That’s a great point. Once they’ve been through it, they’ll stop doing dumb stuff.
Still, you’re quite the host for putting up with that stuff, Greg.
I’d still have shot them. Or punched, or something similar. Maybe just The Evil Eye. LoL.
I seem to recall seeing somewhere that housewarming gifts that need preparation should be welcomed as gifts for another occasion.
Yes. Even my similar age sister in law didn’t understand why she couldn’t show up when she wanted and do what she wanted in the oven or on the cooktop.
I was tasked with the turkey and the oven was mine! And I wanted at least one big burner on the cooktop for gravy.
I suggested this might be an invitation for her to host next year but she was not having it.
She understands, at least on some level.
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I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot today. It deserves its own topic…“What would you have done?” For future reference, of course!
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Anomaly - a later than usual walk before coming home and putting the turkey in. It would have been easy enough to just do a neighborhood walk, but my H and I do so many forest/mountain trails, that I thought my 75 y.o. parents might enjoy the views. I myself was a little trepidatious about their ability to maneuver the footing, the curving trail that snaked up the mountainside, but they said they were game and up for it. It is only 1/3 of a mile to the top of a windy trail and a mountain lake, with 300’ of gain. And they did it! But slowly. And slowly down too. So we walked in the door at 5:15, and my turkey was in the fridge still.
The second anomaly, which made it work, was this being the first time I did a boneless breast roast. So fortunately, it was in the oven less than 2 hours. I baked the stuffing with it (which had been prepped and in the fridge already), the mashed, the peas, were all stovetop at the same time, the cran was ready, and dinner was still served at 7:15.
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I’ve always wondered about Nescos. Read about them, no one I know has one (I don’t know very many people). Are they actually good for bird roasting?
(My brother and SIL have prepared our family’s holiday birds in one for 25 years - I’ve come to really like them. So much so I plan to buy one myself.)
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We have two sizes of those. I have read on another cooking forum about people using them even to bake in the summer on their porches to avoid heating their houses up with a traditional oven…We recently had an appliance failure with our gas range and it took about a month for us to have it replaced and installed. Our Nesco was a lifesaver - fortunately no power failures since we have to plug it in.
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On odd-numbered years we have a huge family Thanksgiving (60-70 or more sitting down) and two of the four turkeys are prepared in them - always delicious. (Also one smoked and one deep-fried.)
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I used to have one and yes it was good for roasting a turkey but Thanksgiving was pretty much the only time I used it. It was taking up too much storage space for the amount of use I got rid of it. Now, instead of making one large turkey that takes hours I make two smaller ones and one of those is made in advance. It saves time and there is less fighting about who gets the legs.
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Speaking of legs, I come from a big family and remember one epic Thanksgiving meal when I was a young child. I got a leg. I spent almost a whole week finishing it off!
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Wahine and I were given a Nesco as a wedding present 26 years ago. We do use it occasionally, and it does a good job.
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My own personal sad anomaly is that this is the first year in many years of not making ol New England Indian pudding. I was the only one who always ate it (save a few relatives who take a few bites), but just didn’t have room for another pot on the counter when I already had way too much food all over the place.
I upgraded the bird by about 3 pounds this year, and expected more leftovers. Somehow still wound up with about the same… The plus may be that my sisters did get a bit more than usual. Not a bad thing, but I guess I should go with a 17lb bird in the future. I took the legs off of a spatchcocked turkey and that actually worked really well. Will continue that too.
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What size turkey did you cook this year? You took the legs off to make it fit the roasting pan? Did you cut the bird up before or after the brine?
This phenomenon deserves its own thread! I seem to be the only person at our gatherings who enjoys mincemeat and pecan pie. I’ve given up trying to cajole anyone. If only the loyal opposition would now kindly refrain from pressing me to eat/like cranberry sauce and marshmallowed sweet potatoes…
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@shrinkrap - this year was the 17.3lb turkey. In year’s past, we topped out at 14.5 (usually ranged from 13-14lb). We had one less eater (my dad) and my mom is unfortunately not eating much these days. I spatchcocked the bird as usual, but cut off the legs at the thighs and just flipped them upside down so that the drums pointed up at the neck and breast. Getting that inner thigh area to cook well has always been a challenge, and this worked better for that. The only mistake I made was that I lifted the leg up to cut, and I cut more skin off the breast than I wanted to. I loaded some extra butter on those areas to keep it from drying out. I will try not to pull it so taut next year and cut the skin closer to the thigh. I brined first and cut before I put in the oven, but I should have cut first and brined later. It would have made it way less messy to get some dry brine on the sides of the breast too. There was a slight chance I would have changed my mind so I brined it first.
@kaleokahu - I’m game! So any holiday treats that only we (or a select few) enjoy? 
I suppose that will inevitably lead to chiming in with dishes that we dislike but someone brings every year even though no one else likes it (I have some of those too…).
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Like that revolting green bean casserole?
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Ding ding ding ding ding! We have a winner. My sister would always try to bring that and it seriously looked like someone vomited cream soup over sad wilted green beans.
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Reminds me of my Polish Gramma’s “Dressing” when I was a kid in the 60’s. It was always moist and delicious and cooked inside the bird. Now I recognize it more like a force meat than a stuffing. She passed before I got the recipe but, according to my Dad, she put bread, seasoning and RAW pork through a meat grinder and stuffed the bird with RAW pork! Holy Trichinosis! The bird was moist, the pork was cooked and no one ever got sick. Now we’re told it’s dangerous to even stuff a bird with bread. Never tried raw pork in a turkey, but always add cooked sage sausage to my stuffing in her honor.
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I it’s not cooked to soup, I actually like a GB casserole. In the same vein–if not worse–is the classic creamed spinach, a la, Morton’s.
I’ve never had, or been attracted to, creamed spinach. I like spinach and grew up harvesting it in my parent’s garden but am used to eating it very simply.
