Chew Time! (cause crunch time doesn’t make sense)

Its now Wed of Thanksgiving 2 week. I have finished the pasta salad, macaroni salad, cran/pineapple sauce, and both batches of choc nut bars. Tonight I will be brining both of the leftover turkeys. (both you say!  That’s another story altogether)  Tonight and tomorrow may be the roughest parts of the whole process. Brining the turkeys is just messy. Hurling 2 16 pound turkeys into my sink and then into the coolers is not the easiest thing. The process does make a big difference in the long run. It makes cooking the turkeys more of a shotgun than a sniper rifle.

I left myself pretty wide open tonight other than the brining process because I don’t really remember how long it took me to do last year. I think I had help, but I’m not sure. I am into the homestretch if all goes well tonight. I still have a lot of room in the fridge, and then on to Thursday. If I can make it thru Thursday I will be just fine for Saturday.

Thursday is the de-meating of the leftover turkeys. I know this will take me a long time. Cutting off the breast meat will be relatively simple (I bought an electric knife), but the legs and thighs and carcass is where real men are made. I almost want to invite people over to give me motivation while I scrape all the meat off. I am sure y hands will be nice and supple afterwards.

How does he do it?!?

In case anyone out there decides to take Thanksgiving 2 into their heart in future years I thought I’d help you out. I have made my schedule of preparation. I have the 7 days prior planned out. I did not include shopping, but I believe everything else, from when to fix the decorations to when I should be heating things up. My list assumes I will have around the same size crowd (about 50) and I think this allows me to be rather leisurely with little stress each day. I did include the addition of a helper on the final day and the help of my wife leading up to the final day. I will have my regular Christmas decoration up before Thanksgiving 1, so anything else in that area will be minor. I think it’s funny how much more work is involved with the side dishes than the turkeys.

Saturday and Sunday have been combined into one entry because I am unsure whether or not I will be busy that Saturday and Sunday (it is Thanksgiving 1 weekend after all). I can’t really do any cooking quite that far ahead it’s mostly cleaning and set-up.

Monday is mostly rearranging and further indoor set-up. I don’t have kids, so I can take advantage of having my house be “out of sorts” for a few days. You’ll notice I have my first cooking on Monday. My chocolate nut bars can keep for well over a week. They take a full day to set anyway. The hardest part of making them is saving them. They may be one of my favorite desserts I know how to make.

Tuesday may very well be the roughest day. Cutting the vegetables for pasta salad takes forever. (It took me and 2 other people 8 hours to make it for my wedding. We did make over 30 pounds though.) I’m hoping to have my wife help me with this step. Macaroni salad is simple in comparison.

Wednesday starts the potato dishes and the first turkey step. I will be brining both turkeys for 24 hours in a cooler filled with water and ice. For those who do not know, brining prevents the turkey from drying out and also imparts a lot of flavor into the meat. It’s a simple step that is a safety net for me. Even if you overcook the turkey a bit, it will still be juicy. I’m trying something different with the porch this year also. I want to use the porch as the drink area. It should be cold enough to keep all beverages outside on a table. I’d prefer not having anyone dig into my fridge.

Thursday is more outside preparation. This is the first year I will be trying a tent, and Sean and I will be doing the fried turkey prep. That is very important, because I don’t want to burn my house down. The turkey for the leftovers will be roasted this day too.

Friday is an unknown. I will be making 2 totally new dishes, turkey soup and veggie turkey loaf. I am again hoping to have a little help this day. I will need some help with the final décor steps and maybe with the pie baking. The pies are some of the few items I will not be making from scratch. However, I may be making a special trip to a bakery in Levittown to pick up some “homemade” pies. I haven’t decided yet. I’ve kept Friday fairly light so I don’t become too stressed. I figure with help I will be just about ready for the big day.

SATURDAY! There are some steps I just cannot do ahead of time. You’ll see a lot of Saturday is simply reheating food and placing items in the proper space. The roughest part of the morning is going to be the cutting and slicing of the bread for dipping and sandwiches. The dipping bread is easy and I won’t stress over that, but the bread slicing I will be doing because I know I won’t squish the slices. This has less to do with my faith in other’s slicing skills and more to do with my guaranteeing it will be how I want it. After the little bit of prep and heating there is still a dish or two that will have to be made. They are easy, and should be finished with time to spare. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.

It's Beginning to Smell like Swiss Colony

Some of you may know of my love of the Swiss Colony company.   For those of you unfamiliar with Swiss Colony they are basically a food mail order company. They sell meats and cheeses, a large assortment of chocolates, nuts, hams, and few kinds of cakes. Everything I have ever ordered from there has been really good and I’m wondering if I should take advantage of their services this year for the big day.  

The main course of Thanksgiving 2 is basically taken care of. I am making the turkey leftovers, and my friend will be doing the turkey frying, so I have no reason to get one of their honeyed hams. The parts of the meal where I could use help are the beginning and the end. Before the meal I was debating on whether or not to get a nice collection of meats and/or cheeses. They also have some nice dip choices, but those are easy enough to make on my own. The Swiss Colony cheeses and meats require minimal prep work (just slicing really) and they do taste really good. The debate I suppose is whether or not the time I would put into the appetizers that I would replace is offset by the amount of money it would take to replace the quantity of homemade food.

The end of the meal is a whole different story. Desserts, especially some of the choices they offer, are significantly complicated to make. So, I have to weigh cost, recipe difficulty and flavor. Flavor is easy. Evreything I make will taste good and everything I order would be something I have ordered before. Difficulty almost always equals more cost to me. A rare ingredient (which means they don’t have them at Wegmans) also means increased travel time. For example, the Swiss Colony baklava is a bit more expensive than what I could purchase at a bakery, but it arrives at my house and is incredibly tasty. Flavor and convenience are hard to argue with.  Swiss Colony eliminates the difficulty factor, but trades it for cost.  I would like suggestions as I’m not sure which direction to go with this. I can only come up with one plan. I’ll pick up a few desserts and a small assortment of meat sticks because It won’t be as Christmasy feeling if there are no Swiss Colony Beef Logs.

Autumn and Winter Drink Selections for a More Civilised age

The usual focus of the holiday sequel is the food, but if the drink selection is poor or even non-existent then people will remember that. "Hey Bob, how was Thanksgiving 2.4 this year? I sure wish I could have gone." "Well Jimmy, the food was great as always, but they ran out of soda and there wasn't any beer or juice!".   And that is what Bob will remember, and what Jimmy would think coming into 2.5. . . No juice or beer or soda. I am ever striving to come up with a unique selection of drinks on top of what is brought. This year will be no different.
  I will have the staples of any gathering: filtered water, regular soda, and diet soda (for the carb impaired). The real fun will be in decided what else to include. I think I will have a few kinds of juice this year. I think I have been a little lax in the non-alcoholic drink area. Apple cider, and for the brave pumpkin juice (from Harry Potter of course). I really like sweetened iced tea, but if I were to serve it, I think I would have to either have an unsweetened jug and a sweet jug or give people the choice of what to sweeten it with. I like Starbucks as much as the next person, but I don't really have this kind of room in the house, or even outside. However, I wonder if I could come up with some sort of portable bar . ? . . ? I will forgo the iced tea issue until I find out about the bar idea. The juices will bring me to 5 non-alcoholic drinks. I think that is enough for now.
   Every year so far a few guests have brought drinks with them to share. --I comment about the sharing only because I have been to a few parties where some guests have brought nothing to share. They brought drinks for them and them only. I find this a little rude. I suppose there are some parties where this is the norm, but I have never been to one, ever.  the only concession I give to people who do this are people with special dietary needs. The last time I checked Corona is not made for diabetics or the lactose intolerant-- On the invite I specifically ask for what people are bringing. This is purely so there is no overlap in brought items. If someone brings Samuel Smiths variety pack of beer then everyone should know who brought it. This knowledge allows me to go off the normal grid of drinks to prepare and buy. This year I am going to get two of my favorite beers to share with everyone. I am getting Malheur 10 and Backwoods Bastard. Malheur 10 is a Belgian strong ale and Backwoods Bastard is an ale that is aged in bourbon barrels. I was flirting with the idea of getting a case of Iron City Beer also. Iron City is an American style pilsner  and the official beer of the Pittsburgh Nation! Miller lite will make an appearance and a few variety packs (Sam Adams, Sly Fox, Saranac, etc). If my friend has any interest I'd like to get or if someone is nice enough, have a couple bottles of Lindeman's Lambic beers. It is the only beer he actively likes. I think beer will be well covered this year. Hopefully I am able to introduce a few people to a couple of my favorites at the same time. 
   Wine will definitely be present at Thanksgiving 2.4. My wife and I will be picking up a few of our favorites from the PA Ren Faire when we go on the last day. A couple bottles of mead, Maiden's Blush, Knight's Reward, and hopefully some of the spiced apple served warm. I have no doubt a few leftover bottles of wine from our wedding will be served, and if like last year some people are generous there will be several more bottles. I'm hoping for some sweeter one's, but I'll take whatever comes.
   Hard liquor at a party like this can go a couple ways. If it's very freely available and you will hear the words "SHOTS, SHOTS! On the other hand it can be mildly available and just add to the social lubrication. I am absolutely in the second boat. I will have some Butter Beer (from Harry Potter again!) and a very small selection of hard liquors for mixing: flavored rum, spiced rum, vodkas and maybe a scotch or two. This is not meant to be Rumspringa with turkey and fixin's. It hasn't been like that yet, so lets keep the fingers crossed.
  My porch will be covered in a huge assortment of drinks, with and without alcohol, and I hope it is more than enough to satisfy the thirsty gathering goer this year. I will take suggestions of course in the comments.

Halloween 2? The Sequel that had nothing to do with masks. . .

Halloween has a huge following every year. It may be the most popular holiday after Christmas (according to this somewhat dubious poll I found). I have always been indifferent to the scariest holiday. I like the gatherings of people, but I fairly dislike being dressed up in any fashion, fancy or otherwise. (ask my wife: ). I do know several friends who LOVE the last day in October. I've gotten different answer from each of them. The common answers were "the love of making a costume and getting to wear it" and "decorating the house into something from a movie" (lab, dungeon, etc.). Another interesting was, "being able to change who or what you are for a night." So I was thinking, how or even should I create a second Halloween.
  I will start with the should. Should can be a bad word sometimes. Should I wear slippers to the grocery store? Should I marry that person? Should I guess that the turkey is done? Should I try to create another sequel to a beloved holiday? You never know what will happen in these cases, and the back and forth of your brain can drive you nuts. I think that since Christmas has sort of creeped further and further ahead in the calender each year (not something I mind) that maybe a little more love for the scariest holiday would be welcome. You would get 100% more use out of your costume that you spent a lot of time and money on. You might not be stuck with all of that candy. The same friends I mentioned above would get a kick out of a double dose of the horror holiday. I think this is enough evidence to warrant a sequel. I'm sure corporate America would love it.
  Now it's time to move on to to The How. This set of brainstorming will be a lot simpler.  Originally, I set Thanksgiving 2 after the actual Thanksgiving because there is a lull (for me at least) between my two favorite holidays. I wanted to stay busy and having to do all the preparation for a gathering at the house allows for that. I'm believe something different could be done for Halloween. The shops that carry Halloween related items virtually disappear on Nov 1st. This makes last minute costume shopping kind of difficult, and with the Christmas stuff trading places with the Halloween stuff around that same time, someone may end up going as Santa Clause (I think that would be appropriate, but who's counting) to the gathering. So these facts lead me to think that perhaps a sequel that happens before the actual day would be best. The week before I think would be perfect. 1. Halloween items begin to go on sale. 2. There would still be plenty of traditional costumes available. 3. The average person will not be (hopefully) burned out by then. Well, I have figured out when would be best, but what to do during the event. Costumes would be mandatory (even though I dislike getting dressed up, I do understand the protocol), but what else could be happening? I think I would take advantage of the season and have it be a pot luck of sorts. A "Bring an Autumn (cause it's fancier sounding than fall) Drink". Examples would be Pumpkin beer, Apple cider, Apple Wine, Mulled whatever, pumpkin juice, any leftover Oktoberfest beer. I'm not a great non-board game player, but if I was going somewhere for actual Halloween I would use that knowledge to make any game decisions. If there were going to be games at the actual party I wouldn't play them at H2, or the reverse. The offering of games gives people who just aren't into circle talking something to do. A movie or TV show being played would also make a good conversation piece also. Not something scary, but at least themed-ish, Dune perhaps. Since the what and when are now taken care of, what about the food. I think a baked ham would be appropriate or if it was warmish still, grilled apples and a variety of squash. Pumpkin cakes, apple cake, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll if I was feeling adventurous all would make great desserts and even stay on theme. I hope everyone likes apples : ). Overall, I think this would be fun and very doable. Next year Halloween 2.0 ?!?

Music of the Holiday?

I have been doing some thinking on how to add more festive to the event. I was thinking of trying to pipe holiday music (one of my favorite things) throughout the house and maybe into the backyard. I would be trying to simulate what a department store or the mall does. It would be incredible to see even one person humming along to Nat King Cole's Christmas Song (or Chestnuts Roasting to the layman).
  I do not think it would be that difficult. My wife bought me a new surround sound system for my birthday. It has a few different channels on it and I have learned with a lot of reading (dumb stereo instructions) I can run wires to each room in the house and have music or the TV sound playing there. Stereo wire is fairly inexpensive and Goodwill/Impact/The Salvation Army have speakers all the time. I think for a very reasonable amount of money I could pull this off. Now I need to decide if it's worth doing.
  I think the first thing I need to check is to make sure my sound system can run two channels simultaneously. If that works then I can have the Parade on in the living room and holiday music going throughout the rest of the house. If it will work I will probably go with the radio. I think it was B 101 that ran the music last year. They had a decent selection, not enough Mele Kalikimaka for me though.
  Second thing would be using the holes drilled in the floor from the cable and internet I can run the stereo wire underneath the floor and up to the speakers in the dining room and kitchen. The dining room is full of hidden spaces I could cram a speaker. The kitchen will be a bit tougher because of the floor material. I might be able to use the area  underneath the kitchen cabinets or the washer/dryer.
  In the coming weeks I will see if this is viable, then I will update this entry.
  Maybe the holiday this year will have a little extra musical spice.

 

Remembering Thanksgiving 2.1

Ah, memories of happy times. The very first time Americans decided to come together to celebrate their gratitude for having friends. It seems like so long ago on that December night.
  Thanksgiving 2.0 started with me wanting to bring my family's style of Thanksgiving to my friends. Specifically the friends who do not have larger or . . . nicer family gatherings. I had heard some wonderful stories of dinner at that beacon of family fun and plain tasting food, The Old Country Buffet. I don't think that many people really like that as their families traditional dinner site (please correct me if you feel differently). The OCB is no Shady Maple, that's for sure. Now there is somewhere worth going to with 50 people. How awesome would that be?! Anyway. The stories I heard did not exactly convey fun, family and good times. That's when the idea came to me. A fun friends only post-Thanksgiving party. And that was all it was going to be at first. I hadn't planned on it becoming the holiday sequel juggernaut that it has become.
   That original party was just a fried party, as in fried foods not people. I didn't even make a turkey or anything remotely related to the holiday. So I had a whole fried menu lined up: fried chicken wings, fried fish, french fries, sweet potato fries, broccoli, cauliflower, onion rings, Oreos, Twinkies (my favorite), funnel cakes and assorted candy bars. I believe that was the first time I had 20+ people over for an event. I didn't make quite enough food, but that is what take-out is for. Everyone had lots of dessert fried foods, but not enough main meal items. I think we had a few funny movies running in the living room. I never left the kitchen, so I don't remember which ones. Let's just say it was a Mighty Ducks marathon. The dining room was the usual talking circle. I think it was cold that year so few people were outside. Fun was had by most (and me) and that was all that mattered.
  Overall, I thought it went well. I learned what not to do and what I wanted to do again. I found I did not want to stand over a fryer all night. I prefer being busy at party-like events, but not that busy.  I saw some things that worked. The outside space for drinks is perfect. A table set up on the porch is ten times better than having people go into the fridge all night. I saw that our friends can be invited to the same events. They may not interact a whole lot, but they are civil with one another and I will take that every time. That was the night I decided to try again next year, but make it so I was doing a lot less work. Which in hindsight is funny because I now do considerably more work, but have a better time.That's funny : ).

If Food Issues Arrise. . .

I was just at a well planned event and I was given the honor of cooking the main course food on the grill. There was a mishap at the beginning no one present was at fault) and something had to be done to replace the "problem" foods. This got me thinking about whether or not I should create a contingency plan for my holiday.
 On one hand I am thinking it would be nice to have a turkey replacement plan. Since all of the other foods are going to be made a few days in advance, I believe the only food that could have an issue is the fried turkey. The fried turkey could become burnt or overdone or just incredibly dry (not likely). If either of these two things happen I can think of only a few options. 1. I can simply have another non-frozen turkey on hand to simply re-fry. 2. Go to the Wegmans and buy a "fresh" turkey and re-fry it. 3. Say forget about it and go buy some overly moist roast chickens from the grocery store (see above) or head over to KFC and buy a couple buckets of the good stuff. Option one means I have to buy a whole other turkey and have it sitting defrosted in my fridge. This is not something I really want to do. For any of you who haven't actually cooked a turkey here is a bit of news. They are huge in relationship to the size of most refrigerators. I will need that space to house the cold foods for the coming holiday. Option 2 allows me to keep my fridge open and not have to worry about space, but it will be a bit more expensive. Since my holiday happens after the turkey rush I imagine it should be easyish to find a fresh turkey. Option 3 will only really happen if the frying has taken an inordinate amount of time (due to severe cold outdoor temperature) and a ruined bird. At that point I think I will be more than a little upset. The colonel will be getting my business that day. Overall, a back-up plan for one of the main dishes does seem fairly easy to pull off. All three plans depend on the super patience of the guests though. Let's just hope none of these options need to take place.

The Smells of the Holidays

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I love the smells of Thanksgiving 1 and Christmas more than any other holiday. . . Now that I think about it not too many other holidays really have a smell associated with them.
  Halloween I suppose has the smell of candy corn (my mom loves candy corn) or the scent of rotting leaves (cause of the time of year) or maybe the smell of a candy bar still in its wrapper. The 4th of July is kind of connected to the smell of fireworks to me, but sulfur is not on any of my top ten lists of "smells I like". Memorial Day is supposed to be the "Start of the Summer" so possibly hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. --Although I think nowadays so many people associate the smell of propane with the smell of cooking food. Not enough people use the good old fashioned charcoal. Now there is a smell I can get behind. Those gas-breathers probably wont admit it, but they know in their hearts that the smoky scent of a charcoal or wood fire is the appropriate accompaniment to all food.--  Now that I've had my soapbox moment back to holiday scents.  Does Groundhog Day have a scent to anyone who doesn't live in Punxsutawney? Valentine's Day has the scent of flowers and cardboard and chocolates. New Years Eve has probably the widest assortment of smells associated with it. Which end of the spectrum you get really depends on what you do with New Years, but I think you know where I'm going. Even with all of that mental space that is taken up with memories of the other holidays my favorite are still Thanksgiving and Christmas.
  The scent of warm pumpkin pie that is coming right out of the oven or the early morning smell of a freshly roasted turkey (I like the smell a lot more than the taste at this point in my life) are smells that can almost instantly make me smile. It's like hearing that one song on the radio that reminds you of that lost love or old friend, but in food form. The morning of Thanksgiving 2.4 I will cheat a little by lighting candles in all of the major rooms, just to get a head start on the scents. I prefer food related candles: fudge, chocolate, pumpkin, or sugar cookie. I don't know if anyone has done any research on this, but I'm willing to bet that if all workplaces smelled like Hershey's Chocolate World there would be less violence at work. Well, our house will smell great and I'm hoping that from the first moment guests walk in the door they will be bombarded by happy smells and it puts them in a good frame of mind for the rest of the day.

Thanksgiving 2: The Job

As few of you know I am now in the market for a new job. While doing some digging online today I thought for a second. . . Is there any way to turn the incredible holiday of Thanksgiving 2 into a job? I doubt it, but what if there was a way. What would it be? There isn't a mascot yet, unless you count the robot turkey picture I found for Thanksgiving 2.2's Evite. With no mascot there isn't really a need to be dressed up like the a mall Santa. The only thing that really comes to mind is a Thanksgiving 2 meal planner/coordinator. I think that has a nice ring to it. I am clearly able to do that pretty darn well (assuming anyone shows up this year: ). There has definitely been an improvement every year. Year one was simply a fried "things" party with around 20 people. Year 2 was the first year of the fried turkey with around 30 people. 2.2 i severely under figured how much turkey would be eaten. and then last year was my first experiment with multiple turkeys. There were 3 turkeys and about a half a roasted turkey left. (3/4's if you count the leftover carcass from roasted turkey #1) This year I have figured on one fried bird and one "leftovers" bird. Side dishes I believe I have always had a handle on. 2.3 I made probably enough food for 20 more people, but more is always better when it comes to that type of thing. We even had extra desserts. That was nice. I suppose I should try to get the Holiday recognized first then create the job. I wonder if I can get Preston and Steve to say "Thanksgiving 2" on the air.  hmm. . . . Then after thousands of people start celebrating it, I'll go on talk shows and talk to Rachael Ray (cause she's a food person) and whoever becomes the new Oprah. After that is the book tour and I can proselytize. I'm sure it will be a whirlwind. What say you random people? Do you want to increase your holiday cheer? Spend more time with friends? Meet new people and possibly have fun? Then begin the Thanksgiving 2 revolution!! 

No Rain Dates in ThanksgivingLand!

I figured since we are in the middle of a horrible flood I could talk about the idea of a rain date. I think in general the idea of a rain date is dumb. I already plan 5 months ahead for the best of the newest holidays. I can't imagine trying to cram an extra weekend into the planning. Unless I've missed something all these years I'm pretty sure there isn't a rain delay for Christmas, New Years Eve or The Super Bowl. Why should there be one for Thanksgiving 2? If it rains this year we will have an additional piece of outdoor furniture. We have a 20' x 10' canopy. I'm figuring that this will eliminate any trouble with sitting outside. I hope. The bigger deal is what in gods name would I do with all of the food I'm going to make. I am definitely not buying 6 turkeys. 3 for the weekend of and 3 for the possible next weekend. I would never want to touch a turkey again. Hopefully there will be zero rain that day and no snow that month. I'm looking forward to a dry holiday this year.

The Sweater Question

Last year I had a thought. What if everyone wore their most Christmasy of Christmas sweaters. Then I figured, "Oh, I will just go to JC Penney and get one for myself and my wife". Four hours later when I had scoured the entirety of the King of Prussia Mall I found out something terrible. Large stores no longer carry one of the best Christmas traditions, the bad Christmas sweater. I was horrified. How was this possible? I did some digging online and found very few sites that actually sell the traditional sweater: The Rusty Zipper, Skedouche, and if your lucky some vintage clothing sites will have them. The one awfully expensive alternative I have found are "Norwegian" sweaters, as in made and sent from Norway. The only stores I was able to find anything in last year were the local Goodwill and Salvation Army Stores. There were several woman's sweaters, and a few (and I use this term loosely) unisex sweatshirts, but nothing that I really wanted. I think I ended up wearing my Steelers Sweatshirt all day. Very festive, but not what I had intended.

I can't ask people to come in their best holiday/Christmas sweater if each costs $250 or requires them to spend 2 weeks finding one can I? The 80's are making a comeback, but why haven't I seen this yet? I'd go into Hot Topic if I thought they'd have some retro/hipster/emo sweaters with reindeer on them. If anyone can help please let me know. Maybe we will get lucky and the big box stores will carry them this year. Support Christmas and buy a sweater!

Labor Day 1, Not Labor Day 2

The non-official end to the summer is near and that means a BBQ outside. We are going to try again for a semi-impromptu event. Unlike Thanksgiving 2 where I'm expecting (and hoping for) a lot of people, this Labor day it could be just the two of us and it would be fine.
I was thinking of just doing something mostly simple on the grill. I haven't made a "fancy" hamburger in a while. I'd settled down into just a plain burger with toppings. This time I think I want to revisit my pepper burgers. I combine a mixture of hot peppers into the meat and then grill. thru some magical process the heat from the peppers mostly leaves and all you can really taste is the pepper essence and the meat. If you attempt this yourself do not use regular green peppers. They contain so much water that you end up doing a ton of extra working draining them. It's a pain in the butt. I think I'll add an egg to the burger mix this time for some extra binding and flavor. I'll get sausage of some kind too, people love sausage. I think if enough people come we can play some board games. It should be fun. We are asking people to bring side dishes, so I will probably just do a simple side dish on the grill. I haven't grilled a pineapple all season.

The Second Step: Recipe Testing

This year will be a little different from the past couple years. I am making the focus not on the roasted bird, but on the variety of leftovers. The only turkey leftover I have ever made with an regularity is Turkey Salad. Which I make exactly the same way I make chicken salad except with turkey. The other recipes I need to do some research. Turkey a-la King: Ill look in one on of my 50's cook books first, I think. Turkey Soup: I was thinking of going with some creamy, almost like a pot pie consistency, but a little thinner, lots of orange and green veggies. Turkey Hash: I had very little idea of what this even was, but Ralphie was looking forward to it in "A Christmas Story" so I'll make it (btw: it's basically turkey stir-fry). I like chili, so I think a really spicy Turkey Chili will be nice this year. I will have to make two batches though. One batch I will use my special mix of hot spices; the other batch will not be spicy. Other than providing bread and rolls for sandwiches I'm not sure how many more I will attempt. Its going to take the 2 weeks prior to get these recipes perfected. If anyone has any ideas please comment. 

Why Thanksgiving 2 and not Easter 2 or other big holidays?

I didn't really put a lot of thought into starting to celebrate a second holiday. I knew that during Thanksgiving most of my friends celebrate with their immediate family. The same can be said for Christmas. I don't really know too many people who make a big deal about Easter, so Thanksgiving seemed the best candidate. Choosing a date for the sequel was a tough nut. I could not pick the actual day because I like going to my families Thanksgiving so that was out. I thought about the weekend directly after Thanksgiving, but I want the shopping options open to me. (I like to shop for Christmas presents. . . . don't judge me:). So, it seemed I had two options. I could use the weekend prior or the weekend after Black Friday. The weekend after Black Friday is sometimes my friends birthday. The very first Thanksgiving 2 I had to reschedule because of this. I figured that most of the time his birthday will not fall on that Saturday, and this left the week before Thanksgiving Actual to put up my Christmas Tree. I am pretty sure most years from now on I will be doing it this weekend. Now, if I could just figure out when to do Christmas 2!

Non-Food Attractions

The food is the main event for this holiday (other than the being with people part), but since I don't have a huge kitchen there have to be other things to occupy the guests time. I figured if I describe what went on in past years maybe through comments or my own brainstorming I can add a few to future years festivities.
  The living room is the indoor space most capable of entertaining the largest number of people. The living room is home to the TV and a lot of seating (15-18 people). I figured that since not everyone is super familiar with each other the TV would be the best non-drinkable social lubricant. So last year I recorded the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and played it in its entirety. It's about 3 hours long and I thought it went over pretty well. Who doesn't like giant balloons and Al Roker? After the parade I think I put "A Christmas Story" or "Christmas Vacation" on. This year I want to add a new Christmas or holiday movie, possibly "Scrooged" or "Muppet's Christmas Carol".  The middle/display/library room I used for purely a conversation area. I don't think I have any other options there. The Kitchen is just about as packed as I can make it with food. There is minimal walking space and I need that space for any last minute dishes. Nothing new will be in there. Finally, there is the backyard space. I'm going to ask Ben's mother if I can borrow the fire pit again. We may also be acquiring a ping-pong table, but I don't know if that would even be feasible to set up. I do think I will set up our new tent though. It will let people spread out a bit more than last year. I hope. If we get significantly more people than last year it will be . . . interesting.

Why the leftover plan this year?

It's very early yet to decide whether any of the regulars will demand (request?) a traditional roasted turkey, but I figured I'd go through my thought process of why I chose to go another route this year.
  Last year I was lucky enough to get 4 free turkeys. One from my friend Ben one from my parents, one from Sean's Aunt, and I from Giant. Three were made on the day of last year. The smell of a newly cooked turkey is awesome. It is right up there with the smell of bacon or cookies, in my opinion. The entire fried turkey was eaten, and the first roast turkey was eaten, and about half of the 2nd roasted one. This left me with one half eaten bird and one frozen bird. I cooked the frozen one a few days later and over the next several weeks came to a realization. I do not like just turkey. Turkey salad I really like, and turkey chili is pretty good, but just . . plain . . turkey is not something I want to eat again for over 2 weeks. If there are enough people who want the traditional bird I will gladly make it, but I will be giving it away at the end of the night. So bring a doggie bag if you are coming and have requested the roast turkey.

The To-Do List 1

This post is more for me than any readers.

• Evite-Done
• find 5-7 "leftover" recipes and new stuffing recipe (I didn't like last years)
• buy malheur from somewhere
• get free turkey to test leftover recipes (week of Nov 13)
• make pasta salad (around Nov 28)
• make macaroni salad (around Nov 29)
• buy soda, veggies, baked beans, noodles, walnuts, bread flour, potatoes, mayo, stuffing bread, plates, cups, plasticware
• buy rolls from Wegman's or The Italian Peoples Bakery (Dec 1)
• clean 5 gallon bucket, and/or cooler

That's it so far I think. 

The First Step: The Invitations

If you're going to have a large gathering at your house you need to invite people. I prefer to use Evite, but only because I'm familiar with it. A few of our friends use Socializer, but it doesn't offer me anything super special. 
  I re-used the template for the Evite that I used last year. 1.little story, 2.info, and then the rough menu. This isn't a super complicated affair. It is just a lunch/dinner with lots of food, so I think I have it done right at this point. I had my wife do some grammar maintenance and away it went. I have sent it to 57 individual e-mail addresses, so I suppose if everyone came I'd have around . . .114 people in my house. I think that's against some code, but I'd be amazed if that many came. The wider the net the better my chances.  I sent the Evite on August 22 and I have 9 adults and 3 kids booked already.  Pretty good for the second day.  Since I decided to do most of the food myself (I'll save why for another post) I periodically have to edit the menu to add in the specialty foods that people will bring.  I'm expecting heavy traffic to the Evite for about 3 more days, then if last year is any indicator a huge drop-off for a couple months. When I start sending out weekly reminders it will kick back up again. I hope.

The New Tradition

Since this is my first post I figure I should explain where I got the idea for Thanksgiving 2.
The idea was born from one of my favorite holiday movies. Although not one you might expect. It came from Santa Claus: The Movie. In the movie the main antagonist, played by the great John Lithgow (of Buckaroo Banzai fame) creates "Christmas 2". He set Christmas 2 in July to sell "The Special Thing" figuring to rake in the cash. Now where he simply has money on his mind, I wanted to bring the fun of the holiday to my friends.  I have heard a few stories and learned that some of my friends haven't had the best holiday experiences. I figured if I could bring what my family does on that awesome Thursday to them, well that would be pretty fun. I talked it over with my girlfriend at the time (now wife) and she agreed to try it out.  And so Thanksgiving 2 was born in December 2008.