Our Thanksgiving Update No. 4...

Marie and I are the perfect turkey partners!

We stuffed the body cavity with chunks of celery and wedges of lemon ... for moisture.  We then shoved lemon slices between the skin and the breast meat.  We roasted a bulb of garlic, whipped it into butter, and then smeared it all over the Turkey.  We then pinned more lemon slices all over the outside and sprinkled fresh rosemary for a finishing touch.  [By "we," I mostly mean that Myrtle came up with the plan and Marie executed it, save for Myrtle crafting the roasted garlic butter.]  The result was an incredibly moist and tasty turkey.

The utter fail of the day was my stuffing.  Seriously, it was inedible and went into the garbage can.  I nearly vomited looking at the texture.  Think about the movie The Blob for a moment.  Marie and Paul forgave my failure.

As for the rest, we had really, really tasty food.

Marie and I decided to abandon the broccoli cheddar patties so that we might repeat the Parmesan Roasted Broccoli.  When I was roasting garlic, I did four bulbs.  We used one on the turkey, one on the first appetizer, one in our mashed red potatoes, and Marie is taking one home.  Life as I know it has ended.  I now firmly and fully believe that mashed red potatoes should always have roasted garlic.  The potatoes were stunning.  Marie's whole wheat rolls were tasty, especially since they were a bit on the yeasty side.

The tiny dish at the back is my newest most favorite of sweet potato recipes.  Modified, of course.  We made Sautéed Sweet Potatoes with Whiskey.  SIGH.  I need a bottle of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey Whiskey immediately so that I can cook my remaining sweet potatoes.  I will admit that it was a bit on the spicy side, but I have already adjusted my recipe reminder to reflect less cayenne pepper.

I am rather pleased to announce that my gravy was actually good.  I fretted and stewed and melted down in the process, but Paul came to my rescue and took over the stirring so that I could juggle a few things going on in the kitchen and pull myself back together.  His patient and committed stirring rescued my rough beginning.  But when you look for the gravy on the table, please ... please ... ignore the pyrex gravy boat.  How I could have inherited so much silver, china, and crystal and not have a gravy boat is beyond me.  The stork must have mixed up houses because gravy is a required dish!

We drank two bottles of Barefoot moscato wine whilst cooking and a third bottle that was a black cherry honey wine Marie and I found a few months ago.  Marie did not care for it, but Paul and I did.  He said it was more like a wine spritzer than wine.  I don't drink spritzers, but I enjoyed it.  The moscato still wins the battle though. And having had six varieties, I am still sold on the Barefoot.  I am so very thankful for Marie for finding the perfect wine for me.

I am also exceedingly happy to announce that my Double Chocolate Dr Pepper Cake was just fine. I do not know what those darks spots were, but the cake was just as overwhelmingly wonderful as the first time around.  Of course, we had to take a signifiant break from eating to actually finish off our meal.  Personally, I shouldn't need food for at least two or three days!

My "favorite" was definitely the new sweet potato dish. I mean, I am so very happy that I learned to properly roast garlic and really do believe that no other type of garlic should ever be used with mashed potatoes.  And I am a turkey and gravy glutton.  But that dish was just so tasty, even though, for me it had slightly too much cayenne pepper.

Marie's favorite were the tartlets.  I had made the "sun" dried tomatoes last Spring, cooking Roma tomatoes in the oven for hours on end.  Then, not knowing what to do with them, I stuck them in the freezer.  We had some left over olive oil and minced garlic from yesterday, so I got the bright idea of blending my sun-dried tomatoes with the olive oil to make a pesto.  I also had the idea to sear the artichoke hearts.  Other than that, I was merely a confirmer of possible flavor combinations.  Marie played musical chairs with all our ingredients until she came up with the end result.  I ate them all rather happily.  But that pesto was rather incredible when paired with feta and the seared artichokes.  I do love that she thought to put apple in with the raw milk cheddar cheese and the prosciutto.

I should note that Amos was beside himself because I would not let the 24-carrot gold rimmed Royal Doulton china to be set on the floor for pre-cleaning.  He did not go unloved in the culinary department, but it was mighty slim pickings for him.  He also was rather agitated because we spent the entire waking day apart (translate that, no snuggle time in the GREEN chair).  At one point, he sought comfort in Marie's arms just to have some lovin'.  What he does not know is that after I had picked the turkey carcass clean, divided the meat, and bagged up the bones so Marie could make homemade stock, I scooped up the fallen meat bits and congealed fat and put it into a ziploc bag so that I could "flavor" Amos' food for a few days.  I shall be a most loved puppy momma on the morrow.

Even though I washes six sinks worth of dishes throughout the day, there were still mountains of washing left once we had finished eating.  Paul and Marie took care of all of them.  So, so merciful!

Finally, I want to note that I am utterly thankful for the erythromycin.  Without it, I could not have eaten my way through this wonderful day.   While I will be resting for weeks on end, between the strain of child sitting, realizing I have neglected my car, and 10 solid hours of cooking, I shall also be savoring what an absolute joy it was to cook with Marie.  We laugh and danced about the kitchen. Me made messes.  We shoved food in our faces.  I teased her about how she sneaks bites of everything under the guise of quality control.  And she teased me rather wickedly over many of my character flaws and health issues.  It was so very normal.

Paul was awesome.  When he walked into the door, I announced very firmly that his role today was to simply eat anything he was served.  I was a tad nervous about my plan to appetizer our way through the cooking.  Not only was he faithful to chow down on command, he hunkered down in the basement until my gravy melt down and was able to finish his classwork assignment on the Psalter.  After we finally managed to stuff rather shockingly small pieces of the cake into our stomachs, Paul talked Psalter and doctrine with me for a while.  BLISS.

Despite the fact that the snow never stopped falling, it was a bloody fantastic day!


Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.  Lord, have mercy.