Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating today with friends, family, loved ones, and their respective peculiar dates. Here in Canada, we already celebrated back in October (approximately two days after Canadian Christmas) but that didn’t stop me from enjoying a good old-fashioned American style Thanksgiving complete with football, sweet potato pie, and the traditional post-meal vow to eat nothing but fruit and vegetables for the next two days.
My day went something like this:
Watched the first game of the NFL triple-header. A great game marred by yet another ridiculous rule that saw the Houston Texans awarded a touchdown on a run that should have been blown dead at mid-field. Usually, all scoring plays are reviewed but because the opposing team’s coach threw a challenge flag on a “non-reviewable play” (even though all scoring plays ARE automatically reviewed), his team was penalized 15 yards AND the play was not reviewed. Why the hell not? Out of spite? I understand the need to penalize a coach for delay of game but his team is already losing 15 yards. By not reviewing a play that, in all other circumstances MUST be reviewed undermines the very point of having a replay system in place.
As much as I would love to lay the blame for the Lions’ loss on that bizarre rule, I have to give discredit where discredit is due. With the ball deep in Houston territory, the Lions coach calls two successive running plays, and then goes for the field goal…on third down! There wasn’t even an attempt to try and get the first down. Of course, the Lions ended up missing the field goal – and the Texans promptly marched down the field and kicked their own field goal. This one was good.
My buddies Ivon and Rob arrived for the second game of the double-header:
Ivon was in high spirits despite the fact that his team, The Running Dead, are a longshot to make our fantasy football league’s playoffs (for the second year in a row). There’s still faint hope but he’ll need to win his last two games – and hope some other teams suffer a loss or two. I’m rooting for him of course. It would be a pleasure to beat him in the post-season.
In keeping with the Thanksgiving theme, Rob baked a sweet potato pie. We served it up with our main course:
While we were at the butcher, I made the mistake of asking Akemi her thoughts on how many wings I should pick up per guy. She suggested five.
I ended up closer to 25. Had a hard time getting them to crisp up, roasting them in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes, then raising the temperature to 500, then switching the oven to broil, then raising the rack to its uppermost level which finally succeeded…in setting fire to the parchment paper beneath the wings.
In the end, the wings were unimpressive. But that sweet potato pie! My oh my! THAT was the highlight of the night:
We watched the second game of the double-header pitting the Dallas Cowboys against the Washington Redskins. Now either the Cowboys are VERY predictable or Rob and Ivon somehow managed to travel in time to watch the game in the future, and then return to the present in order to accurately predict that: a) The Cowboys would get blown out early and, b) Romo would engineer a comeback that would fall short by c) exactly three points!
It’s tough to be a Cowboys fan and, while I would normally sympathize with Rob, my Snow Monkeys are playing his Landsharks in fantasy football league play this weekend with a playoff berth on the line, so it was very hard to feel that sorry for him. Especially after the third game of the triple-header.
BUT before we took in the New York Jets/New England Patriots game, we had a little dessert compliments of Akemi:
While the first two games were entertaining and fairly close (in the end), the third game was an unwatchable disaster – unless you’re a Patriots fan or enjoy watching those old football follies collections NFL Films used to put out. Oh, the hapless Jets, bumbling and fumbling their way through a nationally televised stinker. At one point, Jets QB Mark Sanchez scrambled upfield – directly into the backside of one of his own offensive lineman, dropped, lost the football, and the Patriots defense ran it in for a touchdown.
(http://cinemagr.am/show/52952401)
It would have been downright hilarious if not for the fact that Rob was playing the Patriots D.
My buddy Lawren was a late arrival. By that point, the overall mood had already soured. My Snow Monkeys season was in jeopardy! Rob’s precious Cowboys had lost! One of Ivon’s starting WR’s had been lost to injury! And Akemi was disappointed her mousse didn’t turn out fluffier! Lawren, oblivious, ate reheated wings.
We ended the night by sending him off with some leftovers. Well, ALL the leftovers.
Thank you to everyone who forwarded me pics of their Thanksgiving feasts (check ’em out in the comments section). If YOU happen to have an leftover, you know were to send ’em!
Today’s entry is dedicated to Janet.
As a Pats fan, I was happy that we beat the Jets. To be honest though, I prefer it when the Pats can pound their opposing team by playing not merely decently, but when they demonstrate prowess on the field against a team that is playing well. I’d feel bad that they crushed the Jets… except that it was the Jets 😛
I think it’s great that the Pats scored more points in 52 seconds then the Jets did all game.. It shows just how far ahead they are in the AFC East. Though I am concerned about the loss of Edelman.. He has been on fire the last two games.
Lol I’m not big on football but I did watch the three games when my cousins came over. The games were definitely amazing, even the Patriots v Jets… Though I couldn’t help but feel really bad for the Jets and started to hope they would at least score more ><
They weren’t that good at calling the second game as a) Dallas getting blown out early and rallying just a bit short is fairly normal behaviour for them and b) more relevantly they lost by 7 not 3 🙂
All the thanksgiving food looks wonderful…and that pie…
I had to put up with fish and chips because we running late for the grocery shopping. Mind you, there’s nothing quite like chip-shop chips!
G’day Joe
Thanks for the dedication. I am able to talk a bit more about it now without bursting into tears and sobs.
I just cannot understand American Football (Gridiron), I sometimes watch a game, but the game confuses the heck out of me. Give me Aussie Rules any day.
Hey Joe, I was just doing some after Thanksgiving Day shopping online at Things from Another World, a comic book shop that I believe (but am not totally sure) is associated with Dark Horse. Anyway, I noticed that all four issues of Dark Matter are on sale for $1 each, plus $1 to bag and board all four. I thought you might like to alert your readers in case they want to pick up extra copies. Here’s the link: http://www.tfaw.com/Search?_results_use_stopwords=true&quick_sstring=dark+matter&_results_sstype_search=comics
Sorry, no leftovers! My parents are in their eighties & my sister & I are single so….. we joined 400 strangers @ the Cracker Barrel. Traditional turkey dinner with no dishes to wash. Nothing to complain about & parts of it were really good. I think next year I will insist on cooking if the dog will leave everybody alone & let them eat.
“a good old-fashioned American style Thanksgiving complete with football, sweet potato pie”
What, no special turkey parts like these?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/23/hundreds-flock-to-suburban-illinois-turkey-testicle-festival/?test=latestnews
Wow that was an impressive Thanksgiving dinner. Is Rob hiding his baking abiities? That pie looks yummy. Actually had some time to really catch up and read some comments. Akemi is too cute. She should be in pictures. Really.
@ Janet – keeping you in my prayers.
The food looked great but how ya feeling this morning?
I can see why you’d have difficulty with that kind of wing load on your oven. Big foodie + entertains often = needs an additional oven.
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You know how you have to toast the last of the French’s onions for your green bean casserole right before the dinner, right when oven space is at a premium?
Get this. Some freak happenstance of the way I transported the excess onions, spread on top of the foil over the hot, unfinished green bean casserole and with another hot dish stacked on top caused the French’s onions to toast on the drive to my sister’s. This is HUGE. This is a classic dilemma, repeated every year in millions of households, solved.
—
And I was the one who blurted out something jerky to my sister’s boyfriend over dinner. It would have been justified had I picked a more level playing field to bring it up. I get impatient.
Joe come get your pecan pie. It was not touched. Too much other desserts to try first. I would love Rob Cooper’s sweet potato pie recipe! That looks awesome. We had so much food it was too hard to pass around the table(s). We just took what was close to you then served others who were too far away. More like passing plates than food. I’m thinking buffet style next time. A great time was had by all, complete with a wild 2 year old, a crying baby, and another Cowboy loss. Lot’s of leftovers. What address should I sent them to?? 🙂
@ Janet – so sorry about the loss of your dad. You and your family are in my prayers.
Hey Joe, some Thanksgiving turkeys for you 🙂
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/pbugsmom/CodyNovember232012.jpg
I don’t get the point of chicken wings. They’re a hell of a lot of work for very little in return.
Cute pups Deni. 🙂
Haha sounds like people had fun. I had a slow few days personally, few days ago I had flu like symptoms, and quite quickly after posting on here ironically enough I speant ages in bed with Fever and extreme coldness(Quoting symptoms off wiki here), And Fatigue/Headaches, after getting some sleep I was feeling better, and needless to say over the next 48 hours I was improving.
Unsure why I didn’t get Flu in the end, I didn’t get the blocked nose stuff, had a brief cough and in the end wondered what I actually had. I’m pretty much 95 percent fine now though. Was fortunate having people here lol
Just scary how quickly an illness can suck the life out of you, not used to going from fine to pretty much having no energy at all.
i can spend weeks preparing a huge thanksgiving dinner enough to feed 20 and coordinate the travel and accommodations for many and days before the big event cook everything and feel great
but after two days with a wild 2 year old, i am exhausted
message to company: i love you but
go home
Does anyone know Santa’s email address? My kid sent him something on-line to ask when the elves arrive here and got a form letter 2 seconds later. As if a kid of the 21st century is going to be fooled by that.
@DP Does anyone know Santa’s email address?
Yup e-mail address is close to the bottom.
http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/santa/letterstosanta.jsf
K
What’s Rob recipe for the sweet potato pie? It looks like the yummiest I’ve ever seen!
Looks delicious.