Lake Oswego, OR — While three members of the O’Rodrens clan are confirmed vegetarian/vegans, the seven remaining family members in attendance all identify themselves as omnivorous and thus were expecting turkey with Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. The turkey was finally ready to eat once the family had finished dessert, a delicious pumpkin cheesecake with freshly made whipped cream. While the meal of sage bread stuffing, veggie stuffing with apples, corn casserole a la Paula Deen, mashed potatoes, green beans with frizzled shallots, mashed turnabagas, and Brussels sprouts with pine nuts and bleu cheese and, of course, gravy was declared delicious by all family members there was the matter of the turkey not in the room.
“Why would I special order a frozen turkey? I wouldn’t that’s why!” fumed Maggie, a turkey cooker since 1989. Unable to understand why an unstuffed 18-lb turkey should take six hours to cook, Maggie fumed alternately at New Seasons markets, her oven and her brother John, for his always helpful cooking advice for any food not prepared on a George Foreman Grill.
The party started at Molly’s with all family members clamoring to help. O’Connors are not generally known for their mechanical/electronic know-how (except for Katie), thus did not take the label on the electric chafing dish literally after reading, “Do Not Immerse in Water”. John quickly recommended getting a pitcher of water, Katie got the water while Molly went to find her husband knowing something stupid was going to happen soon. Maggie helped by reiterating “pouring water IN it is not the same as IMMERSING it in water.”
Not surprisingly the water spilled all over the counter, the floors, the electrical outlet (John: “should one of you unplug that?”), the drawers and cabinets. It didn’t take long for all the O’Connors to realize towels would be a good idea and they all helped in the clean up, which coincidentally, also washed the hardwood floor.
As dinner time drew closer, the O’Connor girls teamed up to replace a lid on a La Creuset casserole dish in the oven. While each of the women have individually and successfully put lids on pots for years; this year demanded team work. All three O’Connor girls have prepared delicious Thanksgiving dinners for years, they agreed that “Mom is looking down at us right now shaking her head. ‘Really girls, I taught you nothing?'”
Maggie’s ex-husband, Mitch, did the honors of carving the crispy, brown turkey and with one quick slice it became clear that the bird was not done. “Oh for shit’s sake,” declared Maggie.
After much hoopla, uproar and threats of violence toward John, the bird was put back in the oven and the family sat down to a vegetarian Thanksgiving and they laughed and were very thankful to have each other and a beautiful home to celebrate in and knew there would be turkey for dessert.
Once the turkey was carved up for “firstovers”, John proclaimed that it was a really good turkey and perhaps in the future the bird should be cooked, rested for a couple of hours in a cooler and then put back in the oven. This writer will acknowledge it was the best turkey skin ever.
Brigid, a 3rd generation O’Rodrens, believes that “For Thanksgiving we should have turkey and everything or no turkey at all.”

Nice Onion-like headline, Mags! For me, turkey is almost a formality at the table. The real stars of the show are the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and other stuff.
Thanks Weebs! You would have loved our dinner then 🙂
beautiful family, beautiful dining room and house!
Thank you! It’s my sister’s house, that was completed last summer so our first Thanksgiving there, we’ll keep practicing
This was lovely. I love it that your ex husband comes to dinner… so great for the kids…’ putting with on pots for years’ love that! YouTube should write for the onion!!
Thanks and don’t call me YouTube 🙂 xoxox
Sounds like if this ever happens again, Mom will come back just to suck her teeth at you all and cook the turkey properly before returning to her slumber.
Looks like the clan had a great time, and the turkey fiasco was simply…sauce for the goose.
BWAHAHAHA!!!
Happy thanksgiving!
I wish this goose had been sauced for it? How was your day? I hope you enjoyed it, even though it’s tough this time of the year.
Ours was nice.We went to my mother in law’s as usual. The rest of my family gathered at my sister’s place, and as bad as it sounds, I’m glad I wasn’t there. (My family can be…trying.)
No it doesn’t sound bad. Families and holidays are ….trying 🙂
I’m with Weebs on this. I enjoy the Turkey because it’s part of a tradition, but it’s the sides that really get me stuffing myself to the point of needing to unbutton my pants. Looks like a lovely setup.
Oh I definitely had a food baby by the time the night was over. But really New Seasons?! Why not just go get a Butterball?!
It sounds like a lovely lovely time was had by all – perfection is never as much fun as the unexpected and the unpredictable.. you’ll laugh over this at every feast for years!!! XXX
Oh Mags: Thanks for that. My first good laugh. Pretty typical O’Connorgathering. Who needed Turkey when you had all those fabulous side dishes.Thanks for all the sharing. My favorite is the mashed rutasbagas. I usedto make them all the time. Give all my love and thanks, and tell katie Imissed not seeing her. XO Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2012 17:04:27 +0000 To: ditto2222@msn.com
We missed you and Larry! I will call tomorrow to see what I can do on Monday. xoxoxox
As long as the turkey is done in time for sandwiches the next day it is all good. Passed the mashed potatoes and is there any gravy left?
We are having turkey avocado BLTs tonight! And mashed potatoes are good every day of the week!
Loved it 🙂
I will venture into christmas smiling, with this memory in my head…ready for a similar scene no matter how many times we’ve done it !
Holidays and family can be very entertaining. Best to you Annie! xo
I will look for the humour amongst the dysfunction this year 😉
This is a Classic [hilarious] Thanksgiving Story that should be told throughout the generations. Family lore. Some families share war stories of past generations. You have Turkey Tales. Just think, when you have grandchildren one day, you can sit them on your knee and tell them of the Great Turkey Firstovers of 2012.
Thanks EOS, I thought you would enjoy it. Hopefully your turkey was as delicious as it was pretty! I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of this story.
I am totally in love with that staircase in the photo!!!! Great post too!!! Smile.
Isn’t it great? My sister’s house also has a back staircase! And there’s a secret room that you have to open a bookshelf to get into! It’s such a wonderful house. It’s new but feels old.
Hilarious!!! “Firstovers” – I’m pretty sure I can recall a Thanksgiving with a Turkey who came late to the party. It happens to the best families, right?
Thanks for the laugh.
Reblogged this on Misc. Maggie and commented:
My Thanksgiving Greatest Hit.
Reblogged this on Sig Nordal, Jr..
Ha!
Reminds me of the time I was supposed to have pumpkin pie for my birthday….but my boyfriend didn’t realize that the candles would melt into a freshly baked pie! LOL, oh well, life happens and makes a great story.
Most culinary disasters do!
This happened to me a few years ago – the first time I tried to cook Thanksgiving dinner for my then-boyfriend, now-husband and myself! It was traumatizing, and I’ve sworn off turkey ever since. Now we have Cornish game hens and it’s way less stressful. I’m all about the sides anyway – the bird is overrated!
I cooked the bird successfully this year and carted it over to my brother’s. No good stories in that. Happy New Year!
So fun and funny!! Thanks for making me smile! 🙂
Thank you for reading! I’m returning to this blog this year, I’ve missed it. Please stay tuned.
Happy New Year!