went to town slicing the bread for the bruschetta - was going to finish it later so the bread wouldn't get soggy or stale or anything. moved on to prepping the celery for the stuffed celery, pending ben being able to find spanish olives in the store. otherwise, i'd use this celery for the stuffing and wouldn't need him to get the extra that i'd asked him to pick up. can you see my thoughts at work? emailed momma mac with a few more questions about the dinner, namely what to warm up first and what could wait until further along in the process.
that was when i found out that i'd messed up. apparently she doesn't pre-cook everything, she pre-prepares it, then cooks it the day of. my heart dropped when she sent that. big time. the last thing i wanted was for everything to wind up dried out and overcooked when it was time for dinner. i was convinced that i'd ruined my first thanksgiving. with her help, we sort of trouble-shot the situation, and i was feeling positive again. she even said, "lots of times, the leftovers are better than the first time," and that's pretty much what mine were going to wind up being: a whole ton of untouched leftovers! momma mac always makes things better.
by then, ben got home with the things i needed, and we were on to finishing the stuffing. he wanted to help, so i told him he could cut up a bowls-worth of onions and another of celery for the stuffing. this turned into a project, though, because i then had to show him the easiest way of quickly cutting onions, then explain the easiest way to dice up celery, etc. it would have probably been easier to bang it out myself, but the whole cooking-with-my-boyfriend thing was way too good to pass up, especially when he was so eager to help! there we were, sleeves rolled up in the kitchen, preparing our first thanksgiving meal: it couldn't have been more perfect.
by about 3, everything was set & ready to go, with the exception of being warm. i put the dishes on the table, and wondered to myself where the food that eboni was bringing was going to fit.
when he got back, he told me that "the team is coming." umm.... all of them?
sent benjamin to the store AGAIN for paper plates, cups, and so forth, since we had nowhere near enough to feed an entire team on! he was back just before people started coming, and it worked out just fine.
in the end, there were 12 of us... hardly the entire team, but all of the americans were there and it made me happy to be able to provide a thanksgiving meal and evening at least for the ones who would have typically celebrated it if they were home. it was breaking my heart to think of people sitting alone in their apartments on thanksgiving. did i mention it's my mom's favorite holiday? this is what she would have - and has - done, too, so it made it even better to put it into practice for our first thanksgiving.
eboni & kevin showed up with tons more food, and we had to scramble big time to fit everything on counters and in places where people could easily access it. we were running around like crazy trying to get things warmed up in our tiny single oven (i now fully understand the importance of double ovens) .. by the time we pulled out the final few dishes from the oven, the ones we'd put in first were back to room-temperature. there was really no way we were going to win, so we wound up telling people they'd probably have to microwave their plates. it is what it is, right?
towards the end of the night, i excused myself to skype back home to the family and friends that were at my parents house, and spent a bit catching up with people from there that i haven't seen in ages. while i was chatting, our guests in the other room (mister benjamin was with them.. i didn't just abandon them!) decided that it was time to head out. i'm pretty sure we ran out of alcohol, and that if we hadn't, they probably would have kept the party going.
went back into the kitchen to tidy up, and realized that all 12 people hadn't managed to eat even half of the food we had made! ended the night enjoying the company of my amazing boyfriend and a wonderful feeling of contentment after having successfully pulled off our first thanksgiving dinner!
leftovers for a week? yes, please!!
xox k
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