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.

We, too, had brussel sprouts. They're yummy. I never ever had them growing up, just heard about them. Then as an adult I saw them, and was like "Whoah! They're like adorable little baby cabbages!" and then ate them and liked them. But we decided they're like asparagus, and you can only eat them from fresh.

Just had a plate of leftovers, but the sad part about not hosting is that you only end up with the leftovers you take back, so we have some pie, but only got one plate of leftovers, which are now...mostly gone. And only about six brussels sprouts. Sad.

But we watched "Pangs"! And the West Wing Thanksgiving episode. Would've liked to watch the Friends ones, that someone here mentioned, those would've been good.

My tummy hurts. I ated too much FOOD! We had: smoked turkey courtesy of lori, mashed potatoes courtesy of Kristen's Roommate, sarameg's cranberry relish and corn from Polgara. The other sides included bourbon glazed carrots, my blanched green beans, pumpkin cake with bourbon whipped cream and bourbon sweet potatoes and yummy dinner rolls.

It was a meal that could have been sponsored by the butter end of the diary board and Jim Beam.