Who had the worst Thanksgiving meal?

[DukeSoprano]

17 relatives here, our electric oven died mid turkey!!!!
I called my buddy down the street and he cranked up his oven as I raced the 1/2 cooked bird to him.
The broiler part still worked so all the softball sized rolls, I watched them brown on top then flipped them over with tongs to brown the bottoms.
We ate dessert first and everyone thought it should be our new tradition!

[Crash_Corrigan]

Back in '88 we were living in Vermont in a log cabin on 10.5 acres of land. We sold the house and we moved into a 30' travel trailer. We had the movers come and take most of our stuff to New Mexico a few days later and we closed the deal on the house. While adjusting to the trailer thanksgiving came around and we were just too tired out from all the packing and moving experience that we just decided to forgo a big thanksgiving feast and we drove to a nearby town and went to a restaurant for dinner.

It would be our best thanksgiving ever. The food was fantastic and the service wonderful. No dishes to wash and no leftovers to pack away. The next morning we embarked on a cross country drive hauling our 30' trailer behind our new GM Jimmy 4x4. My wife was suffering with a pair of deterioated discs and her doctor suggested moving to a warmer and drier climate. This jaunt took 3 weeks and we finally ended up in Littlefield TX at her brothers house. We parked the trailer in the drive and used it for our bedroom and we had a 2 week visit. Reluctantly on 1/1/89 we left for Albuquerque NM.

During our journey there was some nasty winter weather which we outwaited in various places. There was a rest stop near Scranton PA that we stayed in for 48 hours while a snowstorm made driving impossible. Another 48 wait in Little Rock AR as an ice storm closed down all the roads. Then there were a few days spent in various KOA camgrounds when the wife's back was really bad and she needed to rest. WE had no timetable only a destination. All in all it was a great experience. I had wanted to travel the Smokey Mountain Highway but I failed to fill my gas tank until after we got on the narrow highway. Shortly I realized my mistake and we had to perform a U turn on a highway while dragged around a overloaded 30' trailer. It was very tough.

When the deed was finally done there were some apoligies made on both sides for the screaming and yelling that accompanied the task. WE made it just my inches............. Finally we arrived in NM and found ourselves in a KOA campground on the East side of town. WE lived in that trailer for a year and we sold it in '89. WE finally left NM in '93 for Las Vegas where we both found decent jobs and we rented a house. We are still there happy as clams.

[Idaho45guy]

17 relatives here, our electric oven died mid turkey!!!!
I called my buddy down the street and he cranked up his oven as I raced the 1/2 cooked bird to him.
The broiler part still worked so all the softball sized rolls, I watched them brown on top then flipped them over with tongs to brown the bottoms.
We ate dessert first and everyone thought it should be our new tradition!

A section of town here lost power at about 1pm on Thanksgiving day. I can imagine some of the panicked folks who still had some time left to cook the bird...

[Idaho45guy]

While we're sharing Thanksgiving disaster stories...

When I got divorced and moved up to Idaho from Arizona a few years ago, my then-single brother and I began a tradition of going down to the family cabin about an hour away and cook our own Thanksgiving meal and shoot a bunch of guns.

One year, we decided to try smoking the bird. We had an old cheap smoker that we had never used and decided to try it out. We smoked the turkey for about 3 hours after first soaking it in a salt-water brine for 24 hours to thaw it out and season it. It looked perfect. On the outside...

Attachment 230933

Then we stuck it in the oven and kept monitoring the interior temp to make sure it was thoroughly cooked. By the time it was done and safe to eat, the skin of that bird was ready to make boots out of! I'd never seen such an awful looking Thanksgiving turkey!

Attachment 230934

But the meat was actually very, very good! I'm not a fan of smoked meats, but my brother loved it and thought it was the most delicious turkey he'd ever had.

So we continued to smoke a turkey the next couple of years, until he met his future wife... Now our short-lived tradition is no more, but I will always remember how awful those smoked turkeys looked.

[Wag]

Whenever I smoke a turkey, they look horrible, but the skin forms a bag of sorts and the meat is the best, most tender I've ever had on a turkey. The first one I ever did was the best on. When I opened up the smoker and saw it, my heart sank because we had 25 people on the way for dinner. We had knows the smoked bird wasn't going to be enough and we had the foresight to put another one in the oven. The problem was, we had sized them together to have enough and one bird wasn't going to cut it.

Anyhoo, I could hear the juices sizzling in the skin and I just had to look.

We put it in a deep turkey roasting pan and cut into it and the juices just spilled out into the pan in a flood. I've never seen that much dripping from any bird, large or small. The smokey scent was delicious. I started cutting away the skin and found the most perfectly colored and flavored meat underneath it.

We made gravy from the drippings and as it happens, of course, the smoked bird was completely consumed and very little of the other bird was even touched unless it had a ton of gravy all over it! Best T-Day bird I've ever had, before or since.

Over the next couple of days, we took the leftover oven baked bird, made more gravy from the massive quantity of drippings from the smoked turkey and made about 30 or 40 turkey pot pies with it. They freeze just perfectly so it was a hit for a couple more weeks.

I've tried to replicate it since then but still can't get it just right.........

Ahhhh, the memories!

--Wag--

[Hardcast416taylor]

Several years back when I was confined in a hospital with blood clots over the turkey day I can tell you that the `dinner` I was served was probably of lesser quality than convict food at Sing Sing! This year at home we just had a simple meal of roast turkey breast and a few sides that we enjoy among the 4 of us. No little kids tearing up the house or relatives that want to pick a verbal fight upsetting everybody, thank you very much.Robert

[whistlersmother]

Well, compared to all, ours was pretty typical. I deep fry 2 chickens and a turkey each year. My wife and her family eat Asian food, chicken included, but not so much turkey.

This year I over-estimated frying time and over-cooked the turkey. Inside was good, but some parts of the skin I put on the bottom of my boots to fill some holes.

Still got another in the freezer - won't mistake over-cooking that one.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[RP]

I think sooner or later we will all have a bad holiday if you have not had one yet its on the way. No bad how bad one is I try to make the best out of it spend time with family and let all the little things that bug me go to the way side. I am never able to eat much when everyone is over or I am at a big event nerves I guess I am just not hungry.
I am feeling bad for my nieces and nephews they lost their mom services are today the grand kids are to young to effect as much but every Thanksgiving to come they will be reminded of her passing.
I shared a birthday with my father and when he pass I was in my twenties 30 years later it still a hard reminder of him not being around watching my kids grow up and have someone to talk to about life.
Family sure can drive you crazy but I think crazy is better then being alone.
My wife has been great we invite people that are alone over to the house or take them a plate of food and spend time with them she knows why I do it but never complains. We had kids live with us that were not related over the years and when my son was in the army or house would fill up every time he was able to come home. They would sleep any where just to get off that base sure is was a extra load on us having up to 10 young men crashing in a three bedroom house.
So when everything is going down the drain there is someone else having a worst day in their life reach out and give a smile hand shake meal just some kindness it cost nothing but changes things you may never know about.

[MrWolf]

Good for you RP. Great sentiment to keep.

Ron

[shdwlkr]

Idaho45guy
this year I had my two youngest kids with me for a week so it was a great thanksgiving. Next year it only be me so most likely a cup of soup and done.

[Hardcast416taylor]

RP. I know what you mean by the small house filling up with guys in khaki. When my son was still in the Marines when that is what would happen to us when he got leave. I would break out whatever weapons from my safes and dig out the cans of ammo for the guys to use on my range if they so wanted, at least they enjoyed shooting different types of weapons as a `semi civilian`. My Frau would be cooking almost non stop while we had so many `sons` here and the compliments on her cooking were non stop. My Son has been gone now going on 9 years, we still get many X-Mas cards from the men of his squad from when they were in the `sand box`.Robert

[bdicki]

We usually don't cook a turkey for Thanksgiving because the wife doesn't really care for it. This year I talked her into cooking one. We had turkey and all the fixings and invited an 87 year old man that lives a few doors down the road. I just met the guy last week but thought he might like some food and company as he lives alone. Worked out great and we have a new friend.

[mattw]

Gotta say, my wife made a spread fit for a king. I smoked the turkey, she and the kids made noodles, mashed taters and backed beans. But, It was far from the best I have ever had... In the last 4 years, I lost my best buddy, my father and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. So, this year is was just my wife, 2 kids and one of their BFF's. I really miss the dinners that were controlled chaos of years gone by.

[brass410]

Gotta say, my wife made a spread fit for a king. I smoked the turkey, she and the kids made noodles, mashed taters and backed beans. But, It was far from the best I have ever had... In the last 4 years, I lost my best buddy, my father and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. So, this year is was just my wife, 2 kids and one of their BFF's. I really miss the dinners that were controlled chaos of years gone by.

me to

[lylejb]

Power outage just before the turkey was to go in the oven. Out all afternoon, until about 6 pm. Too late to start a turkey at that point, we wound up at Denny's.

[Battis]

post deleted.
It was a real "downer" story.