The GoldilocksTurkey, Kith and Kin

Goldilocks went shopping for Thanksgiving.

The first turkey she came upon was 8 lbs.  "Oh my! This bird will not do, it is too small."  So she left it in the freezer case.

The next turkey she found was 18 lbs.  "Oh my! This bird will not do, it is way, way too big."  So Goldilocks left that turkey in the freezer case also.

Then Goldilocks found a 12 lb turkey.  "Oh joy!  This bird is just right."  So she (and all her sisters) lifted the 12 lb turkey out of frozen display case and took it to the cashier to buy it - thus emptying the entire selection of middle of the road turkeys.  [Yes.  These 'middle-of-the-road' sized turkeys never did make it across to the other side of the proverbial road]

We went shopping after Goldilocks.  We found plenty of turkeys that were too small, or way, way too big.  But the case where a 12 pound bird would be "just right", was empty.  "Ha!  Somebody has been shopping for my turkey and she bought all the 10-12 pounders, leaving nothing for me, cried the baby bear."

A recheck of the store a day later showed that birds had been restocked.  With the selection of a 12 pound bird, we were set to host son Grant (home from college for a few days), nephew Brian (2 weeks away from finishing post-grad college here in Dallas at UT Southwestern Medical School), and friend Jeff.  That makes a table of five.

I was in charge of the cornmeal yeast rolls.  I did not use enough yeast in the batch made the night before.  So I had a do-over on Thursday morning.  Otherwise, the turkey roasted nicely and on schedule, the citrus cranberry relish, the bread stuffing, the mash potatoes, the green beans and the sweet potatoes all turned out "just right".

The pecan and pumpkin pies turn out more than just right.

12 lb Turkey makes it into the oven on time

My little sweet potato

Grant was back on the road to Columbia, MO (635 miles) by mid-afternoon in order to be able to attend his final Mizzou football game the following day [Univ of Missouri was victorious over the Arkansas Razorbacks, 21-14]

Grant gets a pecan pie for the road back to Missouri

Sue's brother Bill and his wife Susan, opted for family Thanksgiving feast in Wichita Falls; but would join us the following day to tour Dallas.

Any meat scraps for the dog?
Strider looks for some counter-top goodies - but please, NO gibblets