Here’s a story from my mom of a legendary Thanksgiving dinner at our old house in New York several years ago. Sadly, I was not there to witness this, but I’ve laughed at the tale many times.
My Most Memorable Thanksgiving
I have to admit my most memorable Thanksgiving was the one the oven died and we almost set the house on fire. Since Charles was in Texas at this time I thought he could save this family story for Olivia.
This particular year, not only were the usual “elders” with us, in all their wheel chair, walker and medication glory, but also Geoff Kuffner, (who had been out partying the night before) and Todd, a college friend of Michael’s from Arizona, (who had never been to the Big Apple).
(Note: Geoff is my cousin, and Michael is my brother. The “elders” included Uncle Joe Abbruzza, who had lost a leg to diabetes and got around in a wheelchair, and Uncle Frank Carasanite, who is a disabled WWII vet who gets around – very slowly – with a walker.)
As we were all seated eating Antipasti I went to check on the turkey and immediately noted the oven was no longer working. No sweat, our soon to be daughter-in-law Cathy, who can fix anything, came to the rescue. She checked under the oven and even went down the basement to the switch box, but even she could not fix the problem. Ok, Dad and I thought let’s put it on the gas grille. After all we had done this many times before, just with smaller turkeys. What I had not thought about was the fact that this one was basted in cognac (an old Martha Stewart recipe). Well cognac and fire do not mix, we would soon discover.
The next problem was heating up the 2 trays of Red’s famous lasagna. Yes, Italians do eat pasta after antipasti and before turkey. So we retrieved an old rotisserie roster from the basement, that first needed serious cleaning, and placed the 2 trays in there. Everyone was given another glass of wine.
(Note: Red was my mother’s mother. And man, was her lasagna good.)
So now while everyone was enjoying Red’s fabulous lasagna I again checked the turkey on the grille. This time I found flames shooting 6 feet in the air and very close to the house. Thanks, Martha.
I quietly went into the dining room so as not to upset the old folks to get Charlie’s attention. I did not have worry, they were all so well carbed and wined no one had a clue anything was wrong.
Geoff just smiled and Todd was wide eyed. Well, we finally got the turkey on the table with no one the wiser.
After dinner everyone said it was the most delicious turkey they ever had. No one realized they just had real barbequed turkey. Todd said it was the most fun he ever had at Thanksgiving and could he come back next year. Geoff just sat and continued to smile. The true test of this well fed crowd was finding the elders sound asleep within an hour of dinner, in their assigned seats in front of the fireplace, while the “young” folks cleaned up.
Charlie and I still giggle at the memory of Cathy in her cute very mini skirt, with a glass of wine in her hand trying to crawl under the wall oven to see what the problem was and she never spilled a drop; a true Kuffner to be.
I think the lesson one learns from this is that the key to overcoming any kitchen mishap is making sure everyone has enough wine. I don’t know if it’s in any of Martha Stewart’s cookbooks, but if not, it should be.