I can’t have a party at Thanksgiving time without turkey so I bought two at WalMart and started picking up ingredients a couple weeks ahead of time. I cooked the turkeys and took the meat off the bone and froze it and then cooked the carcas with vegetables to make a turkey broth for the dressing and to put with the turkey when I reheated it to keep it moist.
I decided to do turkey and dressing, camote (sweet potatoes) a mixed salad with lots of stuff and cranberry sauce. I had to make a trip to Mayca for a bag of frozen cranberries. As an appetizer I did Ritz crackers with egg salad and Honey crackers with peanut butter and guayaba/strawberry jam. Dessert was Cocoa Krispie bars and a banana bar that is very much like budín or bread pudding.
Tuesday Ligia and Jeannette and Emilio came to decorate the deck. It looks quite wonderful. Thursday Jose was coming to put the tent canopy up by the deck. Adrian was having the yard cut and was bringing me all his extra chairs. All of a sudden things changed.
Ligia’s brother died from a heart attack on Wednesday so I had to work in a funeral on Thursday. And, it has been raining so much my yard is full of puddles and soggy. I messaged Jeannette saying I was concerned about having the party here and could we have it at the Senior Center. She said yes so Jose came Thursday afternoon and we moved everything except the hot food. We picked up Jeannette and took everything to the Center. She and her granddaughter stayed and decorated and I came home to cook the camote. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do as they don’t have an oven at the Center, just burners. What I decided to do was put the dressing, which was cooked and I might say very good, back in the crockpot so I could keep it plugged in to heat up. The camote I put in a stockpot and put it on a very low heat at the Center. The turkey I put in a turkey pan, put the broth on it and covered it with tinfoil. I put it in the oven for about an hour and when Jose came I wrapped it up good in heavy fabric. I ended up reheating it a bit on low on a burner but there was lots of liquid so it didn’t dry out. A little more inconvenient than expected but it all worked out.
AND it was all a tremendous hit. Of the 28 people there, 15 had never had turkey before. They loved the dressing which had dried bread cubes I made from loaves of French bread, rice, chicken, chorizo, onions, carrots, celery, apples and the homemade turkey broth. They couldn’t get over the camote because it is different than the way they fix it. Even the salad was different. Lettuce, tomatoes, palmetto, cheese and my pickled cucumbers, carrots, onions and sweet peppers. I even was asked for recipes. It could not have been a better compliment. Beverages were a guayaba refresco and Sangria. To make the refresco easy I had cooked and blended and strained the guayaba. It got thinned a bit more and sugar added for a good fruit drink. I didn’t try the sangria but they said it was really good.
Let’s see, what else. I brought fruit from my trees and I filled 6 Christmas stockings with little gifts to use for bingo prizes. The flower decorations they did for the deck are now on the tables at the Center. I was prayed over and given wonderful gifts. I was called family and felt like it.
Next party will be here December 12th with all the Chicas Buenas. Hopefully the rain will stop by
then.
My gifts. The sun and moon and a chicken and egg and a chicken towel.
In a cramped area but this will give you an idea how the blanket is coming along.
The Senior Center
The stocking winners
No comments:
Post a Comment