Now, my ridiculous cheese plate notwithstanding, our Thanksgiving is very low key. But as I sat on the sofa yesterday being intensely grateful for the day off work, it hit me how much mental energy goes into the holiday. And if you're still feeling a bit knackered even today - IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE, YOU DID A LOT OF BRAINING THIS WEEK.
Here's all the stuff I had to think about for Turkey Day. This isn't an "oh poor me" - just pointing out all the thinking time there is - and this is just a meal for two people, and we eat in the living room off cute Thanksgiving themed paper platters.
Menu planning. Now, usually there are zero changes, but I have to have a quick conversation every year with my brother as to any add/drops and he has to remind me that cranberry sauce has to be on the list. (I never eat it, and always forget about it.)
Planning the shopping itself for the sides and whatnot. Early to get it out of the way? Late to try and hope for a sale and that everything is in stock? Small bits at a time to not have one huge grocery bill?
Finding the turkey. Before I started ordering the turkey from the butcher shop, I had to plan out the right day to go find it, and knowing I would likely have to hit multiple shops to find the right size - I'd also have to plot out the the best route from store to store so I wasn't zig-zagging all over my zip code. (Dropping that has been fantastic - the last year before I started ordering it ahead of time, I went to SEVEN stores.)
Then there is the "week of" planning - what can be done Wednesdsay, what needs to be done Thursday morning, what do I need to do mid-day, what time do I have to get up?
Once I picked up the turkey on Wednesday and knew the weight, then it's plotting out all the timing on Thursday. Now, because we accidentally ended up with a pre-seasoned turkey* I could at least cut out the "when to get up to get the ice and get the brine going" calculations. Then there is "if the turkey is 11 pounds and we want to eat around 7 and it needs to rest 20-30 minutes and carving takes about 5 minutes and a train leaves Chicago going 80 miles an hour at 9AM, the turkey needs to get started at 3PM" math. And don't forget the oven pre-heat time. And then when the turkey is resting, gotta plot the order of operations of get the rolls in, get the water boiling on the stuffing and potatoes, get the gravy hot.
I had a fucking spreadsheet, people.
Then one everyone happily eats, don't forget to keep track of the time to get the leftovers put away so they're still safe to eat.
And thank goodness we don't do anything special with the leftovers beyond just eating the turkey straight from the fridge (me) or making sandwiches (my brother.) I cannot fathom trying to figure out interesting things to do with the leftover turkey.
So yeah, if you're sitting about this lovely Saturday still going, "Whew, what a week!" - it's absolutely understandable - get that rest.
* Best mistake ever, it was fantastic, and I'm doing that again next year on purpose.
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