Thanksgiving 2011 - Photos and stuff.

We have developed a pattern over the years with the 2 end of year holidays.  Thanksgiving, Joanne has everyone over to her house, and Christmas, Dawn and I have everyone over to ours.  We had about 18 people for Thanksgiving this year, friends and family.  It was a great time.

We always make 2 turkeys, Joanne does one in the oven (pictured at the start of this entry) - and then there is a deep-fried turkey done outside.  It gives the menfolk something to do, gathering around the bubbling oil where they would otherwise congregate on a BBQ if one was being used.

Deep Frying a turkey is dangerous.  You read about people every year burning themselves, burning down houses, etc.  The combination of hot oil, fire, ice, and people's overall general dumbness is an accident waiting to happen.  Ken has it down to a science though - we've never had any problems, are very careful and in just 45 minutes we wind up with a turkey that is extremely juicy and delicious, always a big hit.

Every year now, Tessa (my brother's daughter) helps me prepare a secret sauce from whatever random hot sauces and flavorings Joanne has lurking in her fridge and cabinets, and we inject it into the bird before it goes to the deep fryer.  This year, she had help from Wendy, Kathleen's daughter.  Here are the two of them injecting the bird with a scary Dr. Frankenstein needle.

After this, the bird has to be places on a metal support with some hooks, and then wire has to be tied around the legs to keep them in place so it can be lowered into the hot oil.  Here's a pic of Ken doing this part of things.

Ken is the master of the deep fried turkey.  He has a whole rig for it - a cooking pot with thermometer, a chain to hang the cooked turkey from while it drains, and he even had a portable tent this year which we really needed, as it was pouring rain all day long.

I'll take rain over ice though - last Thanksgiving Dawn slid on the driveway when we were arriving and broker her arm, and we spent the morning in the ER at a nearby hospital getting her fixed up.  She earned her '1 year accident free' badge this Thanksgiving. :)

Here are a couple more shots of the turkey cooking process:



Bird in the fryer



Cooked, hanging up to drip for a minute.



Bill carvin' up the turkey!

What I like most about Thanksgiving is having so many people together, the chance to chat and see one another and accomplish a nice meal as a team.  Everyone does their part - even if their part is to watch what is going on and eat the goodness. :)

Joanne was kind enough this year to prepare a special side dish as well for those of us watching calories and carbs.. a nice stir fry of long green beans and mushrooms with no sauce on them, no salt, etc.  Of course being Thanksgiving, I did try some of the other stuff offered, but I kept it sane and took small portions.

Stir Fry goodness on the side.

Parul helped out in the kitchen too and made some gravy.  It turned out awesome, he did it last year too.  Teamwork!

Once everything was done, we assembled several tables banquet-style and everyone got down to the very serious business of eating.  It might be the only thing that can really keep my family quiet, mouthfuls of awesome holiday chow.

No big family meal is complete without dessert however.  This year we had 2 items, a pumpkin pie and a black forest cake that Dawn put together.  It was her first try making one - a three layer cake with whipped cream frosting and tart cherries.  It came out awesome, and she had a lot of fun making it.  It was a very fun holiday and we all had a great time.  After dinner, there were some card games, and the typical round of sit and watch TV while digesting.  This year the dog show had minimal screen time, surprisingly - we spent more watching a show called 'Swampsgiving' - which seemed to be all about fat, overall-clad rednecks hunting things with shotguns, and later we followed it up with "Pumpkin Chunkin" - a contest where other, more technology-friendly rednecks construct towering machines which launch pumpkins through the air for almost a mile.

My dinner. Turkey, bean stir fry and salad. Healthy. :)

Just a few more photos, for fun, to wrap this all up.

 

BTW - there were loads of other people here, I don't have pix of them all. I'm counting on Parul's mad photography skills for that, and his Flickr. ;)