Cooking Lessons

Whew. We survived Thanksgiving. No trips to the ER, but no pictures either. Just a nice peaceful (relatively speaking) day at home with kids and grandparents. This is the first time I've cooked Thanksgiving Dinner in 14 years, but my feeling is that the tide has turned, the roaster has been bequeathed, and that in the next 14 years I will be cooking more often than not. Yep, I think my mom has discovered one of the benefits of having a daughter is that eventually said daughter will grow up and take over the cooking of the holiday meals. Which is as it should be.

So here is what I learned from this year: 1. Make sure you don't put an aluminum cake pan on top of a stovetop burner. It will create a flame, and burn a hole in your mother's hand crocheted hot pad. 2. Do not stuff the turkey. It's disgusting and not worth the effort. 3. If you DO stuff the turkey, it really does take longer for the timer to pop out- we ate 90 minutes later than planned, waiting for that stupid timer. 4. Homemade cranberry sauce is definitely worth the effort.(I really didn't learn that this year. I've known that since 1996, when my former and much loved relief society president Robin Hardin convinced me to try it. She also made Duncan's favorite Dalmation blanket for him when he was born, but that is another story.)5. Turkey tastes better when you have Grandma Paulson's old turkey roaster to cook it in.