Post-Turkey Blues

It's something I experience every year, the post-turkey blues. I have to say that it's better this year than in years past, maybe because as I get older I know what's going to happen and I understand it now.

I am a perfectionist. I want everything to be just right. It makes me good at what I do but it also leads to great disappointment when things aren't perfect, which is most of the time since perfection isn't possible. Thanksgiving is a magnification of that. Thanksgiving is about celebrating gratitude with food. Talk about a holiday made for me! And you get to celebrate it with the people you love, making it even better. So I work really hard on this holiday, although my family tries to do their best to restrain me. If I could, I would make a dozen dishes. But since there are only seven of us, I have to keep it to a minimum. I have also learned to let others contribute to the meal, taking some of the pressure of of me.

Here was yesterday's menu:

Roast turkey - Injected with an herb butter, moist and crispy skinned.
Stuffing - Traditional bread stuffing from The Graminator's recipe. I spent four days drying out the bread and made the poultry seasoning from scratch dee to Roberta's sage allergy (see last year's post "Sage-free is Okay".)
Mashed Potatoes - Truly delicious garlic and Parmesan mashed potatoes made by Will and Val.
Gravy - Made from turkey stock I made on Monday with roasted turkey legs, carrots, celery, onions and fresh thyme. Really rich and delicious. And while it takes a while to make it, it makes turkey gravy a snap and no deglazing a pan on Thanksgiving.
Sweet Potatoes - Bourbon mashed sweet potatoes, made by Mom, from my adapted recipe.
Cranberry Sauce - Home made cranberry, pomegranate and Meyer lemon relish. Not bad but I'll go back to my regular recipe next year.
Brussels Sprouts - Shredded Brussels Sprout with Lemon from the December issue of Everyday Food. Made by mom (but I shredded the sprouts.)
Herb Rolls - Even though I'm intimidated by yeast dough, I made these rolls (from the November Issue of Sunset magazine) which requires little yeast knowledge but lots of kneading (15 minutes) by hand. Full of fresh dill, chives, parsley and rosemary. Yummy. I'll try my hand my yeast dough again.
Spinach Salad - Adapted from a recipe in Cooking Light, this fresh spinach was dressed with a sweet and spicy dressing made from red pepper jelly and had blue cheese and glazed peans (which I made myself.)
Pumpkin Pie - A traditional favorite in my house, made with fresh pumpkins I cook down myself (no canned pumpkin here!)
Butterscotch Pumpkin Pie - From the November issue of Bon Apetit. Lots of work to make and it wasn't as good as my normal pie. I wouldn't make it again. Also made Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee dough for the crust. Not good with this pie but I think it needed a higher heat. I will use the other round of dough for a different pie and see if it works better. Of course, both pies were served with fresh Chantilly cream made from Trader Joe's heavy cream.

This menu was proceeded by appetizers of shrimp cocktail, stuffed celery, deviled eggs, cranberry-cream cheese with crackers and Chex mix.

Okay, can you see why I get the blues? I spend weeks preparing the menu, days shopping and prepping and cooking an it gets eaten in under an hour. As I said, this year is better. I was prepared for the blues. And this year they were mostly forgotten due to exhaustion. (I normally take weeks to prepare but due to Vegas Schmegas production I was on a tighter schedule). And I understood this year that the only person who needed to appreciate my hard work was me. So while I would have liked a greater show of appreciation (is a standing ovation really to much to ask?) I settled for a full tummy and a glass of Moet.

My mom's kitchen is small. Really small. Like airplane galley small. And at one point I did snap when someone asked if they could help while I was trying to carve the turkey with two dogs underfoot and my mother hovering over me with a sponge to clear any turkey juice that might drip onto the counter and I had no elbow room to carve (sorry for snapping Roberta). But Roberta is cool, she just grabbed the red wine and headed out. And honestly, I would have loved some help if the kitchen wasn't so danged tiny. I don't know how my Grandma Charlotte ever cooked those huge meals for ten in there. Let me tell you "efficiency kitchen" really means "no room". Anyone know a producer at one of those remodeling shows to fix up my mom's kitchen? But if I can cook Thanksgiving in an 11' X 4' kitchen on a forty-five year old stove, I can cook most anywhere.

So the post-turkey blues are over. Which is good. It means I can move on to the pre-Christmas panic followed by the post-Christmas meltdown and the New Year's Day depression. Aren't the holidays great?