Wendy's Wonderings

A Thanksgiving to Remember...

We have all had those Thanksgiving Days where either something wonderful happened that we will never forget, or something bad happened. Perhaps you burned the turkey and your Thanksgiving meal ended up being spaghetti. We've all been there. Let me give you a chuckle by telling you about a Thanksgiving Day I will never forget.

I will "lovingly" refer to it as "Thanksgiving 2000." My brother and sister bought this home in May of 2000, so this was going to be our FIRST Thanksgiving in our new home. I was excited. :-) Of course, I'm usually excited at the holidays anyway. I love all of the cooking, baking, decorating, ect. Go ahead, say it... I'm weird. ;-) I'm not exactly Martha Stewart, but I do like to entertain.

We eat Thanksgiving "dinner" at Noon in our house. We spend the afternoon playing games, or maybe go to a movie. We eat the leftover's at supper. So, I start cooking EARLY. This particular year I was doing a whole turkey as well as a ham.

I had purchased a frozen turkey, and I had put it in a pan in the refrigerator three days ahead to allow it to thaw. I got up at 4:00am to dress the turkey and put it in the oven. It was only going to need about 4 1/2 hours to cook, and then I could put in the ham. I figured I would have it in the oven by 4:15, 4:20 tops, and then I could go back to bed for another hour, get up and shower/dress and start my day. That's what I THOUGHT would happen.

I took the turkey out of the refrigerator and cut off all of the plastic. To my horror there was still ice on the neck and the "bottom" of the turkey. I couldn't believe it. I had followed the directions, I had given it plenty of thawing time, why was it still frozen? I couldn't wrap it again and put it in water on anything, because I had cut the plastic off of the turkey. It was already in the garbage.

What was I to do? I did the only thing I could think of, I grabbed an ice pick and a hammer and I began to chip away the ice. Yes, Ma'am I did. I stood in the kitchen, in my pajamas and slippers and hacked away at the turkey. I first had to pry the legs apart, and that meant removing the wire clip. NOT easy an easy task to begin with, but it is almost impossible when the legs are frozen. I, finally managed to get the legs apart, only to find ice in the turkeys nether regions. So, I got a butcher knife and tried to get some of the ice out of the turkey. I do NOT like giblets, and I knew there was a little pouch of those things inside the turkey. They HAD to come out!

I, finally, got enough ice out that I could reach inside. A job I was NOT looking forward to. I reached inside the turkey and my hand was freezing! However, I could not find a bag of giblets. I then thought, maybe I should have gone through the neck? So, I began to use the butcher knife again. After several minutes I got the "flap" open, but not much. So, I put the flap back down, and decided to try the other side again. I could not feel a bag. Of course, I wasn't exactly "into" the task at hand, if you know what I mean.

I came to the conclusion that the company must have forgotten to put a bag in our turkey. So, I tried to put the legs back as best as I could, and I "dressed" my turkey. (By "dressed" I mean I rubbed oil all over it, threw on some seasonings, wrapped it in foil, and tossed that baby in the oven.) By this time it is around 5:30 am. The turkey is definitely late getting into the oven, and it is still partially frozen. It would require extra cooking time.

I cleaned up the kitchen, bleached the counters and headed to take a shower and get dressed. (So much for extra hour of sleep.) After I was dressed the rest of the family began to stir, shower, dress, etc. I went back to the kitchen and began to get other things started. I made the relish tray, and got it in the fridge, boiled eggs, set out the canned veggies and boxed stuffing, put the things for the green bean casserole out on the counter, and began to clean up.

That's when I heard it... The SCREAM for help from the hall bathroom.

continued tomorrow....

Love,
Wendy Darling