I have cooked Thanksgiving dinners at my parents’ home for the last 7 years. My parents being of Asian decent (and I do have to attribute this more to their palettes than their heritage) have never really been into the whole “big-turkey-and stuffing-and-everything-that-comes-along-with-it”. Then there’s me, the one that wants to fit in and do the American traditions. I would sit down a few days before Thanksgiving day each year and start planning my menu.
The very first turkey we had was a 25 lbs. turkey given to us by this nice lady, Mrs. Lomax, I believe. This was back in 1991. I didn’t have a cookbook or the Internet to show me how to cook this big bird. So I thought to myself “Just stick it in the oven for say…. 1 1/2 hours and we’ll have dinner!” Yeah right. Of course at 15 and not having the right resources or not knowing any better, I had no clue about the “cook for so much time if your bird weighs this much”. So after 1 1/2 hours I took the bird out, the color was nice. Plated it and served it with stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and dinner rolls. Ahhh cutting into the bird presented our family with a huge surprise. It was still raw and some parts still frozen! Boy, what a disaster that was. I stuck the bird back into the oven for another hour at 450 degrees. After an hour I took it back out and checked it. Still raw, at least now the frozen parts were thawed out. I was disgusted with it all, to say the least. By now it was almost 7pm. So to make a long story short, by the time we were able to eat the turkey it was close to 7 hours from the initial start time and the bird was totally cut up into smaller pieces. We finally ate it but it wasn’t great. Seriously, nothing to write home about. It was dry and bland. Yuck.
Perhaps this is what set my parents’ expectations of future turkeys. LOL Although the turkeys have become much better over the years, the memory of the first turkey has stuck with my entire family.
I’ve got more Thanksgiving stories, some ‘horror’ stories to add to the mix, but for now I’d like to hear yours.
Email me your Thanksgiving stories, whether good or bad, to asamatteroffood@gmail.com or gotfood13@gmail.com and get a chance to have your story told on my blog!
