It’s been five years since I started this blog. Five years!
And it’s been five years since I shared my story from Thanksgiving 2013 that recounted one of the more challenging episodes in my kitchen career. We don’t call our house Hectic Mansion without a really good reason. As I reread that blog post, I discovered all sorts of typos and poor writing…but rather than edit away the errors and polish the corners, I’m going to leave it as is. You know, like a slightly used antique that has more character because of the blemishes. Of course, the other reason I’m not going to edit the post is I simply don’t have time. Sorry, but that’s the truth!
That series of blog posts started me on my blogging journey…and I’ve enjoyed it over the years. My biggest problem has been being consistent at getting posts out the door. It’s just like everything else in life…it’s hard to keep at something for really long periods of time, especially things that take time.
Holiday meals are kind of the same thing. They’re a ton of work. The three biggest holiday celebrations here at Hectic Manor are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. While the last one has dwindled a bit, being somewhat supplanted by Super Bowl Sunday, it’s still a big undertaking. Putting all three of those within a four to five week period right at the end of the year adds a lot of complexity to life.
It’s that whole Hectic-thing.
But honestly, I love having the family together. Whomever can make it to the house is welcome, and our crowds range from a dozen up to nearly 100. Yeah, one hundred!
That means a lot of cooking and a ton of preparation. And as the sole cook in the house, I’ve got a lot of work that I have to do. Sure, the kids and Hectic Mom help out with baking…but when it comes to most of the components for a holiday meal, that falls to me.
And of course, everybody has their holiday favorites. The kids have certain foods that they really like and I love to prepare them. Of course, this creates a somewhat odd mish-mash of foods for our holiday meals, but I’ve gotten pretty good at stretching the foods out over a couple of days so we’re not too far off the beaten path of traditional meals.
Because we have so many family favorites, the kids recommended that I put together a list of the recipes that I use so they’ll have them for posterity. I know they don’t trust me to share them any other way…but I’m ignoring that fact. I’m just going with my thought that I might as well share them with as many people as possible. Oh, and having all eight kids hit the blog multiple times to get particular recipes doesn’t hurt my readership numbers (or ego) too much either.
Yeah, I’m a bit of a mercenary that way…gotta get the blog numbers up any way I can. LOL
But seriously, we’ve got a mess of dishes that we make every year, and if you’re anything like me, looking through somebody else’s list helps me come up with a new thing or two to try. Sure, we love our consistency for holiday meals, but they can’t be exactly the same every year…can they?
At least they can’t around me!
So here’s a list of the Tried-and-True Hectic Clan Thanksgiving Recipes. Enjoy!
Sausage-based Poultry Stuffing
Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes
Homemade Turkey Gravy from Drippings
Old-School Baked Sweet Potatoes
Roasting a Whole Turkey
Stuffing a Turkey
Turkey Roasting Times
Traditional Green Bean Casserole
Easy Fruit Salad
Diabetic-friendly Cranberry Sauce
Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie