So...whats for dinner?

This year I'll be fixing Thanksgiving dinner for a hundred or so people.  I will have help but for the 15th time I'll be in charge.  When the Senior Center first opened in '94 we started with Sunday breakfast and gradually added other meals as we found more volunteers so we never even considered doing dinners for the Holidays.  In '96 we were serving 7 days a week.  The Board decided to close for Thanksgiving and Christmas because "everyone had someplace to go."  One Board member and I were making lunch the Friday before T'day and talked about it.   We knew they were mistaken and decided to do dinner.  We put up a handwritten notice, bought two 25 lb turkeys and served 30+ people.  The Center has served dinner every holiday since.  Until three years ago there was nowhere else in town serving a family style dinner and half the restaurants in town closed.  In 2006 we served over 250 people.  The next year one of the largest churches in town had a dinner and we had just under 200.  Since then others have started other dinners and we only expect 100 to 125 this year.  For many in our community Dinner at the Center has become a tradition.

We'll be doing turkey with all the trimmings.  Most side dishes like sweet potatoes, fruit salads etc. will be pot luck.  Turkeys will be done off site.  I'm in charge of the kitchen and do the dressing and gravy, oversee the rest of the final preparations such as the mashed potatoes, carving and serving.  I will probably, depending on the final response to our request for prepared dishes, also have to do some dessert, beans or sweet potatoes.  Fortunately I'll have a helper Wednesday to help with that.

Michelle- Yum!! Your porkpie sounds really, really good,  I will have to try that sometime, know my DH will love it, thanks for sharing the recipe!

Chabba- Sounds like you will be very busy for Thanks-giving, As Michelle said, It is like project manegment 101- They are very lucky to have you!

We are having tons of rain, and wind is expected to get 60+ today hope it calms down by the time I have to go to the hospital for scan, We have a lot of big trees around our house so im a little nervous, I dont do well in storms LOL!

Laurie- LOL!  That just what the dr ordered for you to get better ( Margarita's)

Here, here, Laurie!!!  Totally agree with you!  Enjoy that margarita, every last sip!

Love all these stories of your mom's- A few months before my mom passed after we closed the restaurant we all went and had some drinks, my mom was a tea drinker except for the occassional brandy alexander but my dad made us margarittas and my mother did the moon walk, she had us in hysterics. Thanks for the memories too!

Michelle and bedo  on the rads...I fought it all the way too..but got them.  the one on my breastbone is like a tiny freckle and the ones on each side are undeer my arm and a little larger,but cant see them unless arms are raised.  I wore a bathing suit all summer and no one could see the tattoo unless really searching...I think they made that one tiny just for that reason.

I love all the holiday dinner plans popping up here.  we will go to a relatives for dinner, she is a dietician and an amazing cook, but will still have to make a turkey for the kids coming home so they will have leftovers.

Kay...my son brought home his girlfriend last year for us to meet for the firt time and I was right in the middle of chemo, with no hair and sick as a dog!  I couldnt cook, clean the house properly or be of any good company.  Well they are still dating and she is still coming to visit.  Apparently I didnt scare her too much!!

tonight I am going to try and make a mac n cheese recipe that I saw on the chew,  it has bacon in it   wow talk about comfort food

Ah, mac & cheese!  A couple of years ago, I made the Martha Stewart recipe, fondly known as "crack & cheese".  It is so damned delicious, but making it uses every pan in the kitchen and the ingredients are pricey.  That said, it's worth doing once.

http://www.marthastewart.com/271998/perfect-macaroni-and-cheese

The good news is that it makes enough for an army!  I do think it's the best I've ever eaten.

Michelle- Glad you were told they werent going to radiate near your heart and great news too on the axilla area,  doesn't that cut down on lymphdema? Glad you got at least that part done (((((hugs)))))

I made enough chili for an army so tonight will be the last of it, 

I have wonderful memories of my Mom.  I remember when I was 18 or 19 I brought home a PlayGirl Mag and put it on the kitchen table.  When she walked in she was flabbergasted. She said what is that doing on the table, she thought it was a PlayBoy.  Then she picked it up and opened it and every time she would turn the page she would say OMG that's awful, OMG that's awful, LOL she would not stop turning the pages.  I almost wet my pants laughing. Her eyes got bigger and bigger.  I lost her 15 yrs ago to BC.  She was only 64 when she lost the battle.

Very interesting explanation about the pork pies and "gorton."  I had never heard about either of them.  Do you puree the cooked pork to make the gorton?  It's fun to learn about the foods unique to areas in the US. 

I didn't realize rads patients have tattoos.  Is that all rads patients?  For some reason I feared radiation as much as chemo.  That was one factor in my opting for BMX.  I also couldn't face the prospect of another mammogram. 

DH said tonight that he'll be glad when we get some cold weather and can make soup.  I know he will want to make a pot of chowder with some of the frozen halibut we brought back from Alaska. 

Seaside - I'm too tired right now, but I promise I'll post it over the weekend. I'm writing myself a note to remind me.

Hauntie - that's a funny cookie story!  My daughter tried to make chocolate chip cookies back when she was a young teenager.  I wasn't in the kitchen with her, and the cookies had just spread out on the cookie sheet and were just shapeless.  Turns out she forgot the flour...LOL!

Carole - for gorton and pork pies, you buy ground pork butt (some even have it double-ground).  You want the meat to have a little texture for the pork pie so you don't cook it as long.  For the gorton, after cooking for about 4 hours, the meat "grains" are very soft.  I beat mine with a mixer to "homogenize" it a bit and that spreads the fat throughout the mixture.  Then you spoon it into containers (and you can freeze it).  When it's cold, it's spreadable. 

And yes, most rads patients get tattoos.  It is necessary to make sure they line you up exactly the same way for each and every treatment.  A few places use marker and then put tape over it, but most do the tattoos.  I have to admit mine are smaller and less obvious than I thought they would be, and I barely felt the needles. I got six and it was over in about 20 seconds. I'm not sure Kay's experience was the same.

Debbie - I'm betting that The Chew will have lots of ideas for turkey leftovers.  Are you still watching it?  I record it every day so I can watch it  whenever...  Turkeys are 49 cents a pound at our local Shaw's, so I bought a small one and put it in the freezer. I will cook it in January. Hard to pass up that deal and I'll use the legs and thighs for soup.

Today is DH's birthday so I have already made him happy...his favorite breakfast is baked apple pancake with Burger Smokehouse bacon.  I don't usually make it on weekdays, but I made an exception for this morning.