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Years ago I wanted to impress a new beau by making a Thanksgiving turkey for him. When he asked me if I knew how to do this, I pretended to be slightly enraged and assured him I knew how. I washed the bird and put it in the oven for the right amount of time. It browned very well but when he went to carve the turkey he pulled out a bag full of who knows what out of the carcass of the bird. I had forgotten to take out the bag with the gizzards and neck and all that stuff. Pretty embarassing.

Well . . . there was the time in high school when I went over to a friend's house on Thanksgiving and we found her mother in the kitchen drunk and trying to pry the neck out of the frozen turkey with a pair of pliers . . . .

But my favorite memory is last Thanksgiving, my first with my honey. He had a stroke about a month before the holiday (at age 40!), but was well on his way to a full recovery by Thanksgiving. We had (and have) so much to be thankful for.

First roast cooked and did not realize that cooking time on the package was per pound. Needless to say, there was quite a wait to eat.

Two years ago, I was absolutely run down from work and NaNoWriMo to the point where I couldn't even remember the date. This turned out to be a huge problem because before I knew it the night before Thanksgiving had come along and I wasn't ready! There was still work to be done: preparing the defrosted turkey, making the desserts, chopping up the ingredients for the side dishes... I tirelessly chopped and mixed and baked until the wee hours of Thursday morning.

My mother, woken up by the smells of pumpkin pie, asked if I was doing a rehearsal dinner. No, I said. This is all for tonight. She looked at me strangely. But Thanksgiving is next Thursday, she said at last. And you're going to be late for work.

Moral of the story: always check the calendar, especially when you're sleep deprived! It sounds like a horrible memory, but you can bet that when Thanksgiving actually came round, I was 100% ready. Plus not only did I get in the practice, I got feedback from the amused family members too :D

My favorite incident was terrible at the time but so funny years later so it has become my favorite memory. When I was younger, I loved the canned cranberry sauce. The family would pretty much put it on the table just for me and I would eat it all. Well my aunt was a terrible cook so I don't know exactly what kind of creation this was but it was made from beets and looked pretty close to the canned cranberry sauce. I dug in gleefully only to spit it all out on my plate. I now like beets but sure didn't when I was eight. I was scared to eat the canned cran at her house for years after that.

My favorite Thanksgiving was in college, when I went with my roommate to her aunt and uncle's house. The two best parts - 1. I had homemade cranberry sauce for the first time, and have made it every year since, and 2. her cousins had invented the "full rug" - whenever we were too full to eat another bite, we would lie on a rug in front of the fireplace until we had room again.

A family member had a big family thanksgiving thing and a butterball turkey involving a bag and ginger ale and orange juice or some nonsense. I got a really nice turkey from a farmer I know, roasted it tout simplement… which do you think was better?

Enjoying my mom's manicotti right next to the turkey and dressing--followed by a weekend away with my cousins while my parents got a little vacation.

Last year a guest arrived with mini pumpkin pies that had been spiked with vodka. Essentially they were vodka pies. They were also a gateway to what is now forever known as Drinksgiving.

The highlight of the evening is when I convinced a soon-to-be-sick friend to carry around a fashionable "Party Bucket" on her arm for the entire night! It was just the bucket we use to mop the floors.

do you mean the one where the firemen came after the neighbors called about the smoke? and they sprayed all the food on the counters? It was a restaurant meal that year!

Oooh pick me! Pick me! Alton Brown is the reason why I took food science in college!

Ok my story: One year I made Alton Brown's brined turkey. As per his show, I preheated the oven to 500 degrees, slathered the bird in canola oil, and put in the oven for 30 minutes to brown the skin. Well, half an hour later I opened the oven to drop and heat and cover my bird and a completely naked turkey was staring back at me. ALL THE SKIN HAD BURNED OFF!!! It charred and slid off to the side leaving a pale white, naked turkey. I continued to cook it and still served it, but we had a good laugh. I'll never forget that bird!

I'm loving the stories.

My favorite food memory is eating at my Grandma's house - lots and lots of people, lots of food, and so much love. There was the 'adult' table, the 'kids' table and the floor in one area for the 'inbetweens.' One year there were more people than silverware or plates. We 'tweens' used anything we could find - pot lids, casseroles, to hold the food and felt lucky to find at least a spoon or a fork too! We ate, the women did the dishes, some of the men napped or watched tv, and our favorite uncle would take us kids out for a walk in the woods. Then it was time to eat again!
Oh..and we always sang 'Over the River and Through the Woods" on our drive north.
Happy Thanksgiving all!