Friendsgiving

Last year Joe and I took the plunge and hosted "Friendsgiving" for his residency program. I was SO nervous. What if no one came? What if it was so boring no one stayed? What if I don't really know how to cook a turkey and host a holiday meal?   Turns out people came. And stayed. And even had fun. So much fun we decided to host it AGAIN this year. Though admittedly I still don't really know how to cook a turkey. Last year I panicked and skinned it before throwing it in an oven bag with some butter and spices. And let me tell you it is no easy task to wrestle the skin off a 20+ pound bird! This year I left the skin on...as it should be:) Both turkeys were delicious. That might be an exaggeration. They were edible. No one complained;)

Above: 2015

Below: 2016

No complainers in this bunch. Not a single one. Speaking of this bunch. They are amazing! They showed up with pots and pans full of delicious food. They really brought the party. Because there is no way without them that I would have been able to feed 75 people! (Only about half of the entire party crew made it into the group picture)

Truth be told there was one complainer. Me. But I only complained before the party started so that hardly counts, right? Right. That's just normal hostess stuff. Or so that's what I'm telling myself.  Here's how it went down. Joe was trying to be helpful by keeping the children out of my way while I set up for the party. He was doing crafts with them in the kitchen while I was attempting to find the optimal table and chair arrangement in the playroom. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Because what I really wanted was his help IN THE PLAYROOM. But he couldn't be in the kitchen doing crafts AND in the playroom helping me at the same time. And I lost it. Like I went a little crazy. There was yelling and complaining and empty threats (all from me). I sent the kids to their rooms so Joe could help me. But when that didn't help (calm me down) Joe took the kids to McDonalds. Which actually was the most helpful. Because then I called in back up. See the lovely couple below (inside the window)?  They swooped in and hugged me. And got to work setting up my house for a LARGE CROWD. And then all was right in my world and I could once again behave like a sane person. Which I did for most of the evening except for one minor incident.....

 

Right as the guests were arriving Joe was carving the turkeys and I was making the gravy. Pretty much our only responsibilities for the party. I asked our friend (pictured above inside the window) if I should make more gravy. He said yes. So as the first batch of gravy was simmering I started making the roux for the second batch. I gave Joe strict instructions to save all the turkey drippings in the turkey bag for my gravy. All was going well at this point. Or so I assumed. By now our friend had moved to outside the house and was leaning in the window (much like the guy pictured above), Joe was working to the left of the sink (where the ice cream is in the above picture) and I was next to him at the stovetop. Suddenly Joe frantically tapped my shoulder and told me to get the pan to him NOW. I swung the pan over the sink (burning Joe's hand in the process) to discover that Joe had spilled all the drippings into the sink accidentally. He quickly started scooping the drippings from the sink directly into my pan. The three of us (Joe, accomplice friend and I) just keep looking at each other asking the question with our eyes only "CAN WE REALLY DO THIS?!?!" No one uttered a word. We just keep scooping and using our bodies to block anyone else from seeing what we were doing. Because by the end we were literally scooping drippings from the sink drain. (Yuck) Sink gravy. We made sink gravy.

The rest of the night went off without a hitch. People ate and talked. Children ran around and did NOT eat despite their parents' desperate attempts to get them to eat. All in all it was a lovely evening.

Our friends are so amazing that THIS is how many rolls we had LEFTOVER after feeding 75 people. And I know the kids each took at least 2 rolls because that's the only thing they would eat of the entire delicious Thanksgiving meal! And it wasn't just the rolls that we had leftover. We have so much food leftover that we are going to be eating up our Friendsgiving meal for days just so we can get ready to cook up Thanksgiving in a few days. (I'm hosting about 30 people for Thanksgiving this year. Its a cousin reunion on my mom's side of the family. I'm super excited to have family come to town...I hope they are hungry!!)

Oh and no worries on the gravy mishap. We didn't even need that second batch of gravy! One guest had brought mushroom soup...soup that many guests assumed was gravy. So we had way more gravy than we needed too. No one at the sink gravy! Thank goodness:)