The first Thanksgiving with my now DH at my parents house, I cooked the turkey. I had watched my mom do it for years. So I'm prepping it , and taking out the gizzards and such from the body cavity. Take it to parents and present it with a great flourish. Yeah, forgot the neck. In the neck hole. So it was cooked inside. Turns out the cavity that I thought went from bottom to top-doesn't.

The first year my sister-in-law hosted Thanksgiving, she frantically called me into the kitchen. She had just put the turkey on the cutting board and was going to carve it but couldn't figure it out at all. She was kind of panicking. Turns out she had roasted it breast side down and couldn't figure out why there was no breast! We laughed so hard we had tears running down our faces. I'm not fessing up to my own disasters! :)

I made an apple pie today, figured we'd bring it with us to the grandma's house tomorrow. Mixed up my recipe, and put in 3tbs butter and 1 C flour...should be the other way around! Adjusted it by experience, and had it for dessert tonight, just in case it was bad- it wasn't! The kids enjoyed it, ha!

sheilajoyce- that's an amazing story of pulling together with your family and having your mother come through each one of you to make that beautiful meal.

Once we tried to make mashed potatoes and added way too much milk. My husband got the hair blow dryer and was using it on the runny mashed potatoes trying to get the runny liquid to evaporate. We took a picture and still laugh about it.

Gosh, my family certainly has turkey stories. I won't share them all, but the time my brother deep fried one was an interesting year. He bought the turkey, the cooker, the fuel, forgot the oil. Thanksgiving morning he and my nephew hit every convenience type store that was open accumulating a collection of 12 - 16 oz bottles of cooking oil until they had the required gallons. And I remember him coming into the kitchen asking how much longer before everything else was ready, because it looked like his turkey was becoming 'a meteor'.

I burned myself taking the turkey out of the oven one of the first years I hosted, dropped the roaster. I lost all my gravy drippings, and the bird slid across the kitchen floor towards the dining room like it was in its own hurry to get to the table. (We ate it anyway).

Mimi, I remember a year when a few days in the refrigerator still hadn't thawed my turkey, and using pliers to try to pull the neck and giblet package from the cavity.

Now that I'm experienced (organized) to put dinner together with few errors, I'm not cooking this year. None of us are - another long story but it worked best for all and to best include my elderly mother to eat out. We have a family room reserved at The Mac in Portland and are being served. We'll spend the night and I can do some things with Mom on Friday before coming home that evening.

First Thanksgiving Geo and I hosted, we decided to use the grill and rotisserie. According to the directions, should have taken 3 to 3 and a half hours. WRONG! Darn bird was done in 2 and a half (check temperature next time - duh). Frantically scrambled to do the potatoes etc. Learned one thing - you can't microwave squash.

Bird was delicious, but can't say the same for the squash.

What a nice story sheilajoyce_gw. Not only making a sad situation good but what a tribute to your mother, for sticking together, remembering her recipes and continuing the tradition. She would have been so proud.

My first experience hosting the family was interesting but not too eventful. Made the typical rookie mistake of not finding the bag o' gibs in the bird (and I searched, but frankly, I wasn't too worked up over it. I tossed it aside and chopped it up and fed the masses. One cousin saw the bag and had a great time for years after telling everyone she could about my "mistake". Like I said it really didn't bother me that much. Probably should have had it more out of sight but eh, no big deal. I did feel quite vindicated some years later when she cooked the ham in the plastic. Looked like they were pulling mozzarella cheese off a hot pizza as they tried to pull the plastic off that ham. I stood back, sipped my drink, smirked and said nothing. Afterwhich when someone would mention she told them about my giblet bag, I asked if she also told them about cooking the ham in the plastic. Strange thing. She didn't tell anyone about that little incident.

sheilajoyce, that is a beautiful story. It must have been a bittersweet day to create dinner by remembering how your mother did things while not having her there to be part of things.

I can't recall any Thanksgiving mishaps by me or by any other family members.

However, I can tell you about the time I made company coming for dinner and made a beautiful Chinese meal of several different dishes. We sat down to eat and I noticed everyone sort of grimacing.

Hubby then asked what I had seasoned the food with. I replied that I had used soy sauce, garlic, ginger, chili peppers and a few other things. He got up and grabbed the soy sauce bottle that was sitting on the kitchen counter, and...wait for it...

...turns out I had used worcestershire sauce instead of soy sauce!

The entire meal was inedible and we ended up having pizza delivered. I still haven't live that one down!

The only thing that I can think of is the year I was serving Hallowe'en kids,cleaning fresh killed chickens,cooking & baking for the hunters the next day.All in all,I totally forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pie mixture.The pies cracked,which at 25 yrs of age,meant nothing to me.The hunters told me when they came out of camp a week later that I hadn't added any sugar to the pies,but that I had sent homemade maple syrup just for them to enjoy,and they used that on their pie slices!

We had been married for about 3 years and It was our first Thanksgiving in our new house. It was a small starter house, but it was ours! My wife made a marvelous roasted turkey with dressing. After the meal, we still had more hot bird with broth in the oven and my wife wanted to save the broth. The problem was how to efficiently remove the hot contents from the oven. I had "bright" idea. Why don't I hold a large freezer bag while she poured the contents in. We proceeded to do that while bumping heads. The remains of the turkey slid right in followed by the hot broth as my wife tipped the broiling pan and poured it in. All went smoothly until two seconds after the hot broth hit the bottom of the bag. The bag promptly melted and dumped its contents on the floor. I dropped the bag and we jumped back to prevent a scalding. (Ever laugh and cry at the same time?)

She reasoned that it was my idea therefore it was my mess to clean up as she tearfully stalked off the living room, and that's how I spent most of the afternoon.

My story is not about a mishap. Thank goodness. DH and I were a young couple in our new house hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner. I was about 6 months pregnant. I was a novice at both pregnancy and turkey. My protruding belly impeded my efficiency at preparing the turkey for the oven. I could not get close enough to comfortably unwrap the turkey, wash it, stuff it and get it in the pan. I managed though, but it was an ordeal. I felt as if I had given birth to the turkey. Little did I know!

After lots more experience, I can manage just fine but always recall images of me of that first thanksgiving.

My husband got the hair blow dryer and was using it on the runny mashed potatoes trying to get the runny liquid to evaporate. We took a picture and still laugh about it.

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LOL! That's one for the books!

You get the creativity award!

Can't say I've had any major failures with T-Day?? I just loojked at it as a BIG chicken, and way too many people and dishes in a too small kitchen/dining area?!?

Remember trying a new method for turkey... low/slow, started around 10-11 PM the night before. Was before everybody in my crowd was married and nobody had kids yet. We did a PRE-Thanksgiving the weekend before the real thing. Woke up next morning to the wonder aroma of turkey. It was definitely "done"... like fall apart done. Had great drippings for gravy.

Remember Dad (not a baker but decent cook) making homemade bread on T-Day?? NO idea why, buyt it was FABULOUS! He got requests for more that Christmas, but by then the yeast (packets that had been languishing in fridges for who knows how long) had given up the ghost and dough never rose at all.

Not technicall T-Day but turkey just the same. One ski trip to VT/NH (one of those 2) with friends. One of the guys decided to do a whole turkey... in a bag, left to cook pretty much all day while we skiied. I was first back to condo and that wonderful smell as I walked in door. HAD to check it out and discovered he had left some of the "presents" in neck end... all usually in cavity but not this time. NOT the worst thing you can do... no harm, no foul and plenty of turkey.

I never understand why people get so excited over the parts left in the body cavity. It's not a big deal. We had a turkey a couple of years ago that had two necks. I removed the one I found and found the second one later.

I can't think of any big mishaps. I had two years in a row where the Thanksgiving turkey weighed more than my daughter. She was a healthy, but petite baby.

SheilaJoyce, your story can bring a tear to my eye, thinking of my first Thanksgiving without Mom.

I think it was just last year that I couldn't find the giblet bag and found it when I cut the turkey apart. No biggie.

I can't tell which is the giblet and heart and I think there's one that you're not supposed to eat, so I just give them to the cats. I do roast the neck for gravy though.

Love your story Sheila. I'm a Sheila too.

One year we were all invited to DD's house. She planned on using the electric beater to mash the potatoes, but it decided to fail at the last moment. So SIL got out his trusty drill, inserted the beater, and fixed the spuds! Now I just saw that "hack" on line, so I guess he was a pioneer in that department! Another time, when DD's in-laws were our guests, I had made a lovely molded salad. When the time came to unmold it on to a pretty platter, I was too close to the sink. You guessed it, it slid off and into dishwater!

When we put the turkey in last night for a slow roast, we forgot to remove the giblets and neck too. Hubby is the meat master so it's his fault :-)

I remember a string of Thanksgivings when the kids were young that we had mechanical failures in the kitchen. One year the garbage disposal just blew up (too many veggie peels), one year the fridge went out and one year it was the oven. We coped and still remember the drama and tears of those holidays. Seems funny now, but at the time they were disasters!

A story: My mom would tag along with her DH to the flea market, but have nothing she wanted to shop for. She used to beg me to give her a list of things I wanted, for my house. I finally thought of something. A Wear-ever aluminum turkey roaster, just like she had! At first she bought a small enameled roaster, no......not anything like I wanted. I tried to explain that if she couldn't find one it was alright I'd keep buying foil pans every year. Then , low and behold....she found one. I LOVE this roaster!!! She paid $12 for it. It has a handle on the front of it, a vent and a bottom rack inside. Soooooooooooooo cool!

A few years ago hubs requested a lemon mar. Pie for TG with graham cracker crust..no problem. I knew I had a white pouch of graham cracker crumbs left from a two pack. I whipped it up and poured the lemon filling in and topped with white fluffy mar. Threw it in the oven to brown the meringue ...picture perfect..when I served it though it was awful..turned out the packet of graham cracker crumbs was a packet of shake-n-bake. so embarrassing at the time, but just funny now.

This year i made a chocolate fudge cake requiring sour milk but i realized i was out of vinegar to sour the milk with so i used a T of italian salad dressing, dare i tell the family LOL. It won't give the cake any off flavor so I think I'll keep this secret until every one is done raving how good the cake was Haha.

I remember the year that it was so cold, my yeast rolls wouldn't rise. I tried putting them on the dryer, but that still wasn't warm enough. Of course, I couldn't use the oven as it was full of other things cooking. Finally, I just baked the barely risen rolls. They tasted good, but were a bit dense.

My in-laws were coming for Thanksgiving and I was so pleased that by 5:00 p.m. Wed. night I was completely done with all my food prep for Thanksgiving dinner. I had just taken my apple pie out of the oven and put it on a rack on the dining room table. I was on the phone talking to my neighbor, dead tired but happy I was done and able to take a break when I heard my mother scream OMG! My Irish Setter, in a flash ate half the pie...straight out of the oven, steaming hot! I had to go out to the grocery store, buy more apples make more crusts, etc. I wasn't done until 8:00 pm. My Irish Setter lived to be 14....another 12 years, Amazing I didn't kill her that night!

No Thanksgiving fiasco, but just this morning, I had the 'cinnamon' uncapped and ready to put on my oatmeal, and it was Cayenne. Whew!

My fiasco happened yesterday when I went to put chocolate pie in oven to brown the meringue, it slipped out of my hand and all over oven door. I scooped it back up in pie pan, put it in oven to brown. It wasn't pie anymore but more like chocolate trifle. I should have just put it in a pretty bowl.

Just as our kids were arriving yesterday, my husband was taking the turkey out of the oven. The roaster pan was so full of drippings (I assume from the massive injection of creole butter) that it could not be removed from the oven without a huge mess. Personally, I would have used a baster to remove some of the 'juice' so it could be moved neatly but he streamed it all over the newly cleaned oven, across the floor and drenched the cabinet beneath the sink. What a mess to clean up with toddlers underfoot trying to greet grammy and pop pop!

It was a minor mishap, but the turkey finished, and I took it out, and put the other ready-to-be-baked dishes in the oven, and went back to game-playing with the family. About 30 minutes later when I went to check on the side dishes, I discovered I had turned off the oven when I took the turkey out, and the side dishes were barely warm.

No mishap at our house but we still talk about the time we were invited to one of my husband's friend's house for Thanksgiving and the man's wife spent all day fixing a nice dinner but disappeared into her bedroom as we arrived and never came back out. It was so awkward, just the 3 of us. I've still never met her and that was at least 6 years ago.

Well, I forgot to bake the sweet potatoes, so at the last minute I cut up two of them and microwaved them. (oh the shame!) Awful, stuck two more in the oven for leftovers. I love the carmalizing in the oven...doesn't happen in the microwave. And I totally forgot the peas.

My DH loves the yam casserole with the marshmallows. When the turkey comes out, the casserole goes in. With all the flurry of activity, I forgot to add sugar. Granted of course it tastes fine, and actually it is healthier. But, DH was disappointed!

The only thing he asks for and I didn't get it right!

Phyllis have you also tried using a drill and toilet brush to peel potatoes?

I can think of nothing! I'm just sure I have mishaps, but my poor memory is keeping me from remembering them. I have a friend whose husband likes to be frugal and he decided it'd be good to use one bird for two meals since it's just the two of them. He didn't want to thaw the bird since it's not good to thaw and refreeze it. So he cut it with a saw while frozen; loads of flying turkey bits!

We grilled our turkey on the Weber a couple of years ago. When it was ready to bring inside, dh put it on a cookie sheet to bring inside. It slid off and hit the cement patio floor faster than you could blink an eye! I was helpless with laughter, but he scooped it up, examined it for ants or debris, and declared 'no harm, no fowl', harhar.