EAT TACOS!!

This was my advice to everyone yesterday.  I should have followed it myself.  It's been a long time since I've felt the pain of eating WAY too much food.  My eyes are always bigger than my stomach.   

Here's my naked turkey.  Pretty sad looking with butter stuffed under the skin.  I think I mentioned this is NOT a Butterball turkey.

This year the Elks Lodge went with turkeys from Target for their volunteer giveaway.  Target makes nice and only charges us $.99 a pound.  No one else in the country is that cheap!!  Never look a free turkey in the mouth ... or wherever.

Looky here!!!  He turned out beautifully browned with a nice crunchy skin.  You can't go wrong with this huge roasting pan I inherited.  It's probably cooked hundreds of turkeys. 

Once the turkey was out, I went to making gravy.  Of all the things on the Thanksgiving table, mashed potatoes smothered in this gravy is my all time favorite.  It doesn't always turn out, but on this day it was perfect!!  I even surprised myself.

This however ... THIS describes my cooking better than anything I can say.  Cooper got the first bite of turkey.  He unceremoniously spit it out on the floor.  ARE YOU KIDDING???  Is it really THAT BAD?  Yes, yes it was.

How can I share with you the flavor.  If you have ever had a nice grain-fed fillet mignon from a steak house, then had a piece of grass fed beef, you will just know.  The difference in texture and flavor is incredible.  Incredibly BAD that is.  This was definitely a grass fed turkey.  It was tough, though juicy, but the flavor was awful.

No matter, I smothered it in gravy and ate it.  I'm surely not going to waste all that meat.  I dove in to the homemade bread and cornbread dressing.  Oh my gosh it was WONDERFUL!!  Best dressing I've ever eaten, and nothing is better in my book than mashed potatoes smothered in gravy.  I even stuck in two Kings Hawaiian rolls.  The salad had apples and cranberries, but got completely overshadowed by the rest of dinner.

Naturally, I ate WAY too much.  I didn't even pull out the key lime cheesecake, nor did I eat dinner.  No worries, I've got breakfast, lunch and dinner covered for the two weeks!!

You're not going to believe this ... I even used my dishwasher.  I think it's been several years since it was turned on.  It ran for three hours and I didn't care.  Sadly however, I had to scrub that roasting pan in the too small sink and knocked my all time favorite Maui coffee cup to the floor.  Coffee will never be the same again.

Thank you everyone for the pumpkin pie advice ... I'll be making two pies today, cutting them in half and freezing them.  

And thank you to all the hubbies out there who gave me advice on my truck shocks.  Noble Sports recommended Bilstein shocks all around for the same price as the other shop.  I've never had a truck more than ten years, so fixing this stuff has never been in question.  

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving with friends and family.  My "kids" enjoyed the food .... well except for the turkey ... and the company.  It was a GREAT day!!!