Last Sunday was Auxiliary Turkey Night. The once a year tradition where I prove I can make a turkey. I had a grand total of 16 people. I even used a counter to keep track, because I am compulsive like that. Although I don’t know if should count the couple that showed up a day earlier because they had trouble reading email. They didn’t show on the day of the party, so I don’t think they count.
It was a stressful weekend getting everything ready. The food was one of the easier parts. I’m honestly wondering how people clean up without throwing a party. It is so much easier to focus on cleaning when there is the imminent threat of party-goers. The 20km run in the morning primed me for the meal; the skipping of lunch helped.
I would like to give a thank you to Rem, Sophie, and Sol for their help in the kitchen. And also to Alan, Rachelle, Michael and Sol for being nice enough to show up early and leave themselves open to being drafted to set the tables. And I was very happy to have been the target of a toast by Michael.
Thank you everyone.
There was a lot of food involved. The turkey was 11.5kg. This year it wasn’t a Butterball, and I’m not sure if it was as good. I think it got a little drier than I would have liked. The stuffing could have used a bit more cooking on the celery. Green beans were good. The waldorf salad came out perfectly. We finished the gravy. The cranberry sauce, I felt, was not as good as it could have been. The cake I whipped up with “frosteline” (as derided by people who read the ingredient list of the frosting and equated it, nutritionally, to vaseline) was amazingly popular.
It may sound like I am critical of my works, but that is because I can be. I made it, I can critique it. But, I think I did a very good job of feeding people and not poisoning them.
I would like to, one year, claim that I made everything. But I am still thankful that people brought desserts. I do not particularly care for mashed potatoes (I massively prefer stuffing) but it was nice of others to bring potatoes for the majority of people who do.
I’ll try and do better next year.