thanksgiving preparation

according to big bro, "we can all help out with the foold". no mention of who is cooking what, what cookware/ingredients he already has, etc, instead a faith that thanksgiving dinner will miraculously come together. . . i dunno if i'm not giving him credit but his laissez faire approach to preparing thanksgiving dinner for 8+ people makes me nervous.

and so i find myself spending part of my day off sitting in my room researching recipes and putting together a shopping list and menu for next thursday. the meats are easy- fried turkey (c'mon, i'm from the south) and ham. i've found a couple of good recipes. . .but what about the "traditional" sides, e.g. mashed potatoes, greenbean casserole, candid yams??

i call my sis to get her take on it.

sis: what are you up to?

v: trying to look up recipes for thanksgiving dinner?

sis: you're cooking?

v: well, what do you think is gonna happen if i leave it up to carter to cook.

sis laughs.

v: yea, i want to keep it simple. i wanna make a sausage and cornbread stuffing and oyster casserole but am not sure about greens. what do you think?

sis: that sounds good. what about an oyster stew. hmmm. or greenbean casserole. that's a standard. and creamed corn. you have to have creamed corn.

v: ugh. this is not helping me narrow down.

sis: well keep in mind that you are going to have a lot of people in the kitchen and it's not very big.

v: oh really?

sis: yea, don't you think alabaster will be in there cooking.

silence.

sis: yea maybe not.

v: ok, lemme think about this some more.

sounds of kids in the background.

sis: wes stop strangling your sister. do not jump on top of her. be gentle. you are hurting her!!!
(to me) sorry, i should go. i can't multitask. talk to wes.

v: wes, are you being a bad boy?

wes: huh?

v: wes, were you hurting your sister?

wes: she bit me!

v: well, that's not nice of her. but you shouldn't hurt your sister. apologize to t.

wes: i'm sorry ma ni. i'm sorry t.

v: ok, be nice to t. i love you.

wes: love you. talk to t?

v: sure.

t: hi ma ni.

v: did wes apologize to you?

t: no

v: yes he did, i heard him apologize.

t: yes he did.

v: did you bite wes?

t: yes.

v: why did you bite your brother?

t: he jumped on me!

v: was he trying to hurt you or play with you?

t: he was playing with me.

v: well then, it's not nice to bite people. he was not trying to hurt you. you are brother and sister and have to take care of eachother even if you are annoyed. ok?

t: yes, ma ni.

v: ok, i love you.

t: i love you too.