On the eve of American Thanksgiving I think it’s only fair that I share my 2014 Canadian Thanksgiving side dishes story.
As with 2013, I flew out to celebrate Thanksgiving with my two kids who are both away at college. Much easier and cheaper for me to go to them than for them to fly home. In case you missed it, last year saw the delightful situation of me erroneously shutting off the oven just as the side dishes were about to go in. I very nearly had only turkey to offer. This year? I ended up cooking ONLY the Thanksgiving side dishes. Just TypiKel.
Thanksgiving Side Dishes
It takes quite a while to book the perfect B and B for Thanksgiving. Knowing my brother and sister-in-law will be joining us this year I need to get a place that’s equipped with a relatively modern kitchen and a large dining room table. Factoring in multiple friends of my son’s there could be quite a few of us around that table.
After several hours of online searching I finally settle on a lovely one bedroom loft that appears to be quite close to my son’s rented apartment. Of course, I don’t want to repeat last year’s near fiasco of booking a place that’s miles away. Perfect. I hit submit and await a reply from the owner.
I don’t have long to wait. Happily he’s spending Thanksgiving with his grandmother in France so the dates are available. I fire out Thanksgiving dinner invites to all concerned. The response is immediate. My sister-in-law offers to bring the desserts and my son offers to do a side dish or two, leaving my daughter and I in charge of the turkey.
All is well until a day before my departure. I receive the following note from the owner.
“Did you notice that my confirmation also advises you that you will be looking after my two cats?”
- What?
Damn. We have a problem. My sister-in-law is highly allergic to them.
There’s only one option. I fire off a quick text to my son.
“Can you cook the turkey and host? We’ll bring the side dishes.”
I hold my breath waiting for a reply. The success of the Thanksgiving dinner rests with the very same lad who just this past summer believed that a stove’s “bake setting was for cookies and the broil setting for all meat.” Good lord we could be in for quite an evening should he accept.
“I guess. If you walk me through how to cook a turkey.”
I make a mental note to prep a wealth of casseroles to act as backup. No problem.
Except that there is. The night before I’m due to fly out I misplace my only credit card. I had it out to reserve my seat on the plane and was returning it to my wallet when my mom phoned. It never made it to the wallet. With a zillion things still to do I give myself an hour to find it before I cancel it. That hour is interesting. I look everywhere – even in the lint catcher of the dryer. Nada. Zip. Nothing. I’m forced to cancel the card; otherwise it’s a certainty that someone will rob me of it when I’m away and they’ll have a Thanksgiving field day. No thank you.
Actually, once I’m there things begin to look up. The B and B kitchen is better than I expected. Fully equipped and easy to work in. I whip around emptying the dishwasher. A loud crash cracks through the room startling both me and the cats. Something is obviously broken. What? Sweet Jesus. The frying pan has swung off the overhead wooden pot hanger and smashed to the tile floor. The handle has snapped in half.
The addition of cats, the misplaced Visa and now the broken frying pan and we’re at three. Surely I’m done.
Of course, the concepts of five subway stops (I really need to confirm my exact location first next time), three rather large casseroles, a potful of brussel sprouts (yes we actually love them in my family) and a plethora of my daughter’s empty Tupperware containers (for the leftovers and future soup) means we’ll have to cab it to our host’s.
Bad mommy. I’m convinced bake not broil boy won’t come through.
Am I right?
NO! He’s pulled off a tiny miracle.
The chef is so inspired about “how easy it is to cook turkey” that he’s going to host frequent turkey nights for his pals.
And no. I never did find my missing credit card.
Enough about me and my Thanksgiving side dishes. I’m curious about you. Are/were you hosting Thanksgiving? What’s your most fave Thanksgiving side dish? Is turkey the meat of choice or do you go for something else? Come on. Talk turkey and spill your Thanksgiving nightmares. If you’d care to share, I’d love to hear.
26 Responses
My favorite is the photo of the cat with the caption “WHAT?” Oh my goodness, you have me laughing so much and me going down the rabbit hole as I keep clicking on your other posts. I read last year’s Thanksgiving and some of your holiday posts from last year too!
You are too funny! Thanks for making my day…
Why thank you Elda! And thank you for checking out previous posts – I do appreciate that. My life is never dull I must say. Suspect I get the quirk magnet gene from my mom. I’m reading through past diaries of hers and man oh man she’s always encountering the most quirkiest of the quirky!
Fingers crossed that my American Thanksgiving 2014 is not filled with cats, subways, lost credit cards, or brussel sprouts (don’t like ’em sorry)!
This is like the Typikel version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. 🙂
Oh Katy I do hope your Thanksgiving was brussel sprout free! And yes – you’re right. My Thanksgiving was rather Planes, Trains and Automobilish typiKel. It was playing on tv the other night and I was so tempted to watch. However it is a huge holiday tradition here and I held off to watch it with my two when they get back. It’ll be fresher.
Love this post! This Thanksgiving instead of traveling to be with family we’re at home. We decided to splurge and buy dinner. We’re sharing it at a friend’s house so this Thanksgiving is low key – yahooo!
Oh what a clever woman you are! Brilliant. I hope you had a splendid stress free time!
You have such wonderful adventures Kelly, and such a great way of bringing them to life ! so glad that broil boy came through !!
Broil boy! Love that. Yes he did indeed come through, didn’t he. Bless him.
How fun to start my morning with a typi-kel laughing bout. I will confess the first Thanksgiving I hosted I served a pumpkin soup. It was clearly not a hit, and while everyone was trying to be polite about it, my dear brother stepped forward and opined it tasted like hot wallpaper paste. He was right. 🙂
Back at ya Deborah! Grinning here at the concept of hot wallpaper paste soup. Oh man. And it’s not an easy feat creating pumpkin soup. I know! Your comment reminds me of Bridget Jone’s Diary and her very special blue string soup.
I want someone to make a sitcom based on your life. Who would play you?
I do not host, although I have made a turkey successfully. I cooked it upside down but it was fine.
My favorite side dish is a roll with ham and turkey in it. I know that’s not really a side. For me, it can be kind of a main dish. Cranberry sauce rocks, too.
No real nightmares, although the family cat once helped herself to a chunk of thawing turkey on the counter. We were no worse for the wear. Cats.
Oh me too! Thanks Eli! Hmmmm. Glenn Close? Meryl Streep? The late great Kate Hepburn? What? You were thinking more along the lines of Rosanne Barr? Hahahah!
Grinning here at the vision of you pulling the turkey out of the oven and it’s upside down. And at your cat gnawing on the thawing turkey. Reminds me of the time our dog chowed down on my labor intensive made from scratch birthday cake I created for my son’s first birthday … Dogs.
All is well that ends well! We do not celebrate Thanksgiving over here and I have never tasted a turkey my entire life! How sad is that? 🙂
Oh my. You must fix that. You need to have a forkful of turkey. I adore it. Really delicious in sandwiches and soup the next day too.
You CRACK me up!! I cannot even stand it! The fact that he so casually mentioned the cats is hilarious! Mad props to your son for coming through with a beautiful turkey! 🙂 I host Thanksgiving at my house, so it is a lot of cooking and cleaning, but I honestly love it!-Ashley
Thanks Ashley! Back at you.I always pop over to visit the Dose Girls when I need a pick me up. I do hope your Thanksgiving dinner was a smashing success. I know what you mean about enjoying all that prep. Oddly enough I honestly love it too!
As, for several years now, I am only allowed to make the cranberry sauce, this year’s offering was a trifle different. Bought the huge bag of berries, stirred the hot water into the sugar as the other way round confuses me, added the berries, kept stirring with my ear three inches above the pot so that I could hear the berries “popping.” After a few desultory “pops” decided it was done and removed pot to sink. Rescued sherry bottle from the lazy susan, took off lid and poured good helping of sherry into purple mess. Phone rang, long conversation with brother-in-law, returned to sink and couldn,t remember if sherry in, so poured equally stout amount. Stirred gently. Took to grandaughter’s dinner only to discovered she had changed the menu. We ate beef.
Love, Mom.
Howling. Mom. Just howling. So very well written. Can just picture you standing over the pot with your ear three inches away. Then to double dose with sherry. Absolutely perfect. The corker though has to be the beef. Is it any wonder I am the way I am? I think not. Thank you, thank you for passing on the quirk magnet gene.
I so love that your daughter brought a plethora of Tupperware for leftovers!
Thanksgiving is all my sister’s – I do the Jewish holidays, she carries this one with much creative and delicious flair! This year the turkey was smoked – yum!
I know – me too Nicki! The leftovers lasted quite a while too. I must have gotten a week’s worth of texts showing photos of soup, broccoli rice casserole, pumpkin pie. Honestly felt like I had a second Thanksgiving… I hope your Thanksgiving at your sister’s was a delight. How clever of you to split the holidays. I’ve never had smoked turkey. Must give it a try!
Kudos to your son – so awesome that he made his first turkey!!!
Bummer on the credit card.
I went a completely non-traditional route this year – we had brisket, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, creamed corn and asian slaw:)
Oh that sounds delicious. I can’t remember the last time I made brisket. I like the sound of your sides as well. It’s just after 6:30 in the morning here and you’ve gotten me hungry! Thanks Kim.
Great story, as is typikel.
This year, I brought lots of stuff. I made two chocolate cream pies, a sweet potato casserole that was mostly brown sugar and nuts on top of sweet potatoes, and my daughter (13) made homemade cranberry sauce.
It all turned out great except that the whipped cream was in a frosting tube and came out on top of the pie like a giant white turd. My sister and I giggled as she corrected it by spreading it around a bit. It was funny. My brother in law always goes crazy with the food so that we always eat two full meals of Thanksgiving, which is great.
Thanks Amy. Oh man that sounds like quite the feast. Am grinning here over the whipped cream turds revelation. Too funny. I love how stories are created when we least expect them.
We rented a place for Thanksgiving too, but no cats! My BIL is allergic, so we would have had a similar story to yours. We ordered our meal from a nearby restaurant, so my dinner was completely stress free. And I think I’ve finally stopped eating like my life depended on it.
I need to find the magic answer to the eating like my life depended on it. How grand that your dinner was completely stress free. That’s how it should be.