Octopus Overlords

It's that time of year where we cull the population of meleagris gallopavo, aka the North American turkey. So what are you all doing this day?

Last year we did nothing. This year I'm doing another Alton Brown turkey brine, and bringing it to a house full of Filipinos. The turkey might be largely consumed (there's going to be a shit ton of Filipino foods, apparently), but I'm expecting to bring home some leftover kielbasa and kraut.

Since I'm the only American at this feast, I'm bringing just 4 things - turkey, stuffing, kielbasa and kraut, and cranberry sauce. Dinner is late - 6 pm and wife has to work tonight and tomorrow night, so she'll be sleeping until the last possible moment. Oh, I'm bringing a 5th thing too...a 15 pack of Goose Island Xmas IPA....but I don't expect to share it much and also don't expect many leftovers...

The thoroughly dysfunctional Bears play the early game and could very well ruin my appetite by doing the unthinkable -- losing to the Lions.

Fresno State plays at noon on Thursday. I will probably watch that over the Lions-Bears.

Who are they playing?

Out of nowhere my 7 year old grand daughter loves football. It may just be an excuse to spend time with me, but we shall see if her enthusiasm survives the Thanksgiving OD.

We did a potluck thing with other teachers on Wed. Today is fairly normal all told but since turkeys are running around $75+ and there are only two of us we opted for a Costco chicken. With stuffing, cranberries, roasted veggies, sweet potatoes, mince pie and pecan pie. The bigger celebration will be Chinese hot pot with friends on Sat.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

My mom is coming over and we're doing the usual: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn, pies, etc. Should be very low key and drama free, thankfully.

Will probably have football on all day, although I'm not particularly interested in any of the games.

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 8:19 pm Who are they playing?

San Jose State. If they win and Boise beats San Diego State the Bulldogs will play in the conference championship game. They should beat the Spartans but they have tended to play to the level of the opponent.

In the Before Times, we used to go see a movie, then I'd make nachos for dinner. Tgiving is the best day of the year for a movie because the normals are all wrapped up in sportsball and their ritual meal. And if I'm going to celebrate gluttony, a tray of nachos is the way to go.

Last year, the movie was ruled out for obvious reasons, and those reasons still pertain this year. So, no movie again; just the nachos. I have a few stories to edit, and I'll probably knock those out tomorrow afternoon because we're getting boosted on Friday and side effects might knock me out for the rest of the weekend.

This year we are going to pig out on Grimm.

The wife’s brother was supposed to come over tomorrow with one of his offspring. He texted my wife at 2230, stating that they would need a ride. She stated that it’s at least a 90min round trip. My immediate response was, ‘No.”. But we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Made even more interesting that their Mom lives here.

In one of the episodes one of the weson is a turkey and everybody ends up eating him.

Im baking a chicken breast for my chihuahua because I didn't get turkey at all. Price plus lack of what I wanted messed that up. Ill cook a ham portion, baked beans, rolls, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.

Then I may try to get in some games and surf the web....as usual.

We normally Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's the night before (so that other family can get together) and with friends in Indianapolis on Thanksgiving.

Mother-in-law just got out of the hospital with COVID three days ago, and our Indy friends moved halfway across the country. Plus, Caiden has COVID.

So this year I'm baking a ham and some some sides and we're eating at home. It won't be an elaborate meal, but it's something. Since we're quasi-quarantining, the only other thing we're doing is taking a meal's worth over and dropping it off with for mother-in-law - a purely throw-and-go thing, only one of us, no socializing.

Pretty big Thanksgiving this year compared to last year, though everyone is fully vaxxed and boosted. This is our first Thanksgiving in the new house, so it should be really nice having more room (our last house's kitchen was so tiny you could only fit 2 people in there at a time). My dad, who retired a couple of years ago, was finally able to come down. Normally he'd be tied up with work out-of-state.

On the food front we have turkey, ham, the typical sides, and I made a Fireball whiskey pumpkin pie which I'm looking forward to.

After the feast we'll probably head outside for our annual cornhole tournament.

Tomorrow we'll take the kids to pick out a Christmas tree - we've been going to the same place the day after Thanksgiving for the past 10 years or so, and it's a tradition the kids absolutely love. Also since my birthday falls on Black Friday this year, my wife's taking me to go see Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

We are having the immediate family over for Thanksgiving. Three of our four kids and my daughter's boyfriend. Food is at 1pm. We will facetime my other daughter who is in grad school at Cal afterwards. Tonight close friends are coming over for a bit and then tomorrow we will go see my Dad for a couple of hours. May also see Dune again with the family tomorrow if time permits.

Looking forward to it.

Picked up a Thanksgiving pre-made meal at the grocery store and heading over to my Mom's apartment for a quiet dinner with her and my wife. Afterwards we're going to watch Peter Jackson's documentary Get Back on Disney+... really looking forward to that. Nice and quiet day, I like that.

As my boys (now teens) were growing up, we usually went to NYC to have Thanksgiving with my wife's parents and some guests of theirs. Every few years we would all trek to Boston and do Thanksgiving with family (again wife's side) there.

In early 2019 my my in-laws came to Philly and we all moved in together. Thanksgiving that year saw the Boston contingent come to us.

2020 was Covid, and both my Dad and FIL had recently passed away. Thanksgiving was just the five of us at home.

This year it's the same small crew, but it feels more festive. We're doing all the classic Thanksgiving foods. Tomorrow we'll meet up with some also-vaxxed friends to have a leftovers party. We don't watch football, but I think my son is setting up a game of Root.

It's just going to be the two of us and two Yorkshire Terrors.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:52 am The wife’s brother was supposed to come over tomorrow with one of his offspring. He texted my wife at 2230, stating that they would need a ride. She stated that it’s at least a 90min round trip. My immediate response was, ‘No.”. But we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Made even more interesting that their Mom lives here.

The new plan is wife is cooking the dinner while I stay out of her way, then we get to pack it all up and take it across town.

...yay...

For a change of pace I cooked the turkey upside down. It cooked in much less time and still was done with lots of juices.

The ham is in the hotterizer. Now come three hours of occasional basting, followed by 30 minutes of hectic activity on the sides, followed by 45 minutes of gorging, followed by an evening of "Oh, god... why did I eat all that?"

And done. Im tired....and very full of ham. Hard to stop eating that. I hope my nausea from the other day stays far away. I dont need that all back.

I got the ham thirsts! Im so thirsty. I cant drink enough to quench it. Im so full I can only drink so much. And if I go to take a few sips I end up chugging half my drink.

Madmarcus wrote:We did a potluck thing with other teachers on Wed. Today is fairly normal all told but since turkeys are running around $75+ and there are only two of us we opted for a Costco chicken. With stuffing, cranberries, roasted veggies, sweet potatoes, mince pie and pecan pie. The bigger celebration will be Chinese hot pot with friends on Sat.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Bought my turkey at .57 cents a pound. Where the hell do you shop

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We were supposed to go to my wife's aunt's house but my niece is sick. Not wanting to expose Ethan we decided to go to my parents house. Much better. Just 7 of us instead of 18

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We're about two hours out from Thanksgiving dinner. I skipped lunch (just crackers and cheese to tide me over), so I'm really looking forward to it.

Other people do Thanksgiving in the early afternoon, but my very traditional New England MIL always does it as an evening meal. She also has her own favorite stuffing recipe but feels duty-bound to replicate her mother's as well, so we have two different stuffings on the table.

I gave my dog some raw turkey liver. According to him, it's unbelievably delicious. (The heart and the gizzard go into gravy, but the liver has such an overpowering flavor that we don't use it there. I reserved some of the liver to fry up later.)

Eight of us gathering at the in-laws after my wife gets out of work, heading out soon-ish. It's a bit of a pot luck. In-laws providing protein and the place, we're bringing squash that probably should be in the dessert category.

naednek wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 4:16 pm Bought my turkey at .57 cents a pound. Where the hell do you shop

In Seoul Costco, at roughly $75, is the best deal. All meat is expensive here but turkey isn't a Korean thing. It's even worse. In addition the ovens are tiny so most people couldn't cook one. Our oven might be big enough since the apartment was modified to Western tastes.

Madmarcus wrote:

naednek wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 4:16 pm Bought my turkey at .57 cents a pound. Where the hell do you shop

In Seoul Costco, at roughly $75, is the best deal. All meat is expensive here but turkey isn't a Korean thing. It's even worse. In addition the ovens are tiny so most people couldn't cook one. Our oven might be big enough since the apartment was modified to Western tastes.

Ah that makes sincem. Happy Thanksgiving

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Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:28 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:52 am The wife’s brother was supposed to come over tomorrow with one of his offspring. He texted my wife at 2230, stating that they would need a ride. She stated that it’s at least a 90min round trip. My immediate response was, ‘No.”. But we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Made even more interesting that their Mom lives here.

The new plan is wife is cooking the dinner while I stay out of her way, then we get to pack it all up and take it across town.

...yay...

Trip cancelled, we're delaying it a day.

Oh man I'm so full and we have so many leftovers

Ive ate more today than I eat in 4 days normally. Ive already ate half a 7lb ham I think. Im gonna pay for that. I ate around 1pm and Ive gone back every 2 hours for another plate of ham. So 4 more servings. Its made me so thirsty that Ive drank 5 ginger ales, 1 coke, 2 glasses of milk, and a bottle of water. And Im not done drinking.

I may be all nite in the bathroom...just not sure if Ill be standing or sitting. But I only get something as good as a ham once a year so Ill pay that price. Unless my pancreas decides to quit.

I look pregnant.

I opened the fridge too abruptly and had a foot-long spinal column in a clear bag fall at my feet.

It's from the turkey and will go into stock tomorrow.

I think that was the last whole turkey Ill ever fix. I'm too olde for this shit.

So Fresno State won big, and we had turkey with all the fixings. We used to have 7 for dinner but between my in-laws passing and my oldest daughter moving we are down to 3 now. But we love the leftovers so much that we still have turkey, just a smaller one.

What am I doing? Having the crappiest Thanksgiving we've ever had.

Drove 150 miles to parents for the day. Mom gets Turkey and Ham meals from the local store.

First bit of fun, when we did this last year, just had to heat the meat up. This year it was fully cooked, frozen, then they had thawed it out at the store, but still took 2 hours to cook the turkey.

The ham was just a ham like you'd buy in the refrigerator section.

So we take the ham out after about 90 minutes, let it cool some while the turkey finishes cooking. Go to cut the ham up, discover some ugly big bug (we think it was a cicada) crawling around on the ham. Tossed the ham.

Turkey was good at least.

For starting the journey home, sliding doors froze on the van. Finally got those open.

Drive home, it's started snowing (nothing too bad, just light on the road, too little traffic to have melted it). After about 60 miles, that's all done, back to normal driving. About 50-60 miles from home, battery light comes on on the van.

The alternator died. We made it about 20 miles further, got to an exit and off to the side of an open gas station parking lot.

Thankfully, my mechanic is my neighbor's brother (neighbor has a garage in his back yard where they do the car work). He came and picked us up, will put the van on a trailer and bring it to their garage tomorrow. Happily bought him $75 in gas as the least we could do.

I REALLY HATE DRIVING ANYWHERE!

I'm sure glad I don't live in the boonies.

Man... I hate following Zenn... That sounds like a rough day.

Ours was really good. I ate, but I'm not too stuffed. The wife's parents came over (it's a new tradition we started a couple of years ago). And her brother and his girl friend. None of my family is in the area. Though... I generally like hanging with her family better anyway.

Cooked a ~15 lb turkey. It came out really nice.
To that we added homemade cranberry sauce, Red Lobster biscuits (from a mix), stuffing (cornbread, cranberry, sausage from CostCo - it's a favorite of her mom), and gravy (also from CostCo). Her brother brought mashed potatoes, and her mom brought a salad.

There were some veggies as snacks ahead of time. And we added a couple of pies made from cherries from her parent's trees and store-bought apples; some homemade ice cream and assorted chocolates to round things out.

Very relaxing. Everyone ate plenty, with guests getting to-go leftovers.

We mostly cleaned as we went along, so there isn't that much to do now but relax.

TheMix wrote: ↑Fri Nov 26, 2021 12:47 am Man... I hate following Zenn... That sounds like a rough day.

I shall endeavor to delay posting my holiday bliss until a week or two after in the future.