Well I am behind on my blogs but it is never too late to tell a story! For the first time in several years my entire family was able to gather for Thanksgiving. My sister Sally set it up a year in advance so that everyone had plenty of time to plan and make it happen. Gathering 38 immediate family members from different parts of the country can be a challenge. We decided to meet centrally in Michigan where we have a summer home that has been in our family since 1906 and is a special place for all of us. In fact, my parents met and got engaged there, but that is a story for another blog!
We needed to find a place to have dinner for such a large crowd as our house and the over-flow houses we used could not handle the group. Luckily we were able to rent a house that was the former West Shore Golf Course clubhouse, now converted to a single family home. Our house sits on what used to be the 15th fairway of the old course, and we spent countless hours on that course as kids either playing golf or hunting for golf balls in the woods at dusk. It is sacred ground for us. The new owner of the clubhouse redid it but left the main dining room and fireplace as well as the back porch overlooking the golf course, the old pro shop and office space are now bedrooms, but it had all the room needed to set up one table for 38!
With everyone in town, there was still the matter of cooking for such a large group! How many pounds of potatoes and how many turkeys does it take to feed 38? Well in the O’Donnell household there is never too much food! We decided 6 turkeys was going to be enough, and to tell you the truth, I cannot remember the poundage of potatoes we cooked! But to add some variety I decided we needed to have several turkeys cooked differently. So I brought up my smoker and deep fryer. In the end I managed to deep fry two turkeys, smoke one and roasted the remaining 3.
There was plenty of turkey, but the deep fried seemed to be the family favorite! After a brining over-night in apple cider with cinnamon and other spices it was hard to beat! That is a recipe that I will have to share!
Naturally we all ate too much but the Holiday weekend was a huge success! It was a joint effort and everyone helped in one way or another. We laughed and cried toasting to our Poppy who we all still miss everyday, and the 24 grandkids, which range in age form 26 to 1, had a great time catching up.
We drank and danced and took pictures all night and the music never stopped! We managed to do it all again for the next two nights for who knows when the next time every single one of us would be at the same dinner table again.
