wine this year. Usually we use red. 

Thanksgiving 2020 - Stuffing

Thursday, November 26, 2020

We usually do Stove Top for our stuffing. Kowalski's was out so I decided on a different option. 

I used Pepperidge Farm's Sage & Onion cubed stuffing and followed the directions on the back of the package. It really wasn't too much more difficult than Stove Top. The basic recipe calls for simply adding onion (I used green) and celery (two stalks worked fine). I used the stove top method. 

One suggested option was to add apple. I used Granny Smith. I did this in the last 20 minutes before we planned on serving everything up although I chopped the celery, green onion, and apple in advance. It all turned out great. 

Thanksgiving 2020 - Fruit Salad

Thursday, November 26, 2020

For the fruit salad I used two 15.25 oz. cans of Dole tropical fruit cocktail, drained. 

I used a small carton of whipping cream and combined it all together. 

It turned out great. Maybe next time I'll add some grapes and bananas like Grandma Alice did. 

Thanksgiving 2020 - Sweet Potato Casserole

Thursday, November 26, 2020

I used Princella canned sweet potatoes for the sweet potato casserole and referred to their website for a recipe. 

I halved the recipe but accidentally put two eggs in instead of one. I thought I had vanilla but didn't so I used falernum instead. I combined steps 2 and 3 and didn't use pecans. Next time I need to drain the canned sweet potatoes just a little more. It wasn't all that noticeable, but still.