Thanksgiving Disasters

This Thanksgiving was definitely off kilter. It started last night when I attempted to bake a walnut spice applesauce cake to take to the Aunts today. Perhaps it was my interpretative apportion of applesauce and eggs but when I inverted the cake on the cooling rack, it looked..off.

I let it cool. When I got up this morning to frost and embellish it, I immediately saw that I had a disaster at hand. Three quarters of the cake were beautiful yet the very center had recessed like a crater on Jupiter as viewed from space. What up?!

I trimmed the edges in order to cobble together a creative shape (using icing as a spackle of sorts). but the cake's consistency was so uneven that I was nervous about it. I didn't want to serve half-cooked cake batter to uber-geriatrics so in the end I trashed the entire cake. I hate to waste food but I also don't want to poison old people (I still remember the mango debacle from earlier in the year).

It feels strange to go to the holiday dinner without a dessert in hand. Fang had brought a plethora of fruit in order to make a fruit salad but I suspect there was disappointment I hadn't brought my usual dessert offerings. I'll make up for it on Christmas; I'm already planning to whip up a "buche de noel".

The Aunts decided to cater the holiday feast this year. The foodstuffs arrived in sealed packages and were duly reheated. The turkey was curious; upon tasting it, it seemed processed and most un-breast-like. The stuffing was gooey. The potatoes were bland. In comparison the medley of root vegetables boiled by the Aunts themselves were tasty. I used copious amounts of gravy.

When it came to dessert, there was an option at hand. The caterer had sent a frozen pumpkin pie to Basia and she cooked it last night. Whilst cooking, it had apparently smelled so good that she had decided to taste it. With a spoon. She demolished the pie. When it was served up today, it looked like a spoonful of mottled custard. Aunt Stella was practically traumatized--some Entenmann's coffee cake had to be brought out of the cupboard to offset the pile of pie.

It was a perfect Thanksgiving disaster.

Did I add that The Aunts had the temperature in their house at a toasty 87 degrees? Old people fear the cold so they are generous with their heat. I was stripped down to my bare essentials in order to wash the dishes. And you know that ain't pretty.

Yeah, we're some pioneers. How was your day?