Thanksgiving 2020

 Well here we are, Turkey day week. 

As per usual, 2020 brought its issues with the biggest cooking day of the year. 

I tried Paul Hollywood's Pear Pastries and it was a semi-disaster. Like, he would admonish me on the GBBO and then maybe even kick me out of the tent. The texture of the pastry is all wrong. 

The pear pastries were too wet after poaching, I didnt drain them enough and thus the puff pastry wrapped around it slid off, and looked undone in places. Still tasted pretty good. But couldve been so great if i did it right. 

I ended up tossing out the pastry and just eating the poached pears. 

Disaster struck again with the cranberries. The cranberry sauce was left unattended and burned itself to the pan. I scrubbed forever to get that pan clean. Luckily we were able to get our hands on another bag and this batch turned out fine. 

The deviled eggs didnt come out of their shells without brute force, stuck in there really well, causing them to be all torn up. I hear its because they are all new eggs.  I made cheese egg dip out of those. That stuff is pretty good.  I think I have some pita chips for that stuff but I ended up making crackers for it. Yum. 

I was able to get the beef dip, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, white castle stuffing, green bean casserole (had to make the soup that goes in it, I'm allergic to MSG), and then dog treats since I had some squash left over. 

On actual Turkey Day the turkey came out great, if a little salty (I shouldve adjusted the brine a bit more) which caused the gravy to be salty, too. But our family doesnt really eat gravy much. 

In the end our guts were stuffed, our leftovers sublime, and we were all thankful to be healthy and happy. I was much relieved that it all was over. 

As much as I love to cook, it's stressful when things go wrong. I have to talk myself down each time and force myself to try again. 

This seems to be the year for it, to be honest. So I learned I can be resilient and just keep going. I supposed thats a good lesson, right?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Vicky


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