Thanksgiving trials and tribulations

Would you BELIEVE?? all that Thanksgiving Stuff, and NO PICTURES !!

We have been rather busy these last few days, what with shopping, cooking, etc. But also, on Wed. at 5:00 they delivered my new STOVE-, so we had to pull the old one out- which meant we had to cut the cabinets, as well, and clean the living daylights out of the old greasy mess behind, and under it !!

For the first time in 7 years, I was completely aware of the temperature of my OVEN !

That part of my old oven has been on the fritz for quite awhile, causing me to have to rely on a separate thermometer to tell me the oven temp. ! NOT FUN !

Well, anywho, I got most of the dishes prepared ahead of time, and got the electric turkey cooker out from the basement, to cook the 21 pounder in, and had the house pretty well cleaned and polished ! By the time the kids, and siblings began to arrive, the babies took precidence, and it's kinda chaotic from that point on, SO you better have it all pretty well organized at that point, or FORGET IT ! Everything went smoothly, until it was time for the GRAVY, which is pretty much the most important part of the meal to my husband, Buster, and I'm not sure how this happened, but I didn't have enough flour !! Imagine that, with all the stuff going on, I didn't even think to check for something as simple as that..... I scoured every corner of the pantry, looking for a little rolled up bag with 1/2 cup or so, but NONE was to be found... My next thought was running to the neighbor, but no, that would take too long. My sister suggested cornstarch and water mixture, but that really wasn't going to work, since I was making a rue.

One little word of warning, DON'T EVER SPRINKLE CORNSTARCH INTO A RUE, OR YOU'LL HAVE A DISASTER ! It started looking very weird, and clumping up, I paniced !, and ran for the strainer, to get out the offending ingredient..... the first one I grabbed was plastic, and melted, with the center completely disappearing, as soon as the hot liquid hit it. The second one was metal, and I fared much better, scooping, and separating the hard little critters from what I could salvage from the pan......Anyway, I rescued most of it, and added my drippings, and came up with what would pass as a pretty decent gravy............ hooray!

Long story, Short, I NEVER EVEN GOT THE CAMERA OFF OF MY DRESSER ! Shame, shame, OH WELL, There's always Next YEAR !!!!!!