When All Else Fails , Take the Oven Door Off

When All Else Fails Take the Oven Door Off

This was going to be the best Thanksgiving meal ever. Of course it was my very first Thanksgiving meal as a wife and mother and I wanted to impress not only the wary tastes buds of a microwave meal coinsure. I wanted redemption from the debacle that occurred between me and the crock pot several weeks prior. I had been creating recipes for this grand Thanksgiving meal with the help of Martha Stewart online and my own take on spices, flavors and what I know my husband will and will not like.

The night before Thanksgiving, I prepped the turkey in brine that smells so good, if I had a biscuit to dip into the fragrant solution I would have, although it is disgusting to slurp on hot water seasoned with onion, pepper, brown sugar and fragments of raw giblets floating around. The next morning I got up around 6am and turned on the oven to get it preheated and ready to go. I pulled out the turkey and removed it from the brine, layered in the roasting pan and there it was. The turkey, not yet cooked but beaming with all its tan brine glory. I even decided to make it more interesting by placing sliced apples inside and around the bird.

Once I knew the oven was at the right temperature; I opened the door and it was as if I could hear the angels of holiday kitchen past producing angelic sounds of turkey glory and praise; and then the record is cut off. As I went to close the oven, the door would not shut completely. I began to frantically slide the roasting pan from side to side, trying repeatedly to close the oven door with no avail. It got to the point that patient husband hear my cry of "bad words that only mommy and daddy say" and he came into to assist.

" So what's wrong , did you drop something?, he asked, considering our kitchen is so small that we utilize the top of our washer as a counter top also, and usually something falls off onto the floor when we are prepping food.

"No, I said with a defeated voice, remembering the phone call I got concerning my crock pot gone bad beef stew incident. There I was on my way to evening class and I made the call to my husband to check in and patiently wait for the praise of a lifetime from my excellent beef stew. Instead, I got a very confused and somewhat scared tone. So how is everything", I asked expecting to hear that the baby is fine and the stew is great.

" Yeah, the baby is sleeping but, um, what is this potatoes stuff floating around in the pot I paused for a minute, questioning the ingredients that I threw into the crock pot. Beef check, tomatoes check, bag of mixed veggies, check, a cup of flour, oh no. As I began to try to explain to my husband that the potatoes he saw floating around is actually the cup of flour I dumped into the crock pot, I knew that I just ruined my first mom meal on the go for my husband.

As my husband tried to make the oven door shut, he noticed that the latch was not catching so her gathered his tools and began taking the door off to repair the malfunctioning latch. Once he was done, he took the turkey out the oven and tried closing the oven door and indeed it did. I was happy and excited that this turkey was going to be cooked and maybe I haven't ruined my fantasy of how I envisioned our first Thanksgiving meal together. I handed the turkey back to my husband and he placed the roasting pan and it did not close. Then he turned the pan sideways and the door closed perfectly. We looked at each other and laughed. The latch was not at fault when it came to the oven door not shutting. Basically, I had the bird in the oven positioned the wrong way, the whole time. Needless to say, my Thanksgiving meal fantasy did not exactly play out the way I wanted it to but it was a memorable one that brought about a great lesson. Before grabbing your power tools just turn the turkey to the side.