Turkey Cake – I’ll tell mine if you tell yours?

So how WAS your Thanksgiving??  Do you have dishes that you serve year after year, or do you just wing it?  I hope you had a good time with whomever you celebrated with.

I have a retail/ food industry family for the most part so we never have a complete family Thanksgiving on the actual holiday, but I am so happy that those who could make it came to MY house!  🙂

I got the kiddos involved and they needed a little prodding to make a choice, but they each decided what they wanted to make for Thanksgiving.

Ethan made chocolate mousse.  I’m sure it had nothing to do with the love he has for chocolate.  (He’s just like his daddy! 🙂 )

He has so much to learn, but he LOVES to cook.  He shows a great interest in food and learning about all the different ways to prepare it.

Taylor decided to make her own cranberry sauce.  Last year we made Kim’s Grand Marnier Cranberry Sauce, which I highly recommend, but Taylor was set on making her own.  She did an excellent job!  Laced with orange, rosemary and thyme it was a perfect addition to our plates!

I made homemade gingersnaps for Kita’s Spiced Mini Pumpkin Pies (not pictured) and oh boy was it good!  I highly recommend that recipe as well!  I did substitute the pumpkin for squash since that’s what I had on hand and it was delicious!

The bread was perfect.  Homemade artisan bread, country bread and custom homemade bread with herbs for the stuffing…

By now I might have you thinking that our dinner was perfect, timely and we burst into random song and choreographed dance.  If I let you think that, so many people would feel as if their family is “weird” for all the things that happen to “normal” families on holidays.

The turkey finished three hours ahead of schedule, the potatoes were cold, the green bean casserole was WATERY and very un-flavorful, the stove caught fire and two smoke alarms went off.

In the midst of grabbing handfuls of my precious flour, which I am almost out of at this point, and trying to help my other half put out the fire I walked down the hall to check on the smoke alarms and I see Ethan fanning the smoke detector in the closest bedroom and Andy fanning the smoke alarm in the hallway.  Behind Andy is Taylor yelling to the guys that they aren’t doing it right or the noise would stop…

Mom is sitting down with a cup of tea asking if everything is ok, my dad is sitting in my desk chair asking me if I have a minute because he wants to show me the pictures on his memory card.

Dinner was nearly three hours late and the gravy was watery…but flavorful!

[SIGH!]

Although my friends and family come to me for recipes, cooking tips, baking advice, yadda,yadda…we have Thanksgivings like this.  And do you know what?  I’d do it again.

The part that mattered is that we were together to share in the mayhem.  It isn’t about food so beautiful it should be in a magazine, and that’s such a relief because there was none of that going on!  No fine china, in fact I didn’t even have a chance to put down the tablecloth hahaha.

My kitchen still has a sinkful of dishes from the other night too.  We must have a lot of dishes because I keep going to the cupboards and there is plenny in there!

With what leftovers you can salvage, you might want to try and make something unordinary with them.  You know, to match Thanksgiving! 🙂

This Turkey Cake is going to be a yearly tradition, I think.  Last year I made it and I even blogged about it but I wanted to re-share it because I did make it again.  It’s part of tradition now! 🙂

By now my family is used to me and my love for things that are…different.

Layers of turkey and stuffing make the “cake” layers, while the mashed potatoes act as the frosting.  Spread the cranberry sauce atop this beaut and you have yourself a turkey cake!  I adapted the recipe to fit our food preferences. 🙂

In the photos above is my rendition of this recipe for turkey cake.  Have you ever made this before?

By the way, our gravy thickened up in the fridge overnight and reheated it was the perfect taste and consistency.  I couldn’t help but laugh as I poured some on my cake!  How ironic, it’s never thick enough the first time.  Even though all through the year every other gravy is perfection there is something about a holiday dinner that inspires those little imperfections. 😉

I am thankful that I have the spirit to focus on my love for my family and not making everything look and taste perfect.  My family is what matters.  Screw perfection.  I flaunt imperfection.  I just wish I were able to show you pics of all the mayhem.

What one thing stood out in your mind this Thanksgiving?

Do you have a dedicated video recorder person who has the responsibility of making sure they capture holiday events?