Turkey Day at Casa de Cthulhu [cthulhu]

What would Thanksgiving be without a litany of disasters? There's something about the holidays – a particular alignment of the stars, perhaps – that makes them especially prone to oversights and errors in planning, preparation, execution, and presentation.

Here at Casa de Cthulhu, the gf and I are having a traditional meal – roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, spiced carrots, pumpkin pie. Our original target time for the feast was 4:00....which is now less than an hour away. True to form, we've already run into some difficulties....

* We got a turkey breast rather than an entire turkey – after all, it's just the two of us – and it's a bit different from previous years. Glancing at the wrapper after its purchase, I noted several warnings about how it should not be defrosted before roasting – which I thought a bit peculiar. Only after the netting with the price tag was removed did I see the “remove from freezer and put in refrigerator 1-2 days before roasting” and the end of the defrosting warning, “on counter”.

Further, the interior cavity of the bird contained a free packet of gravy, which I only discovered after having attempted to defrost the bird in the oven. Of course, it was frozen solid against the interior of the bird and would not be dislodged.

My original intent was to dry-roast the turkey, but after dislodging the gravy packet I was concerned that the exterior might get too dry while the interior was catching up – so it's now in a covered roasting pan with a bit of water and some herb cuttings from our garden.

* My significant other was in charge of making the pumpkin pie. In the general confusion of working in a small galley kitchen, she managed to put it together on the main prep area and pop it into the oven without noticing that the evaporated milk was still over by the can opener. We got the warmed pie out before it had baked too much and remixed the filling.

What amusing (non-fatal) errors and omissions have you had so far?

posted by Open Blogger at 06:39 PM

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