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On Monday morning I sat down at the computer and typed out my grocery list for the upcoming holiday, using a larger font so that I could read the stupid thing without having to take my glasses on and off.
One of my close friends explained to me (as you would a 10-year-old) how to be sure you’re getting everything you need for the meal by first listing everything you plan to have and then listing out to the side of each item what it is you need to purchase in order to prepare it.
Did I mention that she’s very organized? Unlike me, who usually goes grocery shopping without a list and comes home without the very thing I went for in the first place.
Anyway, I took a page from her book “How to Organize Your Life” and I have to admit (grudgingly) that it worked out quite well.
Since I was busy putting up Christmas decorations all weekend long, taking advantage of the balmy weather we’ve been having, I put off going grocery shopping until Monday. Grocery shopping is right up there on my list of things I love to do, right alongside of having a colonoscopy and getting a mammogram.
I didn’t even bother dressing for the occasion since I figured most people had already been there on the weekend and the store would probably be pretty much empty.
Wrong!!!
While dressed in my oldest sweats, I ran into people I literally hadn’t seen for the past 40 years. Someone must have put the word out that I was headed for the grocery store looking like the wrath of God. I’m sure when they counted up the receipts for the day that Wally World did a record-setting business on Monday.
The aisles were packed with other women (and a few men) whose baskets were piled high with preparations for the long-awaited Thanksgiving dinner they were about to prepare. Ladies were swapping recipes and searching for hard-to-find ingredients for the world class dishes that are a part of every family’s tradition.
I, on the other hand, was trying my best to camouflage the ingredients I was purchasing for my own world class Thanksgiving Day feast.
I used to be like them, once upon a time. For days ahead of the big day I would peel, bake and prepare from scratch every single thing that went into my family’s mouth. I felt it was my duty as a mother to be the family drudge. It was my lot in life!
Then one year (not long ago) I wised up!
For example: Take stuffing. Homemade stuffing is a long drawn out process of cooking the giblets, cutting up onions and celery, rummaging through the spice rack (if you have one) to find sage and poultry seasoning and then mixing in the croutons and eggs to make a mushy mess that you now have to bake for several hours.
You can come up with the same results by sautéing a few onions and some celery in a skillet with butter and then adding some canned chicken broth and dumping in several boxes of stove top stuffing and putting the whole thing in the microwave for five minutes.
Same results, and after covering it with my world-class gravy (that I do still make from scratch), nobody is any the wiser. They gobble it down like pigs in a trough!
The same goes for mashed potatoes. You can either stand on your feet and peel 5 pounds of potatoes for a half hour or simply open a box of instant mashed potatoes.
About five minutes before your feast is ready, you pour the alloted water, canned milk and butter into a large bowl and microwave it on high for five minutes, then add the instant mashed potatoes and continue heating it for another three minutes. After taking it out of the microwave, take a mixer and whip the potatoes until light and fluffy. Then add a dollop of butter and sit it out on the table. Once again, I repeat that good gravy makes any mashed potatoes taste great and your family will be begging for seconds!
The same goes for cranberries. I used to cook my own fresh cranberries and then after they cooled down I would cut up apples, celery, and chopped walnuts to the mixture.
You can do the same exact thing by taking a mixer on low and pureeing a can of jellied or whole berry cranberries and then cutting up a few apples and some celery and throwing in some walnuts.
I’m telling you: No one ever knows the difference!
The same goes for using your best china for your Thanksgiving get-together. I haul out my best Chinette with matching plastic cups. Then when everyone else retires to the living room after the meal, you can join them.
As for dessert, you can stand for hours kneading pie dough, or simply pick up some already-prepared pie shells that Betty Crocker does much better than you can. After adding your own filling, nobody pays much attention to the pie shell anyway. It’s the meringue that gets them every time!
With the time you’ve saved slaving over a hot oven, you can do your nails, fix your hair and come to the Thanksgiving table looking like you’ve just had a makeover.
I’m just saying……..
A word to the wise is sufficient.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
On Monday morning I sat down at the computer and typed out my grocery list for the upcoming holiday, using a larger font so that I could read the stupid thing without having to take my glasses on and off.
One of my close friends explained to me (as you would a 10-year-old) how to be sure you’re getting everything you need for the meal by first listing everything you plan to have and then listing out to the side of each item what it is you need to purchase in order to prepare it.
Did I mention that she’s very organized? Unlike me, who usually goes grocery shopping without a list and comes home without the very thing I went for in the first place.
Anyway, I took a page from her book “How to Organize Your Life” and I have to admit (grudgingly) that it worked out quite well.
Since I was busy putting up Christmas decorations all weekend long, taking advantage of the balmy weather we’ve been having, I put off going grocery shopping until Monday. Grocery shopping is right up there on my list of things I love to do, right alongside of having a colonoscopy and getting a mammogram.
I didn’t even bother dressing for the occasion since I figured most people had already been there on the weekend and the store would probably be pretty much empty.
Wrong!!!
While dressed in my oldest sweats, I ran into people I literally hadn’t seen for the past 40 years. Someone must have put the word out that I was headed for the grocery store looking like the wrath of God. I’m sure when they counted up the receipts for the day that Wally World did a record-setting business on Monday.
The aisles were packed with other women (and a few men) whose baskets were piled high with preparations for the long-awaited Thanksgiving dinner they were about to prepare. Ladies were swapping recipes and searching for hard-to-find ingredients for the world class dishes that are a part of every family’s tradition.
I, on the other hand, was trying my best to camouflage the ingredients I was purchasing for my own world class Thanksgiving Day feast.
I used to be like them, once upon a time. For days ahead of the big day I would peel, bake and prepare from scratch every single thing that went into my family’s mouth. I felt it was my duty as a mother to be the family drudge. It was my lot in life!
Then one year (not long ago) I wised up!
For example: Take stuffing. Homemade stuffing is a long drawn out process of cooking the giblets, cutting up onions and celery, rummaging through the spice rack (if you have one) to find sage and poultry seasoning and then mixing in the croutons and eggs to make a mushy mess that you now have to bake for several hours.
You can come up with the same results by sautéing a few onions and some celery in a skillet with butter and then adding some canned chicken broth and dumping in several boxes of stove top stuffing and putting the whole thing in the microwave for five minutes.
Same results, and after covering it with my world-class gravy (that I do still make from scratch), nobody is any the wiser. They gobble it down like pigs in a trough!
The same goes for mashed potatoes. You can either stand on your feet and peel 5 pounds of potatoes for a half hour or simply open a box of instant mashed potatoes.
About five minutes before your feast is ready, you pour the alloted water, canned milk and butter into a large bowl and microwave it on high for five minutes, then add the instant mashed potatoes and continue heating it for another three minutes. After taking it out of the microwave, take a mixer and whip the potatoes until light and fluffy. Then add a dollop of butter and sit it out on the table. Once again, I repeat that good gravy makes any mashed potatoes taste great and your family will be begging for seconds!
The same goes for cranberries. I used to cook my own fresh cranberries and then after they cooled down I would cut up apples, celery, and chopped walnuts to the mixture.
You can do the same exact thing by taking a mixer on low and pureeing a can of jellied or whole berry cranberries and then cutting up a few apples and some celery and throwing in some walnuts.
I’m telling you: No one ever knows the difference!
The same goes for using your best china for your Thanksgiving get-together. I haul out my best Chinette with matching plastic cups. Then when everyone else retires to the living room after the meal, you can join them.
As for dessert, you can stand for hours kneading pie dough, or simply pick up some already-prepared pie shells that Betty Crocker does much better than you can. After adding your own filling, nobody pays much attention to the pie shell anyway. It’s the meringue that gets them every time!
With the time you’ve saved slaving over a hot oven, you can do your nails, fix your hair and come to the Thanksgiving table looking like you’ve just had a makeover.
I’m just saying……..
A word to the wise is sufficient.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
