ThanksGivings Past

Once upon a time, we had this really great idea. We thought we would try to take advantage of the Thanksgiving Vacation days and travel somewhere warmer...

And it was a good idea and all.

But.

The condo we wanted was booked for the actual week of Thanksgiving, so we opted for the week starting the day AFTER Thanksgiving. Which didn't really maximize the days off school. But whatever.

Another but.

If you need to be somewhere the day AFTER Thanksgiving and it's an 11 hour drive and you aren't sure your 3yrold can hold up that long and you think you may be stopping over in VEGAS for the half way hotel stay....then...how do you do the ACTUAL Thanksgiving day?

These were our options:
  • Get up early to cook and eat turkey at 10AM and on the road by 2PM? NO. That sucks for obvious reasons (the get up early part mainly--but leftovers? cleaning up after the mess in order to LEAVE, indigestion in the car for 6 hours..)
  • Get up early and drive to In-Laws for Turkey dinner there, bringing only the rolls? No. Similar reasons (the get up early part, the convince them to eat earlier part, the part where it's 2 hours the other direction from where we were headed??)
  • Get up kinda early and eat early lunch/dinner at local restaurant? No. First of all SERIOUSLY expensive unless you want Turkey ala Dennys, second...you need reservations 3 weeks in advance? IN ADVANCE? Who are all these people eating Turkey dinner OUT?? Good grief.
  • Cook Turkey dinner at the condo in warmer clime only do it a day or so AFTER Turkey day? Now that was sounding good.

And it worked pretty well too. The um.. kitchen utensils and supplies were quite lacking...hard to mash potatoes without a masher ya know?


This is us at the Condo, last year. With swim hair. And a little boy who fell asleep and missed the dinner altogether.

The funniest part, was on Thanksgiving day while driving through Las Vegas (stayed in a hotel overnight...)we needed to eat dinner after being on the road a long time. Just ANY dinner would do, right?

Um? McDonald's? Closed. IHOP? Closed. In-N-Out? Olive Garden? Burger King? Closed, Closed and Closed. 7-eleven was open and we were considering our options there. For our real/fake Thanksgiving dinner! Hot dogs and Big Gulps!? And then...we saw it. A parking lot full of cars...surrounding...

a Black Angus restaurant! WhoHoo!
Never been to one before, but who cares...at least it wasn't a hot dog eh? (They barely squeezed us in-- a late cancellation, whew!) They were so confused when we opted to order off the menu and not eat their Turkey meal! Oh well.



Now this next picture is more like it. Turkey Day 2006. Always pull out my fancy Williams Sonoma tablecloth. First year I got to use my mother's china. And the first course.

Roasted Corn and Red Pepper Soup.
My absolute mostest favoritest. It's what I can't live without on Thanksgiving Day. Well that.. and my family of coursers!


That soup btw? I first found it in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook....Seriously worth the effort of clicking this recipe and stashing it in your online recipe folder...I know you have one...

I promise...those other recipes are coming. I almost have enough really terrific recipes submitted to even hand out the Hot Chocolate Recipe...I could use a few more though?


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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny...McDonalds-closed, Ihop-closed...um not funny, but it now that you can tell the story ey? Thanks for sharing...been enjoying your blogs and gettn' to know you better!

Kristina P. said...

I once had Christmas dinner at this totally ghetto 24 hour place, that I actually live right behind now. Such fond memories.

Mikki said...

What great memories! Dang, if only I'd known you last year, you could have come by our house for supper in Vegas!

Rachel said...

I love the soup recipe.

I love the tablecloth.

And I love that you got caught, wearing an apron, with a spoon in your mouth.

You're such a mom. ;)

Jocasta said...

I'm not sure I should admit that I don't have a clue when thanksgiving is!


Here's my recipe for Pavlova (NZ National dessert)


4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 cup castor sugar
2 teaspoons cornflour (cornstarch)

Preheat the oven to 150°C(Gas Mark 2).
Beat egg whites and salt in a bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add the castor sugar while beating. Continue until stiff peaks form. Beat in the remaining ingredients, vanilla essence, vinegar and cornflour. Turn mixture out onto a baking paper covered tray. Shape into a circle approximately 23 cm (9 in) in diameter.

Reduce oven temperature to 140°C. Bake for 15 minutes, then further reduce the oven temperature to 120°C and bake for 1 ¼ hours. Cool completely in the oven. Top with whipped cream and your choice of fresh fruit.

Pavlovas are usually dressed with fresh whipped cream and kiwifruit

Kaye Butler said...

We've never ever ever taken a photo at Thanksgiving.

Whats wrong with us?

Kaye

United Studies said...

There is nothing wrong with spending a holiday in a non-traditional way. Growing up I've spent many Christmases in hotel rooms. :-)

Straight to Your Hart said...

Jocasta gave you a pavlova recipe??? OMGosh..it is the BEST!!

It's rare when mom gets in the eating shot. I usually am the camera woman so I can take the infamous shots..tehe. However that being said you look great with a spoon in your mouth.

I stumble great recipes...mmm..mmm good!!

Jaime said...

Love the pics. It's ok to be nontraditional sometimes.
We always just go to our grandmas, alternating families every other year.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it was quite the experience. And how funny after all of that you ordered off their menu instead of turkey. *LOL*

ParentingPink said...

Wow! I can so relate! We usually travel 5 hours every other year to Nags Head to rent a house. Not as far as you, but we could only get our condo the week after Turkey day last year too and ran into similar dilemmas. Let's just say that we ended up eating at Walmart's food counter b/c nothing else was open - consider yourself VERY lucky for finding the BlackAngus! LOL

Jillene said...

At least you didn't have to contend with your mother-in-law's "potato mound". It consisted of boiling potatoes and eggs. Putting them in a large bown and mashing them with an entire jar of mayo. Then adding 2 cans of veg-all (mixed vegetables) and a can of spam (diced into small pieces). Then she sort of molded it--BLAH!! There was no room in the fridge so my sister-in-law and I strategically placed it outside on the back patio to keep cool and "accidently" forgot about it!!

KatieZ said...

Great pics, but where is hubby? Is he non-existent on Holidays? Ha Ha! Still not in the new house, but will be by Monday!

jill jill bo bill said...

I love that!!! and I am going to check out that soup! It sounds so good!!!

Jenni said...

Traveling to somewhere warm for Thanksgiving is such a good idea....except I'd need to take my mom since I can't cook.

Hey! Did you see my SEWING? I think maybe you're rubbing off on me!


Oh my heck! I was featured. And it didn't hurt or anything!



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