OMG-- near coma.

Two kinds of turkey- traditional roasted and smoked (which was OMG YUM), Two kinds of sweet potato casserole, regular dressing/stuffing, green bean casserole, caraway seed bread, gravy and two kinds of cranberry relish/sauce-- the kind with ridges and a relish that was to die for.

My MIL made a Lindy's strawberry cheesecake, I made the two apple pies and the chocolate coma pie with fresh whipped cream. Given the size of the crowd, approximately half of the desserts were consumed. I came back with one of the apple pies, which is okay. I considered my part of the feast a success when I had the non-dessert eaters not only trying the apple pie, but loving it enough to go back for seconds.

Am about to fall over ded.

::tries to stuff turkey through intertubes to billytea::

Warning boasting: Thanksgiving was success. The turkey came out moist, tender and flavorful. (Really a butter, rum and honey basting is pretty fullproof. All the sweetners and alchol insure th outside sears seals in the juices, and the melted butter sort of semi-fries the turkey. So almost impossible for the thing to dry out or turn tough. And the flavor combination is really good. The juice from a turkey cooked this way turns dressing or stuffing into a marvelous flavor. And it turns out that people love graham cracker crust with pumpkin pie. The flavors are very compatible.

At one point I had a guest staring at table with a sad look in his eyes. "Whats wrong?" I asked.

"I'm trying to decide whether to have a second helping of stuffing or pie" he said. "I really want both, but I've only got room for one".

Edit: back to the guests. Billytea, you can do a cook and post next major Australian holiday.

Oh when a guest says that, you know it was a success. I second encouraging an Australian holiday cook and post.

PS. I need Joey's turkey eating pants. Ugh.

Since Emmett's got the complete Friends box set, we'll probably watch some of their Thanksgiving episodes.

Heh, I caught the first season one on TV yesterday and it always make me laugh. "Potatoes are ruined, potatoes are ruined, potatoes are ruined!!!"

Billytea, you can do a cook and post next major Australian holiday.

Yeah, that'd be Christmas, for which we expect no guests. It could be a pretty short cook and post. ("Hey, that new Dominos eight meats pizza is pretty good!")

Whew! Yay, tryptophan!

Dinner is over; the SO is cleaning up, bless him.

Wins: Turkey, turned out very moist and tender, according to D. easy to carve. Stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, cranberries, all yum.

Ehs: Corn pudding was unexceptional to me, but I really made it for the SO who liked it. Gravy, was lumpy due to a moment's inattention. Gravy does not like inattention.

Fails: Marinated veggies; I gravely oversteamed the asparagus. Woe. Sweet rolls were a disaster. I decided in a moment's weakness this morning to try to do the dough in the Kitchenaid and form the rolls by hand. But it's been a long while since I've done this recipe, and I failed to adjust for humidity and altitude differences. I tried to rescue it, but in doing so made the rolls too big and they just didn't bake properly. Which is a shame. I'll have to try them again.

Last night's pies should be a repeat hit tonight, too, but we are too stuffed for pie at the moment. It will have to wait.

Overall, total win. And it was lovely to spend the holiday together alone in our new house. Yay for firsts.

Has no one mentioned that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was rickrolled?

Everything turned out to be a win at Chez Zmayhem except for the fact that Emmett dislikes every single thing that is served for Thanksgiving except for pie. He got very sad and bored and we have decided that by age 12 he's old enough to know whether he likes roast turkey, and by god he doesn't. Henceforth he'll have steak for Thanksgiving or something equally delightful to him.

I put herbed butter (fresh sage and tyme) under the skin and on the skin. Basted it in white wine and stock all day and completely messed up the timing so the bird was done by 2:30 and I hadn't even put the dressing in the oven (and it takes an hour). Fortunately wrapping the entire bird in foil kept it warm without drying it out, and the stuffing got cooked, and EM's vegetarian gravy (portabello mushroom reduction with Madeira) was delish, and the root vegetables (always makes me think of Bon) came out perfect and everything tasted really good. Even the brussel sprouts which I stopped and started steaming three times to finesse the timing.

EM took the MiL home. Emmett has zonked way early (he's had a cold this week) and I tubbed with Matilda so she's in jammies and in bed with JZ reading In the Night Kitchen.

All the dishes are washed and the food put away. I've been on my feet cooking since 10:30am and I am wiped.

...and the tryptophan stupor was general over Buffistaland.