Thanksgiving day, 2013. It was just Brian, Shawn and me. We hadn't had Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad for a while. When they first moved to Las Vegas, my family would go there for Thanksgiving and the parents would come here for Christmas. That worked for a while, until the year Mom ended up with pneumonia. Took her about 3-4 months to recover. They never came back to Detroit in the winter after that. We changed to going out there for Christmas. We'd celebrate Thanksgiving with Brian's family.
Last year changed even that. I was still using a walker and navigating the steps to Brian's mother's house was impossible. I fixed dinner with the help of my family. Looking back, I was pretty determined. I was trying to cook and I could barely stand for more than 5 minutes. Lol. I made stuffing, greens and jalapeño cornbread. Brian cooked a turkey! We were extremely renal safe. Which was fine, my numbers were high across the board.
Growing up, we'd alternate the holiday meals with us and my Aunt Imogene's family. Best memories ever! :-) I couldn't get enough of Aunt Imogene's sweet potatoes! We chuckled because even when us cousins were married, we still sat at the kids table. Lol. We were still the young folks. We even got militant about remaining there. Lol. The only new kid was Shawn, anyway. The Spinners, "Could It Be Im Falling In Love?" My favorite song by them. I knew a guy who'd play is bongos with this song.
Anyway years go by and things change. I learned how to make everything my mom made...except for the turkey. Have to check with my cousins to see if they've cooked a turkey. We were married, in our 30s and still hadn't tackled a holiday dinner ( and pretty proud of it-lol) Our moms weren't about to give that up. Lol. I've duplicated an entire meal and have had my inlaws over. One day I'll tell you about the Christmas dinner I had for 20 people. I can do it and do it well, but it's a lot of work. Whew!!
So my problem now is cooking for 3 people. For Thanksgiving this year I fixed the dressing on Wednesday. Brian peeled potatoes and the soaked overnight...(remember the potatoes are chock full of potassium. Soaking the potatoes "leeches" the potassium and makes them renal safe). On Thursday morning I started the vegetarian greens. The Brian made mac and cheese. I then started the potatoes and gravy. We got a small ham and turkey breast from Honey Baked Ham. We got rolls from Reen's and a caramel cake from Mrs Maddox. Yep. Way too much food. The cake is untouched. It looks like we tacked 1/8 th of the dressing, about 1/4 of the greens and potatoes and mac. Someone ate 1 roll. Lol. 2 circles of cranberry sauce served. Lots of ham and turkey left over. Lol. We could have had 4-6 people over and would have still had leftovers. Lol.
The good news is the meal was renal safe!!! And there was no salt shaker on the table. Woot!!! Now watch my math here. I'm allowed about a teaspoon of salt a day. I used the some salt while cooking. I used about a teaspoon in the greens and a teaspoon in the potatoes. BUT. Consider the portions. We're getting about 12 servings, at least out of each dish. So I'm getting 1/12 teaspoon of salt per serving. Now the mac and cheese has salt, but I'm not over salting because of portion contro!! And yeah, I had this discussion with my dietician. :-) "All Day Music", War. Is there a song that is more mellow than this? Lol. Everyone stops what they're doing and sits down to chill for 2 minutes and 38 seconds. Lol lol lol.
So now it's leftover time. Yay!! Oh yeah, I get to do it all over again for Christmas for Dad, except he gets potato salad and corn. Or whatever he wants. He'll have leftovers for a while!! <3. And yep, he got invited out for Thanksgiving. He called me from wherever he was. Sounded like folks were having a good time. :)
Time to sign off. My dialysis chair is nice and toasty. And think about my breakfast of leftovers when I get home. Lol. My tummy perked up. Have a fabulous day. Signing off with Jamie Foxx, "I Don't Need It". Did you know he was trained in classical piano? He can't be all bad. Lol.
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