DIVA DISASTER - A WEBER THANKSGIVING

Good Afternoon dear Chefs..

It was Thanksgiving 1996 and a horrible snowstorm reared it's ugly head just the day before.  I was expecting 23 dinner guests.  The menu was Thanksgiving customary.  Turkey and all the trimmings; potatoes, vegetables and dessert.  Everything was prepped the night before.  Stuffing made and refrigerated, potatoes peeled, vegetables cleaned and ready to go; I had baked two pumpkin pies that night, since I knew my oven would be occupied to at least 2:00 p.m. the next day.  The turkey was washed, dried and salted, wrapped in towels and refrigerated.  The refrigerator was packed with barely enough room to close the door.  Everything was ready to go. 

The night was ueventful, weather-wise; the snow eased, but you can hear the wind howling in the darkness throughout the night.  My day started at 5 a.m. I preheated my oven, stuffed the bird, washed dishes and put the turkey in the oven. 

Now my Thanksgivings are quite traditional, but over the years I added my own traditions, separate of the meal itself.  At 9 a.m., the family tunes into the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and I head out to Walgreens for their pre-Black Friday sale. 

When I return home, I find everyone just sitting around with the TV off.  A little over an hour had passed, since I left and I was wondering why the parade wasn't on.  I learn that the power had gone out and has been out since I left.  OMG!!  My oven.  My turkey.  The power outage effected several hundred homes in the area and there was no repair in site.  I have 23 people to feed in less than 4 hours and my beautiful bird had another two hours to go.  The refrigerator remained cold, but still all that food had to be removed and made.  I had no idea how I would salvage this meal or how to accomodate all these people without lights, heat or a flushing toilet. 

Then it hit me...I'll use the grill.  I got the grill going.  I proceeded to carve the turkey in its semi-cooked state, removing all the meat from the bones and creating a platter to take outside with me.  I started boiling water on the side burner for the stringbeans and the potatoes were quartered, the mushrooms remained whole and I cut up some onion to make kabobs, alternating the two types of potatoes, with mushrooms and onions in between.  I was outside for the better part of two hours, freezing, trying to cope with the bulkiness of a winter coat.  I put the stuffing into an aluminum pan and set that on the grate next to the turkey.  The stuffing was already cooked and just needed a good warming.  I mixed some of the juices from the turkey pan with a can of turkey gravy, thickened it a little and got that warming to serve as gravy.  The turkey was cooking nicely and as it was coming off the grill, it went onto a divided platter to separate the dark from white meat.  As each dish was done, everything was wrapped in heavy aluminum foil to retain its heat and placed inside the still warm oven. 

Guests began to arrive and were told about the power outage.  We accomodated everyone, with very little discomfort.  I was asked about the food and told them what I did to salvage the meal.  They were appreciative and joked how they never had barbecue for Thanksgiving.  Yeah, me either....

Knowing what I know now and how much stress went into pulling this off, if there is ever a next time, my guests will be joking about having Chinese for Thanksgiving.  

Until next time.....love and good eats to all of you!!