Thanksgiving In A Bag

That’s right; our Thanksgiving came out of a big box with lots of food packaged in bags, kind of like the food from the space shuttle.  You are probably wondering how that happened to someone who entertains so much? It was one of those things which happen when everyone wants to get together, but no one can figure out how to fit in all the cooking with everything else that is going on.  Our local grocery/deli was having a big promotion on pre-prepared meals, we thought it would be fantastic not to have to cook a big meal, just warm it up and eat.  You know, you really have to ask questions, lots of questions and we did not ask enough of them.  When my husband came through the door with just one big box I got my first clue that something was not right.  Oh boy, was I ever right, when we started to unload the box all we saw were sealed plastic bags, even the turkey was sealed in plastic.  Out came the large instruction sheet, oh no, we were in trouble, it looked like we would be assembling and cooking the entire dinner, not what we signed up for, that is what we get for trying to short cut Thanksgiving.

We spent the next 3 hours in the kitchen in a marathon cooking frenzy opening bags, mixing ingredients, putting it in the oven, pulling it out and mixing more or adding more ingredients, all in fifteen minute intervals, we never stopped once until the dinner was ready to be put on the table.  Our guests had to let themselves into the house and stayed in the kitchen watching us in total fascination as we squeezed their dinner out of plastic bags into the appropriate trays and bowls and cook it right in front of them.  We all agreed this was the dinner we wanted but no one had any idea what we had gotten ourselves into. It was ten times the work of the dinner I usually cook for everyone.  The food was very fresh and actually very good, but so much work.  The moral of this story and the lessons for today are; ask lots of questions when trying something new, when in doubt, don’t do it and there are no short cuts.  Next time I will hire a caterer or cook it myself, lessons learned.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, no matter how your meal was prepared and you had a wonderful time sharing it with your family and friends.  Watch for lots of holiday decorating tips, projects and fun family events, all starting this week.  Thanks for letting me share my Thanksgiving dinner with you.  See you soon.