This is how my husband and I found ourselves in our first Thanksgiving alone. Our daughter was only two months at the time and the thought of taking a sixteen-hour road trip was out of the question. I had never cooked a Thanksgiving dinner; up until that point, my idea of helping at Thanksgiving involved opening the cranberry jelly and sliding it out onto a plate. But, determined to make our rented house feel more like home and prepare a dinner that recalled the spirit of Thanksgivings past, I set out in a Clark Griswoldian journey to create the most festive, homey, memorable Thanksgiving ever.
I didn’t fail outright, not at all. But I did learn quite a few lessons that year that I will carry with me in the future.
1. Never buy a turkey that is too big to fit in your fridge/freezer.
Unless you’ve got serious backup, (like, say, a neighbor’s fridge or the funds to buy a temporary ice box), don’t buy a turkey so big it won’t fit in your fridge or freezer. A week before Thanksgiving, I spent some time perusing through multiple turkey recipes. Finally, I found a five star recipe with rave reviews that required a brine the turkey overnight. So, the day before Thanksgiving, (mistake #1) I went out and bought my turkey, a corresponding pan and all the necessary ingredients. When I got home, I filled the pan with salt water and went to put it into my fridge. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized there was no way my fridge was going to support that turkey. Despite the fact that there was only going to be two of us eating the turkey that year, I bought a turkey roughly the size of the ones my mother purchased when she cooks for twelve (mistake #2). Needless to say, I went a little bit overboard.
Thankfully, my husband discovered a way to move a few shelves around and fit everything in the fridge in Tetris like perfection. We got lucky. Now, I am always careful to eye that turkey before purchasing so I don’t run into a similar situation. Especially this year, because our fridge shelves don’t move!
