The turkey's revenge

I was almost murdered on Thanksgiving. By a turkey.

It was a near-tragic end to an otherwise perfect day.

It was perfect because our house was buzzing with activity. Last year, Thanksgiving was just the Wife, Grace, and me. But I absolutely love when we FILL our home with people. There were nine of us this year: the four of us plus the Sis-in-law, her two kids, and two of our good friends.

I love the chaos. I love the conversations. I love sitting back and watching the kids run around and play with each other. I love being able to cook for everyone. When our house is full, I get to see so many moments I will cherish and remember forever. To me full houses have an energy about them that just says "fun."

For the meal, the centerpiece was a 20-pound turkey. Sixteen hours in a brine and then baked with apple, onion, and cinnamon aromatics.

All of our vegetables were casseroled because, well,  they're more delicious that way. We had sweet potato casserole, Gruyere broccoli casserole, and green been casserole. There were also smashed red potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, and four pies. Just about everything that called for butter had heart attack-inducing amounts of it; we must've gone through three pounds of it on Thursday (Paula Dean and Julia Child would've been proud).

Oh yeah, so about that murder attempt.

After the meal, while everyone was in a food coma, Sis-in-law and I were working on a soup stock from the leftover carcass of what was turkey perfection. The stock was starting to bubble over in the pot, and we were trying to figure out what to do. Like anyone whose been through a traumatic event, the details are a little fuzzy, but I think I was trying to remove the strainer that had all the turkey parts and veggies in it from the pot. As I started to pull it out to move it to the sink, the turkey skeleton - in a last-ditch effort to exact revenge for what I did to it earlier that day - thrust itself back towards the pot. The strainer slipped from my hands and splashed boiling hot stock over me, Sis-in-law, and the stove.

It could've been much worse, but ninja-like reflexes on both our parts prevented a trip to the ER. We escaped with only minor burns on our arms. The stove suffered the most damage - the digital display shorted out and none of the burners would light. It kept beeping sporadically until I unplugged it. Fortunately,  everything on the stove dried out by the next morning, saving me at least a couple hundred bucks in repair bills.

Yes, all-in-all it was a memorable Thanksgiving. We were surrounded by people we love, laughed a lot, ate delicious food, and even had a near-death experience to top it all off.