Thanksgiving

Still haven't started on the cookbook yet, my excuse is all the planning for Thanksgiving and installing 8 new windows. Actually, there probably aren't a lot of family T-Day recipes for the cookbook. Everything was pretty standard. I'll add my aunt's onion recipe... oh and perhaps her cheese crackers. I'll have to see if I have that onion recipe in my cookbook folder or if I need to call mom for that. In fact, I still have to dust off that cookbook folder.

My mom and my aunts (Lainey and Gege) were super pros at the holidays. Only they were allowed in the kitchen...and it's still true to this day. They zoom in like caterers, most of the work already finished, the work divided up neatly in advance. By the time we sat down for pie at the end of the night, the kitchen was immaculate. My Uncle Bill, gets kudos for helping out in this respect. He and my mom are obsessed with cleanliness and do a lot of hard work to make their homes spotless...must be the German genes.

We are hosting about 16 for Thanksgiving. After two years with NO TURKEY (criminal) and a Christmas without red meat (really? spaghetti & meatballs is less work than roasting a hunk of meat? really?), we are having 2 turkeys. TWO! One on the charcoal BBQ and one on the gas grill. And the best part is that the oven will be free.

We test drove a turkey coated with a Bobby Flay inspired rub on the Weber kettle a couple of weeks ago. It was divine. We are still eating leftovers: almost a dozen turkey sandwiches, turkey noodle soup, and the freezer is loaded with turkey stock which simmered for 10 hours, and some turkey meat that will go towards burritos later in the month.

I'll post our menu when I finalize it later today...