Oh, dear! We are etching closer to Christmas. Mariah Carey is looking around the next weekend, as shops (mortar and online) switch into full-on Christmas beast mode. I have no doubt that we will see Santa Claus immediately after Thanksgiving.
And talking about Thanksgiving. It is merely a few days away. The supermarket is full of people. Kids have arrived home from colleges and soldiers heading home too. It is a great family reunion week.
Smiles all over as we prepare to indulge in an oversized turkey that resembles a small prehistoric dinosaur-like creature. We picked up our turkey and it weighed in at 24lbs.
Who can even consume a 24lbs bird? We end up eating turkey a full week after Thanksgiving; day after turkey dinner, turkey soup, turkey tacos, turkey cold cuts, turkey, and beans. Not to mention the sides we’ll be nibbling on. The stuffing is great with a few eggs in the morning.
Thanksgiving has barely passed and we switch straight into beast shopping mode as all shops turn on their Black Friday sales. In this day and age, it is probably considered inappropriate to call it Black Friday, but heck, it is known as Black Friday around the world.
Even my native country, Denmark, joins the Black Friday mayhem.
It is truly a bizarre sales event. Shops and banks fully support you going into debt, coming up with deals that you cannot refuse. Imagine if you can get a kitchen appliance with a 50% discount IF you also buy a $2000 fridge.
Shops are putting stuff on sale that we don’t really need. But, people firmly believe that they need to buy products and goods, just because it is on sale. It is a manipulation of the brain at its finest … and I’ve fallen into the trap myself many times.
Cooking for families in need
I’m very happy and grateful that I get to cook meals for our military. It’s a privilege. The feeling you get when doing something good for others is an amazing high.
For the past couple of years, I have tried to find a couple of local families who could benefit from a homecooked meal.
Many families are struggling during the COVD lockdowns, and some have lost loved ones.
I decided the cook and share “my” turkey instead of devouring it ourselves. Our turkey this year is 24lbs and it can easily feed two families, with a few sides.
Preparing and giving a full Thanksgiving meal to a local family would be the ultimate donation. It would mean that two families would receive a boost in hope and that the Lord is looking over the families – even in times of despair.
I reached out to my knucklehead buddies asking if they knew of a couple of families who would appreciate and need a homecooked Thanksgiving meal. We quickly found two families.
My buddy reached out to them to make sure they are interested, and the mother of each family was literally in tears when offered a full Thanksgiving meal.
We are cooking; smoked turkey, green beans, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, smoked Mac n Cheese, and of course a pecan pie. It’ll be great!
Thanksgiving Week – easy meals
Thanksgiving week is short. Kids are off Wednesday to Friday, so we don’t have to concentrate on the lunch boxes, and evening dinners should be fairly simple meals in anticipation of the large Thanksgiving meal we’ll consume on Thursday.
Our youngest daughter will prepare and eat Thanksgiving dinner with her Girl Scout troop. It is a great tradition to teach scouts (boys or girls) how to cook a meal.
I’ll be baking pecan pie on the Traeger, in a large skillet. Everything will be made from scratch, and I’ll add a little aged whiskey to the pecan mixture. Something tells me it’ll be an awesome pie, and if we are lucky we will have left-ver dessert for when friends are coming for dinner on Saturday.
Fire up the Traeger. Ready your Dutch oven. Go shopping, and let’s start cooking—another Sunday in the Kitchen with music on the magical Demerbox and wonderful aromas filling the room.
| Weekday | Snacks n’ Breakfasts | Lunch | Dinner |
| Monday | Left-ver pumpkin bread | Pesto & mozzarella sandwich | Nasi Goreng |
| Tuesday | Fruit Cups | Egg and salami sandwich | Taco Tuesday; shrimp, beef, slaw, cucumber, and tomato fillings |
| Wednesday | Kids will make their own lunch | Pork loin with paprika sauce served with spuds | |
| Thursday | No lunch to leave room for Thanksgiving dinner | Turkey Dinner; green beans and roasted onions, honey glazed carrots, sweet potato mash with marshmallow topping, baked potatoes, and pecan pie + apple pie for dessert | |
| Friday | Kids will make their own lunch | Quiche with leeks, peppers, and cheese |
One day, I might get so organized that I will link the meals below to my recipes. We can only live in hope!
Have a fantastic week, my friends. I hope you enjoy these meal plans. It is so much easier to make food in advance, although you need to invest several hours during the weekend to prepare the meals.
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