Thanksgiving Morning...

After getting my Strong Silent Mysterious Man off hunting at 430am this morning...

I starting cookin' in the kitchen...
It's just us... but we were given this huge 24lb turkey (I thought it was about 20lbs... but it scaled up to 24lbs - wow!)... good thing I really like turkey and left overs!

I decided as my skills grow each year and I get a little less squeemish about touching raw turkey... I would try to document the moments. It was fun to look back and remember what I did last year (I would have never remembered without my blog posts, that was fun).

So I took it from this...
to this... ewwwww!!!
to this... yep, that's me touching it! That is huge for me!

I can't say that I didn't hesitate and want to wake up the teenager, and then scream like a little girl a few times before I got it to this point... but yep, I got it all rubbed down (well more drizzled and brushed with a baster) with olive oil, the gross stuff yanked out of the middle (with tongs of course), and savory herbs rubbed (kind of shaken and slightly patted down) all over this baby.

and then inside a bag...
and finally in the oven cooking away!
Nothing to do now but pray for it to turn out edible!

Then I looked over the menu and decided I better get the much anticipated cheesecake in the fridge, since the no bake version takes 3 hours to set. And I had to thaw out the frozen strawberry stuff.
So this turned out pretty easy... much easier than I thought!!

I took this baby from this....

to this....

to this....

with a puppy that insists she belongs between me and whatever I am doing on the counter... just in case I should get clumsy and drop something that she believes she has first dibbs on being the youngest!

.

This takes talent, not dropping anything down there in this huge crack she creates. And not breaking your neck as you step in and out of the triangle between the garbage and the work area and the fridge.

Talent I tell you!

to this.. ready to go into the fridge for the 3 hour wait on the strawberries.

It looks good, I hope it tastes something like a cheesecake for the teenager!

So far so good, no injuries, nothing dropped on the floor, I might become a real pro at this by the time I am a grandma one day! I sill have time to perfect the turkey cooking thing... I hope to be able to accomplish this one day in front of grandchildren without screaming!