Thanksgiving Mishaps

proudtospin

I love all the stories, but as a single, I have never hosted Turkey day (I bring flowers or cake and my appitite~) but I did once years ago decide to have a turkey dinner for all my single Manhattan apt pals from my church....in about May.  I figured it was cheap and easy and would make great sandwiches and of course, the day after soup.

It went over well but in the middle of the party I headed to my little kitchen to check on stuff and there was 3 pals picking meat off of the turnkey carcass.  Cancel the soup idea!

pajim

Caryn, I almost never cook Thanksgiving or Christmas, so I never make gravy and way too nervous.

One year I hosted. Best party ever -- it was the bridge tournament so people showed up at 5:00 and were out the door at 7:00.  Anyway, I invited a bridge player friend who was a chef/cook/nutritionist and put her in charge of the gravy.  She made it and explained exactly how and exactly what to do if X went wrong (too lumpy) or Y went wrong (too thin).  I took notes.

Of course I haven't cooked turkey for a crowd since, but the notes are there, just in case.

teachermom4

What a great thread! I too set a turkey on fire--twice in the same day! I was hosting 25 people and didn't have a roasting pan large enough to hold the huge turkey so I bought a foil pan at the store. I put the bird on my usual wire rack, put it in the foil pan and in the oven. Well a couple of hours later we noticed a fire in the oven! The rack had poked a hole in the pan and the juices had been dripping onto the oven floor. Voila! Fire!

We put the fire out with baking soda and moved the turkey to the outdoor grill (freezing weather of course) only to have it go up in flames again! Thank goodness for my neighbor who let me finish cooking the little arsonist in her ovenMy sil gave me a wonderful, huge roasting pan that year for Christmas!

exbrnxgrl

teachermom,

Well, I bet the skin was really crispy! It is a few minutes after 7:00am here. I am eating a light breakfast and will then put my butternut squash casserole in the oven. Beside the turkey, that ends my cooking duties. I do have a good bit of cleaning to do, but I'll get there.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Tina2

Romansma

Last year, being freshly diagnosed stage IV, and renewing our vows that weekend, we had a ton of guests for TG. The turkey wasn't coming up to temperature, so everyone kept drinking. Turns out the lower element in my oven had gone out. We ended up carving it up and microwaving what we could before we ran out of wine

Nancy2581

Several years ago I had the rolls on the counter ready to go in the oven. I turned my back for literally a second and my dog jumped on the counter and literally ate them all in one bite (at least it wasn't the turkey eh?).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone

Nancy

PS That was my yellow lab Cooper. He stole so many things off the counter ya think I would have learned.

exbrnxgrl

LOL! Thankfully my dogs are too small to get to the counter. They are, however, right on it if anything hits the floor. I have one of those electronic thermometers that you stick in the turkey leg with a wire that runs out of the oven and connects to a little meter that beeps when it reaches the temperature you've set. My granddaughter has been playing with it quite a bit as she likes the beeping sounds it makes. I think I had better test it.

Bestbird

What a wonderful topic!  Love these stories!   ?I've made so many "oops-es" that I can't remember a single one, other than the turkey absolutely refusing to defrost or cook!

exbrnxgrl

Mishaps so far today:

Woke up to find my bathroom (imaster bedroom) sink clogged. Easily remedied.

Set small kitchen towel ablaze while sautéing mushrooms. Easily extinguished, no harm done.

One of my dogs decided that all this activity was too much for her and expressed her discontent by peeing in the upstairs hallway.

Time to pop in to the shower. I smell like a fine mixture of furniture polish, sweat, sage and cinnamon.

Caryn

WinningSoFar

I believe it was Christmas and not Thanksgiving, but a ham coming out of the oven managed to do an air flip which was caught once, but the second time it flipped, no such luck. After picking off anything that look alien to ham, we served it and hoped for the best. We called it our Rocky Road Ham dinner.

tangandchris

The gravy always makes me nervous....to me gravy is right up there with the turkey and stuffing. If those 3 aren't right, dinner isn't the same. lol

Loved this thread! Hope everyone had a good day, even if you had some mishaps.

proudtospin

well I am back from my pals turkey day dinner, nice but she had a dinky bowl of gravy!
oh well it was good just surprised by it!

on to tomorrows turkey sandwiches!

barbie56

One year, my very picky and critical aunt came to the house well before the appointed time, and proceeded to criticize everything.  Why did we have the Macy's parade on, why wasn't the table set yet, why don't you seem closer to being done.  My Mom got so flustered with it that when she went to pour the gravy into the saucepan, she didn't realize she had forgotten the pan, and yep, most of the gravy went down the drain.  Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors who had emergency use bottled gravy.

odie16

Today's mishap happened to my sister. Her job was to bring the sweet potato casserole which is always a huge favorite. As she was walking out the door carrying the hot casserole dish in a box, her coat caught on the door knob and she dropped the box. Sweet potatoes splattered all over her so she had to change clothes before coming to dinner with half a dish of sweet potato casserole.....

Great thread Caryn. Thank you for opening it up to everyone. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

susan_02143

Darn, loving these mishaps, but I have never had any of them. I stick to a timeline and my typeA personality brings everything to the table at exactly 2:10 on T-Day. I love love love this holiday. Sharing friendship and food around a table. What is not to love about that?

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

*susan*

Trisha-Anne

Thank you for the wonderful insight into what to us Aussies is a mystery day lol.

Do you all do the same thing all over again for Christmas? That's when we do the turkey lunch, although not as many these days, as it can be over 100 degrees on Christmas day, so many people are transitioning to a cold seafood lunch

MelissaDallas

Trish-Anne, we got tired of doing it all again at Christmas & started doing Mexican food instead. I know that changeover happened after my grandmother died though. Don't think she would have gone for this:)

sueopp

No mishaps here, but of course all I had to come up with was two veggie dishes, salted nuts and the all important relish tray (pickles, olives, girkins, salami, pickled onions). Surrounded by the joy of a crowd of family members, a glorious turkey dinner and great gravy - life is good. Love to all and happy holiday. SUE

exbrnxgrl

As my dd's clean up the main meal, one last mishap. Older dd was toasting hazelnuts for a carrot/fennel salad. She didn't know that my toaster oven ran hot and totally burnt the whole panful and filled the house with smoke. We opened the windows but it was very still out so the smoke lingered. Fortunately, we had more hazelnuts and the dish was a hit. Now, on to the pie!

usafmom

Best ever mishap happened our first year in Japan. We were having three other families over and we had a cute little apartment off base. I'd only been in country for 7 weeks. We decided since it would be 15 of us we needed a huge turkey 23lbs. I got it all ready the night before so it could go in the oven first thing. So that morning I go to put the turkey in the oven and it was so big my little oven wouldn't close all the way. So we ended up propping it up on its side. The door still was open about an inch and a half so we aluminum foiled the opening and threw a blanket over it to keep the heat locked in. We wereyoungand stupid but 10 hrs later we had turkey..lol. Happy Thanksgiving to all you ladies

Spookiesmom

My aunt was an alcoholic. Some times she would put the bird in the oven, and forget to turn it on. Then when my dad and uncle would come home from quail and pheasant hunting, she'd be drunk, and no turkey.

So they'd clean the small birds, mom would pop them in the oven, and we had quail and pheasant.

Drink on auntie!

GG27

Not a mishap but a cute story. One of our friends is Asian & we invited him over for Thanksgiving. Had no idea what Thanksgiving was as he hadn't been in Canada for very long. But one of my other friends told me that in China it is a great honour to be given the turkey leg. I wanted him to feel especially welcome so I bought 2 extra legs & served them on the platter. No one else wanted the legs, so he got all 4 of them.

He was completely overcome & just kept hugging me. Apparently he called his parents in China that night to tell them how wonderful it was here in Canada! -Dee

susan_02143

Tonight, we had a Bulgarian family with us for dinner. They have been in this country for 15 years and have NEVER been invited to a "real" American Thanksgiving dinner. In years past we have had people at our table from Germany, Austria, China, Hong Kong, the UK, Turkey, and South America. I love sharing this holiday with people who are from other places. Thanksgiving in Massachusetts is a true tradition. I adopt Thanksgiving orphans, some of whom have become life-long friends.

*susan*

Moderators

We hope you all had successfully cooked turkeys with thick smooth gravy and no flames or mishaps this year. Happy Thanksgiving.

The Mods

mel147

I must say...all went well this Turkey Day! Everything was delicious! The only thing I need to work on is my gluten free stuffing. I tried a mix this year instead of toasting my own gf bread and the jury is still out as to what I think of it. It was tasty, but a little more dry than I like so I think I will add more broth the next time I make it. My favorite dishes are always the sweet ones...cranberry crunch (apples, crushed pineapple, whole berry cranberry sauce with an oatmeal/brown sugar crumble on top) and pumpkin pie! I love mixing eating a bite of cranberry crunch on top of turkey and stuffing...yum, yum!! I did almost forget the "gravy" but I just make one that is a combo of chicken broth and corn starch due to the gluten free diet so it can be made in a few minutes. I definitely needed it for the stuffing! Goodnight all - enjoy your day tomorrow!

tangandchris

So....just wondering if you have the same stuffing thing we have in our family. There are those who are cornbread dressing and there are those that are bread stuffing people. Which camp do ya'll fall in? I grew up on regular bread stuffing and I still love it but my step-mom makes some killer corn bread dressing.

Anonymous

My Mother had an injured fingernail that was always discolored. She was very self conscious about it and always wore a bandaid to cover it up. One year we sat down to dinner and she realized the bandaid was missing. Of course the great mystery was what dish it had fallen into. It ended up in the stuffing. She also made bandaid meatballs once. I'm sure that's why I'm so anal about my kitchen. I always use plastic gloves for anything that requires hand mixing. Oh the childhood trauma!

Edited to add: Great thread exbrnxgrl!

exbrnxgrl

My older dd attended school in San Francisco, an hour north of where I live. One year she mentioned that several friends in her dorm would not be able to go home for Thanksgiving, so we invited them over . One young man was from the Dominican Republic. He was very excited, not only to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but to experience it in a "cold" climate. It's all relative, I guess.

heartnsoul76

This year's Thanksgiving story: I was lighting a fire while everyone was sitting around talking and laughing. It's a gas starter with gas logs and I was wondering if the gas wasn't working when all of a sudden WHOOOMP! Flames came shooting out and then my poor cat came flying out of the fireplace at the same time. I forgot she hides in the chimney when company comes over. I screamed when the fire shot out in my face and everyone else screamed when they thought a wild animal jumped out into the room. I live in the woods and she looks just like a raccoon. Oh, man. I'm still laughing about that. (don't worry, she's fine)