Friday, November 28, 2008

What I actually did for Thanksgiving

I admit I was planning on making reservations. But they were all buffets and buffets simply are not cost effective for my little picky eaters, not when kids 4 and up cost $10.95.  There are not enough bread rolls on a buffet to cost justify that amount. (adults were $16.95, which is about right for me and DH comes out ahead, but not sufficiently ahead to offset the $22 for the kids).

So I did,in the end, make Thanksgiving dinner.

We had a meal out of Rachel Ray's November magazine - the Thanksgiving every day section.  We had ground turkey patties with mashed sweet potatoes & gravy and salad. We also had brie and bread. True to form Havoc picked at everything and Mayhem ate the salad. Both of them ate the bread. Mayhem was eventually pressured into a bite of turkey & sweet potato.

And my mother wonders why I make reservations.

Speaking of my mother, I didn't use her pie recipe when I made pumpkin pie. Mom's recipe is - Go to Sams. Buy a pumpkin pie in the bakery.

Sam's is too far away and Safeway was sold out, forcing me to MAKE MY OWN pie.

I had 2 choices. I could buy a can of Libby's pumpkin and follow the recipe on the can (Mom used to do that before she moved near a Sams Club, so I suppose that is the 'old family pie recipe') or I could dig out the Joy of Cooking pumpkin pie recipe which calls for homemade roasted pumpkin puree.

Did I mention we only got one small pumpkin despite all the pumpkin patches & harvest festivals we went to in October?

Old family pie recipe it is!

Interesting thing about using products from different agribusinesses...they don't match up in size. Libby's pie recipe claims to make one pie, but Pillsbury's pie crust will only hold about 3/4 of the pie filling.

We had a pumpkin pie and a separate container of 'pumpkin custard'.

One more fun fact about my mom.

She didn't make anything for Thanksgiving this year.

She & my dad are currently on a 3 week cruise somewhere in the Mediterranean, headed toward the Atlantic Ocean which they will cross at the narrowest point between Africa & South America and then cruise north through the Caribbean onto Miami, arriving home about a week before we turn up at their house for the Christmas holiday. They go on at least one of these nearly month long cruises every year.

I want to be my parents when I grow up.

10 comments:

Jenni said...

I want to be your parents, too!!!

My Jack? Ate 2 rolls and one baby carrot for Thanksgiving dinner.

AndreAnna said...

Hell, I want to be your parents now!

Daisy said...

Cruisin' for Thanksgiving? I could be convinced.

Tara @ Feels Like Home said...

I love this post! I have an awesome pumpkin pie recipe on my blog that is worlds better than the one on the can with only one more step. It's very easy.

And I want to be your parents, too. :)

Anonymous said...

this made me giggle. great post!!!

The Four Week Vegan said...

Um, where do I sign-up to be your parents when I grow up? Good for them!

Your meal sounded very tasty. Brie - my kids would have swooped on that - we all love it.

Buffets and my kids did not seem worth it until about a year ago - teen son means vacuum eating - you will not beleive it when your boys are teens.

Jennifer said...

Lucky Thanksgiving to your parents!! I want to be them, too! :)

jenna said...

it is so hard to get kids to eat at the holidays! so many food choices, plates overloaded with dishes they only see once a year, people everywhere,of course they go for something familiar, bread and raw veggies. my boys diet has been turkey, bread, cheese and veggie tray items for two days! i always say holidays all rules are off. i'm just happy if they eat anything with nutrients in it.

Deb said...

oh so you caved... i know, buffets ARE hard to justify until they get to be my boys' ages. now. i feel like we should be offering to pay double!

your meal sound perfect. we didn't have too many leftovers, as i really scaled back on the sides and there were enough neighbors and friends intrigued by the turducken that we dropped some off to let people sample it.

Jess NBP said...

Glad you Thanksgiving went well.