Saturday, November 16, 2024
TRUE STORY - HIS WIFE'S FIRST THANKSGIVING DINNER
Since Thanksgiving is approaching, I remembered something from my past:When I was stationed at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, in 1983, for Polish, my friend, John Jenkins, a fellow army sergeant told me about his Thanksgiving experience.
His mother and father were visiting him and his new wife, whom they had never really met. She was hoping to impress them with a full-scale Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey....which she had never cooked before.
In fact, her cooking skills were next to nil.
Thanksgiving morning, she prepared the bird, turned on the oven, and put the bird in. She had carefully read the directions and expected it to be ready for dinner.
Come dinner time the bird had not even begun to brown.
Everybody snacked their way along, checking the bird from time to time. Despite the obvious fact that the oven was on, the bird did not seem to be cooking.
Finally, the young wife gave in and asked her mother-in-law for help.
After checking everything John's mom figured out the problem. The oven was set just barely above "Warm".
When John's wife was told how high the temperature should have been, she told them that she had been following the directions, which said the temperature should be about 160 degrees, and, since their oven didn't even go that low she had just set it asl low as she could.
Not sure who got to explain to the new cook that that was supposed to be the INTERNAL temperature, but, that you needed a much hotter oven to accomplish that.
I'm sure nobody's ever had a similar experience, hmmmmm?
Oh well. Everybody's got to learn sometime.
Labels: dinner, donovan baldwin, Thanksgiving
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Thanksgiving
By Donovan Baldwin
It's a little hard, sometimes, to see things to be thankful for.
There's a lot going on in my life that tends to take some of the edge off.
However, I have a home that hasn't been flooded. No suicide bombers are likely to interfere directly with my peace and tranquility. I know where my next meal is coming from and will sleep in a soft bed tonight. I am in excellent health, and, even though I am 60, come from a long line of long-lived people...most of whom also enjoyed excellent health. In fact, a great many of my aunts, uncles, etc., are still alive and doing fairly well. I am not rich, but have a regular income and it will continue for my remaining years.
I am also stuffed with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, etc. (we had Thanksgiving one day early because both daughters had to work on Thanksgiving day).
I guess I've got it pretty good after all. For those of you that are wondering, by the way, I will eventually get around to wrting about writing and poetry, and stuff like that.
It's a little hard, sometimes, to see things to be thankful for.
There's a lot going on in my life that tends to take some of the edge off.
However, I have a home that hasn't been flooded. No suicide bombers are likely to interfere directly with my peace and tranquility. I know where my next meal is coming from and will sleep in a soft bed tonight. I am in excellent health, and, even though I am 60, come from a long line of long-lived people...most of whom also enjoyed excellent health. In fact, a great many of my aunts, uncles, etc., are still alive and doing fairly well. I am not rich, but have a regular income and it will continue for my remaining years.
I am also stuffed with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, etc. (we had Thanksgiving one day early because both daughters had to work on Thanksgiving day).
I guess I've got it pretty good after all. For those of you that are wondering, by the way, I will eventually get around to wrting about writing and poetry, and stuff like that.
Labels: donovan baldwin, life, Thanksgiving
