Before heading to my parents' house for our own Thanksgiving, Sidney made good on her promise to my dad and made another apple pie. Unfortunately, the apple peeler/slicer had fallen out of alignment so she had to peel, slice, and core the apples by hand. But just look at that bulging glory:
A little later, we determined that the peeler/slicer wasn't entirely broken, and we were able to fix it. We tested it out on our last remaining apple:
I will say that there is something satisfying about eating a spiral-sliced apple. I don't know why.
But a little while later, Sidney's pie was done baking. It looked even better than before:
We then headed off to my parents' house, where we joined them already in the process of preparing the turkey.
While we were waiting to cook it, I snacked on some Sun Chips.
And for this Thanksgiving, we decided to use the fancy China. This becomes a key plot point later.
Also, this year we decided to try out a different method of cooking a turkey. Instead of our usual deep frying method, we tried out an "oil-less frying" method. This essentially consisted of an infrared cooker. The thing heats up and cooks the turkey from all sides via infrared radiation.
There's the turkey, preparing for blast off.
I couldn't help myself from snacking on some more chips while the turkey cooked.
This method took a fair bit longer than conventional frying in oil, but it was also far less messy and didn't require buying and then throwing away a ton of expensive oil. And after it was done, it looked pretty darn good!
After carving the roast beast, we set the table with all the yummies.
There was the turkey...
...and the stuffing muffins (with bacon) that my mom made...
...along with the requisite mandarin orange salad...
...some delightfully soft and tasty rolls...
...some noodles...
...and some mashed potatoes!
There was also some corn. It all looks so nice, and it was very nice to eat a Thanksgiving dinner with just my parents and Sidney.
With that, I started loading my plate with everything.
But then tragedy struck between the photo above and the photo below.
To the untrained eye, the plate full of food may look similar to the plate with just the stuffing muffin and potatoes. Unfortunately, they are not the same plate. I was holding the bowl of corn and attempting to scoop out some for myself. It was hot, and because it was so heavy, I had to grip it very tightly, which only increased the effect of the heat. I was trying to find a place to quickly set it down, and I think you can see where this is going, but I involuntarily dropped the heavy ceramic bowl full of corn directly on both my big plate and the smaller plate to the left. It goes without saying that the thick ceramic bowl was fine, but the antique family heirloom plates were utterly pulverized. I kind of just sat there in shock and in sadness, trying to figure out if what had just happened had actually happened or not. To my disappointment, I began to realize that it had indeed happened. But, such is life. Happily, there were many more sets of plates, so even though it was no longer a complete set, there were still enough sets to use. My parents (maybe a little foolishly) entrusted me with yet another set of the same heirlooms, and I very cautiously proceeded to refill my plate.
I got some apple cider to go with it all, and it ended up being a happy dinner. Maybe someday I can look back at the Thanksgiving when I broke all the plates and laugh.
Soon, though, my attention was shifted away from my destructive tendencies and toward Sidney's pie. It really was a thing of beauty.
The crust was perfectly crispy and flaky.
And the apples were perfectly spiced and sweetened.
A little ice cream...
...and a little whipped cream were the perfect compliments to a wonderful dessert.
All in all, it was a very nice and peaceful day with my family if you don't include the breaking of plates. We moved on and everything was alright. It was just a great day.
