When your children become adults, have families of their own and live many hours driving distance from you, Christmas Day is calmer and quieter. Through the years we've found holiday travel is too hectic and nerve-wracking. Today the house is void of family commotion, talking and laughing, little children spilling drinks and food on the floor. When it's just the two of you Christmas dinners unfold smoother without the bumps. This year Barb and Mike planned on joining us for the dinner. She was making her mouth-watering apple pie and a deliciously moist dressing. But a few days before Christmas, she developed a strong cough and this Christmas morning was worse and felt she needed to stay home in bed. Smart move when you're under the weather. Cliff and I would still do our Christmas dinner and see them when she recovered.
When I removed the turkey pan from the refrigerator, just enough thawed turkey juice spilled from the pan to run onto the shelf of our clean 2-day old refrigerator. Everything stopped and I began removing draws and shelves wiping every surface with a soapy light bleach solution, including milk cartons and everything that touched the liquid mess. I washed the kitchen floor and the outside of the refrigerator to ensure nothing was contaminated. Cliff helped me put the refrigerator back together and replace all the items sitting on counters. The way things were going I figured I'd better check the foil pan for holes by running water in it. No water leaked out. I use my brother-in-law, Vic's, recipe for a moist turkey. The oven temperature was set and ready. The spicy rub was applied with wine and water in the pan. Cliff put the bird in the hot oven and immediately the liquid found a hole in the pan sizzling onto the oven floor. He grabbed the pan and set it in the sink. I had to rewash the floor, let the oven cool so I could clean the mess, open doors so the smoke alarm wouldn't go off alerting the fire department, and try to figure out what to cook the turkey in. Nothing was open, not even a Dollar General. Luckily, our neighbor had two heavy duty restaurant foil pans that weren't being used so he saved our day. Starting over, I reset the oven temperature, reapplied the rub, the wine and water, and Cliff slid the stupid turkey back into the oven.
It's late afternoon as I write. Finally, we sat down to our moist turkey, gravy, winter squash, peas, sweet potato, and cranberry sauce, minus the moist dressing and scrumptious apple pie. Without the commotion of our loving family and friends, our Christmas Day was quiet and uneventful.
I think I'll go rip into a box of Oreos!
When I removed the turkey pan from the refrigerator, just enough thawed turkey juice spilled from the pan to run onto the shelf of our clean 2-day old refrigerator. Everything stopped and I began removing draws and shelves wiping every surface with a soapy light bleach solution, including milk cartons and everything that touched the liquid mess. I washed the kitchen floor and the outside of the refrigerator to ensure nothing was contaminated. Cliff helped me put the refrigerator back together and replace all the items sitting on counters. The way things were going I figured I'd better check the foil pan for holes by running water in it. No water leaked out. I use my brother-in-law, Vic's, recipe for a moist turkey. The oven temperature was set and ready. The spicy rub was applied with wine and water in the pan. Cliff put the bird in the hot oven and immediately the liquid found a hole in the pan sizzling onto the oven floor. He grabbed the pan and set it in the sink. I had to rewash the floor, let the oven cool so I could clean the mess, open doors so the smoke alarm wouldn't go off alerting the fire department, and try to figure out what to cook the turkey in. Nothing was open, not even a Dollar General. Luckily, our neighbor had two heavy duty restaurant foil pans that weren't being used so he saved our day. Starting over, I reset the oven temperature, reapplied the rub, the wine and water, and Cliff slid the stupid turkey back into the oven.
It's late afternoon as I write. Finally, we sat down to our moist turkey, gravy, winter squash, peas, sweet potato, and cranberry sauce, minus the moist dressing and scrumptious apple pie. Without the commotion of our loving family and friends, our Christmas Day was quiet and uneventful.
I think I'll go rip into a box of Oreos!
Comments