Time to put on your best flannel and boots! We are in our Thanksgiving/Harvest Vibes Era. If you’re living in the Southeast, you’re probably feeling a little extra thankful for this Thanksgiving because that means that hurricane season officially comes to an end. What a wild few weeks that was for all of us in September and October! After going through the stress of hurricane preparation, actually riding out the storms, and then the cleanup, nothing sounds better than gathering together with family and friends to share a nice warm meal. I’m even more grateful for those moments this year. This could also be age and feeling like time flies more quickly every year. #eldermillennial
If you read my blog from last month, we talked about prepping for the holiday season (Little did I know I should have also mentioned hurricanes…). I hope that I can help you all enjoy your holidays more by learning from my experience in classic big sister fashion.
Today, I want to share one of my favorite Thanksgiving mistakes.
Yes, you can have a favorite holiday mistake! To set the stage: I prefer to bake for any holiday celebration. Usually, Dustin, my husband, shows off his smoking prowess with turkey, honestly the star of the show.
As they say in The Sound of Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning; that’s a very good place to start.” I start the day by prepping the pies for my family’s Thanksgiving lunch, and Dustin begins his hours-long turkey process. We even set up a folding table in the kitchen to give us extra working space. I also prep the pie for his family dinner as well. I didn’t bake it with the other pies because I was so obsessed with the pie being as fresh as possible by only letting it sit for two hours exactly. I’m not sure why, maybe I had been watching too much “Great British Baking Show.” The pies for the Thanksgiving lunch turn out great and we head over to celebrate and watch some football, a.k.a. post-turkey nap #1.
We enjoyed our time with them and then returned home to start our dinner prep frenzy.
I start pie session #2 and Dustin is in part 38 of his 50-step process. We are both running around the kitchen like it’s an episode of “The Bear.” I finally get the pies in the oven and now it’s time for me to get ready while it’s baking. Dustin is now on step 45 of his process and the timer goes off for my pie. I look at the pie, and it looks like it should. I, in my “Great British Baking Show” mindset, think that the top needs to be browned more. I get the brilliant idea of broiling the pie just for a couple of minutes. In the span of a couple minutes, Dustin brings the turkey in and I step aside from the oven to survey this magnificent bird. The problem with broiling is that if you take your eyes off it for a minute, everything can change. I start getting things ready to go and I ask Dustin, “What is that burning smell? Is it the smoker?” A panicked look washes over Dustin’s face as he looks at the oven, “No, it’s your pie!!!” I grab the pie from the oven, and my beautiful piece of art becomes completely botched and not in the cool “Basque” style, as evidenced by this photo.
We have minutes before we need to leave, and I’m completely at a loss about what to do.
I just start removing the top layer of pecans in a surgical fashion with chopsticks to see what is salvageable. Turns out the rest of the pie was actually pretty intact. Thankfully, Dustin has a brilliant idea in his “Chopped” (another great cooking show) mind. Seeing the bag of remaining pecans, he tells me to start taking stuff to the car and he will try something. He then mixes the pecans with some brown sugar and other items to candy them in a saucepan. Then he tops the remaining pie with the candied pecans. While it may not be aesthetically as nice as what I initially planned for, it looks like it will taste amazing.
Arriving (unintentionally) fashionably late, we bring the pie to the party along with the 1,500-step turkey.
Turns out it was definitely a conversation starter, and both were very delicious. Dustin’s hours-long process paid off and he was able to help me salvage my baking career. I did not lose my pie privileges and have since become slightly less obsessed with freshness and streamlined the process.
In this season, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important with all the prep and to-do lists. At the end of the day, we can be so grateful for the time we get with family or friends like family making new memories and laughing about the old ones.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and make fun new holiday mistakes together.
November 2024
