Friday, May 6, 2011

Easter Dinner

During my Mom's recent visit, her first to the area, I had the privilege of cooking a turkey dinner with her. My first turkey dinner. For Ian, my Mom, her partner, Bob, and Ian's parents. I've never had a reason to cook turkey dinner before. My sister did it once, I think because at the time, my Mom and Bob were living in their 5th wheel while they built a new house. So my sister had everyone over to the trailer she was living in for turkey dinner.

I know I've helped my Mom prepare turkey dinner countless times. But it has never been my responsibility. Something about cooking my own turkey dinner, even with the help of my Mom, makes me feel awfully grown up. Maybe it's something about being at a point in my life where I'm not going to my Mom's house for holidays. It's a pretty long and rather expensive trip for every holiday. I'm hoping that in the future we'll be able to go back for more holidays than we can afford this year (zero holidays this year.) Maybe it's because my Mom came to my house for a holiday, maybe that's why I feel grown up. I was hoping to have a fun and family-filled future of such events at my house. I doubt now that that will happen, although it's not because of the difficulty of preparing the dinner.

Both my Mom and my Mother-in-Law said that they hate preparing turkey dinner, or at least that they find it the most stressful and least enjoyable family meal. I didn't mind it, but being able to spend the day checking on the turkey and planning what to make next, with my Mom, was really an absolute dream. I can't imagine a better way to spend the day, then with my Mom. So really, it was wonderful. Every gravy splattered moment was a blessing.

Putting the turkey in the oven. Actually, for the second time because Ian forgot to take pictures for me! Please forgive my pajamas (GO CANUCKS!)

Dressed much more appropriately in this picture, Mom and I baste the turkey.

Sweet potatoes roasted in the oven, with the turkey. We put foil under them, but unfortunately they bubbled up and the juices spilled out onto the bottom of the oven, and then the whole house smelled like I had burned the turkey, just in time for dinner. However, no food actually burned at all!

Removing the stuffing from the turkey. I wasn't sure how much stuffing would be inside, it was only a 10lb turkey! (Yes, I actually cheated and bought a frozen, pre-stuffed turkey.) But there was a lot of stuffing.

Before I knew there was going to be a lot of stuffing inside the turkey, I decided to make my own stuffing in the slow cooker. So we actually had two enormous bowls of stuffing, which in my own family would have been a huge hit, and my sister and father would have fought over it, and it probably all would have been devoured. In this case, there was quite a bit left over.

The gravy actually turned out WAY better than I could have imagined. We didn't need to add any flavourings or colourings, it just turned out perfectly! We had a ton of gravy left over, too. When does that ever happen? Anyways, I've frozen it and will use it for a fantastic turkey burger recipe I have.

Mom, carving the turkey. Me, just lookin' pretty.

The table set, ready to go. You can see the salad on the table. We also had mashed potatoes of course, but I never did get a picture of those, they're awfully boring. And Ian made brussel sprouts, but they're the one vegetable I'm really not fond of, at all. Ian's Mom also brought little cheese croissants. It was a pretty fabulous looking dinner.

The lucky recipients of my first turkey dinner (with a lot of help from Mom, as you may have noticed). I hope you liked it!

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