Thanksgiving Blessings

Well, Thanksgiving Day has come and gone. It was a lovely day with good food, good company, close family and extended family.

None of the things I fear going wrong, actually went wrong and I wasn't a stressed out nut who couldn't enjoy the day because too many things were left for the last minute.

In fact I was able to take a couple of hours while the turkey cooked, to spend some time with an elderly aunt.

The only negative was that DD#1 and family couldn't be here with us.

While I prepared the dinner, I was recalling some of the little oops that I have had on previous Thanksgivings:

#1. Is the Turkey ever going to get done? We have had dinner about 2 hours later than expected some years because of turkey miscalculation. I don't know if my oven temp is not accurate or if it is because DD#3 is constantly opening the oven door to "test" the stuffing.

This year I added two hours to it's expected done time and it turned out perfectly.

#2. The year there was no salt. No open stores and the box of salt had only a few sprinkles. I remember getting out every salt shaker, decorative, silver, crystal and finding one that was half full.

I checked over every staple that could possibly be needed and didn't run out of anything.

#3. The year there was almost no mashed potatoes. The mixer wouldn't work when it was mashed potato time. Circuit breakers were checked, cords were examined, no luck. DD#3 pushed the reset button on the outlet and low and behold off we went. I was panicking, but really I have a potato masher. That was the way I mashed potatoes for years before I started using the mixer.

#4. Years of inferior dressing or stuffing.

My grandmother made the best stuffing in the world. A sage and sausage stuffing that I tried to duplicate for years and years. There was no one left to ask for the recipe so I searched through countless recipes for just the right combination of spices. Then one year I saw a yellow box on the store shelf in the spice aisle and the light dawned..... Bell's seasoning! I remembered it on my grandmother's spice rack! That was the secret! I bought a box and my dressing tastes just like I remember my grandmother's tasting.

I buy a new box every year, but keep the leftover boxes, just in case they stop making it. Nothing else tastes the same.

Just Thanksgiving craziness.